Trekking in the cold first light of day, deep in the valley’s shadow before the sun has chance to rise above the ring of mountain peaks. Thirty minutes later it makes its entrance!
Shooting & Processing Notes
Shot using a Sigma DP3 Merrill, handheld @ ISO100, f13, 1/320 second. Post processing Lightroom and Analog Efex Pro.
Some Lofoten classics from Moskenesøy island. You could point your camera in every direction, and there’s busloads of photographers who are, and so it’s now time to get off the beaten track …
Shooting Notes
Shots taken with a variety of Sigma cameras, some on a tripod, some not, all ISO100, all post processed in Lightroom. The shot of Hamnoy is a Lightroom HDR of 4 shots.
The biggest challenge of photography in Lofoten is avoiding the hoards of other photographers, nice enough individually, on mass the devil incarnate! Transported around the islands by a high powered fleet of mini-buses, camera’s primed, they’re ever ready to jump out like shock troops and trample a scene to death. The day before the above shot of Ramberg beach was taken it was snowing as we approached, promising pristine conditions, but pulling into the parking area two mini-vans of shock troops arrived, piled out and immediately trampled the snow; a perfect scene ruined! Later that day on Uttakliev beach I counted 23,734 tripods before becoming bored and walking around the cliffs and away. I understand why people run these tours, and why people come, but part of Lofoten’s (and landscape photography’s) charm is its isolation and these trips will soon ruin it as a destination. It’s Greenland next 🙂
Inspired by finding the 2011 shot of Spurn Point (the subject of the last post), and realising it had been nearly five (eventful) years since I last visited, on Sunday I plugged the Point’s co-ordinates into the Sat Nav, turned on the engine, and headed due East.
Two hours in, and five minutes before it was deemed too dangerous to cross, I was stumbling across the sand, silt and mud of the breach that at high tide turns the Point into Yorkshire’s only island. I was now trapped! … at least for the next hour and a half.
Heading down the three miles to the end of the Point my motivation and inspiration were low, the tide too high, the wind too strong, my patience non-existent; I wished I’d headed up the coast, to Scarborough, or to Robin Hood’s bay, but I was stuck!
Rounding the tip of the Point I watched the boats go past, taking their cargo up the Humber, and then began the slow slog back to the car.
Stopping to take some shots of the old water tower, I noticed the sky taking on a pink tinge, but it did nothing to lift the mood.
But as I marched up the sands, the tide was literally turning, the spit widening, the sky becoming more interesting …
… and the last 30 minutes I found myself, as I often do, lost in the moment.
All good things come to those that wait!
Shooting Notes
Sigma Quattro DP0 & Sigma Merrill DP3, ISO 100, all using the obligatory tripod, all post processed using SPP and Lightroom.
Light was slowed down using B&W ND filters.
When I see Emley Moor Mast, I know I’m nearly home.
At 330 metres tall it’s taller than London’s Shard; sitting on top of the Moor it’s even higher. On a night like to tonight, much more spectacular.
Temple Newsam House in evening May sunshine.
A few days ago I snapped away at the owl using the Sony RX1 and the Sigma DP3. The result, for me, is a great example of the strengths of both cameras.
Having to get up close with the RX1 combined with f2.0 equals really shallow DoF, and I love the the creamy background.
The Sigma on the other hand, taken a few steps back and at f2.8 … well could you ask for more resolution? … but the out of focus areas are for me too harsh.
So there you have it, two different cameras, two different sensors, two different images = one slightly bigger camera bag …
… and if you’re not interested in the cameras, at least there’s a nice picture of an owl to look at 🙂
Shooting Notes
Hand held, ISO 100, same settings in Lightroom.
A couple of weeks ago I bought a drone – the latest big thing – at the camera show in Birmingham. A two hour flight and one hour drive to Bohinj, in Slovenia, later I securely attached the Sigma DP3 Merrill to the drone ship, powered her up, and set her off in the general direction of up. At a height of one thousand metres, avoiding golden eagles and military jets, the crux of the flight, a careful manoeuvre to dock the Sigma with the Mefroto tripod – no point taking a chance with camera shake – and then rotate in 3D space to get into position. One click of the wireless, fly by wire, remote shutter and job done, the only thing left was to get her home safely!
And then I found out there was a cable car!
Leaving warmth of The Lion Inn the Sun is already kissing the horizon … the village of Rosedale Abbey is a two hour walk on frozen paths … but the moon’s shadow lights our way.
I think everyone who visited The Lion Inn took this photo of Farndale from Blakey Ridge. So why not one more?
Inspired by the work of Nick Brandt I wandered around Whipsnade Zoo (where my partner, little Polly, was a zoo keeper for the day) in a doomed effort to find angles that would transform Bedfordshire into the Masai Mara.
The Sigma Merrill is not the fastest camera in the world … luckily the animals were equally lazy … but the detail the Foveon sensor captures continues to amaze.
All photos taken with a Sigma Merrill DP3, post-processed using Sigma Photo Pro to generate tiff files and finished off in Lightroom.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a mountain as: “a natural elevation of the earth surface rising more or less abruptly from the surrounding level and attaining an altitude which, relatively to the adjacent elevation, is impressive or notable”.
At only 360m high and prominence of 35m, Parkhouse Hill doesn’t register on the scale … but if we twist our man made rules, and allow shape, and form, and beauty to count, surely this small hill in the Derbyshire Peak District would be one of the best of the lot!!
This mountain in miniature, and it’s neighbour Chrome Hill, are not listed in any of my guide books and thus remained a secret, hidden from me, until a chance encounter, searching for landscapes to photograph closer to home. Now discovered, I can’t wait to return.
Taken with a Sigma Merrill DP3.
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