Peak District must visit locations
When it comes to landscape photography the hardest part is to be in the right spot at the right time. Weather also can play a huge factor for the final result. I always felt quite grateful for been living in the Manchester area for its closeness to Peak District National Park. The 555 square miles cut by sparkling rivers, populated with beautiful villages, filled with wildlife and many footpaths. This UK's first national park have photographic opportunities around every corner, all year round.
Here are some of my recent placed I visit:
1. Snake Woodlands:
One of best walks I recently been at. Place become even more magical during heater bloom season. Watch out for midges files in August. They are vicious creatures and their bites itches for eternity!
2. Mam Tor
Probably one of my favorite places to visit. It's great for both sunrie and sunset. If you like photographing car trails you will find nice composition at curvy road to Edale.
3. Lud's Church.
It's one of my recent discoveries. This a deep, moss-covered, full of history chasm. I recommend bringing a wide lens to truly show the beauty of this place.
4. Thor's Cave
Not only cave itself is worth visiting but also all great walks around it. Must see location if you visit Peak District!
5. DoveStones
Hedged by verdant hills, this expansive reservoir features a jogging path & grassy picnic areas. Everything you need for chill out trip with family or friends.
Best way to photograph in fog
Fog is what hooked me to photography. I remember vividly over two decades ago at my school trip we got struck with fog. Everyone thought it was bad thing to happen as it obstruct views we suppose to be having and made difficult for drivers. I was surprised of how much fear it had conjured upon our teachers who were afraid of pupils to get lost in it. However for me it felt good, having this feeling of mystery and awe. I know it can be very dangerous to travel by car or bout in foggy day but each time I encounter those unique weather conditions I cannot stay home. I grab my camera and go out to shoot.
So what causes it? Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth’s surface. Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud, usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influenced by nearby bodies of water, topography, and wind conditions. In turn, fog has affected many human activities, such as shipping, travel, and warfare.
Fog acts like a giant diffuser spreading colors and often creating an eerie glow around bright light sources. Therefore some cameras might be having trouble to focus and manual mode can be good way to get sharp images.
Few tips I to photograph in fog:
- Always shoot in RAW. It can be detrimental in post processing having possibility to adjust few settings like exposure or white balance
- Use manual lens focusing. It can be very helpful in situations when camera struggles to do it automatically
- Having tripod with you it’s always nice especially that fog often appears during the night
- It’s good idea to increase exposure compensation +1 EV
- Bringing speed light with radio triggers might be good idea however with color gels for extra creativity. I have not tried it yet myself but its definitely something I will do in future
- Shoot at least 3 exposures (HDR) for extra options in post production.
- Avoid polarizing filters. They don’t work well in fog
- Bring fiber cloth to wipe condensation from your lens to avoid blurry images
Here are some of my favorite images taken during foggy days. Mostly Manchester.
Lightopia Manchester
When I found out about lantern festival happening in Manchester in my favourite Heaton Park I knew I want to be part of it. Those who follow my work are probably aware I really like night photography, combining artificial lights into natural especially during blue hour. Therefore I was very exited then Lighopia accepted me as their official photographer for their Manchester launch event.
Unfortunately due to timing I was unable to capture all these amazing lanterns during the dusk when light is most appealing for this type of photography however I’ll already arranged to come back and re-shoot some of installations whilst more convenient time of a day.
See below few of my favourite images from launch event but look out for another post with another set from my second visit.
Best of Manchester (update)
Hello, Just a quick update with recently captured photos of ever growing city landscapes.
Torside and Woodhead reservoir walk
It’s one of locations I meant to explore for some time but when I look online for inspiration most of photos where obstructed by ugly power lines so that always been putting me off. However after day of exploring I found few compositions.
Media City UK last minute trip
It was very spontaneous last minute trip. Unfortunately weather turn out to be quite disappointing since I was counting on more colour on the sky. However I manage to get 1 main image + 2 extra along the way.
Buxton
Buxton it’s little spa town and it’s often described as gateway to Peak District National Park. I spend last weekend there with family just to relax in surprisingly warm February weather with temperatures reaching over 17c. It was not photography focused journey therefore I only manage to take one photo worth sharing of the hotel we stayed in.
Corporation street Victoria view
This week I had visit another great location in Manchester city center for night and long exposure photography. This time was M.A.N arena car park what offers nice view on Victoria station and corporation street. Idea was to capture light streaks from ring road along with trains coming in and out from the station. I’ve show up early blue hour to get my base image keeping camera on tripod and shooting all the way until late blue hour to get rest of components.
Area on left side of the frame is currently under heavy development with several buildings been added to ever growing Manchester skyline. Once work is complete spot will offer excellent composition with all new N.O.M.A scrapers and bridge in the foreground.
This time I also brought second camera that I placed on other side to capture north bound of the station. It’s not a great image but I decide to share it anyway.
Also before and after of main photo can be seen below:
First street view
Most of 2018 I’ve been photographically inactivity. One of my new years resolutions however was to get back to it so I took a challenge: one, good picture a week. This weekend I decide to revisit one of my favourite location…
Car park on First street in Manchester have a great view on Deansgate train station so the idea was to capture city lights at dusk with light streaks from passing trains. This time I used technique called time blending. I’ve watched few tutorials from one of my favourite photographer, Elia Locardi who teamed up with crew from Fstoppers to create great series called “Photographing the World”.
Idea is to blend multiple images taken within few hours of shooting into one seamless picture by choosing most interesting parts of each and blending it in photoshop. I didn’t get weather conditions I really want as I was hoping for some dramatic clouds but instead sky went absolutely clear.
Some may call it cheating reality but I feel it’s a creative choice since I’m not adding any pixels that aren’t already there. This way I’m be able get best dynamic range possible.
Here is before and after. I used base image taken at early blue hour and added lights using “lighten blending mode” in photoshop.
Searching for vistas
I started new challenge for 2019; take as best as possible photo at least once per week. I realize it’s already 3rd week of January as I’m sharing this very first post but because of some unforeseen circumstances and horrible weather I was unable to succeed in capturing anything worth sharing in first 2 weeks. This year so far turns out to be quite unlucky as during this trip I drop my 70-200mm f4 lens breaking focus ring 🙁
I went to Philips park witch is comfortably located in the area I live in to capture Manchester and Salford skyline. Result can be seen below.
