What with it being a Bank Holiday weekend my girlfriend and I decided to go for a walk. After a quick search on the net we settled on the Ingleton Waterfall Walk. It was around 5 miles so not too bad a distance and, as the name suggests, there are a lot of waterfalls to look at which would mean I could get some nice photos:

Of course, the trouble with taking photographs is you have to take time on each shot. It’s not a case of pointing and clicking. I have to look at the scene and decide on what angle I like, then set up the tripod, the filters (my trusty old ND grads), work out my exposure, click, wait 20 seconds (to get that flowing water shot), have a look at the histogram on the camera and decide if I like it, then continue to the next waterfall and repeat! My good lady was surprisingly patient I must say, what with having to start and stop all the time. The only thing I had to worry about was children knocking into the tripod as we weren’t exactly the only people on the walk! When I started taking photos I’d feel a bit self conscious putting up a tripod, messing around with filters and such like. But now I don’t even think about it, I don’t worry about the people around me and get on with the job at hand. What’s really surprised me though is people’s reaction to me when I’ve got the camera out. If I was walking or mountain biking or just looking at things – I’d be pretty much ignored as most people are by strangers. But now with a camera in hand I must be more approachable as I find loads of people just walk up to me, ask what I’m doing and take a genuine interest. It’s really nice and makes it all the more worthwhile as I’ve met a lot of interesting people – some of whom know a hell of a lot more about photography than I do (which, to be fair, wouldn’t be that hard)!