A Walk in Familiar Location – River Mersey

I’ve had walks along the River Mersey through Stockport on and off for a good few years now. My focus previously has been the bridge at Parrswood (that was a subject in a previous project), but i decided i wanted to try and capture other subjects along the banks of the Mersey. The subject of this series of images caught my eye a few weeks ago when i was walking my son’s dog along the river.

The weather looked good on Friday morning and I looked like we would get a sunrise through the clouds so off i went to try to capture a few images of the subject that had caught my eye. I’m really not sure what they are, or why they are there, but the subject of this weeks images they would be.

I really don’t get why these stakes (is what I’ll call them) are here at all. If you get closer to the river bank there evidence of what could have been a mooring place, or even where boats docked. As to how the stakes fit in with that i have no idea. You don’t have to look to closely to see that someone has tried to set fire and burn them at some point. It beggars belief why that would happen but there are idiots everywhere who do such mindless acts of vandalism. Anyway, the sun was above the horizon at this point and there was some lovely light on the stakes, as well as the surrounding areas. I think the path and the river itself add some depth to this image and draw the eye from the stakes along the river to the large tree in the distance.

I decided that i would try to “work the scene” and look for alternative images incorporating what is in and around the stakes and the river. I noticed that the stakes are wide enough apart to get a decent view of the large tree on the opposite bank of the river. I’ve tried on a few occasions to get images incorporating that tree, but never been happy with the results. This image and the next one are of the essentially the same shot, thge only difference is the focal point. The first image focuses on the foreground, and the second one focuses on the tree. The first image is at f11 aperture which gets most of the image acceptably sharp.

This second image focuses on the tree but uses f2.8 from my 24 to 70 GM lens. This enables the stakes to be blurred with the tree in the distance to be the focus of the image and be the sharpest part of the image. I’m not sure which version i prefer but i am pleased with both. Maybe the blurred foreground in the second image makes the second image more compelling and maybe that’s my favourite of the two.

At this point i decided to experiment with alternative angles and heights, and see what a wider angle lens could offer. This next image is taken with my 16 to 35mm G lens, at 16mm with f9 aperture. My tripod was really close to the ground in this image and allows for a wider view of the subject and the surrounding areas. The nice sunlight continued and this can be seen throughout the whole image. I’m a little conflicted in the sense that the stakes take your eyes to the left of the image, but the river takes you off up the river towards the tree. I do like that the first stake is really quite prominent in the image, and stands tall. I didn’t have to do any processing of the straight lines in this image as sometimes happens when using a wide angle lens and getting up close and personal.

Given that this months challenge in the OneLandscape group is about using a figure in an image, i thought i would get myself in one of the images of the stakes. I guess my presence in the images shows the relative size of the stakes, about half way up my body length, I think this just looks like I’m stood at the side of the image, which i guess i am. I do like the sun being full on my face and body here. So all things being equal this is a successful image including a person.

All in all i do think that this is a subject worthy of photographing, and that the alternative views give a different perspective. Clearly this location isn’t as grand as the Lake District et al, but it goes to show that decent images can be taken locally, with a little research and thought.

All of these images were taken with my Sony Alpha7 IV, with either 16 to 35 f4 ZA lens, or my 24 to 70 f2.8 GM lens.