October daily art prompts – European mammals

In October many artists draw a picture a day to various prompts. For October 2024 I chose to draw UK and European mammals from the photographs I take in various inks, graphite or charcoal. Some are included below:

Polecat in ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Common seal in ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Otter in white ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Rabbit in gold ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Stoat in graphite ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
wood mouse in ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Mountain hare in sepia ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
roe deer in black ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
grey seal pup in ballpoint ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Weasel in peat brown ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Red deer calf in sepia ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Lynx in black ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Fox cub in sepia ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Brown hare in black ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Pine marten in sepia ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Fallow stag in ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Water vole in black ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Harvest mouse in brown ink ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Scttish wildcat in charcoal ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Feral goat in ink – ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Chamois in ink – ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Red squirrel in graphite – ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Ibex in ink – ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved
Hedgehog in sepia ink – ©Helen Jones 2024, All rights reserved

Within a stone’s throw… – A ‘Scenes within a scene’ project

Durham, landscape, Nature, plants, Projects, Scenes within a scene, wildlife, Yorkshire

This is a sub-project of my ‘Scenes within a scene’ project. ‘Within a stone’s throw’ effectively started itself because sometimes, thanks to my arthritis, I can’t walk very far at all. Thus these photos are all made within a few steps (a stone’s throw) of my landscape view. If anything, it even more effectively shows why it’s worth slowing down and observing every detail of these beautiful places.

I’m always surprised at how much more you observe when slowing down and trying to look for photographic subjects, especially the smaller flowers and plants. It also tends to be the best way to see wildlife, as many animals, birds and insects hide away and slowly come out when we stay quiet and they decide I’m probably harmless! I also photograph using the car as a hide, and this can be very effective for photographing birds and animals that have grown used to ignoring parked cars. The moorland birds were all photographed using the parked car as a hide.

I created the composite images in Lightroom’s Print module, using a variety of user templates.

Within a stone’s throw – Upper Teesdale, near Cow Green Reservoir
Within a stone’s throw – Upper Teesdale stream
Within a stone’s throw – North Yorkshire Moors

Scenes within a scene

Creative, landscape, Nature, plants, Projects, Scenes within a scene, Uncategorised, wildlife

This is a project I started after hearing several speakers talking about people taking a quick photo of a scene and then just moving on to the next big view, without taking the time to enjoy the smaller details, wildlife, colours and abstracts within that bigger picture. If anything I tend to be the opposite way round, enjoying the wildlife and details of nature, and taking fewer big landscapes, but it made me think of a project idea, so in these photos I’ve taken a landscape view, and then shown the details within my bigger scene – scenes within scenes. My aim was to take all the photos within 100m (a distance I can usually manage even on crutches) of my bigger ‘landscape’ picture to show why it’s worth slowing down and enjoying these beautiful places.

Since starting this project I’ve found I observe more details of the ecosystems I visit. When slowing down to look for photographic subjects we are more likely to notice the smaller flowers and insects like the butterflies and beetle in the spring North Yorkshire Moors image. I stopped because I saw one butterfly, then noticed a green tiger beetle, then another butterfly and so on! When we slow down we also tend to notice more macro details and abstract images, like the water abstracts in Dalby Forest, and also take more time to try more creative views of nature like the ICM and multiple exposure images in Broxa forest in autumn. Limiting ourselves to photographing in a smaller area, rather than rushing on to the next big view, we have had chance encounters with wildlife like the geese flying across Cow Green reservoir, reflected in the still water (the only time I’ve ever seen it that still and reflective).

Having taken my images, I create the composite images in Lightroom’s Print module, using a variety of user templates. I try to match or balance colour themes in my images and balance the subjects to create the most pleasing compositions, and then print to file to create my finished image.

