A few weeks back I went for a walk around Rother Valley Country Park with my dad. While walking around the northerly of the two main lakes I spotted this intersting looking vehicle.
Wandering closer with the aim of getting a photograph or two the owner noticed me and came over for a chat. The truck is a customised Land Rover that has been named Sprocket the Hotrod. It’s currently fashioned into a pickup configuration and there are plans to add a similarly designed trailer.
This custom Land Rover Was parked beside the lakeside Grabbing attention
I have a week off work and aim to get some photography in the bag while I have the chance. Today I decided to head out into the Peak District and go for a hike.
I chose a location that I’ve not visited before, the village of Tideswell. Or, rather, Tideswell would be on my route. I studied my map beforehand and planned a circular path that would take me from Tideswell Dale car-park (about a mile below Tideswell itself), down the dale to the bottom where it meets Miller’s Dale. The route then followed the River Wye up Miller’s Dale until I would head north up Monk’s Dale. At the top, where the dale meets a road, I’d head back east and then cut through the footpaths in the pastures back to Tideswell, and then back to my car.
The hike would be around six miles, albeit with a lot of altitude to lose and gain along the way, including some steep climbs. While not a long hike, I knew that my backpack and tripod would add some weight and make it more strenuous than if I were travelling light. The part I didn’t really factor into my plans was the trail through Monk’s Dale. Whereas the earlier sections of the walk had been on well defined and surfaced tracks, the path through Monk’s Dale is somewhat more basic. For much of the dale it hugs the stream that runs down the valley and is very scenic, but today, after quite a lot of heavy rain, the path was quite slick with surface mud and I had to keep careful watch on my footing. Further up the valley though is where it got more serious…
Here the path enters into a steep-sided section of the dale which is densely wooded. Over time, the limestone cliffs on either side have shed rocks and boulders which litter the valley bottom and the footpath becomes a half-mile endurance test where every step is a potential sprained ankle, broken hip, or worse! My hiking boots have a nice tread that grips well on many surfaces but, as I found out today, not on worn limestone rubble. It probably took me the best part of an hour to traverse this section of the route, the trees all heavily matted with thick coats of almost orange moss, and I was beginning to think I’d actually lost the footpath and was now just clambering over rocks beside the stream bed (luckily, the water that had been flowing further down the valley was no longer in evidence here, presumably taking an unseen subterranean route through the porous limestone).
I was becoming quite hot from the exertion and sweat was dripping down my face and at one point I almost took a tumble, thoughts about how long I might lay there undiscovered if I became incapacitated flashing across my mind. Thankfully, if this had been the place where I took a fall, I’d have been seen as I then noticed a man nearby examining plants in the undergrowth a little further up the path – he was the first, and only, person I saw on this whole section of the walk, the only other evidence of anyone having passed by being a set of someone else’s footprints that I noticed from time to time in the mud. I stopped to catch my breath, wipe the sweat from my brow, and chat with the man for a while. He’s been to a dental appointment that morning and decided, as he was passing on his way home, to take a look at the valley as it was the first time he’d visited in some time. He was able to tell me that I was maybe more than half-way through the difficult stretch (I’d have preferred to be near the end, to be honest :)) and at least reassure me that this was, indeed, still the actual path.
Continuing along the trail, the way began to become a little easier, albeit still with treacherous footing and the occasional fallen tree to clamber over or duck under, and I eventually managed to reach the open field close the the road. While the worst was behind me, the road itself had a punishing camber that really made my thighs put in the work. The remainder of the route took me through a patchwork of pasture fields back over to Tideswell. I eventually reached the village and found a cafe where I bought myself a sandwich and a slice of “farmhouse slice” – a very tasty shortcacke concoction filled with a selection of juicy dried fruits to eat when I got back to the car – my treat for all the effort!.
The remainder of the route was all downhill back to the carpark and it was with a real sigh of relief that I sat back in the car.
I shot a couple of rolls of film through the Yashica Mat 124G, plus several frames of 35mm with my OM-2. As ever with my blog, these will turn up somewhere down the way after I go through my existing rolls (I have a pretty strict, OCD-style, queuing system for publishing photos if you hadn’t noticed! 🙂
Anyway, to keep things on a bit of a related track, here’s another Peak District photo, this one of Over Owler Tor and a different part of the park. These are gritstone rocks and my boots don’t slip on those!
