Curbar Inversion - Part 2 (January 2014)

Photoblogging old photography has become very rewarding during this unprecedented and lengthy virus lockdown.

I have been able to take virtual photography trips from home by reprocessing images and using memories of the events, some reflections, and revisiting photographs that I hadn't fully utilised at the time. 

This is particularly true for the second part of the day's excursion to the Peak District in 2014 which started with dawn photography of a cloud inversion on Curbar Edge (see my previous post). 

If I recall correctly, I had expected the inversion to burn away by late morning but after I had completed the golden hour photography Hope Valley was still shrouded in mist, which stayed for the rest of the day. 

Trying to make the most of this, I relocated to Bolehill Quarry and woods where the sun was trying to push through the mist that swirling enchantedly around the gnarly shapes of the birch trees. 

At the time in 2014, I only processed one of the results which left an opportunity to revisit the other images producing the following set of completed photographs:

At the top of Bolehill Quarry is a view through Hope Valley with the very apt name of Surprise View. There was quite a crowd of people taking in the scenes including members from the press. I took my own record shots using a telephoto lens to zoom into the valley for another set of images that I had not fully completed in 2014:

The last location for the day was Higger Tor where I had intended to capture the sunset. Whilst waiting I continued to record the misty scenes in the valley. Hidden away in the photographs were two lines of images that formed panoramas. The first was taken about an hour before sunset and the second just before the sun dipped below the horizon. Both show the cloud inversion defining the path of the valley below and it was a pleasure to rediscover these images and see them emerge as one complete view:

The final sequence from a great day of photography was the sunset looking in the opposite direction to the panoramas and broadly towards Castleton and Mam Tor. Although most of the day had been clear above the mist there was a line of stubborn cloud that blocked the direct light giving only an occasional bursts of brightness:

Curbar Inversion (January 2014)

Making several visits to Curbar Edge in the Peak District during January 2014 paid off with a fabulous day of photography. I was lucky enough to capture a full day of mistiness in the Hope Valley, the result of a cloud inversion. 

A cloud inversion occurs when a layer of cold air get trapped at ground level by warmer air above. 

The height of Curbar Edge provided an opportunity to get above the layer of cold air with spectacular views across a sea of mist just as dawn was approaching. The best shots were achieved when the first rays of sunlight grazed some of the features I had photographed on the previous visits including a partial worked and abandoned millstone:

The sunlight got stronger over the next hour as the sun continued to rise. Managing the exposures became harder as the dynamic range increased but I persisted with shots into the brightness. Many of the results were not processed at the time as I concentrated on the images shown above. However, the current lockdown provided an opportunity to revisit all of the photography from the morning and with a more systematic approach I was able to add the following images to the record of the day. This included a small selection taken later in the morning on Baslow Edge:

These were the results Baslow Edge using a few of the compositions I had taken on the previous visit. 

The photography continued after Baslow Edge and I will show the results in the next post which includes a trip to a misty Bolehill Wood followed by scenes from Surprise View and Higger Tor. 

Baslow Edge (January 2014)

The landscape photography continued in the Peak District during January 2014 with a dawn to dusk trip to Baslow Edge. It followed a similar pattern and style to the previous visits to Curbar Edge with the two edges separated only by the road that runs through Curbar Gap.

The visit started with the dawn colours reflected in a gritstone pool that looks natural but could easily be a man-made feature. In other parts of the Peaks, on Stanage Edge for example, there are definitely carved pools that are inscribed with a number and I believe these were grouse shooting points dating to the time that the Dark Peak area was privately owned. May be this pool had a similar puprose?

Elsewhere on Balsow Edge are features which are more obviously manufactured including remnants of old millstones and some evidence of quarrying. I also picked out this rock which looks like it might have been carved into a water trough with some letters or numbers inscribed into the stone: 

Standing alone on the moorland behind Balsow Edge is the Eagle Stone. There are few named stones dotted around the Peaks that have similar shapes including the Mother Cap Stone, the Salt Cellar, and the Ox Stones. Presumably the Eagle Stone resembles an eagle in some way...although I am hopeless at seeing these types of associations...

Perhaps a more obvious description is the anvil stone which sits right on the lip of Baslow Edge, shown below in mono and then later in the day as the sun was struggling to break free of the clouds:

There are a few partially worked millstones on Baslow Edge, some of which are more finished than others. This stone looks like it might have split in production and then abandoned:

At several points during the day I returned to the pool that I had captured at dawn repeating similar compositions as the light change during the day together with a few alternatives views:

The sun struggled against the cloud for the late afternoon golden hour with only the odd moment of brightness. These were some of the scenes with the first photograph below looking towards the light on Curbar Edge:

The very last shot of the day was back at the gritstone pool and the final bit of reflected light before dark: