This picture was taken on the bridge carrying Rutland Road over the River Don immediately to the left of the building that featured in yesterday’s post. The brightly coloured objects behind the Gardener’s Rest pub caught my eye with their reflections in the water. They don’t have as much of an impact in the photo unfortunately, but I like the overall composition nontheless.
The view is looking upstream on the stretch of the river that flows through Neepsend. Further up it passes through Hillsborough where it is joined by two of its tributaries, the River Rivelin, and the River Loxley.
This is another of those locations that I’ve photographed on a number of occasions. Something about it draws my eye.
I’m not sure if any activity currently takes place in the corner shop here. It has the look of a cafe, but I don’t think it is, although maybe it was sometime in the past. I had a look on Google Maps which allows me to see how it looked at a number of points in time from 2008 to the present. It has housed at least two businesses in that period: and IT repair shop, and something called “Amazing Cave“, which looked to be some sort of vintage / antiques / brik-a-brak- type place.
Amazing Cave looked to have opened in the autumn of 2012 (there’s a picture from July that year where it looks like the stock is inside, but the store is not yet ready for customers). Sadly, in the next available image from October 2014, it looks like the place might already have gone out of business or, to be more positive, perhaps moved to a new site. The website address of the store can be seen above the windows but is now listed as being available.
The upper floors of the place appear to be in use as flats now.
A photo from the archive today, made a couple of years ago back when we were under the first covid lockdown here in the UK. I’m pretty sure I’ve not posted this image before – I searched for the camera, film, and the words “pylon” and “power lines” and nothing showed up, so finger’s crossed.
I was going to post another shot from the curly expired Tri-X, but it was another frame with the odd marks and, given the nature of the scene, I couldn’t photoshop them out to my satisfaction so decided against uploading it.
I took a bit of a risk getting these two shots. Although the footpath alongside Burbage Brook was only a few feet above the water at this location, in order to get in position to make the pictures I had to clamber over some wet rocks. My walking boots generally grip rocks just fine, especially the coarse gritstone that is prevalent in this area, but one boulder was deceptively slippery. It hid it’s treachery well, looking no different to it’s companions, but it was as though it had been greased.
Thankfully I was taking my time and using my extended tripod as a surrogate walking pole so I was able to keep my balance, but it could have been a different outcome had I been less cautious. A fall might have meant a soaked or broken camera, a possible twisted (or even broken) ankle or, right at the top of the scale, a full-on Laurel and Hardy-style pratfall into the water leading to who knows what injuries.
But I was fine. A bit of mud on my hands was about the extent of my discomfort. I am thankful.
I’m nearing the end of this roll of misty pictures now. Maybe a couple more day’s worth to get out of it. I guess I’d better get scanning my next roll before I run out of stuff…
Beside one of the footpaths in Padley gorge stands the remains of a twisted tree. Little more of the trunk is left but it’s something of a focal point on the path as the wood is embedded with hundreds (or more) coins which have been hammered into the surface and bent over (or perhaps they were bent over before they were knocked in). The result is an odd and intriguing texture that resembles the scales of some beast, like a serpent or a dragon.
The effect is even more pronounced when viewed from the right point of view as the broken tip of the trunk resembles a horned face (or I think it does anyway). On this day it had a conifer branch leant against it giving it a slightly festive air given it was a couple of days before Christmas.
Here’s another couple of photos of a grnarled and twisted tree on the upper slopes of Padley Gorge. I’ve photographed it before, including this digital shot made on the same day. The whole area is filled with interesting trees to be photographed and, when the weather is right – especially with some mist present – the opportunities just seem to multiply.
Today was my last day off before returning to work tomorrow. Before Christmas I’d intended to go out with a camera on a few occasions but, apart from the day I made the shots featured here, I’ve not done any photography beyond making pictures of my family. I’ve instead just spent a lot of time watching TV and playing videogames. I do have the itch to get out and make new pictures, and today had some lovely winter sunshine I could have taken advantage of, but sometimes it’s nice to just chill out and relax with other things and I’m glad to have taken the time to do so this Christmas.
Another Padley Gorge photo today, again of a tree right up near the top of the wooded area where it opens out into heather and bracken covered moorland. There was another photographer making pictures of this same tree when I was there, so we were being careful not to get into one another’s shots.
Today was the day the Christmas decorations came down. I think the intent had been to dismatle them tomorrow but we ended up with a gap in the schedule this afternoon, so got it over and done with. I always used to find taking the decorations down a horribly depressing task, like it was making real the fact that the festive period and all the buid-up was done, and it was just back to work / school / wet and cold January days with not much to look forward to in the immediate future. It would really get me down and the house would look bare and empty with all the trees, lights, garlands and other trimmings packed away.
I don’t seem to feel it nearly so much now (and, if I’m honest, the excitement in the run up to Christmas either). I’m not sure exactly why this might be. Perhaps a sign of getting older? Maybe the fact that our kids are not so young and some of the magic has disappeared? Whatever the case, I don’t feel down like I used to. While I don’t want to lose my fondness for Christmas, losing the post-Christmas blues is not something I will complain about too much.
Both of my kids who still live with us have now tested positive for Covid-19. One late last week, the other today. Neither of them seem particularly ill – they have cold-like symptoms but not much else – and they’re still playing video games and watching the stuff they find entertaining. My wife and I are (so far) still testing negative. It’s actually something of a mystery how the first one managed to be infected – he hasn’t left the house since mid-December and the only visitor we had prior to him starting to feel ill was his big brother who came over on Christmas day (but he’s not been positive either). I’m assuming that either my older son, or my wife and I were infected but asymptomatic at some point and passed it on, or we’ve brought something contaminated into the house. It’s a bit of a puzzle to be honest.
A couple of days before Christmas I took myself out into the Peak District national park. The weather forecast showed fog, with rain expected later in the day, so I headed to Padley Gorge in the hope of getting some nice woodland scenes.
Padley Gorge looks great at pretty much any time of the year, being a steep sided valley filled with tumbles gritstone boulders, twisted and gnarled trees, and the peat stained waters of Burbage Brook cascading through the bottom on its way to Grindleford and it’s appointment with the River Derwent beyond. In the fog though, well those twisty trees take on a whole new level of character and the place feels like something out of a Tolkien story.
I shot a full roll of Ilford Delta 3200 film during the outing, as well as making a number of digital photos with my little Ricoh GRIII compact (the image stabilisation on this little camera is excellent, and I am able to drop the shutter speed down to 1/8 second handheld and still get sharp images, making it an excellent companion to other cameras). I decided to shoot the Delta a stop over at 1600asa and to then develop it at box speed. It’s a grainy film, but I thought that it might suit the murky conditions that presented themselves on the day.
I’ll be sharing a number of these shots over the coming days, and here to start us off are a couple of eerie looking large trees that stand at the head of the gorge.
I crunched through the dry, brown heather to get this cluster of rocks in the right place to frame this landscape photo of the moors looking over to Higger Tor, which can be seen in the distance at centre-left. It was approaching lunchtime when I made this picture – long after the golden-hour had passed – but there’s something to be said for capturing images at this time of day. It’s often the time and light when people are out and about and so depicts scenes as many of us will usually see them
Tumbled and jumbled Boulders litter the landscape On Peak District moors
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE & Kodak Portra 160.
Steel City Snapper photography 