Mark's Blog

Inspired by viewings of Black and White Photographer, Michael Kenna's superb work, I came across an image on his website recently that I swore must be of a copse in a little village by the name of Great Smeaton in North Yorkshire. The reason I was so sure is that I lived in Great Smeaton for many years and this copse always stuck out as being very photogenic (although I wasn't into photography as much back then). I thus decided to make a note to visit there myself at some point soon to see what I could make of it. That day came sooner than I thought as I was heading to Darlington on the road through Great Smeaton to collect my good friend and fellow north east landscape photographer, John Harbron as we'd arranged to head out for the day with our cameras. This particular day was very cold yet...

Taken on the same day as my previous image, 'Ice Blue' today's image I've named 'Ice Pastels' captured my attention due to the complex lines and structure of the leaves. Highlighted by hoar-frost, the skeletal beauty of the leaves can be seen in minute detail. It's a small scene that has captured autumn in all it's delicate detail and frozen it in time. Adding to the attraction is the light pastel colours - none of which vie for attention. Still a tricky image to compose, the camera had to be set up so that the sensor and object plane were as perpendicular as possible so that no area became soft and out of focus - particularly difficult due to the camera being only 18 inches from the leaves. I needed to use the Nikon 45mm Micro lens once again, stopping down to f/16. Due to this I worried that the image might...

I seem to have my seasons mixed up at the moment what with an Autumn woodland image posted in July and now a fresh spring-like image with bluebells. I even have an image I made on Skye last year just being drum scanned by Tim Parkin that I haven’t worked on yet! However, due to this year being more than hectic for me, it’s only just now that I’m able to catch up and add my favourite images to the website (although slow image making is pretty much the norm for large format photographers). Today’s image is of a small bluebell wood near Richmond in North Yorkshire that I have visited every year for the last four years. Its only downside is that you have to cross over two fields of cows who always seem to be curious when someone like me walks across their territory and inevitably come bounding over...

It seems rather peculiar to be posting images of Autumn in Summer but just like last week’s image I’m playing catch up after renewing the website. If nothing else it whets my appetite for this year’s autumnal colours to come! This is an image made at Littlebeck last October. I’d spent most of the day seeking out an image or two and came across this one quite late on in the day. It was getting quite dark so I knew I’d have to make a long exposure so I was fortunate that it was a very calm day without even a breeze (that doesn’t happen often!!).I found a good vantage point above the fern to make the most of the circular display of leaves and after setting up the Ebony, proceeded to make a 10 second exposure. As usual, this image and more can be found in the Recently Added section of...

Today’s image is of a Cercidiphyllum Japonicum – a small tree which I just love in the Autumn. The colours are delightful and rich and, as can be seen, very varied. I took some time working out the composition of the tree as there were many options I could have gone for. However, I really like this one. I’m sure an even closer (macro?) image would also have been very effective. This was an image I was supposed to post last Autumn but I was just about to embark on a new website so I decided to leave it until the new site was live…. little did I know it would be nine months later! Things just throw you off your best intentions!! Many thanks to Rod Bennington for letting me know the name of the tree. Now I’m off to see my friend Stuart Townsend – a fellow keen photographer...