What about Whitby? 12

Just a short post to point you towards an album of photos with the last of the Whitby photos on my Facebook page.

I'm giving away a free print for every 50 fans, so hurry on over and 'like' my Facebook page to be in with a chance!

Click back next time, when I'll be moving on to Middlesbrough.

What about Whitby? 11

In Yorkshire you will often see references to 'Whitby jet', but it's not an aeroplane that you'll see at the airport. Instead, jet is a semi-precious stone found here in abundance which has been mined for thousands of years. The Romans thought Whitby jet had magical powers and Pliny the Elder said it could be used to drive off snakes.

Whitby jet's popularity most recently peaked in Victorian times when the newly-widowed Queen Victoria began wearing black jewellery made from it in mourning. Decades later and we still say something is 'jet-black' when it is especially dark, the blackest black possible.

Even on a jet-black night there are ample possibilities for taking photos, made all the more fun if you take a creative approach and avoid attempting to achieve pin-sharp results. As I've mentioned before, I'm a big fan of 'intentional  movement photography' where little or no effort is made trying to hold the camera stock-still.

Another climb up the 199 Steps from the harbour and to the graveyard, where St Mary's Church was bathed in a floodlight. It was still early evening and a couple of children were amusing themselves by making enormous shadows on the side of the clock tower. 'That was like the most fun...ever,' one of them announced after their parents were finally able to tear them away.

Naturally, I had to have a go myself!

Even at night the churchyard and steps were quite busy, mainly because there is a YHA hostel in the grounds of Whitby Abbey. Here are some hostellers staggering back uphill, the bright lights of Whitby behind him.

And here's the landmark lamppost lighting the stairs, looking more like a flaming torch.

For such a vast structure, the ruins of Whitby Abbey are concealed behind a high wall, all the better for English Heritage. I had to climb onto a rubbish bin which was a bit slick from the salty sea air and hold the camera fairly still during a 10-second or so exposure for this image of the floodlit abbey.

Whitby has only a modest funfair and seaside promenade with the usual amusement arcades, but at night they light up the waters of the harbour.

I thought this light trail looked like a running man. Running from what??

Walking along the cobbles...

...and more opportunities to move the camera during long exposures to catch the limited available light and produce impressionistic images.

After several days of stalking around town on my photo walks, I thought I had covered every inch of Whitby. This particular night while on my own I decided to take a shortcut to the B&B which sits on the cliffs opposite the abbey. Instead of taking the switchback road up to the top, I chose a street at random and began climbing the series of stairs and alleys running between the houses on the hillside. At each bend I kept climbing up, leaving behind the chippies and holiday flats. After turning one corner, the street light disappeared behind me, the ivy crowded overhead and the path became noticeably more narrow. I had to step carefully as the steps were thick with leaves and litter.

At one landing the path levelled off, going past the black windows of an empty cottage. Here the path ended, right at the door of what was clearly an abandoned cottage...with a wide-open door. In the half light after sunset all I could see inside were piles of bags, the ones used by builders to haul around sand and rubble. I was certain these particular bags though contained body parts, so I turned around sharpish. Only a couple minutes later I was back to civilisation, behind the tat shops, only a few feet off the seafront yet who knows how close to my DOOM?!

An unexpected shock ending to an otherwise lovely holiday in a beautiful place. That wraps up Whitby, but I'll be back with some more photos to share before moving on to a quick look at Middlesbrough and York.

What about Whitby? 10

For all the fuss made over sunsets and the 'golden hours' when the sun is low in the sky and producing abundant raking light, there are plenty of photo opportunities after sunset. A 'blue hour' often follows between sunset and dusk, topped off by the occasional 'indigo flash' when  (right before turning black) the sky is at its deepest blue. And then of course there is the challenge of taking photos in darkness, when light is at its most scarce.

When faced with difficult lighting conditions, most photographers put all their effort into producing pin-sharp images. This requires sturdy tripods, remote control shutter release mechanisms or at the very least the camera's timer delay to minimise any movement during long exposures.