North Yorks Moors in Summer – scenes within a scene
Skipwith Hall Gardens – Kitchen garden – scenes within a scene
Skipwith Hall Gardens – Scenes within a scene
Skipwith Hall Gardens – Scenes within a scene
Wolds in winter – Scenes within a scene
North Pennines – scenes within a scene – road between Teesdale and Weardale
Upper Teesdale in Spring – Scenes within a scene
Upper Teesdale – Scenes within a scene
North Yorks Moors – scenes within a scene
Broxa forest in autumn – Scenes within a scene
Cow Green reservoir – Scenes within a scene project
Pocklington canal Scenes within a scene project
Dalby Forest Lake – Scenes within a scene
Stone creek – Scenes within a scene
Broxa Forest – Scenes within a scene
Yorkshire Dales – scenes within a scene
Flower meadow – scenes within a scene
Worsendale – scene within a scene
Coverdale – Scenes within a scene
Allerthorpe common in winter – scenes within a scene

Summer on the North Yorkshire moors – ‘Through the year project’

Nature, Projects, Through the year project, wildlife, Yorkshire

Some early morning photos of the grouse on the North Yorks moors.

This is part of a large ongoing project to photograph the habitats I regularly visit in Yorkshire, and a few surrounding counties, to show the flora and fauna found in these ecosystems throughout the year. These include farmland, meadows, riverbanks, moorland, woodland, and coastal cliffs.

Summer at Bempton cliffs – ‘Through the year project’

Projects, Through the year project, wildlife, Yorkshire

Some early morning visits to Bempton cliffs produced some beautiful lighting on the seabirds that nest there. The gannets particularly are wonderful photographic subjects and the amazing light allowed me to add to my series of chiaroscuro and bokeh images.

Summer in the meadows – ‘Through the year project’

Nature, plants, Projects, Through the year project, Uncategorised, wildlife, Yorkshire

Some photos from some East Yorkshire meadowland in June.

There were some beautiful Banded demoiselle damselflies in the riverside meadows of the Derwent, catching the mayflies.

I also had some fun with multiple exposures of the meadow flowers.

Spring on the Moorland – ‘Through the year’ project

Creative, Nature, plants, Projects, Through the year project, wildlife, Yorkshire

I’ve been working on various projects over the last few months, including themed photographs, and more creative photography ideas.

These are a few of the photos I’ve taken from moorland days out:

I also love working with backlighting and have been experimenting with taking multiple exposure photos:

I loved silhouetting this skylark against the sunlit sky as it rose up above me, but also tried combining several photos in a multiple exposure shot against the light, which shows the beautiful feathers, and the movement of the bird:

This is a multiple exposure of the cottongrass, blowing in the wind, and again backlit by the low sun. Below is a backlit photo of a snipe, taken early morning on the North Yorkshire Moors.

Spring in the woodland – ‘Through the year’ project

Nature, plants, Projects, Through the year project, wildlife, Yorkshire

Some photos from Forge valley and the nearby woodland.

Forge Valley in autumn – ‘Through the year’ project

Nature, Projects, Through the year project, wildlife, Yorkshire

These are some of the images from a recent visit to Forge Valley. The trees were alive with small woodland birds, and a wren was creeping along the fence searching for insects in the moss and rotting wood. A lot of the birds search for food and insects in dead trees, and a nuthatch was zinging backwards and forwards for food that had been put out on the bird tables. The nuthatches tend to appear very fast, and the main sign they have arrived is the other birds scattering away from that very sharp beak! The wren also investigated the fungus growing on a dead tree for insects, which made for a nice picture as it was silhouetted against the soft light filtering though the trees. On the ground a bank vole was hoovering up any food that had been dropped, and a few grey squirrels were checking out the bird feeders. We heard a few jays in the deeper woodland, but they didn’t put in an appearance whilst we were there. A very relaxing way to spend a couple of hours!

Farnes

Nature, wildlife

Another visit to the Farne islands to see the breeding seabirds. I decided to try to get some images with movement blur on the wings of the puffins and terns as they flew in, so whilst I shot some images with shutter speeds in the thousandths of a second for sharp frozen-mid-flight images, I also used some slower shutter speeds in the realms of 1/200-1/400th second to get movement blur, both in the wings of the bird, and also in the camera movement as I panned with the flight. Results below:

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A fascination with reflections

Creative, Nature, wildlife

Photographing a goosander yesterday, I was fascinated by the colours and patterns reflected in the water around the bird. The bird itself was beautiful to see, but the varying reflections meant that I could create a huge variety of different images. In some the picture is about the goosander, but in others the story is more about the abstract patterns the reflections created.

