Bite-Size Blog Post #75 - Fiend's Fell
A short walk in the Pennines revealed a stark but beautiful landscape where light, shadow, and a solitary cairn became the perfect black and white subject.
Featureless and Challenging
In my last blog post, I talked about my day out exploring and photographing the north east of the Lake District with friend and collaborator Chris Sale. Though Chris knows the Lake District very well, he has also spent the last few years getting to know the Pennines. So, the day after we photographed the Lake District, he took me out on a short walk to a nearby hill in the Pennines.
The drive up to Hartside Pass was brilliant, full of twisty bends and sweeping views. I could immediately see why it had become so popular with drivers and motorcyclists alike. It was a lovely sunny day, so the road was busy, but we were soon parked up and walking out across the open moorland towards the cairn on Fiend’s Fell.
Chris had told me many times how featureless parts of the Pennines can feel, and he wasn’t wrong. In many ways, it reminded me of Dartmoor, just without the dramatic tors. The views were stunning though: rolling hills stretching as far as the eye could see. But beyond that, there was very little to catch the eye. I could suddenly understand why Chris gets excited about stone walls and ruined buildings. Finding an interesting foreground out here certainly isn’t easy. For me, the most obvious, and probably only, choice was the cairn itself.
Almost immediately, I began thinking in black and white. Removing the colour would help emphasise the texture and structure of the cairn, while also drawing attention to the moving patterns of light and shadow moving across the landscape and sky. I never thought I’d get excited about photographing a cairn!
While the Lake District is undoubtedly the more varied and dramatic landscape, there’s no doubt that the Pennines are an area deserving of much closer attention.
Bite-Size Blog Post #74 - North East Lake District
A memorable day exploring the north west Lake District with good company, beautiful light, and plenty of photographic inspiration.
A Day of Exploration
A few weeks ago, my friend and long-time photography collaborator, Chris Sale, visited me in Devon and we spent a brilliant weekend photographing Dartmoor. During that weekend, we agreed that I should stop off to see him the next time I was on my way up to Scotland so we could spend the day exploring and photographing the north-west edge of the Lake District. And that’s exactly what I did.
Chris knows the Lake District very well, and I was really excited to see where he would take me on our little adventure. I wasn’t looking forward to the 03:45 alarm call though! I’m not one to shy away from an early start, after all, the best light is morning light! (In my opinion anyway.) But this was my first super-early start in quite some time. However, when the alarm sounded, I was out of bed with a spring in my step and excited for a day out with my friend and our cameras.
The first area we visited was the west side of Derwentwater. It’s a stunning location with lots to photograph, from lone trees to classic Lake District jetties, but the scene that caught my eye was a lakeside composition where the light from the rising sun beautifully illuminated the woodland. Sometimes it’s the less obvious shots that work the best.
We then moved on to Tewet Tarn, and again, for me, it was the less obvious composition that I connected with. The long dry-stone wall created a leading line towards Lonscale Fell and Blease Fell, which were topped with stunning cloud cover. Even now, looking at the photograph, I just want to follow that wall and walk up those hills!
For the final location of the day, we headed to Yew Crag and, and while the views down Ullswater were amazing, it was Aira Force that really caught my eye. Though there wasn’t much water flowing, but the beautiful and vibrant spring greens of the trees were striking, framing the waterfall perfectly. It took a few frames to get the shot as other visitors stood on the bridge, but when you’re in such a beautiful location, it’s nice to have an excuse to hang around a little longer.
And that brought us to the end of the day. A day full of adventure, chat, laughs, and photography. Happy days.
Bite-Size Blog Post #73 - The Rumps
Aevening trip to Cornwall and The Rumps was the perfect reminder that, despite my deep connection with Dartmoor National Park, there is still inspiration to be found beyond the tors.
I Need More Cornwall
Over the last few years, I have spent much of my photographic life exploring and capturing images of Dartmoor National Park. It’s my local landscape, and when I decided I needed to get to know it better, I focused virtually all of my photographic energy on capturing images of it. Aside from the odd photography trip outside the national park, I have done little else but photograph tors.
This wasn’t a bad thing for me to do. Having a more intimate knowledge of the environment you want to photograph yields all sorts of benefits, but sometimes you need to poke your head up and see what else is out there.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine, who I hadn’t seen for over a year, messaged me and asked if I wanted to come to Cornwall to meet him for some chips and head out with the camera. He had me at chips!
As we ate our chips on our favourite bench, we pondered where to go. We soon settled on The Rumps, a location he knows well and one that I’m always keen to revisit. It was too early for thrift to be in bloom, but the coastline was still sure to look beautiful.
And beautiful it looked. The clear skies and gentle movement in the water did nothing to detract from the colours of the landscape, softly illuminated by the setting sun. We only photographed the scene for a short while, as the sun prematurely disappeared behind a band of hazy cloud on the horizon, but my time spent there was enough to remind me that I must spend more time on the Cornish coast this year.
Bite-Size Blog Post #72 - Bowerman's Nose
A trip to Bowerman’s Nose to eat doughnuts with a friend. But what about the photography?
So Close
It wasn’t that long ago that I last photographed Bowerman’s Nose, but as I wrote in that previous blog post, it’s a special location and one that I know I’ll continue to return to. In fact, now that we’re into May, the sun begins to rise from a direction that illuminates a completely different side of Bowerman’s Nose, so I expect there will be another blog post, or perhaps even a video before too long.
This time I was back at Bowerman’s Nose with a different friend. We’d spent the evening exploring around the Haytor area, visiting locations such as the red barn at Emsworthy and Emsworthy Tor itself. After some careful contemplation over a doughnut, we decided that Bowerman’s Nose would be the ideal place to wait for sunrise.
The conditions were looking very promising. Most exciting of all was the sky; heavy, brooding, and full of texture. If there was just enough of a gap near the horizon for the sunlight to slip beneath the cloud, we might be treated to something truly special.
As we waited for the sun to edge closer to the horizon, eating more doughnuts, we watched the sky anxiously. Minute by minute, the gap where the sun might break through became smaller and smaller until it disappeared altogether. We’d come so close to witnessing something remarkable, but in the end it simply wasn’t to be.
Still, we weren’t disappointed. Time spent with friends is never wasted, especially when doughnuts are involved, and a visit to Bowerman’s Nose is always a pleasure.
Bowerman’s Nose, Dartmoor National Park - Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 20mm, f/13, 1/5 sec at ISO 64