The Artful Engineer

Well, this is the final installment of my Yorkshire 2025 blog series. The previous seven posts have each corresponded to one day of photography. This wrap-up post gives me a chance to include an assortment of images that I did not include along the way. (There are also a few that I have featured at the top of the home page; you can always find a complete listing of these in the Past Images of the Week Gallery. This gallery is new for 2025, but is already starting to get large, so I am going to have to figure out a long-term plan for how to organize it.)

This next image was another attempt at a waterfall shutter-speed blend, but with a more traditional composition than the one I showed a few weeks ago. In this case there are only two shutter speeds in play: a slow one used for the main fall itself and a fast one for everything else, including the water cascading downstream and the trees around the periphery. Those trees—as well as the green moss on both sides of the falls—do a nice job of framing the waterfall. I do like the general effect of this blend, but think an intermediate shutter speed would be good for the “splash zone” at the bottom of the falls. I’d be interested in what people think about this one, so comments are encouraged.

This little bird was all over the rocks in the river, so I grabbed my long zoom and switched to my wildlife camera settings. I have a lot of images of this little guy, but he really stands out against the dark rock in this one.

In a nice stroke of luck, a great blue heron flew up the river and I was already set up to photograph birds in flight! I don’t think I had even seen a heron in Yorkshire up to that point, but I was very happy to add more images to my great blue heron collection. In this image, he is well lit by soft light against the dark trees on the far bank of the River Ure.

Most of the images I made in Yorkshire were landscapes and, other than random stone barns (and Fountains Abbey), I did not make many of buildings. This church was a nice find, though. The mossy roof glows in the soft light, matching the moss-covered wall in the foreground. The silhouetted Celtic crosses (at least I think that’s what they are called) are nice details with visual impact disproportionate to their small size in the frame. The trees framing the top and left side help to narrow the focus on those crosses and the roof; since they also echo the background trees, I think the effect is natural and doesn’t feel contrived.

I can’t resist including a broken-window shot: this one has some rather abused high-pressure gas bottles behind it, something that would not be visible without that rather opaque window being shattered.

After that discordant image, I think it is good to end my Yorkshire recap with something that is classic Yorkshire. This is one of my favorite images from the entire trip, which could be because it is probably the single best instance of dramatic lighting I encountered. The patchy clouds vary the lighting across the scene and highlight the flock of sheep; the closest barn is also well-lit; and the dark walls overlay the scene with a strong graphic pattern. I played with lightening up the walls to show more detail of the stonework, but decided that I liked the bold dark walls better. This image is definitely a contender for wall space in my home.

Thank you for following along on my Yorkshire adventure. I look forward to returning at some point; I may give one of those walking holidays a try where you hike with a day pack from lodging to lodging and a have your luggage forwarded each day. That seems like a wonderful way to spend a week.