It’s been a busy old few weeks on the personal and work front and i’ve not had much chance to get out with my camera. Whilst I had a great time last weekend celebrating a wedding with a lovely couple, my camera stayed at home.
I’ve been researching locations that might be suitable for me to carry on with my 2022 Project and good old Youtube gave me a few suggestions. Today i visited the first of those locations. Peter’s Stone is not far from the hamlet of Litton in the Peak District. I’ve driven up and down the main road lots of times but never stopped this stone. Today once i worked out where it was i could see t from the main road…….isn’t it always the way.
As i drove up the road towards Litton i could see this scene, and was lucky enough to find a layby right next to the gate that leads into Cressbrook Dale, where Peter’s Stone can be found. A short walk through the dale and i came across the scene you can see in the first image above. This image is a square (1 by 1) crop, which i set in camera to aid composition.
When using a longer lens (my longest is 70 to 180) one of the things to do is to isolate the subject. This second image is my attempt at isolating the subject and making it the focal point of the image. This image is at 164mm f5.6 ISO 100 at 1/320 of a second. I’m not sure if this will end up in my 3 by 3 gallery at the end but this is all about learning what works and what doesn’t with the longer lens.
There are some well defined paths around this area, and not just leading towards Peter’s Stone. There are walks into Cressbrook Dale and on another day I will take these paths and see what else this area has to offer. This third image is taken from the backside of the stone, kits a comfortable walk up and around the stone, but i decided it was too windy to venture up onto the top. I do like the textures of the rocks in this images but on reflection i am far to close, and there are sections of the stone that are cut off at the right hand side of the image. This is at 70mm and right on the lower limit of what the brief says comprises a long lens.
It was to my surprise that it started to rain as i walked around the stone. The weather app was forecasting good weather all day but i guess they have been wrong before and will be again. It has been particularly windy today and whilst this was forecast, i didn’t think it would be quite so strong. Rather than carry on upwards i decided to retreat and see what the weather would do. Thankfully the rain lasted 15 minutes maximum, and i carry a rain jacket in my camera for just such eventuality. Good planning i thought!
There are so lovely dry stone walls as well as naturally occurring rocks that stick up. I did take a number of images at this spot but the first few were all at f11, which gives acceptable sharpness throughout the image. This 4th image is a little more creative with use of depth of field. My Tamron is a f2.8 lens and can give some nice blurry bits, whilst this image will not win any awards or even end up on my grid, i like the effect.
Walking back to my car I met up with a lovely couple who where out walking. This is what i like about photography, it gets me out and i bump into some lovely folk. My stomach was rumbling and i headed off to Tideswell in search of pork pies, I wasn’t disappointed. After having lunch i had a stroll around the Cathedral and took some images with my Sony rx100, those will appear in a separate blog at some point.
After lunch i took a drive around the area, not really sure where i was heading, but drove initially through Eyam Village, the scene of a plague in years gone by. It was very busy, not a surprise really, so i decided to carry on exploring. Eventually i found my way to Calver, and then onto Curber gap. I parked at the National Trust car par and (after a lovely coffee from the van) i headed onto Baslow Edge. In the valley the light was coming and going, and moving around. I set up my tripod just to the left of the viewpoint, and then looked to take some images involving the shapes and colours of the landscape in the valley.
The light eventually spread across the scene you can see in the image and i think that this in conjunction with the natural colours makes a pleasing image. This again isn’t an award winner but allows me to continue learning how the long lens works and what is and isn’t a good image.
A most enjoyable day, a nice walk in the lovely Peak District, what more could i ask for.