My 12 significant images project has as one of its locations the steeping stones that allow people to cross the River Hodder, close to the Inn at Whitewell. This weekend I looked to capture another image of the stepping stones but this time in Winter. Boy was I surprised at what I found when I got to the location.
I realise that its winter and there would be more water in the river than previously but I really didn’t expect the stones to be completely covered with absolutely no sign of them whatsoever. For the eagle eyed amongst you there is a small set of steps on the opposite bank that show the top of the steps leading up from the stones. That is the only sign that the stones exist in this location. The image above was taken with the Lee Little Stopper ND Filter as I wanted to get some smoothing of the river, without loosing all of the texture of the surface. I do like how this has turned out The composition whilst not being perfect do use the trees on either side of the image as a frame that draws the eyes into the tree on the far bank. The image also shows the sign level of the water in the river. This clearly wont make the final 12 images but I do think this could be one of the context setting images for the final selected image.
The image above shows the Rover Hodder maybe 100 yards further upstream from where the stepping stones and the last image was taken. I wanted an image that gave the context of the river in the wider landscape. There is a lot of small scale building work going on around the Inn at Whitewell, so I wasn’t able to walk all along the bank of the river. The building work and the high water level meant I had to go search around the side of the hotel. I scrambled over a small wall and was able to set up my tripod just on the river bank side of the outer wall of the hotel.
Beacon Fell Country Park is about 10 miles from Whitewell and has some well organised trails and paths that you can follow. The park is set in a lovely forest that is managed by the forest authorities but the trails do meander all over the fell and you can get some good views (apparently) out over Morecambe Bay when its a clear day. I stumbled across the pond in the image above about half way around one of the trails. The island in the middle and the trees on it make sure a nice image. I will definitely go back to this location in future and have a more detailed look around.