Craven District
A new location for me but one reasonably close to places I've shot many times before on the opposite side of the valley.
Myself and Mike Tonge decided to come up here for an afternoon to scout around see what was about, a good few hours were spent looking arund and we found some great little spots, including some giant stone cairns overlooking the imposing figure of Ingleborough.
We had seen this tree (or what looked like 2 trees) in the distance and we had that spot in mind for sunset, the onlt problem being that within an hour of us being up here the mountains had gone from being glorious lit up to completely grey and covered in a huge bank of low cloud, after waiting for quite some time for this to break we abandoned that spot and headed over towards this area, the going underfoot here is really hard going, and a few of the gaps into the limestone carried really sharp jagged deadly edges so being very careful was neccessary.
Despite it being gloomy and flat we got set up and just decided to see if anything would happen light wise as the sun dropped, as you can see it did, the tiny gap in the huge bank of low cloud above the horizon gave us a very short window of golden light bathing the scene as you see it, as soon as it had come it had gone again but that didn't matter to us as we had got something from virtually nothing, packed up happy and trudged back off on the long walk back to the car with a shot in the bag. A great day.
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The first trip out since lockdown began, and I headed over to the Yorkshire Dales to meet fellow togger Terry Roberts (Bingleyman) for an afternoon of socially distanced shooting.... in true fashion the weather was fairly grim and wet and we had thought about calling it off, but seeing as I've had so much grief recently about actively going out shooting in poor weather (since I mentioned the same subject at a talk in Birmingham at the NEC) I thought yeh I have to practice what I preach really or I deserve it :-)
Meeting up it was pouring down but this wasn't the end of the world as the 2 falls we visited were both heavily wooded over and the poor light outside did us a real favour lower down at water level...
Thi shot is from the second spot we visited, Catrigg Force, it was like an ice rink down here with extremely slippy limestone that I was sliding about on let alone the tripod...
It was just fantastic to get out again and a top time was had, shooting both of the waterfalls and also researching a couple of spots to revisit again when the light was better higher up. Great to use the longer lens as well, ditching the wide angle for this one.
Zoom in for full effect
Portfolio of images on my personal website here
Whernside framed by the tree
Norber, Yorkshire Dales, an area covered in huge erratic boulders and scattered limestone pavement, this was a new location for me and I'd decided to head up here for sunset.
I'd got up here about 45 minutes prior to sunset and had the idea that from the top I'd find a composition I liked and I'd get the very last of the light should it turn good, on getting there though the only problem was that all the interesting rocks seemed to be below the summit which would drastically reduce the amount of time I had to get any shots as the sun would dissapear a lot quicker behind the hill than the standard sunset time...
I managed a few shots with the rocks lit up from behind but in the end decided to g for this using the sun on the edges of the erratic boulders as it dropped onto the horizon line, this was about 40 minutes before true sunset, so with the shot taken that was it for the day and an early finish, the sunset that evening wasn't the best either with a load of murk drifting in and obscuring the sun, so to get anything was quite a bonus, beautful area though and definitely a place you could spend hours exploring.
A gorgeous (and often very busy spot), Stainforth Force in the North Yorkshire Dales, lovely weather and not a soul about due to it being early evening. Ihad a few hours to kill prior to sunset so decided to pop down here and try my luck.
You can only get on one side of the River here so compsitions are a bit limited so it comes more down to as much your shutter speed that you choose as much as where you decide to set up.
A truly beautful place and great to have it all to yourself to enjoy.
Thanks to all Phoide contributors to Craven District!
Most notably Pete Rowbottom and Richard Down.