Haworth Window

I'm still not taking any new photos, but feeling perfectly fine about it. Loving and living photography is not just about taking photos, but also looking at other people's work, whether for inspiration or simply to keep abreast with what's happening in the world of photography; it is also about thinking  what your next step is going to be and also, not forgetting the good photos you've taken recently that are still waiting to be edited and possibly shared. And that is exactly what I have been doing. Moreover, Christmas is coming, and a little lull in taking photos suits me well while I am making a start with preparations for the holidays and waiting for fresh inspiration from the new season.
Just lately the weather here in Yorkshire has turned rather severe; typical November conditions set in: frosty mornings, foggy and chilly days with quite a lot of rain and cold and early nights with my garden solar lights hardly getting enough sun to light up at all. Days like this made me remember I have some shots of my beloved Haworth which I took back in summer on the sort of day that resembled much more the kind of weather we have right now than a summer day. I left those shots to process and share at a more appropriate time and now it feels like a perfect time.
It was one of my overnight visits to Haworth, and I stayed at the wonderful Old White Lion hotel at the top of the well known, steep, cobbled Main Street. I'd stayed at the White Lion once before, in one of the two single rooms, but didn't know which one I was going to be in this time. I was thrilled to find it wasn't the same room but the one with the great view of Main Street; I've always wanted to stay in a room with a view like that, and now it finally happened! It was my dream room and I was enthralled!! It didn't matter that it rained all day; I had something very exciting and different to photograph - rainy scenes of Haworth Main Street through a window of an 18th century inn! I spent the whole afternoon at the window just gazing out and taking pics of people coming in and out of the frame carrying colourful umbrellas and wearing various wet weather clothes.

I experimented with different lens apertures and focusing points....

At dusk, just before going out for an evening meal I picked up my camera again - night time shots of the view had to be taken!

A remarkable thing happened that evening. The Black Bull pub (just beyond the red phone box), where Branwell Brontë spent a lot of time drinking with his village buddies, reopened after a few weeks of closure and uncertain future. As a huge Brontës fan I was so pleased to see its lights turned on again, and made sure I went in there for a glass of wine.

The following morning dawned grey and dull, although dry. As soon as I opened my eyes I kneeled on my bed below the window and peered out.

As I took in the scene I wondered what it would be like to wake up in this room on a fine, clear morning. I imagined the sun rising on the horizon in the sky still moody from yesterday's rain, casting a warm glow around it. I thought I'd recreate in the postprocessing what I saw in my mind, and the result is the image below.

I'm not even sure which direction this room is facing, and whether a sight like this is possible to see at all from my vantage point, but it doesn't matter to me. I enjoyed employing creativity to express my imagination here. A few years ago I would do this quite a lot; change an image in Photoshop to make it better, or simply to reflect my imagination, creativity and editing skills. These days I tend to see beauty around me more freely and don't usually feel the need to alter the image, but merely enhance it. However, sometimes it's good, and certainly very gratifying, to give free rein to your artistic disposition and create whatever your heart is telling you to create.
For this creation I used a sky layer from Jessica Drossin's Artistic Sky Overlays pack - the only thing I bought this Black Friday sale weekend.