Skipwith Common is a National Nature Reserve and SSSI near York and one of the last remaining areas of northern lowland heath in England. Most of the valley around York was once lowland heath but now only three sites remain. Skipworth Common covers 270 hectares and is a beautiful mix of open heath, birch woodland and murky ponds. This location…
As well as the two wild camping trips higher in the Pyrenees mountains, we also had five or so day walks to recover and shelter from bad weather. The weather this year was unusually bad compared to what we normally have over the summer. Walk 1 – Precipitous Backpacking Walk 2 – Into the Spanish Pyrenees Castillon-en-Couserans The weather was…
I recently visited my sister near Dusseldorf in Germany, they were busy one afternoon so I grabbed my camera and walked to the nearby Stinderbachtal nature reserve. The aim of the trip was to test out my new Neewer macro extension tubes for the Sony A6000 camera. I’ve only had it for a couple of weeks so an afternoon of…
In the words of this person I sent a message to about their lens: “It’s an absolute minefield!” Overview When summer began here in Warwick I started to notice so many more insects about. Maybe because it was summer, but also because I installed an app called iNaturalist that can identify anything which led to trying to identify everything. I’ve…
I was in Newcastle for work and decided to take my camera along in case the opportunity arose to do some photography. By the time I finished it was dark but this meant instead of sleeping I could wander around a strange city in the dark and attempt my first go at night photography. Starting from the hotel in Gatehead,…
The fishing boat crests a new wave, and balances for a split second before crashing down into the trough. On deck, the two sailors desperately fight to keep the boat afloat whilst attempting to steer for the sheltered harbour. Its high walls signal safety from the wrath of the weather. Hours pass and still they struggle the waves pushing them…
I first realised that using my camera’s flash on close-up subjects had a nice result two years ago when photographing Coral Fungus, before then I had never really used it. I even scoffed at it as I had never taken a photo that improved upon using it. But now I am a little wiser and understand that the flash feature…