Last weekend we decided we would look to visit a place neither of us had been to before. Goodle really is a great resource for finding new locations to visit, green booth Reservoir appeared in the search results and a quick look at the images displayed persuaded us to take Charlie for the Sunday walk to Greenbooth. It’s in Norden, which isn’t that far away and in the Borough of Rochdale. followup search on my OS Map App showed that there are quite a few different walks recorded and these include 1, 2 and even all 3 of the reservoirs that can be found in this location.
Armed with my new Sigma 10 to 18mm f2.8 DC DN lens along with my FujiXT-5, which already had the 18 to 50mm f2.8 DC DN lens on the camera. This setup is lightweight and fits into the Peak Design sling, along with filters and L bracket for the XT-5. My first impressions were really positive and whilst the weather was dull and damp there wasn’t any rain forecast, but the ground was a little boggy in some places. These are a selection of the images that I took.
Not unusually the reservoir is a place where fishermen come to practise their craft, and as you can see on the bank in this image there is some fishing tackle laid out. In all honesty I have cloned out the actual lads who were fishing as they didn’t add much to the image. I like the reflections in this image of both the clump of green and brown trees in the background but also the main subject.
Norden int that far away from City Centre Manchester, maybe 8 to 10 miles, but on the higher ground you can see the Manchester City Centre skyline. I first noticed this as I stood looking through the bottom of the telegraph pylon, and thought it might make a good frame for the skyline. Not my best ever image but I like it all the same.
There are 3 reservoirs in this area, and the other 2 will be explored soon, and that means that there will be overflows from the top to the bottom in the sequence. This image again is a frame of an image using the trees but it also shows the extent of the mist on the higher ground partially obscuring the wind turbines in the background of this image.
I really like this composition, I will come back and have another attempt at it with a tripod so I can get a greater degree of accuracy before I take the shot, as this one, as all these images are hand held. There are layers to this image, but it also shows the farm house in the context of the lower reservoir, and the hills beyond, I do think there is some merit in this composition.
This image was taken on the path to the overspill that you can see in the previous image. Sometimes when you stand in a location and think how lovely it is, sometimes it’s hard to turn that into a good image. This how I feel about this image. the sweeping reservoir, the gorgeous wall, and the moody sky. This will be another scene I will revisit to look for an alternative composition.
I love a good stone wall, and you dont have to be Einstein to work out that this is the stone wall from the previous image. There is a shallow depth of field in this image, as I wanted to draw the eye more to the wall than the vista. Again, I feel there is a better composition to be had in this location but I do like this one.
I have been talking with Chris Sale during the 121 coaching sessions and Chris suggested trying black and white as way of processing images taken in the middle of the day, when the light is harsh. Whilst I took this shot with the Reala Ace colour profile, I did convert it to black and white in Lightroom, effectively there are two versions. Its a learning curve for me to take images in black and white, but this is something I will persist with over the coming weeks.