Aysgarth Falls and West Burton are areas of outstanding natural beauty found in Wensleydale, which is part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Set among forests and farmland, Aysgarth Falls are a one-mile stretch of cascading waterfalls carved out by the River Ure and are quite spectacular in any weather. Here we find an abundance of photographic opportunities and our circular walk takes us through many contrasting scenes with varied subjects.

After an initial briefing and refreshments, our tour begins at West Burton village in the Walden Valley, which is home to the beautiful Cauldron Falls that was once immortalized by the artist Turner during his tour of the North of England. We will attempt to do the same using the medium of photography, before continuing through farmland to Aysgarth.

Once we arrive at Asygarth you soon see why it has been used in television programmes and movies such as Robin Hood Prince of Thieves! Carved out over several thousand years, the long stretch of falls give us plenty with which to practice our exposure skills and find out how small changes to camera settings can make a dramatic difference to the final image.

We make our way back to West Burton via a different route, coming across some old barns which offer the epitome of a rural Yorkshire scene.

Approximate walking time - 3 hours

Difficulty - Easy – please be aware that in places around the waterfalls it can be very slippery when wet.

Post Processing

For a photographer, typically only around 20 per cent of your time is spent taking the actual pictures and the rest is devoted to post processing at a computer screen. It is a vastly important part of great photography and knowing a few tricks can transform your well-composed and exposed images into visually stunning works of fine art. As a supplement to your day’s workshop, we welcome you to join us the following day for an afternoon discussion and presentation of how to boost your images using Lightroom and Photoshop. The session is held in the centre of Harrogate and we invite you to bring along your favourite images from the workshop for helpful feedback by Sam and Mark. There is a small additional charge of £30 for this session.

There is also the opportunity to upload your images to a dedicated group on the image-sharing site Flickr, which is only accessible to workshop participants. This will enable you to continue discussing your work with your fellow students, so even after the workshop is over, there is continued support to help develop your photography further.