The weather forecast for the North West of England wasn’t brilliant for yesterday (Sunday) but it looked like the bad weather would move in later in the day, so we decided to head out for a walk. You can beat some fresh air, and it is a good walk for Charlie to. As always I had a camera with me, this time my Fuji XT-5, and I decided to use the Sigma 18 – 50mm f2.8 DC DN lens, I wasn’t disappointed.
I’ve been to this general location previously to take images of The Atom, and I did post a blog about that trip. Having done some research there is a lot more to this area than just The Atom, and so it proved as we arrived in the visitors car park after only 35 minutes drive, not to shabby really. These images are a selection of the images I took as we walked a circular route that took in the village, the hall, The Atom and some lovely scenery. These are images in and around Wycoller Country Park.
This image is of the Pack Horse Bridge that you come across as you head through the village. There is a ford that crosses just before the bridge, and I’m stood in the very shallow part of the ford to take this image. I do like this image but I do think it could do with a little separation of the bridge and the background trees and foliage. This is definitely a scene that can be returned to with some different light and maybe an alternative composition.
As we walked through the village and followed the course of the babbling brook we cam across a number of really interesting scenes. As you can see there is a slab that sits across the brook and I suspect was the only way over the brook in years gone by. When you stand on the slab you can see out over the fields beyond. Its an interesting scene and again worth another visit with some better light.
The image above isolates the slab over the brook, and shows a better view of the construction of the slab itself. I didn’t have a polariser for this lens so wasn’t able to take the glare off the water, again something to think about for the next visit.
Maybe half a mile further along the path you will come across a number of gates, that are clearly there for the farmers to access fields and tend to the cattle or whatever is in each of the fields. You get a sense of the hillside beyond the fields which you will see from the other angle when we get to the next few images.
As we walked along the path that follows the brook, we could see on the hillside quite a number of walkers who were doing the same walk as us, just in reverse. We eventually came across them on the path coming the other way. I knew that they would have crossed the brook at some point, I just didn’t know what or how they had done that. Not long after meeting up with the walkers we stumbled upon the bridge you can see in the image above. You can see the gate on the otherside of the bridge and the eagle eyed of you will spot the marker post pointing upwards and left onto the hill side. This is the path we could see the walkers following. So onwards we went.
I’m a sucker for a dry stone wall, this is a lovely dry stone wall. It acts as a perfect leading line back down the hill to where we had walked not long previously. I love the big tree at the bottom of the wall and I also like the walls that fan out in the background of this image. It really is a lovely place.
The Atom. I’ve taken an image of this scene the last time I was here but I do like the framing of The Atom through this clump of bushes.
You get a sense of what The Atom looks like from the shot that frames it within the clump of bushes. There are “Windows” well holes really that I guess you could say act as windows. What I didn’t do the last time I visited this location was to take an image looking outwards through one of the holes (windows). I quite like this image as it shows the wider landscape below but it also shows layers of the landscape. I do like this image, only improved by some nice fiery light in the sky. Maybe next time.
These are all handheld shots using my Fuji XT-5, and the Sigma 18 to 50 mm f2.8 lens at varying focal lengths.