Higger Tor

Having enjoyed the previous days visit to the Peak District, I was able to make an unexpected quick return for more photography on Higger Tor.

The evening conditions where excellent for photography. The only thing missing was a bit of cloud interest in the sky.

What I had not anticipated however were the number of midges. Normally, there is enough wind about to keep them away but with still conditions I got absolutely eaten alive. By the time I got back to the car one eye had started to swell and by the time I'd got home I looked like I had taken a punch!

Midges aside, it was a good evenings photography and these are some of the results:

Late Summer Heather

One of the great late summer sights in the Peak District is the blooming heather colour. The area around Hathersage Moor is particularly good with many large carpets of thick bushy plants.

Having photographed the heather in previous years I have tended to favour bright sunlight conditions to capture the full impact of the colours. So with a forecast of clear skies and a couple of hours to spare I was hopeful of a few good shots.

These were some of the results:

Photography Week 36

Photography Week 36 is a retrospective look at some of the images taken during between 31st August to 6th September 2015.

Raindrops

Lots of rain around this week. I tried to capture this with a number of raindrop compositions. The key decision when photographing raindrops is where to place the point of focus. Sometimes the best shot is to focus right into the droplet so the reflections become the subject of the picture. Other times the shape of the droplet is more important than the reflection. In these circumstances the point of focus is the surface holding the raindrop. I used both methods in these shots:

Pines

Pines tend to have a bit more colour when they are wet. When taking these shots I had to use a higher than normal ISO (2500) and a slightly more open aperture to get a reasonable shutter speed. This combination seemed to give the images an interesting textual finish. There is very little post processing on these images:

Common Garden Spider

I was actually more interested in the light on the web than the spider - especially the diagonal strand from the centre to the bottom right hand corner:

Rainbow

This is one of my local fields and I have a quite a few images of this ash tree but this is the first with a rainbow.

Wild Fruits

I have been documenting the wildflowers on the Southwell trail over the summer and now some of the fruits: the blue berries or sloes are blackthorn fruit and are used for making sloe gin; the bright red berries are guilder rose berries which can be used for making wine; and the orange red fruits are rose hips from the dog rose (Rosa canina).

Whilst not a fruit, I was intrigued by this growth on a dog rose bush. It is actually a rose Bedeguar gall which is a chemically induced distortion of an unopened leaf caused by a gall wasp. 

The Pond

In a previous post I shared a number of abstract photographs of film covered straw or hay bales. This set follows a similar style and were taken from a footbridge at one of our local ponds.

On one side of the footbridge the water is fairly still with quite a lot of surface weed and on the other there is an overflow which trickles water away. This movement causes ripples over the shadows of the leafy trees. This time of year it is fairly dark and almost naturally mono due to the contrast between the highlighted areas and the dark shadows.

These are some of the results:

Bales

These are a set of abstract images of film covered straw or hay bales. This is not an original idea as I have seen a similar panel elsewhere, although I can't remember exactly where.

I often see images online that catch my eye and it goes into the mental log of - I will give that a go if a get the opportunity. This is one of those occasions and these are the results: