Gale Beck Lodge

Gale Beck Lodge, Blea Moor Road, North Yorkshire, originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

I used to drive past this building on my daily commute from Newbiggin in Bishopdale to Kirkby Lonsdale. So my daily drive, which had previously been in and out of London on the M4, was along one of the finest driving roads in the UK. Like a true saddo petrolhead I used to time myself from Hawes to Ingleton, shaving seconds off by taking a sweeping line round the corners and learning every bump and change of surface and camber. I tested the ABS on my car more than once as I came face to face with a milk tanker or a scraggy Swaledale in the middle of the road, and relied far too heavily on the ability of Bridgestone Potenzas to find grip on wet North Yorkshire County Council tarmac.
But it was my personal Nordschleife, a challenge that was as compelling as it was pointless.
The relentless stream of bikers on summer weekends seemed to appreciate the road as much as I did, and I was surprisingly pleased to see Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond one evening parked next to Gale Beck Lodge in a Porsche and an Aston taking a break while filming a road test.
But all things come to an end and after I moved to Arnside I rarely had any reason to go back to the B6255.
Until last week, when I drove over to Bedale.
And stopped to take this photograph.
My only regret is that it was sunny. I can't help but feel that dark clouds would have suited the image better.
However, I'm going back to Bedale tomorrow and I will be riding back to Arnside on a motorcycle, so I am quite sure that the weather will oblige me with some splendid rain clouds.

Oi Oi!!

Sunderland Point Sam York 2, originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

...an old Essex expression for 'Hello there, how are you?', but which is also a bit like 'eye eye', a Photographic term meaning ' I used an Ultra Wide Angle, which is why the verticals converge'.
I am aware that it is possible to correct Fisheye distortion with rectilinear correction software, or with Fisheye-Hemi, but as my new, Ebay purchased, Nikkor 10.5mm is such a novelty for me at present, I am rather childishly reluctant to do so. In any event, I thought the transom gantry on the Sam York did rather a good job of framing the rest of my shot, taken at Sunderland Point this weekend.
But shooting trawlers with a fisheye lens is not my only discovery of the week. I stumbled over a Photoshop plugin called 'Topaz Adjust' while looking for a current link to Lucisart (which is now discontinued), shortly to be replaced with 'Lucisart Pro', (which will cost about a gazillion pounds by the way).
Topaz Adjust is a remarkable tool for finishing photos off with a range of detailing, sharpening, exposure correction and saturation adjustments. It has a number of presets, but they are all adjustable and you can refer to the original image at the touch of a button. And best of all, it is fairly cheap.
Two bargains in one week. I have saved a fortune on my gear buying recently.
Does that make me a semi pro?