Heather and Moorland

This was another photo workshop walk – based up around Grosment. The theme was to be able to enhance the colour of the moorland and create atmospheric pictures.

In summary-  Setting for colour - Picture style/control, white balance, contrast and not over exposing the scene go a long way to improving the depth of colour in a photograph.. • Compose yourself - Not forgoing a clear focal point, layering your composition, altering your angle and keeping it simple will help improve your framing skills.

The people on the workshop I had met most of them before so felt more comfortable with them today – we spent a good morning wandering around the moor taking in the view and photographing points of interest.  At lunchtime they said they were going on to Paddys Hole afterwards as no-one had signed on the afternoon workshop so would I like to join them.  I thought I might as well seeing as I had driven all the way up here.  I am so glad I did.  This was a most amazing hidden gem. 

I have never seen anything like this before – On arrival it felt like you were trespassing and would be evicted at any moment it was so out of the way and had such a group of insular people – without them saying anything you knew you were an outsider and was being watched – but the atmosphere the views and interest there was brilliant.  Tom Marsh was off straight away with his camera soaking it all up.  It was a great day – an unexpected adventure.

Lad O Crow Hill

Fine sunny day and excited at the prospect of a new walk with Gail and Monica.  Monica had picked this walk from the Bradford Council walking web site.  Parked on Back Lane in Stanbury and set off.  The first part was pretty straight forward up to Top Withins. 

From here we must have taken the wrong path as we spent quite a while on the tops looking for the trig point above Delph Hill 1456 ft above sea level. From here we scanned the horizon to find the Alcomden Stones our next point of reference.  Gail set off confidently while Monica and I faffed around with our maps and compass before eventually agreeing Gail had set off in the right direction.  Once we reached the stones we couldn’t see any particular landmarks to guide us the right way – we again watched Gail treck off head in the air saying she thought it was this way.  Here we were supposed to be following the boundary between Yorkshire and Lancashire.

  Over this part of the rugged moorland we had to constantly check our direction against the compass (this is the most remote moorland in the area).  It was hard work walking over the heather and tufts of grass and there were several sneaky boggy areas and hidden holes and hollows.   At one point Gail went down a hole up to her thigh.  She was lucky she had her walking pole with her as she scrambled out.  Eventually we stopped and checked the horizon up ahead and in the distance we saw another group of walkers on the horizon where there was a slight hill – this we guessed was Crow Hill our next point and where we planned to have lunch.  When we got there the walk had definitely been worth it.  The views were fantastic  and we were ready for a rest and our sandwiches. 

We checked our OS map and we had definitely found Crow Hill.  After lunch we walked easterly along the top of the moors to a large boundary stone  and the stone marking the supposed grave of Lad or Scar on Crow Hill , eventually dropping down to the old Delph Hill Quarry.

From here there was a well-defined track to take us all the way back to Ponden Reservoir. 

We walked along the embankment turning up the track to Buckley Green.  Here there were jams and chutneys for sale we bought some and rammed them in our back packs. We were now on the home straight back to Back Lane which had filled up with cars since we set off this morning.  Our final leg of the day was to call at the pub in Stanbury for a lager shandy.  What a grand day out and a good 8 miles covered.

Easby Abbey

This wasn’t a walk as such but a photo walk around Easby Abbey – a workshop I had booked on to a few weeks ago which I thought looked interesting – especially as I had never been to Easby Abbey before.  I found it without too much difficulty thanks to good old Sat Nav. 

There was a full group of us 6 + Tom Marsh our expert photographer, some of the people I recognised from previous walks.

The theme of this workshop was all about Historical photography bringing the past to life. We can do this by thinking carefully about the subject/location we are photographing and how we are photographing it.

 • By contrasting old and new elements, changing your angle, considering black and white or picking out details we can begin to tell a story.