This view is from two-thirds of the way up the valley, just near the door of St Mary’s Church. We were there on Father’s Day - my treat. The weather was to my way of thinking of the best kind. Bright sunlight and then brief cooling cloud. The depth of the greens is always so refreshing when it is lit by the sun. The ‘Sleddale’ of ‘Long Sleddale’ is meant to rhyme with meddle. Those that know told me, and they are descended from those who used to live in the dale. I have walked through the head of the valley whilst completing a circular route beginning and ending(!) in Kentmere. The valley is the one the home of Postman Pat is based on in the series.
Shot with a longish lens like the one from Longridge Fell (last post). There is something that I like about this sort of view where the depth is compressed. It was a choice between showing the tiny fence below the cottage or the drop down the illuminated hill and the latter won on Instagram. Here is the full shot as promised. Some of this comes from years of looking at layers and colours in sumptuous Lake District landscape. I am currently baffled at the slow take up of the offer in my pinned post on Facebook. Maybe things will pick up as the week goes by.
Just as we arrived on Longridge Fell for an evening stroll beatific light broke through illuminating the valley below. The air glowed with golden light and I snapped the rapidly changing scene with my zoom telephoto lens.
This shot was taken a while ago. It always seemed to be destined to be black and white. It’s only today that I have really managed to get the processing done to my satisfaction.
Close followers of my work will perhaps recognise this shot which was taken more than a year ago. It was a long shot from Longridge Fell across to the slopes of Parlick. The light backlighting trees and hazy gradations of tone revealing every crinkle in the landscape are irresistable. To steady the shot I needed speed of 1/400th at f11 and this pushed the iso to 320 on my D750. The resulting RAW file was dull compared to the experience of my eye and I have tried many times to bring that moment back to life in PS.
Recently I have tried Luminosity Masking. Greg Benz has some great video tutorials which helped me set up my own actions to form the luminosity masks. Once you have made that investment of time this is a useful tool which is a great complement to PS. I am pleased with the outcome of this editing, as well as finding the masking process to be a more structured way to reach my processing goal. If you have reached the end of my longer than average post you might like to compare the shot below with the earlier edit in the landscape section and make a comment on the blog below or just have a look at my work. I am always interested in receiving comments about photography!
With a little (metaphorical) wrestling and work I have produced a new design for the website. I am very pleased as this addresses some of the problems that were gathering in the last one. Please feel free to make a comment below and let me know what you think of this layout!
This beautiful rose was given to Rachel and it has stood sipping water from its vase since Friday. There was something so intense about the colour of the petals in bloom that even in cool light the sensor of my camera #z7 seemed to be missing something of the splendour. With a little work with software I have gone some way to restoring the colours I saw.
Posted here is a shot from the top of Longridge Fell from a couple of days ago at about 6 in the morning. Ingleborough very clear in the distance over the Bowland Fells. For comparison in the picture below is a shot from a similar time in the morning about a year ago. It is very noticeable how much clearer the air is now from the clarity with which you can see Ingleborough.
Bringing together an old(ish) photo and one I took yesterday provided a way of making a new composition. The shot has been slightly updated and placed in the Portraiture section of the website now.
