The lockdown rules are on the one hand clear, and on the other hand can be interpreted to suit. I’ve decided to stay within the boundaries of the Manchester conurbation and although not strictly right next to me house, most of the locations I’ve visited are much nearer home than I would usually visit. One look at my Instagram feed tells me that lots of people are creeping out to locations that are wider than what I have seen from them before. I don’t really have a problem with that, I usually go by myself and try to pick locations and times when most folk won’t be around. Low Risk. This weekend has been more of the same really, a wander round Vernon Park, and Bottoms reservoir.
Vernon Park
Reflections
I would say that Vernon Park is pretty typical of a park you’d find in most towns around the North West, maybe even the rest of England. Theres usually a oldish house, some gardens, a water feature and plenty of room to walk around. Throw into the mix a bowling green or two, maybe a cafe and you have most parks. It’s hard to see where Vernon Park ends and Woodbank Park starts, but let’s not split hairs. There are lots of period features in and around the park and the one in the image above is pretty typical. The sad part is that the water in this feature does have a few things that are floating around that you’d not want, and I really don’t know what people can’t put there rubbish in the waste bins provided.
This shot was taken with my A6600, and is at 16mm focal length, which is equivalent to 24mm full frame. You can tell that the image stabilisation is decent on the A6600 as this image is handheld and I was on my mobile phone talking to work colleagues at the same time. It’s one of the flukes of photography sometimes. I’d taken lots of images where I was fully concentrating on the shot, the composition etc. This image will never win any prizes but it goes to show that the best image out of the 30 or so I took was whilst not be fully focused on the scene. Funny that isn’t it.
Bottoms Reservoir
The Weir
I have ventured around these parts before, and have walked around Torside and Rhodeswood Reservoirs that are further along the valley. In fact there are paths that connect all of these reservoirs and are a part of an official trail. I had parked my car no more than 500 yards away from where this next image is taken. I don’t know what it is about this sort of thing but I find them fascinating. Usually this sort of overspill or weir, or whatever the official title is, are much smaller than this. The water was moving quite quickly over the weir, effectively emptying from Valehouse Reservoir into Bottoms Reservoir. This sort of scene lends itself perfectly to a long exposure image and I did take few different versions of this image. This version id with my A7iii, with my 24mm to 105mm f4 G lens. Its at 33 mm focal length with a Lee Filter Big Stopper and polariser. This gave me a 52 second exposure which was in bulb mode using my bloothtooth remote. I really like this image, it gives a real sense of the movement of the water even though it is silky smooth due to the long exposure.
The Lone Tree and the Steam
I decided to head off around the reservoir, in a clockwise direction from where I’d parked my car. I followed the wall that edges the reservoir for a short distance and then came across a man with his dog. At first I thought he’d stopped to let his dog do what dogs do, but then I realised that he was looking at a fence post, with his mobile phone. I stopped to let him get past but as I did so I saw the scene in this final image. The lone tree, stood out immediately but the stream running down added another dimension, and effectively draws the eye up towards the tree.
The chap had a lens attached to his iPhone, and he was taking macro images of some of the mosses on the fence post. He clearly saw me as someone with an interest in photography, as I started to set up my tripod and he explained he had purchased 3 lenses for his iPhone was was hugely impressed by the image quality. I set up my Sony A7iii on the tripod and set about working the composition. The tripod was set up over the top of the fence that ran the length of this field, so the camera was higher than I thought it might need to be, but this was to avoid spoiling the scene with a bit of barbed wire. I used the Lee filters Little Stopper as well as the polariser, and this gave me a 2 second exposure time. No need for my remote at that speed. There is huge potential in this location and it is definitely going to be one of the locations in my 12in12PhotoChallenge, that I’ve written about in previous blogs.