How long would I lay Undiscovered in the woods If I took a fall?
This wooden telephone pole (I still have an urge to call them telegraph poles, despite that mode of communication having fallen into history) sprouts from a bushy hedge. The base of the pole is becoming hidden by encroaching branches, and tendrils of ivy are starting to reach higher up the structure.
The pole serves a double purpose, also acting as the host for a streetlamp – a charmingly vintage-looking one with its little flourished curl where it holds the lamp.
Weathered wooden pole So many seasons pass by Cracking its structure
A man walks down a street. It could be the guy in the photo, or it could be me – I walked down a lot of streets on this day.
This is probably going to be my last photo from this roll of expired Elite Chrome 200, but it delivered a bumper crop of photos with almost the whole roll being good enough to publish. Whether anyone else feels the same way is open to question, but that doesn’t really matter.
I’ve loved the results this roll gave, the colours are wonderful, the colours rich but not brash, even if not completel accurate to the scenes they portray. Shooting slide film on a point-and-shoot compact was fune too. Will I do it again? I’m not sure. The exposures on all the images is great, even though the camera is 35 years old, with the only downside being a slight softness on the images – I’m not sure why this is the case as the lens on the camera usually produces nice, sharp results. It could just be my post-processing though, or maybe my pickiness.
I have two more rolls of this same stock in the freezer, plus a couple of the 100asa variety too, and I’m looking forward to shooting more when the time is right.
Expired E6 film It’s potential sat waiting For twenty years now
Another one of those quick posts today – I’ve only just finished work and am ready for the weekend and don’t really have it in me to type much this evening. A shower, a change of clothes, and an night of vegging out watching TV all beckon.
So here’s a trio of consecutive images made while walking back towards the city centre during a walk a few weeks ago. This is London Road, a street chock-full of colourful restaurants, takeaways, and businesses. It’s always an interesting place to make a photgraph.
Let’s get around town We’ll be seeing and hearing The sound of the crowd
This interesting looking outlet produces upcycled furniture items and I thought it made for an interesting photograph with the streetlamp and the telephone pole with it’s web of wires.
Recycling tables And chairs and benches and and… Well, everything!
This Cole’s Corner, a record shop and cafe in Sheffield presumably takes its name from another, more well-known, Cole’s Corner in the city centre. Although not an officially named place, the original was situated at the corner of Fargate and Church Street and was the former location of Cole Brothers department store. Cole’s (as it was often shortened to) moved to new premises in Barkers Pool many years ago – in the late 60s I think – but Cole’s Corner retained it’s name long after to a generation of people who would use it as a well known landmark for meeting their dates before embarking on whatever they got up to around town.
Cole Brothers was acquired by the John Lewis chain (although, as mentioned, never really lost it’s original name for locals) and remained at Barker’s Pool up until spring this year, when the company announced that the branch would be closing it’s doors for good. I didn’t shop all that often in the store – it was always a little on the pricey side for me – but I visited on numerous occasions and am sad that it has gone. I once had one of my photos on display in its cafe.
Boyfriends and girlfriends At the start of their night out Met at Cole’s Corner
Almost the same subject matter as yesterday’s photo, although this one was made a little further up the road from that one. Once more the gorgeous blue skies rendered by this out of date slide film, countered by the warm tones of the buildings.
I went out for a walk this morning to finish off a roll of Colorplus in the Sure Shot Supreme, but also to have a test run with the recently acquired Olympus XA3. The tiny camera is great for dropping into a pocket, and the simple zone-focusing design means it’s easy to concentrate on the composition rather than camera settings. I had a moments panic where I thought the film had jammed part way through the roll, but it quickly resolved itself (the winder started to move smoothly again, plus the rewind crank turned too, so hopefully the film didn’t snap). Still more than half-a-roll left to shoot, but I’m looking forward to seeing the results.
I also developed my first roll of film in what feels like ages today, although it’s probably only three or four weeks since the last one. I think it’s the fact that I usually have rolls to develop most weeks that’s made the gap seem so large.
