There’s an undeniable magic that happens when the universe conspires to bring together elements of raw nature, an artist’s passion, and the fleeting beauty of a setting sun. On the 19th of July, 2023, I had the pleasure of photographing the incredibly talented Sharon Stacey, as she serenaded the setting sun at Winscar Reservoir. Setting …
A Sunset Serenade: Capturing Sharon Stacey at Winscar Reservoir Read More »
Photography, at its essence, is an art of exploration. It’s a compass guiding us towards unseen landscapes, a passport granting us access to uncharted territories of beauty and wonder. Embarking on this photographic journey transforms us from passive observers to active adventurers, driven by the pursuit of captivating frames and moments. The Yorkshire Dales, with …
Photography is an art form that evolves with time, as do the skills and perspectives of the person behind the camera. Far from being a static hobby, photography presents an unending journey of learning and growth, offering a rich tapestry of skills to master, styles to explore, and concepts to grasp. The initial plunge into …
In today’s fast-paced world, finding peace and calm is important. With tons of information and stress bombarding us, we all crave a little oasis of serenity. And guess what? Photography, that thing we usually associate with capturing crazy moments and action, can actually help us achieve that tranquillity. For many, photography isn’t just a hobby …
Why do Photography? 2 Stress Relief and Mindfulness through Photography Read More »
Wensleydale, located in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, is a picturesque valley filled with stunning landscapes and natural wonders. One of the most captivating features of this region is the numerous waterfalls that cascade down its rocky terrain. For photographers looking to capture the beauty and power of these waterfalls, Wensleydale provides …
A list of the main Yorkshire Dales – with the river which runs through them and the highest hill on their edges. Interesting how many dales each of the large mountains touch
The Yorkshire Coast is a stunningly beautiful destination for photographers, with a rich history and a diverse range of landscapes to capture. Starting from Robinhoods Bay and travelling northwards towards Saltburn, there are plenty of opportunities to take some truly breathtaking shots. Robinhoods Bay Robinhoods Bay is a picturesque village with narrow winding streets and …
Top photography locations on the Yorkshire Coast Read More »
Long exposure photography is a popular technique used by photographers to create stunning images that capture the beauty and essence of natural and urban landscapes – I love revisiting old places I’ve shot many times before to capture it through a different technique. The technique involves using strong neutral density (ND) filters to slow down …
Littondale… then the weather changed! I don’t have a crystal ball so you never quite know what the weather is going to be like in 6-months when you are scheduling workshops in the Dales. This was to be a day in the beautiful littondale, a steep-sided Valley that branches off upper Wharfedale. The sides of …
Humber Bridge, Bridlington and Flamborough Head We had a great day for our 2022 trip over to the east coast, with bright sunshine for pretty much the whole day. Humber Bridge As usual, we met at the bridge that goes from Hessle to Barton over the River Humber. It’s a massive suspension bridge with a …
In advance of our Manchester workshop, where I was going to show the delegates how to shoot extra long exposures, using 10 stop (or even 15 stop) neutral density filters, I popped down to the beautiful world heritage site at Saltaire. If you’ve not been, this is the site of a Victorian Mill, …
How to shoot and edit extra-long exposures with a 10-stop filter Read More »
Sometimes you only get a fleeting second of light and you’ll have to grab what you can with the camera you having your hands. The story behind this photo is that we were walking to a limestone pavement to capture photos of trees growing out of rocks when one of the clouds opened and let …
Sometimes you just cannot get everything in Focus in one shot… This happens a lot when you are photographing landscapes with a very close foreground, the background becomes blurry if you focus on the foreground, and vice versa. In this tutorial I show you two photos I took of the exact same scene, all the …
How to get Maximum Sharpness with Focus Stacking Read More »
Usually when doing light painting workshops, I have several people with torches all lighting the scene at the same time so we catch everything in one frame which you can view there and then on the night. But when you are alone, or in small groups, often it isn’t possible because you just cannot get …
NIGHTSCAPES 2018/2019 Begins! It all started last night in Roundhay Park – our winter of light painting around Roundhay Park saw us using torches and gels to colour the world! New for 2018 is a “Manker MK 35” torch – this claims to have a 1.4Km beam – it does shine a hell of a …
Getting used to a noisy sensor again! Drones have tiny noisy sensors compared to your DSLR – if you’re used to brightening up shadows on an underexposed shot with your camera, you’ll be shocked how bad this is on a drone RAW file. So what can you do? Bracketing and HDR is the answer. Bracket …
