STANAGE EDGE-FOLLOW THE LIGHT

Stanage Edge ancient, Gritstone escarpment within the Peak district national park.

 

 THE DARK HIGH PEAK

 The gritstone of this area was once used in the making of Mill grindstones

and if you walk the Edge you will see grindstones abandoned

and never put into service, they make a nice foreground

in many a fine photo image.

Another gritstone use was the water feeders, used for the grouse

in this image I used the feeder and water as a reflective surface, to 

fill the foreground with highlight.

 If you pop along here, there is a nice image of the above on BLUE;http://www.amethystlandphoto.com

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OWLET & KATO ∞

  The journey back from Stanage Edge, was eventful. Passing though the Chatsworth 
House area, the Road speed is 50mph, but chatting with 
Kato ∞ my driver and assistant we both thought this was a stupid 
speed, after dark and on a twisty Road so Kato ∞ dropped the speed 
down to under 40mph.
A wise move!?, a Tawny owlet, flew out across our path, clipping him down
 the side of the car, the owlet dropped down stunned, onto the
 center of the Road. We had already stopped as the owlet, fell from
 his flight, Kato ∞ gathered up a rather dazed owl, he bought it 
back into the car, handing it over to me, i perched
him on a blanket, but he was recovering fast, the owl just wanted to fly, 
and flapped onto the dashboard, so he was recovered 
enough to be set free.
Kato ∞ carried the owlet to the fence where he/she, originally flew out, the 
owlet flapped and glided (wings fully spread) down the valley and 
across the River Derwent, landing  in a tree. Did I get a photo
 of the owlet, no, it was all too dramatic, plus my compact camera was
 packed away?. The morel of the story is always be prepared, camera ready.
As for the owlet, hope alls well with him/her, and here is a picture of 
three Tawny owlets, just about to fledge, by photographer; Artur Mikołajewski.

 

From Wiki photo by;
Artur Mikołajewski

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PANORAMA RESERVOIR

Llyn Clywedog reservoir, described as being; a subtle juxtaposition of sublime natural beauty and modern engineering, an accurate apt, summing up.

I thought this view would be ideal for a Panoramic composition, and so on midsummers day, I set out to capture this fine view. 

See this image here;http://www.amethystlandphoto.com

Llyn Clywedog reservoir

 Dr.James Fox, in the BBC4 program " BLUE A History of Art in Three Colours", explains;

Blue the Colour, in sky and on the horizon, can never be really be touched.

Making BLUE a very special hue.

I would have to agree, the water in my panorama, reflects the deep BLUE of sky

but looking at the water, it appears a much deeper BLUE it is in fact

due to the great depth of the Reservoir.

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There is one other BLUE Panorama, on my web site; http://www.amethystlandphoto.com 

Well...........almost all BLUE, apart from the orange Sun lit cloud above.

CROWDECOTE COLD MIST

The other BLUE we all know and some, care about.

HOME

Llyn Clywedog reservoir

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NINE STONES CLOSE

Continuing with the theme of standing Stone Circles,
I post another set of  Stones, near to the "Nine Ladies Stone circle", which
 was featured in my last post.

It was my intention, come spring, to photograph Bluebells in a fine wood, that

was not possible, but......on the way back from said wood, I made a track

to another prominent feature in the Landscape, Nine Stones Close, a small

but tall circle of Four standing stones, minus the other Five stones 

missing or removed over time.

NINE STONES CLOSE

The Sun was about to sink below the horizon, it had been the hottest day of the Year
But the long grass was still wet, and glistened in the falling Sunlight.
You may not be able to see the fine detail, in the above image, so I have
cropped out the fine Sun light and water Sun hit highlights in the image below.

Sun -Grass-Stone detail

The next image is of the two larger stones, covered in lichen and standing tall.

"TIMBER FOR THE LIVING STONE FOR THE DEAD"

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THE NINE LADIES STONE CIRCLE

A great trip (2013) up to the Peak district, to capture the Stone Circle "The Nine Ladies", the stones were very small, but well worth a visit. My trip here had a double purpose, one was to shoot a short film, and secondly I was looking for Bilberry’s, the filming did not go to plan, so I will return here again this Year. But I did find Bilberry’s,with my trusty assistant Kato ∞ but…..too early to pick. www.amethystlandphoto.com

 The Nine Ladies

I was hoping to put some Film footage, of this stone circle into a future project but bad timeing due to lack of Film continuity, will mean I will have to return, back here, same time same season, this year. I will keep you posted, as and when it's all in the can.

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GEMINIDS AND LIGHT POLLUTION

This is just an update to say I managed to capture, a solitary Meteor

on this Years Geminid Meteor shower night. It was taken on the 14th

of December 2013, I have updated my blog post, "LOOK OUT FOR THE GEMINIDS".

 single Geminid enters the Earths atmosphere

      They say it takes on average, 1200 photographic images to capture

just one with a fast moving Meteor, within your frame.

