Onegav

Helsby Hill! The spot I told you about at the weekend, the spot we couldn’t get to due to road works.

Anyway, the road works are still there, but I found another way to get up to the top.

The views were amazing, and although I am really happy with today’s photographs, I am definitely going to go back and get more!

The path to the top winds through trees, it’s well trodden for the most part, but thins the higher you go.

All the way up my excitement at what I might see, and photograph, was climbing with every foot step.

When I finally got to the top, after a couple of stops to take some shots, the view was breathtaking.

It’s a nice mix of fields, heavy industry, wind turbines, rivers, roads, railways and distant mountains.

Even the hill itself holds some some cool photographic opportunities, it’s an amazing place and I’m really surprised I’ve never been up before.

I took about 250 shots all told, picked 52 favourites, and edited 26.

Most I edited with my preferred moody vibe, and for the most part the scene really lent itself to the tones I like.

These last two, I gave an extra bit of feel, and exaggerated the light being cast on the fields directly below the sun.

I really loved the mix of industry, clouds and mood.

Being honest, I could have staged up there all evening.

Learnings – I had my favoured lens back on for today’s shots, and pretty much every shot I took was in manual mode, but with auto focus.

The exposure meter was mega handy today, the sun was really bright, and looking left I had it full in my face, looking right it was over my shoulder, so I had to change and adapt settings according to the light.

It was nice today because I stopped myself from getting bowled over by the view, and was calm enough to get some images I am really happy with.

It felt natural today, and I felt really in control of my camera, that’s a really nice feeling when your trying to learn anything.

I still have some work to do on sharpening my focus, and then combining that with the heavy shadows I like, but I’m getting there, and I’m happy.