The weather in the North West of England has been really awful for a couple of weeks. We’ve had days where the weather has been good but those haven’t lasted long. This has meant that we have had a thoroughly soggy time this last few weeks.
Some landscape photographers would be out in all weathers as the bets images are captured in bad weather, so they say. Sometimes there are other things that need to be dealt with and the photography has to take a back seat.
I was determined that this week that I would be out with my camera regardless of the weather conditions, and that’s what has happened so far this weekend.
Dovestones Reservoir
You could say that the Kennedy family have a little bit of history with this reservoir. I spent many a weekend in and around this area as a child, and even camped out once. My father, early in his working career, helped to construct the reservoir. Exactly what he did is vague in my memory these days but work there he did.
It really is a lovely place and the walking books all claim that it is in fact part of the Peak District. My geography tells me it’s a little north for that but I’m not going to quibble.
My attempt at beating the weather really didn’t get off to the best start as it was throwing it down when I arrived on Friday morning. Undeterred, me and Carol set off in our best waterproofs to do a lap of the reservoir. The water authorities really do a fabulous job as the first thing we came across was a memorial garden, where a colleague of Carol’s had a relative’s ashes in the gardens. It’s a lovely place.
Steam and The Mist
No sooner had we crossed the first bridge and we came across the stream that you can see in this first image. With all the rain that we have had this past few weeks it’s not a surprise that there was almost a torrent of water flowing down off the hills and into the reservoir. I really like the composition of this image and the variety of colours in the scene. As I took this image it really was raining hard and I had to put my camera away in my bag to keep dry.
Run Off
The rain started to ease as we walked further round the reservoir and whilst I took quite a few pictures I had to keep drying the front of the lens. This next image is about half way around and is effectively a run off from the hills but rather than a stream this one is more structured and it starts higher up the hill and is effectively an overspill for a pool higher up. I like the grand vista of this image and you get a real sense of where we were and the conditions.
Maintenance Tower
There are quite a few reservoirs around, its usually the case, they don’t build one, they build a few. I’m thinking its easier from a water management perspective but who knows.
The third image is from the next reservoir along. These inspection towers are an absolute necessity I’m sure to manage the workings of the reservoir. But what do I know, other than that they are very photogenic, especially with some mist on the hills behind them.
Indians Head
When we used to explore this area as kids, we would always look out for what we knew as Indians head. This is an outcrop of rocks on the hills above the reservoir, that from a distance look like the shape of an Indian headdress lay down on the hilltop. As we walked towards the car to get a coffee the mist had risen enough for us to be able to see the shape of Indians Head. This image is the best I could do with rain and mist that had descended yet again.
A nice socially distanced coffee was just the job after the walking in the rain.
Fletcher Moss Park
Friday afternoon turned into a better afternoon weather wise than I had thought it would. Having done my caring duties I decided a trip to Fletcher Moss Park was in order. I’d seen quite a few pictures on social media recently and thought this would be a good opportunity to have a walk around. I had put my A6400 in my car along with my bag and this was in the car so I didn’t have to go home and waste some time.
It’s quite a large park and the nice weather brought out families, dog walkers and photographers. So I didn’t really have time to scout out locations on my own there were folk always walking around, not a surprise I guess.
The A6400 is a small camera that has a crop sensor inside it which makes it an ideal camera for walking around, with the added bonus of cracking image quality. If I find a location that I like then I will go back again with my full kit and get a full frame version of whatever images I think are worth it.
Magenta Tree
Fletcher Moss does have a Botanical Garden somewhere in its grounds, but given the amount of folk around and the fact that the ground was sodden I decided to just follow the main path.
In autumn there are lots of lovely browns and yellows in the trees, as they start to prepare to shed their leaves etc. I’ve no idea what sort of tree this is (maybe an Acer) but I really like the colour. The tree like all trees is shedding its leaves but the ones scattered around the base of the trunk just add to the lovely colour effect.
I wonder where this goes?
