The Pennine mountain chain runs like a spine down the length of the north of England, separating Lancashire in the west from Yorkshire in the east. The village of Haworth lies on the edge of the Pennine Moors in West Yorkshire.
The main street is steep, cobbled, and lined on both sides with tall, stone-built terraced houses. They are built of millstone grit, a dark sandstone that has been made darker by the soot from open fires.
Burning coal in open fires was prohibited with the introduction of clean-air legislation forty years ago, but the soot hangs on, chemically bound into the stone of the buildings.
The dark stone gives the street a slightly forbidding air, and the steepness of the street makes the houses seem in danger of tumbling down the hill onto the new road that bypasses the center of the village.
The parsonage is at the top of the hill next to the graveyard. It has become, of course, world famous for its connection with the Bronte sisters, who lived in the Parsonage.
It is at the Parsonage that Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre.
Again there is the dark sandstone, and with the tall trees that are scattered throughout the graveyard, it is not difficult to imagine the settings for the books that the Bronte sisters wrote.
Above the village the road divides, with one road cutting uphill and over the moors.
It was the first day I had taken my new camera out specifically to go shooting with it, rather than just having it along. One one side of the road was the moor and on the other side was a field overlooking the village. In the field was the horse shown above, who was very friendly.
I shot this at ISO 1000 and the lack of noise (digital grain) is amazing. Previously I would have been mentally trying to balance the competing demands of a fast shutter speed, low noise, and good color. It may not seem much of a mental struggle, but it distracts from thinking about the shot itself. With this camera, high ISO shots are more or less free of noise, and the color is held very well. ISO 1000 is three and a half stops over the base ISO, and that way I could use a fast shutter speed. I shot it at 1/1250 second with an aperture of f6.3.
If you are not technically-minded when it comes to cameras, just know that for the moment at least, this is all one could hope for in camera performance.
When I have time, I want to do some testing and see how far one can push this camera before noise starts to be intrusive.
The View over the Moor above Haworth of the Bronte Sisters
On the other side of the road, the moor looks down over distant fields, and in this photograph you can see the early morning sun breaking over the hillside.
Quillcards Ecards
We will be adding more images to our range of distinctive ecards at Quillcards in the next week or two. The horse and this photo of the moor are just two of the many we shall be adding.
We’re changing the look of ecard communications.
Take A Look At Our Ecards – Featuring Photographs Like These.