Burnsall Fell from Skyreholme

This, I like to think, is worth seeing large

Oh to see the sun and feel some warmth on the skin. After almost a week of low cloud and incessant drizzle today's weather has been the most wonderful tonic. I had to get a document finished this morning so I was cursing not being able to get out and enjoy the clear blue skies first thing, but as it turned out, for photography at least, I got the best part of the day in the late afternoon. I'm learning now how much difference the right kind of clouds make to capturing a good landscape shot.

I cycled out to Burnsall, a 25 mile round trip up the west side of the Wharfe valley and returning on the back road on the east side. It's hard to imagine there being a more beautiful circuit anywhere in the country. With the running taking precedence over the cycling as we move through autumn into winter, I'd not ridden what is my favourite short route in quite a while. Perhaps the senses were unusually receptive today after being deprived of light and colour for so long, but the landscape appeared to be even more spectacularly beautiful then normal. It provided some great pictures to choose my blip from, which has actually been a nice luxury after last week when I usually had only one decent photograph to work with.

Although the colours were amazing out in the Dales today I've decided to go with this shot in black and white. From the shortlist this just had that bit more immediate impact than the rest. I could have prevaricated considerably more but I'm trying hard now to make a quick decision, and let the others go. So this is what you get. Hope you like.