The park itself is not far from the centre of Didsbury, which is a popular part of South Manchester. I guess it wasn’t a surprise that there were lots of folk walking around. There is definitely a lot to see and there will be more visits to this place during the lockdown as its less than a mile as the crow flies from where I live.
Being close to the River Mersey means that the ground will have lots of small streams and areas that are classed as being part of the flood plain for the river. To make sure people can get around there are some lovely boardwalks that have been made that allow visits to these flooded areas. There’s lots of wild life here, insects, birds and other such.
I do love a good board walk and have taken lots of images of others on my travels, but this particular stretch caught my eye. The way it bends through the image allows the eye to be drawn through as well as the lovely colours on the boardwalk itself.
Conservation?
I didn’t think that the park was made for it to be a source of wood but it certainly looks like the park authorities have been hard at work cutting a few trees down. This maybe a conservation thing, I’m not sure. What I do know is that the elements of this tree that have been chopped up make an interesting set of shapes. They clearly have been in this position for a decent amount of time as there are mosses and other such growing on them. I really like the way they have been placed.
Macclesfield Canal
Saturday was meant to be the weather equivalent of the apocalypse, but as it turned out it wasn’t such a bad day after all. I hadn’t really done any research on any new places as I was expecting the weather to be poor and we are in Tier 3 lockdown so I can’t really drive back into the Peak District or the Lake District.
My vague plan was to watch City play Sheffield United on the TV and then decide what I would do from there. It wasn’t the best display from City but they won and that is the main thing. The decision was made in my mind that I would go for another walk, but where to go. I packed my A6400 into the car and off I went. The car headed off towards Poynton and that meant a walk along the Macclesfield canal. I had done some of this before when Steve and I walked into Lyme Park from the same car park.
I walked a fair way talking images as I went, but I could the sun was quite low in the sky back towards where I’d parked, so I headed back that way.
Nice Light
There is a marina of sorts just near the car park at Nelson’s Pit and that means the canal is quite wide at that point and lots of barges where moored up for the night. Maybe some of them have this has home, it certainly looks like it. Bizarrely there is what looks like a hardware store on the riverbank. Maybe not so bizarre, barges need spares and diesel, I guess. The shop also sold takeaway drinks and snacks, so a nice cup of coffee was purchased.
Given that you have to social distance rather than sit at the tables I walked up and onto the bridge that carried the road, and could see the sun was setting and casting some nice light onto the canal and the trees etc on the canal banks.
This first image shows the sunlight caught on what I think are silver birch trees across the canal on the other bank.
I didn’t expect the sunset
As I turned around the canal goes under the bridge and the sunwas really starting to break through the clouds and was lighting up the trees and the water in the canal. I really didn’t expect to get this kind of light but I’m not complaining about that at all.
Nice Lines
I guess the beauty of there being a marina nearby is that there are lots of narrow boats and also lots of interesting things to see. I decided to walk a little further along the tow path. I remembered that I had a circular polariser in my bag so decided that this would help with glare off the water. It also allows the colours in the sky to pop more than would otherwise be the case. The canal has some great shapes as it winds its way through the countryside and these do make great leading lines for images.
As i stood on the tow path, I could see the light was colouring the sky and the polariser would really make that pop. There aren’t lots of rocks and boulders along a canal that can make for interesting foreground. I managed to find a patch of reeds in the water and this makes a great foreground for this image.
Number 14
Like most things that are constructed to carry some form of traffic the canals and bridges all have codes that will allow people to navigate and identify where they are. Each bridge has a number and it just so happened that the bridge I was about to walk under was bridge number 14. This will mean something but what struck me was the golden light that I could see from the sun underneath the bridge.
I like a good bridge image and this one was never going to win awards for architecture but it had a certain charm. Add to this the golden light and it really turned into a great image to end my walk capturing.
Nice one Stephen, the canal pics remind me of the Grand Union where we used to live.
Great pictures.
Thanks Les. There’s lots to see on the miles of canals we have in this country.