Spring has sprung

After a long, wet and wild winter it’s nice that the evenings are drawing out once again and it’s getting a little warmer and sunnier. Spring always has a wonderful freshness to it, all the greens are that bit brighter, the sky bluer than its been in months and flowers blossoming everywhere you look. Here’s a selection of photos I’ve taken over the last month.

A Manchester bound train pulls into Hebden Bridge station. Despite all the wonderful greenery that surrounds us, we’re still well connected to the all the big northern cities, less than an hour from both Manchester and Leeds.

A precarious narrow ledge beneath the main path above afforded this nice view.

High up above Cragg Vale on the moors, the ruined Red Dykes farmhouse is looking a little worse for ware since I last visited it a year ago, when more of the roof was still intact. Here I’ve used my Samyang fisheye and corrected the vertical distortion in software using FishEye Hemi.

The fishseye lens offers a wide perspective on this lock gate just outside Hebden Bridge. Unlike the last image I’ve not corrected the distortion here. Although I got a little flare in this image it wasn’t too noticeable and was quite easy to clone out.

Easter means it’s Pace Egging time here in Yorkshire. The Pace Egg play is held in various places on Good Friday every year, the above shot taken at Heptonstall. It’s a tradition dating back centuries, where good vanquishes evil in a silly, slapstick way. Various challengers come out to clash swords with King George. Here I’ve used my newly acquired 50-230mm. As you can see you can get pretty good subject separation even at f6. Look out for a review in the coming months.

One of the Hill Millies morris dancing group, also performing at the Pace Egg in Heptonstall. The 60mm shows off again that its a great portrait lens, f2.4 gives good separation and keeps your subject nice and crisp.