Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, Summer
In most seasons, Kirkby Lonsdale is lovely.
In most seasons, Kirkby Lonsdale is lovely.
But during summer, it’s impossibly pretty.
The last couple of weeks my focus has primarily been helping the Better Half recuperate after double Carpal Tunnel Relief surgery, hence the lack of content on this website. But, with the removal of stitches on the horizon, a gorgeous weekend was looking promising, so we made our way to beautiful Kirkby Lonsdale for a gentle walk around the town and its environs.
It’s hard to take a bad photo of Kirkby.
All photos taken on my Sony α7ii, using my Sony 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS zoom and Rokinon 14mm f2.8 ED AS IF UMC prime lenses. RAWs developed in Lightroom, edited in Photomatix, and finalised in Photoshop.
Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, Summer by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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Conistone, Yorkshire Dales, Summer
Time for somewhere new.
Time for somewhere new.
The weekend was looking massively busy in Cumbria, what with the Appleby Horse Fair, Dave Day, and the Great North Swim, amongst other things. So with a cool and windy Saturday in stall, we head east once again into the Yorkshire Dales to explore somewhere new, to us: Conistone.
Conistone is a tiny idyllic village in Upper Wharfedale, across the valley from Kilnsey and its famous Kilnsey Crag. Although we’ve meandered around Grassington and Kilnsey before, we’d never ventured around the Conistone area of Upper Wharfedale. What we found were two incredible and fascinating geological wonders: Conistone Dib—a dry and steep gorge—and the Conistone Pie, an isolated limestone crag outcrop that, yes, resembles a pie.
Due to the high winds, conditions and light were changeable, which made shooting all the more challenging and fun.
And some of the views we got from around the pie were just… something else.
All photos taken on my Sony α7ii using my Sony 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS zoom and Rokinon 14mm f2.8 ED AS IF UMC prime lenses. RAWs were developed in Lightroom, edited in Photomatix, and finalised in Photoshop.
Conistone, Yorkshire Dales, Summer by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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Sedbergh, Yorkshire Dales, Summer
It’s summer! Y’know what that means? Wild flower meadows.
It’s summer! Y’know what that means? Wild flower meadows.
We’re rather fortunate to live where we do, sandwiched between abundant nature. You can take your pick of beautiful places to see wildflower summer meadows. A particular favourite is Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales.
But I can also recommend the Sedbergh meadows underneath the Howgills.
We usually start this hike from Sedbergh town itself, but this time we started from Straight Bridge, walking away rather than into the sun.
Sedbergh is pretty enough anyway, but in the summer it becomes positively idyllic. And the meadows around the town were filled with wildflowers.
All photos taken on my Sony α7ii using my Sony 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS zoom and Rokinon 14mm f2.8 ED AS IF UMC prime lenses. RAWs developed in Lightroom, edited in Photomatix and Photoshop.
Sedbergh, Yorkshire Dales, Summer by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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Oxenber & Wharfe Woods, Yorkshire Dales, Spring
It’s been nearly a month since my last post.
It’s been nearly a month since my last post.
I must apologise for that. Times, they are a’ changin’.
To start, we moved house! That in itself has consumed most of my time and energy, as house moves usually do. Thankfully we’re now all settled in and getting down to the important things in life, like looking at curtain textiles and measuring all the things.
With things settling back down a little, and the British weather drastically improving, we thought we’d try to capture the last of this year’s bluebells. Over the years we’ve found some proper lovely places to photograph bluebells, such as:
This time we tried somewhere new, to us, based on personal recommendation: the woods of Oxenber and Wharfe near Feizor.
And we were absolutely blown away.
Carpets of bluebells, some in ancient woodland, some out in the open with spectacular views to the likes of Moughton Scar and Ingleborough.
Happily, this was also my first full outing with my newly acquired Sony 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS, courtesy of my Dad. This lens easily replaced five other lenses I had, which has significantly reduced my carrying load.
I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed taking and editing them.
All photos shot on my Sony α7ii using my Sony 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS zoom lens. RAWS edited in Lightroom, edited in RNI Films, and finalised in Photoshop.
Oxenber & Wharfe Woods, Yorkshire Dales, Spring by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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Feizor, Yorkshire Dales, Spring
I don’t explore the Yorkshire Dales enough.
I don’t explore the Yorkshire Dales enough.
After finally getting over my post-Skye mourning and depression period, it seemed like spring finally arrived in Northern England.
Aware of how busy the Lake District would be, we instead ventured east to the Yorkshire Dales. We quickly realised that we hadn’t explored the Feizor area of the Dales in a long time, like maybe 7-years or so. Time to fix that.
Feizor (pronounced “FAY-zer”) is a tiny l’al hamlet between Austwick and Settle, and easy to miss. Home to a few houses, a farm, and the famous Elaine’s Tearoom, rising high above the hamlet are the limestone fells of Pott Scar and Smearsett Scar. These were the focus of the day’s hike and exploration.
Pott Scar and Smearsett Scar were beautiful examples of limestone karst landscapes, but they also offered immense views to either the back of Ingleborough or the shapely Pen-y-ghent.
A super day.
All photos taken on my Sony α7ii using my Sony FE 28–70mm f3.5–5.6 OSS and Vivitar “Series 1” 70–210mm f2.8–4.0 zoom lenses. RAWs developed in Lightroom, then tweaked and finalised in Photoshop.
Feizor, Yorkshire Dales, Spring by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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Hull Pot, Yorkshire Dales, Winter
A month since my last post.
A month since my last post.
I do apologise.
The weather in January has been, well, shocking to say the least. We endured three named storms: Henk, Isha, and Jocelyn. Isha, in particular, was one of the most powerful storms the British Isles have seen since 2000.
Additionally, we’ve had periods of below freezing temperatures, resulting in widespread ice.
It’s been… interesting.
Thankfully, the weekend just gone, it was nice enough for us to finally head out. We chose the Hull Pot route from Horton-in-Ribblesdale in the Yorkshire Dales. I had an inkling that there’d still be some snow liggin’ about in the Dales, contributing to a water-saturated landscape and, hopefully, a waterfall flowing into Hull Pot.
And we finally saw it.
All photos taken on my Sony α7ii using my Pentax SMC 28mm F3.5, Pentax SMC 55mm f2.0, and Rokinon 14mm f2.8 ED AS IF UMC prime lenses. RAWs developed in Lightroom, edited and finalised in Photoshop.
Hull Pot, Yorkshire Dales, Winter by Ian Cylkowski is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0