Another series of Photography Workshops drew to an end in Manchester on the 26th September. It seems like ages since we started on our beginners evening in Leeds, which turned out to be the only evening where it rained! 2018 was amazingly dry and hot – it made the whole 10 workshops a joy. So …
Summer Night Photography Workshops – 2018 Review Read More »
Gone are the old days… Stitching panoramic photos used to be a pain. you’d have to do all kinds of prep on each photo in LIGHTROOM first, then export them as high res files, then create a stack in PHOTOSHOP and merge them…. and it’d probably go wrong at some stage! The panoramic world has …
AMAZING Panoramic Photos Made Easy with LIGHTROOM Read More »
Blackpool – the beach, prom and Cleveleys Its got a bad press, Blackpool. It’s glory years are long gone, there is a drug problem which I’ve never seen, for myself, but you hear about it… But despite all that, you can get a great set of photos on the right day. We went over on a …
A foggy day on the coast Driving up to the workshop I feared the worst – a day of rain and misery, with a group of photographers huddled together keeping dry It was grim… But as Americans would say, when life gives you lemons, make a G&T…. or something like that! And that is just …
Ovenden Moor and Wind Farm Photographers have flocked to this wind farm over the years – the bright stone on the road really stand out from the darker heather moorland, the large turbines create fantastic subjects and if you can get some rotation on them, preferably 1/3 of a turn, they look magical. I’d not been up …
The bright sky problem… We’ve all done it – had a great scene to shoot but not got the right filters to balance the bright sky and land! We end up with a boring bright sky and really dark foreground – it’s not ideal, but with most camera RAW files you can now fix this …
Using LIGHTROOM to make a dreamy waterfall Here’s a shot from a recent workshop at Swaldale – it’s Crackpot Force, yes, that’s really a thing! The shot was underexposed, but I liked the shape – so gave it a go in Lightroom anyway. Things we explain:- black and white conversion basic controls like Highlights, Whites, Shadows …
How to make a soft, dreamy, black and white waterfall photograph in LIGHTROOM Read More »
Sunset at Gross Glockner – Tirol – Austria Do you ever take a shot and never manage to settle on a final edited look? Well this happened with this shot – it’s one of 3 brackets taken at sunset with a 17mm TSe lens… so nice and sharp, oodles of data to play with…. but what …
A 1-2-1 Workshop on a Perfect Yorkshire Dales Day You always book workshops in the Yorkshire Dales with a sense of trepidation, and prepare yourself to explain what each location looks like “when it’s not grey, raining and grim”. No such worries for this 1-2-1 session with Jonathan – perfect weather for afternoon landscapes. Perfect …
A Stunning Yorkshire Dales Day – Ribblesdale and Malham Read More »
Yellow fields of Discovery Discovering just what Tilt Shift can do is great fun – and you have to be hands on. Sure, I’d seen 10 Youtube videos so had a good idea what I needed to do – but here are a few examples from my first landscape trip in summer 2017. Tilt Shift …
Landscapes and Waterscapes @ Stanley Ferry With a 17mm Tilt Shift Lens I’ve had a flurry of outings to get used to the new lenses – this trip was to the Stanley Ferry area just outside Wakefield, in West Yorkshire. I’d started out looking for decent wheat fields, but they were not lit that well with the …
Tilt Shift Effect… Most people have heard of Tilt Shift because of the miniature filters you get on camera apps. Ones taken from high up to make the world seem like a toy town – or like this where just a bit is sharp. It’s a cool effect and very handy for creative souls – …
January’s Malham Workshop 2017 We always run a landscape workshop at Malham in January fo those who’ve got a new camera for Xmas and want to learn how to take great countryside shots in the best area of the dales. It’s also pretty close to Leeds and Bradford, so not far to travel. This year …
A 50 year Wait – Tornado Steam Train Scheduled Service I didn’t wait 50 years – but it was 50 years ago that the last steam train service ran over the iconic viaduct in the Dales. It was only for a few days in February so I decided to brave the weather and head up …
Photographing Drax and Eggborough Power Station at Sunset When it’s a windless day, I can see clouds of steam from Eggboeough and Drax power stations – which are 25-30 miles away from my desk in Morley. Last week, I’d been desk-bound all day and saw a great sunset was on its way AND these clouds, so …
Wensleydale for New Year Wensleydale is one of my favourite Dales, it’s long, wide, full of waterfalls and lovely villages – and has nice cheese! This new year I was up there with friends and popped out now and then to get some shots of the area – especially one fantastic sunset on New Years …
Here’s a scene from a cornwall town – it’s been uploaded anonymously so I’ve no idea who’s work it is. Essentially it was a quick case of brightening up the photo to add a bit of punch – using the GRAD tool. Before… After The Video https://youtu.be/zgQoOuix7rY
A Bavarian Lake Scene Here’s a photo of the stunning Konigsee, part of our 2016 trip to Austria. It’s taken by our friend Julie Pfeiffer, who came all the way from Milwaukee to join us in Tirol. The shot is from the banks of the lake next to a beautiful church. Wiki Says…. Situated within …