One evening in Whitby after sunset I climbed the 199 steps towards the abbey ruins and passed another photographer who was packing away his tripod, content with making what could very well have been the world's one-millionth sunset shot taken that day alone. Yes, every sunset is different, but there are endless possibilities for taking photos in very low (or even non-existent) light, with no special equipment at all.

There are fancy names for this type of image making, like kinetic photography or intentional camera movement photography. Me, I just call it fun.

Why not try one of these techniques yourself next time? For instance, if you're using a zoom lens, you could try twisting the zoom ring during an exposure, which makes the image look as though it is radiating from a central point.

Be sure to try both zooming in and out during exposures as the effects are slightly different. 

Another thing I often do in low light conditions (and which attracts plenty of odd looks) is to twist the camera quickly while the shutter is open for a swirly effect.

That, or moving the camera from one side to the next.

Or jerk the camera downward. This turned the streetlamp and railings along the 199 Steps into jagged spikes.

I'm not able to rub my tummy and pat my head at the same time, but sometimes I twist the camera AND adjust the zoom at the same time.

All of these photos were taken in the half hour or so after sunset, if not later, but the long exposures make some of the photos seem as bright as day.

So what if my fellow photographer who had already packed his tripod had made it to the pub by now? Wait until you see the photos taken well after dark, when Whitby is at its spookiest!

What about Whitby? 9

Whitby is one of the few places in Britain where the sun rises and sets at sea, doubling the opportunity for lots of lovely low light landscape shots.

Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of early starts: Dracula is a morning person compared to me. So instead, here are some of my sunsets!

Playing with the 'soft focus' setting.

Lots of gulls swooping about.

I've used a version of this as the cover for my Whitby book of souvenir photos.

You can just make out the steeple of the church in Lythe.

I was upset by the number of airplane contrails this particular evening, but the lighthouse made an excellent silhouette.

Rule number one of sunset shots: always take a look behind you!

Again with the contrails!

Again with a quick look over my shoulder!

And again with the soft focus!

Now compare the soft focus effect above to the much warmer automatic 'sunset' setting below.

Just about managed to disguise the contrail in this one. Some lovely clouds that evening.

Click back next time for photos I took after the sun went down.

What about Whitby? 8

Runswick Bay turned out to be the surprise highlight of our Yorkshire trip, a crescent-shaped bay fringed by golden sand with an old fishing village at one end and cliffs pockmarked by caves at the other.

The road coming down the steep hill funnelled all traffic into a couple of car parks, leaving the village itself traffic-free.

Instead of having streets, the village is a maze of steps, narrow paths and dead-ends.

I noticed most of the paving stones are outlined in paint

and many of the houses have white-washed sun terraces for gardens, which reminded me of Greek island villages.

That, and the fact that the houses are stacked one upon another up the side of the incline, so each has its own sea view.

Practically all the houses are holiday lets and there were an awful lot of electric wires, PVC windows and satellite dishes that intruded on what otherwise felt like a time warp back to olden times. It only took about 15 minutes to explore most of the village, save for the uppermost reaches.

Back on the seafront and there is a pub plus a couple of cafes and shops, otherwise there is little to keep visitors occupied aside from the glorious stretch of sand, the walking opportunities, the boating, that splendid sea view, the abundant fresh air..actually, a week here would make for a relaxing holiday, so we made a promise to come again to linger longer on another trip.

For now though we kept walking, along the sandy beach, past the 'hobgoblin' caverns and to a cleft in the cliffs where a brook had carved through the shelves of shale and out to sea.

This was our path back up to the top of the cliff via a series of steps that took us up the hillside and into a beautiful glade filled with blossoms and butterflies.

 Each time we stopped to catch our breaths the views over the bay seemed to get better and better.

Atop the cliffs was a jumble of farm houses and an old railway station for a stop called Kettleness, long since abandoned.

