My first attempt at some Peak District landscape photography from the Christmas holidays. Firstly, Happy New Year. This hasn’t gotten off to a very good start unfortunately, and I’m sad to say that one of my lenses is in a pretty bad way :(. I learnt a lot on this trip, and mainly I was visiting the Peak District National Park to enjoy a peaceful New Years Eve, some light rambling, plenty of pub lunches and pints of ale and of course, a Bakewell tart!
Mam Tor Landscape Photography
These first two images are taken with the damaged lens. I’m not quite sure what’s wrong with it (I think it had multiple ailments) but the colours and haze here don’t look good. It has some moisture in the lens and the zoom/focus isn’t working properly. Sigh. So I switched lenses and did get some good shots, however, I can’t say that this is my best work. But it was a great trip, and the photography was a bonus. I mainly enjoyed just seeing these places in the Peak District, which is what I always love about landscape photography. Just being there is enough sometimes.
So my first location was Mam Tor, after recovering from the New Year hangover, on 2nd January I was up early and off up a mountain. One thing I learned on this trip is that, comparative to my local haunt of the South Downs, the Peak District is really windy. Especially on the top of the hills and it is very dangerous. I thought it was just nice hills, but no there are full on mountains and more dangerously, cliffs, sheer edges and changeable weather that can pose a real threat. I was pretty unprepared for this, and coupled with my stress of a damaged lens I truly felt off my game.
So these shots are taken on my 12-24mm wide angle lens. I can’t attached filters to this lens (I haven’t the right adapter) and with the changeable light, I had to settle to use HDR photography. I don’t like HDR, as it feels like cheating and never looks right, and can look over processed. However, it was the only option I had and I thought the results weren’t too bad, and I tried to pay attention to the dreaded halos around the edges in post production. I did like experimenting with the wide angle and using the path as a leading line down the edge of Mam Tor and the subtle light through the clouds felt very atmospheric.
I found this wonderful winding road on the other side of the mountain on the way down. Lovely line.
Peak District Landscape Photography on Hitter Hill
My second location was Hitter Hill, overlooking Chrome Hill and Parkhouse Hill in the white peaks area. The light on this day was a bit more forgiving, though I did struggle with compositions with the wide angle lens. For Chrome Hill, my trusty 70-200mm allowed me to use my filter set and step back into my comfort zone for this last capture. The clouds broke and light bathed the hills in the early morning. to define the shape and form of the landscape of the Peak District. I’d definitely go back, but need to head off to Fixation and get this lens fixed first.
