Sunrise At Mam Tor

(Remember, any photos here can be bought as prints/downloads/cards/calendars at the various links on the links page, or by contacting me...)

Hello all!

Well, I've had a very busy weekend - as some of you have probably seen - and again I'll not bore you with too many words but I'll shove some lovely pictures up for you! It is just about possible at this time of year to make it into the Peak District in time for sunrise. I took the 6.20 train to Edale, arriving at 6.55 - leaving me about 50 minutes to get up to the top of Mam Tor before sunrise. I actually made it up in 35 minutes, with all my camera gear weight, starting in the dark and making my way through 6inch deep mud, which I am somewhat proud of - so had plenty of time to find a spot. Now, I wasn't expecting it to be dead quiet up there, but upon arriving at the top I found photographer after photographer after photographer. They are a friendly bunch, all polite with each other making sure not to get in each other's shots - but there is certainly a certain amount of vying for the popular spots - but again nobody hogs them for too long.

Before arriving in Edale, I was actually undecided whether to head on up Grindslow Knoll or Mam Tor - and am I glad I chose Mam Tor! Once the sky started to brighten it became very obvious that Kinder and Grindslow Knoll were covered in dense cloud - which clung to it all morning even whilst the rest of the sky was perfectly clear.

After the sun had risen and the others had started drifting off I set off along the ridge to catch the train back from Hope - and it was lovely being up there so early on, before the millions of other walking folk came out - enjoying watching the mist slowly rise out of the surrounding valleys.

A Popular Higger Tor Walk

After a few weekends without escaping into the Peak, we finally got out again for a short(ish) walk around these eastern edges. Starting in Grindleford we headed off up Padley Gorge - whilst still a little early for it to be as spectacularly autumnal as it can be, there were still a few bits of orange visible.

Shades of Autumn (Early Autumn in Sheffield)

This week's post is another with few words but plenty of photos...

Today we went for a lovely sunny walk through some of the nicer parts of Sheffield - down Ecclesall Road and around Endcliffe Park. Whilst it is still a little early for the full autumnal orange and brown colours, there are already some very nice bits of colour if you look for them, especially with warm, low light like today - so here we are:

Golden Light Over Stanage Edge

Over the last week I've given you a million little previews of this blog post, but finally, I have got around to working on the photos and uploading them to bring it all together here...

As has often been the case recently, I'll keep it short on words and let the photos do as much talking as possible. We arrived at Stanage Edge around 6 o'clock (I seem to remember) and even on the short walk up to the top, it was instantly clear that the light was going to be very kind to me...

The approach to Stanage Edge, bathed in beautiful golden light

Lose Hill, Hollins Cross, Kinder Scout and Grindslow Knoll

I have loads more photos for you this week - so again, not too many words but plenty to look at.

What with being limited to public transport, and therefore staying within the rough area of the Hope Valley where the train can drop us off, a lot of these photos are of places you've seen on this blog before - but as always it is nice to try and make something new of the same locations. I hope I have managed to do so, but if not then there are always some new ones toward the end from where we ventured into new territory for us!

I started the day with the 9.20 train to Hope so I could get in an extra couple of hills before Keri joined me later... so I had to rush the first 5 miles into an hour to be on time and what with it being so warm last weekend, the ascent of Lose Hill at almost slow jogging pace nearly killed me. After reaching the top, I had a walk along the ridge over Back Tor and then down at Hollins Cross into Edale to meet Keri - who by that point had already spent an hour enjoying tea and sandwiches at the always-lovely Pennypot Cafe. (They were also kind enough to fill my massive bottle of water up after I drank it all on this first little section!)

View along the ridge to Mam Tor from Lose Hill

2 Rules, 51 Faces, 16 Months and 2 Cities.

As some of you may have (but probably have not) noticed, this last week saw me passing the midway point of my 100 Strangers project - so it seems like a good point to go back and look at what I've done so far. Over the last 16 months I have spoken to more strangers than I probably ever expected to in my whole life, and each has been interesting in their own way - at least enough for me to want to get a photo, and sometimes enough to hold onto me for hours in conversation. In this post, I intend (but could well go off topic) to have a look at some of my favourites so far... whether that be due to the background story (for example, one anonymous stranger who I found out only had months to live), the quality of photo, the beauty/masculinity of the subject or anything else that makes them stand out to me. I should probably also point out that if you are one of my strangers and don't feature here - I actually like all of my photos, but couldn't put them all in the post!

A good place to start, would probably be with my first ever stranger... which I look back at now and wonder what on earth I was thinking, camera-wise (eyes underexposed, poor vignette added...), but I had to start learning somewhere...

Canon 450D, 17-85mm @ 85mm, f/4

A Walk Up Win Hill

I have quite a lot to do at the moment, hence no post last week, but I have put aside this time to at least publish some sort of post! I intend to make it very light on words, and give you plenty of pictures to make up for it as that will at least save me a bit of time... So here we go... I'll start with this photo to hopefully lure you in to the rest of the post...

View along over Lose Hill and Mam Tor from Win Hill.