Derbyshire

According to Jane Austen there is no finer county in England than Derbyshire – and although I’ve never been much of a Jane Austen fan I’m certainly not going to disagree – but then I might be biased, I’m from Derbyshire its part of my DNA!!

It is a beautiful County though, and the jewel in the crown is the landscape of the Peak District, the UK’s first designated National Park back in 1951.

I recently had the pleasure of spending a few days near Edale in the High Peak and although the plan was to hike with family I did have one sunrise location in mind should the weather play ball. In the end I was lucky as the forecast on the last morning looked promising. The view I wanted to photograph was one looking down into the Hope Valley from the southern slope of Winnats Pass, a spectacular limestone gorge on the outskirts of the village of Castleton in the Hope Valley. Understandably its a popular spot as its fairly easy to get to and has been instagrammed to death!!!!

On this particular morning, however I had the place to myself and I had the luxury of being able to find the right spot without having to share the space with other people – always a bonus!!

Because the sky was fairly clear I decided that I wanted to wait for the sun to come up over the horizon so that the light would pick out the profile of the rocks in the gorge in front of me. I settled down to wait for the moment. There were a few sheep to watch on the hillsides around me, there were about 20 people silhouetted on the summit of Mam Tor about a mile away, and there was this occasional odd roaring noise that I found a bit unsettling till I figured out what it was – the rumble of tires from vehicles going over the cattle grid at the top of the pass that then echoed along the gorge!! In the end however I just enjoyed the chance for a bit of solitude and had a really peaceful morning waiting for the light to do its thing in front of me.

In the end I was really happy with the image, it has the drama that I’d hope for and also makes a smashing companion piece to an image that I took a couple of miles away from the slopes of Mam Tor on a visit last September. Despite being taken over 6 months apart I think the quality of the light is very similar, also I needed a good excuse to publish that image in this blog post lol!!

Both of these images are available to buy part of my “Signature Image” range

This is a small collection of my favorite images representing some of my more interesting moments behind the camera. I print each order myself using archival, professional quality paper with a bright white, smooth matte surface. The images are not sold as Limited Editions but they are exclusive, suitable for collecting and only available in small numbers. If you want to know more or buy a print here’s the link to the relevant page on my website

Champions:

Back in January I made the spontaneous decision to travel back to England for 2 weeks in April. It was mainly to do with my home town football team running away with the National League and my visit was timed to co-incide with their last game of the season. I can’t sign off this little blog without a few pictures of a smashing day back home. Can’t wait for next season now – Proud Spire-Ite

Thank you for reading this little insight into my photography, I’d love to hear your thoughts so please feel free to comment

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