Yorkshire’s red squirrels

wildlife, Yorkshire

There are a small number of red squirrels living in the Yorkshire Dales in isolated pockets of woodland where the grey squirrels haven’t yet invaded. I spent a few days photographing them this autumn.

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A weekend of wildlife

Nature, wildlife, Yorkshire

Some photos from a weekend watching wildlife. We went to Studley Royal for dawn to watch the deer there. This fallow stag silhouetted against the dawn sky was my favourite deer shot.

Fallow stag at dawn, Studley Royal

Early mornings in autumn often bring mists over the lake here and the swans are also beautiful to capture reflected in the lake, as well as the reflections of the autumn colours in the water.

Canada Goose in autumn reflections, Studley Royal

Swan reflections, Studley Royal

Swan reflections, Studley Royal

Another interesting place to visit at this time of year is Spurn point and the surrounding area for autumn migrants, and other birds. Late afternoon I spotted this barn owl hunting in the low sun, with the light shining through its feathers.

Barn owl hunting at dusk, East Yorkshire

This little egret flying across the low sun was my last photo of the day.

Little egret flying

Places I visit for photography

Nature, Places and travel, wildlife, Yorkshire

I’ve added some new pages to my website giving a bit of information about some of the places I visit for my photography. So far I’ve written about Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, Bempton Cliffs, the Farne islands, Donna Nook, Forge Valley and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, but I’ll be adding more about both local sites in Yorkshire, and some of the longer journeys we make to Northumberland or Scotland, and some of the sites we visit there.

Forge Valley woods, North Yorkshire

Studley Royal, North Yorkshire

Farne islands, Northumberland

Bempton cliffs, East Yorkshire

Donna Nook, Lincolnshire

North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Woodland birds, Forge Valley

Nature, wildlife, Yorkshire

Some beautiful birds in Forge Valley, North Yorkshire. It was a dull snowy day, but I felt that made the lovely colours of their plumage even brighter.

Some winter visitors to the garden

Nature, wildlife

We’ve had plenty of birds on the feeders and plants in our garden with the recent snow. The goldfinches are always very photogenic, but particularly so when perched on the snow covered teasels in our garden. We also had four fieldfares visiting for the rosehips we left on our roses, and it was lovely to see these beautiful winter visitors.

A visit to Studley Royal

wildlife

We visited Studley Royal, near Ripon, on Monday, and I got some photos that I’ve been pre-visualising for some time. I really wanted to get some close-up photos of the swans, picking out details of the their plumage against a dark background. Fortunately I got the light I wanted and some cooperative subjects and I was pleased with the results.

Farnes

wildlife

Some photos from a day trip to the Farne islands. I created some composite images of the terns flying – they are so graceful and almost balletic in their flight. I also loved the puffin who decided to look at me with his head upside down – not the best of photos, but it did make me laugh!

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Snow in the Highlands

Scotland, wildlife

Some photos from the Highlands in some rather interesting weather! The photos of the bullfinches in the snow are images I visualized years ago, but was delighted to have the opportunity to make the shots I’d wanted on this holiday.

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The Howardian Hills AONB photo competition and the Yorkshire Arboretum

Nature, plants, wildlife, Yorkshire

I was delighted to win the ‘Best image taken at the Yorkshire Arboretum’ in the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Photo competition with the above image of a backlit Acer, taken at the Yorkshire Arboretum last October. I received a year’s membership of the arboretum, which is a wonderful prize. The Arboretum is an area of parkland, lakes and ponds covering 120 acres, situated next to Castle Howard. There are so many photo opportunities around the calendar with spring and summer wildflower meadows, spring blossom, rhododendrons and azaleas, and trees from around the world, possibly at their most beautiful in Autumn. There’s also a fair amount of wildlife to be found in the arboretum, so I’ve been very much enjoying my membership, and some of my many recent photos are displayed below.

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