Over the Years I have made many attempts, to acquire these illusive

Meteor images, the British weather usually gets in the way, even this 

4:30 am capture was flooded by low, advancing cloud. not to 

mention the light pollution of nearby villages. 
Although the cloud did give the Trees, a scenic backdrop.
I normally don't over expose my images, but the above image was very
over exposed, the low resolution, the internet presents on a home 
monitor is to say the least, lacking, especially if the
 image is on the small size. This image is great, viewed at full resolution
and a VERY normal exposure. But we don't live in an ideal internet World.    -------------------------------------------------------------
If you click on the above image, and press hold your key board Ctrl key
while repeat press the + key   you should be able to view the image
larger, but it will be very low resolution.
To return your image to it's normal size, repeat the above but press
the 0 key that's  zero to you.

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AUTUMN AT HOWDEN DAM

After a few, "many" weeks of waiting for a tranquil , Autumn Day
 I cycled out on the last Autumn Day, before 
the official meteorological first Day of winter!. 
Destination, Howden Dam reservoir in the Derwent valley.

The Derwent Dam, between Ladybower and
 Howden Dam, made famous by 617 squadrons
 1943 practice bomb runs, in preparation

   

for operation "Chastise" the towers resembled the German
 Ruhr Dams,so made for an ideal substitute,
 for zero level flying. It must have been a very difficult task,
  low flying without instruments, in the dark!!. 

 

It was an ideal day for Landscape images, with the Gold

 and Russet colours of Autumn illuminating 

across the Howden reservoir, highlighted by

the late setting Sun, this next image, with it's

 grey sky making a neutral 

back drop to the Gold, Sunny hillside.   

To see the full Images click here.

You can also see an Image of Howden Dam HERE.

TOOLS FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Where do we start?, If you could see the possibilities of a location prior to travelling, precious  time would be saved. What follows here is my, and 

my fellow photographers Methods using on-line tools and
 applications, but by no means a complete list, I'm sure some one knows even more useful sources.

Wiki/file souce; Apollo 17

 First up and a great resource, GOOGLE EARTH;

http://www.google.com/earth/index.html

If you you don't know about Google Earth use the link above, you may also want to download the program from the link.

My main use with Google earth, is to narrow down a location, for parking
and marking my new found Image area, for a return visit.

I will not go into fine detail here, but one of the map features, i find
really useful, is the Map marker function always leave a marker on the Map, and make a note in the  information box. write down the Longitude and Latitude, for your sat nav etc, most places I travel to are in the middle of no-where.

The on the Google Earth-map, photo's sometimes give a great clue as to possible potential Image locations, if you see a photo/cluster, it usually indicates a special area that requires more exploration.

you will see photo's on the Google earth Map that will tap your

 imagination, there is always a new angle to view a potential photograph from, so after i examine users images, I usually follow up on a web search to gain even more information, a second

Image search in Google images, gives even more images, so

I can be more certain of a potential location.

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My next tool, The Photographer's Ephemeris

If you need to include our celestial bodies,Sun and Moon

within your Image then look no further than this great Photographers tool.
This next video gives a very visual use of this application, working.
Video tutorial by Matthew Gore can be viewed below;

 

The Photographer's Ephemeris, is also available for mobile devices, this makes
it a great tool on the move, or when away from your desktop (or laptop).
Example
This screen shot below, is of a location I used, to line up the setting Sun
with a Tree/hill. The intention was to block out the sun with the tree, and
so dropping the very over exposed blown sky. It never turned out as planned,
 I arrived late having cycled to pilsbury Hill fort, from Parsley hay.
The time/date was worked out to coincide with a setting Sun, along the valley
in front of the hill/tree. You can see from the screen shot below, the Orange line
represents Sun set on the 3rd of June/ time 20:42 GMT 

Pilsbury hill 53.1710°N, 1.8285°W

use the above Longitude/Latitude co-ordinates, in your TPE to see a clearer
rendition, of Pilsbury Hill Fort.

Please note; there is NO cycling allowed along the hill trail.

So the Sun was setting, and I was not prepared for the gas burner, in what was
a soundless valley (apart from sheep). The gas burner of a hot air balloon?, I was
diving into my camera bag, for what seemed an age, my tripod was already
set up on the hill, I locked the camera in position, no time to manually set the exposure
so it was put into auto. It captured a over and under exposed image, and is useless
to my Archive, but my timing in the second photo was spot on!!.   

 Sun and Tree and me, lined up, but will the balloon block the Sun?

Well, it did make a change to the foreground exposure, but no time to make a correctly
exposed image for the blown sky.

I settled for this Black and White image after re-positioning.

 

It  look's a lot better here/ www.amethystlandphoto.com

This  location will be better with some mist in the valley, so I will be using TPE
to plan a trip later in the year, when we start getting the mists rolling in!!

If you get The Photographer's Ephemeris you will discover, the red balloon
is used to position the land marker in the map positions.
It was pure chance that the balloon in my photo was also red, and also
chanced to appear out of no where.

Plans are great, but...............be prepared for the unexpected.