The weather for Wednesday this week looked extremely promising. The forecast was for localised fog with the sun breaking through later in the morning. I decided these would be the perfect conditions for photographing the woodland at Padley Gorge in the Peak District.
I arranged to meet up with an old friend at 7:30 am for what promised to be a great day of photography. As it turned out, it was a day packed with lessons.
In the morning, as I drove over to Padley Gorge, the conditions looked perfect. There was rolling banks of fog and a mist hanging over the fields. As I passed Lawrence Fields I could see photographers lining up at the side of the road to shoot the scene. It was absolutely beautiful and only a few minutes’ drive from Padley Gorge.
But when I arrived and parked, there was nothing. No cloud or mist. It was just dark, dull, and wet. At that point, I was seriously considering driving back to photograph the fields but my friend suggested patience. He had arrived about 10 minutes before me and said the mist had been rolling in and out.
We agreed to wait it out and take a few shots. It seemed like an eternity, but around 30 minutes later, the mist descended and fill the woods. That’s when we began to get some good shots.
I shot this with my Fuji XT5 and Fuji 10-24 lens at 15mm. It’s a tripod shot with a 1/7 second exposure at f/8.0 and ISO125. For those who have read about my problems with the XT5, I can confirm that it was indeed down to diffraction. I now have a lot more confidence in my equipment.
I did however run into an equipment issue with a new Lightweight Benro HD1A 3-way tripod head from Amazon. These are heavily discounted at the moment, and it seemed like a great deal. It’s extremely well made, and I’m very impressed. The only problem on the day was that there was a collar on my tripod legs that kept catching the head. This prevented me from setting the camera in portrait orientation. What’s funny about this is that it was only when I got home that I realised I had been mounting my camera 90 degrees off. When I mounted it properly, the head worked perfectly.
Here’s another shot from the morning.
This was also shot with the Fuji XT5, but this time with the Fuji 16-80 lens at 16mm. It’s a tripod shot of 1/9 second at f/8.0 and ISO125.
In the afternoon, when the sun had burned off the mist to reveal a clear blue sky, we headed over to Curbar Edge. We thought we would be on for a great sunset, but it wasn’t to be. A bank of heavy clouds on the horizon snuffed out the sun. This gave the images a cold, blue appearance. Although we waited, the light didn’t improve, and we left thinking we missed out. It was only when I downloaded the images to the computer that I found some were quite good.
This was taken with a Fuji XT5 and Fuji 10-24 lens at 10mm. It’s a 1/10 second exposure at f/8.0 and ISO 125. Despite the clear blue sky, it has worked quite well once I corrected the overly cool colour.
Lessons learned:
- Have patience, and don’t chase after ideas of better conditions elsewhere.
- Know your equipment and how to get the best out of it.
- Don’t give up on what you think is poor light. It may be better than you perceive.
Latest Book
Finally, my latest book “Essential Adobe Photoshop CC” is now in its third edition and has just launched. It’s currently only available as an eBook from my website and Amazon. I will be publishing a paperback in December.
I hope you like the images and have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Oh Wow! That 2nd image is incredible. When blown up to full size on my monitor, it is just beautiful. I love it!
Jim Herr
Thank you very much Jim. I’m looking forward to processing and sharing more of these shots.
Thanks for those reminders. The images are indeed pretty.
Thank you. There was another good one that I left out which is turn round. When I was shooting the clearing mist the sun was just breaking through. Whilst this was happening I glanced behind to see the best display of sun rays through the trees that I have ever seen. To think, I almost missed it.