Nice find, I have seen webs in water droplets but not in frost, shows strength of this fine weavings.

Some very dynamic figures here, real action carved out.

I wish you speedy recovery, not fun to have health issues.
And change your calendar, it's 2025 😀

Bracing!

I had to go to Stranraer on Monday, so decided to go for a walk on what I hoped would be the sheltered leaward coast... There turned out to be gale force offshore wind! But there were some nice lichen covered rocks, plus the entrance to the underworld.

The actual beach was death to optics, with blowing sand and salt spray. Camera movement is mostly intentional 😉

What a way to see out the year! Glorious!

What delightful creatures, far too cute to be a corvid.

There's something slightly sinister about these. Just goes to show, beware of what may be lurking in the woodshed!

Amazing as ever. I rather like the look of this fellow but can't see him in the group arrangement.

Wonderful!

I like the elegance of this, long slim stems and buds, delicate background.

I used to love watching our magnolia buds gradually getting fatter and hairier through the winter until they finally burst open, usually around my daughter's birthday. No space in our new garden for a big magnolia, but there is one next door 😊

Great texture and muted colours.

Lichen is always interesting, combined with fractured stone. I find this shot a little dark on my screen though ( I think it is the site software).

The last shot leaves me feeling chilly. I was taken to a wonderful little fishing port down that way some years ago.

This is rather elegant.

This is quite curios. I quess the heat from the lamp was moving the air locally.

Actually, the wind...

Anglezarke Woods

I took a couple of short evening walks on the moors earlier in the week as, at this time of year, I now have around 90 minutes between finishing work and sunset. Unfortunately on both occasions, the sky was dull and overcast (double whammy), which pretty much summed up the pictures I ended up with, one set with the Z8, the other with the GFX100S, both sets looked equally gloomy. So a compilation of these was on the cards for this week's offering.

However, this morning (Saturday) the strangest of things caught my eye, a peculiar ball of fire in this sky. A strange sight to behold and rarely seen in the traditionally grim leaden skies that loom oppressively over Lancashire. Yes, it was sunny, bright and clear! It wasn't even raining for goodness sake!

It's been a while since I've wandered the woods surrounding Anglezarke, so I figured I'd drive up there and see how things were looking. Would the harsh light kill the usual mysterious look of the woods and plague me with hotspots in my images?

For this trip I took the GFX100S + 45-100 f/4 and 20-35 f/4 along with the usual tripod and filter set. I'd swear this kit is getting heavier as I was knackered after walking a mere 2.5 miles in a little over two hours. Hard to believe I carried it all part way up a mountain last year.

There's Blue In Them There Skies

Long(ish) exposure looking across Anglezarke reservoir towards the woods I was heading to. My plan (such as it was) was to work my way around that blob of woods and then do a lap of High Bullough reservoir, which is tucked away behind that hill a little higher than Anglezarke reservoir in the foreground. The levels have been low in this reservoir for a couple of years now, this turned out to be because of a leak in the dam that sits just around the corner from here beneath The Nab (which is the hill visible on the horizon). It appears they're finally sorting that out now, but this means the road that leads from my end of Chorley over the moors to Anglezarke is going to be closed for around six months. This was taken with the ND8 + ND64 + CPL magnetically dangling off the front of the lens.

Into The Woods

It's been a while since I've been in these woods, mainly because of the previously mentioned dam issue taking away my quick and easy access via the moor road. It's good to be back.

Dodgy Characters

Even in bright and sunny conditions, the trees around here still look like they're up to no good.

Decluttering

There are lots of charismatic trees in this part of the woods, but there's so much clutter and scrub it's difficult to get a clear shot of many of them. I think I got away with it with these two. A lady walking past excitedly asked me what I was photographing, thinking I'd spotted an exotic bird or a fox. She seemed a lot less impressed when I said I was photographing the trees. I get this a lot.

Menace

I often find trees either look jolly or a bit sinister, this one falls into the latter category.

Tyred

The main path circles around the hill, but I took a route over the hill, following a path that seems to have largely fallen into disuse (it disappears near the top). I was looking for a tree I saw up here some years ago that I refer to as "The Kenneth Williams Tree", mainly because it looks a bit like Kenneth Williams (I kid you not!). Unfortunately I didn't find this legendary tree that I've only ever found once before, it's probably off somewhere doing a one man show, but I did find this tyre swing. I was tempted to give it a go, but as it was likely constructed without any engineering knowledge, I didn't fancy my chances of not being launched into the reservoir, so I decided to give it a miss.

I did give it a black and white treatment though. Not sure which works better.

A Precarious Perch

Once back on the main path, I spotted this group sat a little way down the hillside. Now, at this point, the hillside is very, very steep (the picture doesn't do it justice) and mostly composed of wet mud concealed beneath a layer of fallen leaves, so I carefully scrambled a little way down the slope to get a clear shot, anchoring myself against one of the trees that would have been in the way. As I took this image, I was accosted by another lady walking along the path a few feet above me, also interested in what I was photographing. Well, at least until I told her what I was photographing, at which point she lost interest and wandered off. I'm spotting a pattern here.

Spen Cob Wood

After descending from the hill, I then began my loop around High Bullough reservoir, this took me through Spen Cob wood. You may remember I took a similar shot to this back in autumn. The light was better then, but for a blue sky picture I quite like it. I've finally worked out how to split tone images in C1P. There's an actual split tone control built into the black and white tool, but that only works when you turn on black and white. However, in one of those lightbulb moments, I figured I could achieve the same effect using a pair of filled luma masked layers and here we are (actually a number of the preceding images have been treated this way too). Watch out natural looking colour balance, I'm coming for you!

A Seat With A View

For this shot I'm sat on the seat, but here's the view looking across High Bullough reservoir, another one that seems to have been allowed to get somewhat low.

Into The Shadows

There's an excuse for a path running along the eastern side of High Bullough reservoir and as I made my way along it, trying not to trip up and launch myself into the reservoir, I was facing towards the sun and the sun was not only putting down some strong shadows, but backlighting the moss in a way I was quite enjoying.

Backlit Branches

I quite liked the way the mass of branches behind this tree were practically glowing with the backlight from the sun.

Lovely. Hope it all goes well on Thursday.

I love how you've captured the drama in these with considered framing.

That's ace.

Nicely composed against the windows, with the subtle colours adding a delicate feel.