A SPRING DAY IN THE PEAK DISTRICT
The day started with a stress free car journey up the M1 to the Peak District (with a small stop for brekkie along the way) and we were ready to set off from the Surprise View Car Park for a morning exploring Bolehill Quarry and Padley Gorge.
Andy and Chris hadn't been before, and I'd only been once, but thankfully it's a straight forward enough walk down to Bolehill from the car park. It's a well photographed location, and conditions were mild with not a lot of anything happening. I took a small series of shots around by little pool of water which I quite liked. A darker edit, with very muted greens, seemed to really suit these images and create the mood I was looking for.
Around mid-morning, we headed down to Grindleford for a coffee and massive wedge of flapjack, before heading towards Padley Gorge, and following up toward the Longshaw estate and loop back round to the car.
By now, the sun was actually quite strong, creating a lot of contrast in the gorge. It made composing for wider scenes difficult, so again I decided to focus on some smaller, more intimate scenes.
Photographing the water in the gorge gave me a chance to test out my new Kase Filters. First impressions are very good. I was using the polariser and 6 stop ND filter. The whole system seems a lot easier that my Lee Filters setup, especially the polariser.
After a long walk back to the car, we headed into Hathersage and the cafe in the Outdoor Shop for a very hearty (but unhealthy) chip butty and coffee. It did just the job after a long morning out with the camera exploring the Quarry and Padley Gorge. It will be hard to resist visiting again later in the year, when I expect an explosion of autumnal reds and oranges. Hopefully we'll be able get in the calendars and retrace today's route to compare the seasons.
On Sunday 26th September the final four chimneys of the Stewartby Brickworks were demolished, and we lose another reminder of our local history.