• Christmas Garden Birds

    Oh my, have we had some bad weather up here! We’ve had such a lot of dark midwinter weather, rain, wind and precious few days with any bright light to speak of. Consequently, my bird photography has been very hit and miss for a few weeks…in fact, all the birds disappeared from the garden for about three weeks in November…and I can only suppose that there were berries enough and to spare on the many hawthorn and holly bushes around here and possibly lots of seeds in the fields next to our house. Then suddenly they all returned and with hearty appetites too…so, we’re back in business. Then, two weeks…

  • 46th Smethwick International Exhibition Results

    I didn’t get around to entering any exhibitions last year, so this year I was lucky to have enough images to enter the Smethwick International, one of my favourites. This is in spite of a rather poor year in producing salon-type creative images, though a rather good year in developing my skills in nature photography. Smethwick was one of the first internationals where we were able to actually visit to see the prints on the wall. We have often travelled down in the snow and ice of the New Year to see the exhibition at the Old Schoolhouse and to meet up with friends…but this year, due to restrictions, it…

  • Don’t Photograph the Landscape

    Beginning Landscape Photography I have never been recognised as a landscape photographer and yet it was my first love and has always been my greatest love in photography. I had my confidence destroyed in early club competition, by judges who said or implied that I was not a landscape photographer and never would be until I got out before dawn. Otherwise, I might have specialised. When I was about 5 years old, my Dad first let me use the Leica that he had brought back from Germany after the war – he had been stationed in the Military Government in Hamburg. He obtained a Leica by trading cigarettes and other…

  • Autumn Landscapes

    This autumn, I was determined to get out with the camera at every opportunity if there was any prospect of good light. My subjects, the Saddleworth hills and waterways, are situated in the West Pennines, so the sun takes its time getting up above the hills in the morning, only to disappear from the valleys by mid-afternoon. The peak of autumn colour can vary, but often arrives between mid and late October, when autumn leaves quickly turn to magnificent browns, russets and golds. We are now well into autumn and, as usual in the North West of England, the weather has turned wet and windy, threatening to hinder my best…

error: © Christine Widdall - Kirklees Cousins