A gap in the rocks at Over Owler Tor reveals the northern edge of the Derwent Valley.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Ilford Delta 400.
Taken on 22 November 2019
Tag: Bronica ETRSi
Moorland tree
A lone tree stands on the moorland, it’s leaves now departed.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).
Taken on 22 November 2019
Lost hat
Hanging from the low branches of a tree, a lost hat is on display should its owner return.
It was looking somewhat sorry for itself, suspended from a twig and dripping with water.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).
Taken on 22 November 2019
Evergreen (or orange)
Here’s a tree that I photographed on the Longshaw estate while on my Peak District walk last weekend. It’s a conifer of some sort, but it’s needles are a lovely orange colour, making it distinctive amongst the surrounding trees. It has a lovely sloping trunk which gives its canopy a very attractive shape.
I’ve photographed the tree previously a couple of years ago and that picture can be seen in an earlier blog post.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).
Taken on 22 November 2019
A6187
This is the A6187 road. It runs thirteen and a half miles from Fox House Inn on the outskirts of Sheffield (close to where this photo was taken), to the village of Castleton – famous for it’s caves and Blue John.
The section here veers in from the left where the trees are, crosses Burbage Brook and angles up towards Surprise View carpark – which is just beyond the birch woods in the middle -right. Shortly after that the road takes a 90-degree turn to the right and decends into Hathersage and the Derwent Valley.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).
Taken on 22 November 2019
Packhorse bridge
This packhorse bridge spans Burbage Brook below the ancient hill fort of Carl Wark in the north-eastern Peak District National Park. The bridge is grade II listed and dates to around 1750. The bridge still gets regular use by hikers as the only span across the brook between the A6187 to the south and Ringinglow Road to the north.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Shanghai GP3 (expired).
Taken on 22 November 2019
Outdoor manufacturing
Today’s post shows an abandoned millstone on the moors near Mother Cap.
These stones were all carved by individual masons who were capable of producing around 16 pairs of stones per year.
The market for these stones collapsed when white bread became popular in the mid 18th century. The gritstone that these are carved from would turn the flour grey, so french millstones that didn’t have this effect began to be used instead.
When their business disappeared, the masons fought back by destroying the French stones until eventually the military were brought in to put a stop to it.
The millstone lives on however as it is now the official symbol of the Peak District National Park.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Ilford Delta 400.
Taken on 22 November 2019
Murky moorland days
This photo was taken on the edge of a small abandoned quarry, up on the moors near Over Owler Tor. It’s likely that gritstone was quarried here for the manufacture of grinding wheels and the like. You can’t see the quarry in the shot – the large boulder is atop the opposite side – but there was a significant drop just in front of my tripod.
The weather was gloomy, misty and damp on the day. Not what you’d usually get excited about, but I’d booked a day off for the trip out a few weeks in advance and had little foreknowledge of the conditions (although, it being November in the UK, I should have had a good idea). I did consider just staying at home, watching TV and reading books, but pushed myself to go out – I’d only have regretted it otherwise – and was glad I did. The conditions were still far from ideal, but the murk and low cloud are atmospheric in themselves and much better than the blanket of featureless flat grey that I’d seen when I got up that morning.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Ilford Delta 400.
Taken on 22 November 2019
Mother Cap
A couple of photos today that I took while walking on the moors around Over Owler Tor / Higger Tor / Carl Wark last weekend. I actually shot a couple of rolls – one Delta 400, and one Shangha GP3 – but I’ve only scanned the Delta so far.
I made a concerted effort to remember to use the mirror lock-up on the Bronica this time – a roll of Velvia I shot recently had resulted in a number of shots that were less sharp than I’d hoped, which I’d put down to camera shake caused by mirror slap. All the shots this time were nice and sharp – even those shot at slow shutter speeds (half-a-second and the like). The only downside was my lack of experience in shooting the camera with the mirror locked up. The process is:
- compose the shot
- lock up the mirror
- fire the shutter
- unlock the mirror
- wind on to the next frame
If you forget stage 4 and wind the film on, the mirror remains in the locked up position until you take another shot. As a result of this I had a few double frames where I had to take a second, identical photograph (although I altered the aperture in some cases just for the hell of it) as it’s imposible to recompose while the mirror is up.
Anyyway… here are a couple of images of Mother Cap, a gritstone outcrop just below Over Owler Tor in the Peak District national park above Grindleford. It doesn’t look too big in the first image, but it’s a decent size when you’re up close – being maybe 20-25 feet high. The guy at the left of the frame was taking his own photos of the rocks when I caught him up, and was interested to see the view through the Bronica’s waist-level finder.
The second shot is a close-up picture of part of the the formation – this is the actual angle that the layers are at.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Ilford Delta 400.
Taken on 22 November 2019
Padley Gorge
Padley Gorge is a steep sided wooded valley situated in the north east of the Peak District national park, not far from nearby Sheffield. The sides of the gorge are packed with interesting twisty trees and the ground is littered by gritstone boulders of all sizes, many of which are covered by moss and lichens. Burbage Brook runs down the middle of the valley, carrying runoff from the moorland above. It really is a beautiful place.
When I visited last weekend we’d had a considerable amount of rainfall over the preceding weeks and the brook was in spate. It’s always nice to see, even when the flow is gentle, but when the water is a torrent it’s very impresive indeed.
Despite the somewhat grim weather meaning I had to keep putting my (non-weather-sealed) cameras back in the bag at frequent intervals, I had a really nice time walking to the bottom of the gorge – where there’s an excellent cafe the does a great job of filling the bellies of passing hikers – and then back up to the top where I’d parked my car.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 & Fujifilm Velvia 50.
Taken on 23 October 2019
Steel City Snapper photography 