A bit of Black and white.

 Whilst on a short walk up by Low Force today I was looking for something different. I go here quite often as it is only a short drive from home. However, it is easy to come to such places and take the same old shot. It turns out that both of the shots which I was most pleased with worked better in black and white.

The three trees.

I have photographed this small stand of trees often and in all seasons. It's not difficult to do so, they are just by the path that leads down to the falls. Today my eye was caught by the patch of sunlight on the grass which seemed to replicate the shape of the trees.

Going with the flow.

Right place right time, a couple of canoeists were having a run or two at this cascade, a good chance for me to try some of the faster settings on the camera and the light across the water really added to the effect.

It's great to come away from a favourite haunt with something new, all in all a success. 

The Tees in Spate.

 We have had a few days of heavy rain and high winds recently and as I went into Barney (Barnard Castle) yesterday I could see that the water was up in the river. Even though it was continuing to rain today I decided it would be worth a visit up to Bowlees to see the river in that area. It is only a short walk from there to Low Force and then by following the south bank upstream along part of the Pennine Way its not long before you get to the viewing point for High Force.
 It was certainly dramatic, I have seen it like this in the past perhaps even more in flood but even so it was still a awesome sight.

High Force.

After viewing the Force from the south bank I then went to the High Force Hotel from where its a short walk down to High Force and get another perspective of the falls. The problem today was the spray and rain on the camera lens. Not much I could do about that though as there was plenty of it about.

Heres a short video of the walk.

A Teesdale Winter

I have just edited a small selection of photographs together from the recent wintery weather here in Teesdale. Hopefully it will give a sense of the beautiful scenery that has been produced even though the quality of the compressed photos on the clip is reduced compared to the originals.

Winter on the River Tees

 This afternoon looked promising for a bit of a walk up into Teesdale. The snow from the past few days showed no signs of thawing as the day time tempreatures hardly have been above freezing. There were bright blue skies as I headed up to Bowlees. I wasn't the only one who thought this would make a great subject as there were other photographers out making the most of the winter scene such as Brian Swales.



Gibson's Cave and Summerhill Force.




Low Force and ice on the Tees



High Force- not as much ice as I would have expected.




River Tees