Is Swaledale the best Dale? There are so many dales, all with different character, all with different features. Swaledale is known for its steep sides, lead mines, waterfalls and 1000 barns – so lots to go at for the photographer We went up there yesterday – Richard Spurdens with his new Canon 5D mark 4 …
LIGHTROOM tutorial – Landscape – Swaledale Waterfall Read More »
Front to back sharpness Here’s how it’s done! Even at F16 with a wide lens, you can struggle to get everything sharp in a photo. If you like getting a foreground object such as a boulder or stream in your shot – the background may get blurry – of the foreground may get blurry… it …
Lightroom and Photoshop – Focus Stacking Tutorial Read More »
Yorkshire Dales Lightroom Tutorial – Ribblehead Viaduct A sunset shot – without a great sunset So you’re driving up a long country road with no real signs of life apart from the odd farm or bird of prey, then all of a sudden this massive viaduct pops up! That’s Ribblesdale – it’s full of stuff to …
Lightroom Tutorial – Landscape – Ribblehead Viaduct Read More »
Lightroom Landscape Tutorial – from Austria! The Wilder Kaiser, Tirol Here is a full editing Lightroom tutorial of an Austrian landscape – it’s the Wilder Kaiser range, which loom majestically over the farm we stop at on the McFade Austrian holiday which runs every October At the top of the ski slopes they have these little lakes …
Lightroom Tutorial – Landscape – Wilder Kaiser in Austria Read More »
Lightroom Edit of Zell Am See – Austria Real-time Lightroom editing tutorial Here’s a 10 stop shot – taken with a very dark ND filter which makes the exposure 1000 times longer. This one has a 30-second exposure. The filter has a blue cast, so we show how to correct this – and work through …
Editing a Landscape in LIGHTROOM – Zell am See, Austria Read More »
McFade’s Yorkshire Coast Workshop – 2016 We returned to the Yorkshire Coast for the 5th time this year – armed with cameras and tripods, out trip took us from Robin Hood’s bay to Saltburn via several stops, coffees and a bag of fish and chips. Here is what we got up to on the Yorkshire Coast …
Ribblesdale – a fantastic photography destination Coming from Ribblesdale, I’m obviously biased – though I’m a good 20 miles downstream from most of these destinations The Ribble is 70 miles long, starting at Ribblehead and entering the Irish sea at Preston. It’s a stunning journey down the valley, past Settle, Clitheroe and Ribchester – though …
Knaresborough Workshop Night Yorkshire is full of little market towns, each with their market square lined with pubs. Most would think of places like Thirsk, Bedale, Masham or Pickering – but there is one far closer to Leeds than all of those. Knaresborough is just outside Harrogate and has all of the above. The square …
McFade Summer Nights Workshops 2016 A look back over 12 fantastic evenings – but first some background Where did the idea of Summer Nights Workshops come from? Ever since I took Photography seriously I’ve regularly gone out for smaller outings – usually with 1 or 2 friends. We’d find places to go, new things to try …
The Yorkshire 3 Peaks – 2 Distinctive, 1 Boring? I’ve always loved Ingleborough and Pen y Gent yet found Whernside a boring hill to look at. As kids playing on Pendle Hill we could easily see the Yorkshire 3 Peaks on a clear day – 2 very distinctive mountains and one boring lump But on a day out …
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Want great results FAST? Need to prep some preview images but don’t have time to go to town? With most landscape photos, you’ve got the sky and the foreground – and other great elements like foreground interest boulders, trees, water… So editing that lot individually can take a long time. How about splitting your shot into …
Sky-Rocket Your Editing With LIGHTROOM GRAD Tool Read More »
Lightroom Presets – Work Smart! Do you always do the same editing steps? Have you created a fantastic shot, and want to re-create it in future? Do you want to spend less time editing and more shooting? Making your own LIGHTROOM PRESETS Well if you’ve said yes to any of those, then Lightroom Presets are perfect …
Super-Charge your Editing with Lightroom Presets Read More »
Shooting the Milky Way – If at first you don’t succeed… Pack up your bags and go back another night! That’s what happened with our legendary Brimham Rocks workshop this year – the first run was a wash-out no sign of a star, never mind the milky way. Horizontal rain, cold, and no shelter anywhere …
September 2015 In september we :- Ran our first night workshop in Leeds Did some headshots for a CEO Helped Xpand Marketing with their new location and rebrand photography Ran a workshop in Ribblesdale, ending at Ribblehead Viaduct at sunset Photographed Salford Quays at night Shoot down at Yorkshire Sculpture Park Create product photos for …
Focus Stacking in Landscape Photos If you like to get everything pin sharp in your landscapes, Focus Stacking is for you. If you shoot low with foregrounds which are very close to the lens, then it can be hard to get the background AND the foreground pin sharp. Focussing 1/3 of the way into a scene …
See How Easily Focus Stacking You Gives Ultimate Sharpness In Your Landscape Photos Read More »