Back roads took us away from the seaside through fields of bright yellow flowers

through lovely lush countryside and into the village of Lythe.  

The pub here was shut, so we carried on to the town's church which sits on a prominent position above the sea with views of Whitby on the horizon.

The body of church was largely rebuilt in 1911.

As the builders dismantled the ancient church walls, they found an abundance of stones carved by Vikings, including a massive stone coffin which serves as a rather morbid flower display.

The church has an excellent series of interpretive panels about the discovery of more than three dozen carved stones, all about 1000 years old. The Edwardians piled the stones in the churchyard and it was only recently that the stones have been cleaned and the best specimens brought indoors for display in the church.

One of the stones cleaned in 2007 revealed a figure that the locals have called 'The Gingerbread Man' who appears to be torn between vicious animals.

I dubbed him 'Mr Bill.'

A short walk downhill from Lythe and we reached yet another lovely village, Sandsend.

From here it was probably only another two miles to Whitby, but by now the sun was low in the sky and the wind blowing off the sea was strong. Instead of facing the cold wind, we waited a couple minutes and caught the next bus into Whitby in time for the sunset. And you know how I get twitchy around sunsets...!

A rough idea of our 7-mile one-way route is here and a plethora of sunset shots are on the way soon.

What about Whitby? 7

Another day in Whitby, another day for a walk! After clocking up the miles to Robin Hood's Bay and back, we felt entitled to cheating a bit and saved our bloody stumps by taking the bus a half hour up the road for the start of our next ramble along the seaside.

Staithes is yet another old fishing village along the Yorkshire coastline, but in an even more spectacular setting than Whitby or Robin Hood's Bay. Much of the town is huddled into a ravine, hiding behind cliffs from the sea.

And for good reason too, as storms over the years have washed away a number of buildings on the seafront.

Staithes has suffered a lot over the years and not just because of Mother Nature. Its fishing industry has dwindled a great deal (although the harbour has more boats than Robin Hoods Bay). Its days as an artists colony are long gone as well. We passed several empty shopfronts, a derelict pub and only a few other sightseers. Many houses appeared to be holiday homes, which also take their toll on what little life remains in town.

Having said that, there were a handful of pubs, cafes and art galleries which seemed to be doing decent trade that day.

Unlike Robin Hood's Bay, Staithes is much more accessible by car and has a larger harbour which can accommodate beachcombers and fishing boats alike.

The only thing which detained us was a half pint at The Royal George, which had a varied menu that looked quite good, although it was too early for lunch and the whole place was in need of a clean.

Elsewhere in town is a small museum in a former chapel. Among its exhibits you can learn about the young Captain Cook, who was an apprentice here in a shop that has long since fallen victim to a particularly fierce storm.

Behind the seawall and away from the harbour we found the trail leading up out of town and onto the clifftops.

Only a mile to the north at Boulby are the highest sea cliffs in England...crowned by the chimneys of a mining operation that produces half the country's potash. So instead we headed a mile south to Port Mulgrave.

Passers-by might expect another charming fishing village, but in fact this was only ever a tiny harbour used for shipping out the iron ore mined from the cliffs surrounding it.

Its sea wall was dismantled during WWII in case any Germans wanted to sneak into the disused harbour and launch an invasion. These days it is home to a collection of fishermen's huts and plays hosts to fossil hunters.

Only an hour's walk further along the edge of the sea cliffs and we arrived at the top of Runswick Bay. Like the other fishing villages in the area, there is a new town atop the cliffs and an old town next to the harbour.

We had a pub in mind in the new town, but they had no ale on offer so we crossed the road where a woman had set up some tables and chairs in her front garden.

We had sandwiches, salad, coleslaw, crisps, tea and scones for about £12 which was a bit dear considering the size of the portions, but in a lovely setting with a friendly hostess. From here it was literally straight down to the bay.

Click back next time for a look around the charming old town, the brilliant beach and more countryside rambling on our way back to Whitby!