Tag: The Roaches

The Sun Shines on our Last Day

Friday 9th May

Up at 6am to crystal clear skies, so we had a cuppa and headed off to a new location. We had a walk planned from Toads Mouth on the A6187 to Carl Wark to take a photo of Higger Tor. But with nowhere close to park we changed the walk from a car park further west and walked past Mother Cap to get a more distant view of Higger Tor.

The temperature when we started was 5C, so Holly had her winter coat on.

This was quite an interesting plateau to settle for a few images. Higger Tor is the flat mound in the distance in the following image.

I then decided to try a few Infrared shots, especially as the sun was so bright.

We then returned to the car as our stomachs were craving a bacon butty, so we headed off towards Bakewell but stopped at Café 19 in the Hope Valley as we knew they were dog friendly. After a quick stop-off in Bakewell for Vanessa to change a T-Shirt, we returned to the Magpie Mine as the sunlight would hopefully improve our previous photos. But with the strong sunlight I thought I’d try Infrared again, quite liking the effect it produced.

With the sun at 12 O’Clock we gave Winatts Pass another try as the photos needed the contrasting shadows to make them interesting.

Infrared wasn’t as successful here, so clearly I’ll have learn more as to when I get a good effect or not. These shots were closely followed by an ice cream as we were hot, especially when carrying the camera bag up the slopes. I wanted one last shot of Hathersage before returning to the motorhome. But before that I had to have a pint.

You can just see the church in the trees, with Hathersage out of shot to the right.

After our evening meal, with the sun still shining we headed back out to the Roaches again, but this time a higher climb to get a sunset on the rocks from above. I also tried out the drone to take pictures in front of the rock face.

The rest of the images were taken during the last 3/4 hour of daylight with the OM camera.

Well, we had a great last day of the holiday and with a new battery in the motorhome, hopefully we’ll have a trouble free journey home tomorrow.

A Eureka Moment to Start the Day

Saturday 3rd May

Remember the motorhome battery issue; well today was the day I would have a go at replacing it. Not sure if there was any special procedure involved, but as a precaution I removed mains power to the motorhome and turned the fridge and leisure control panel off.

As you can see there was a complex power distribution circuit connected to the positive terminal. Fortunately this all came off once the +ve terminal clamp was released and the two posidrive screws were removed. The negative terminal was just a quick release clamp.

With the power disconnected the motorhome dashboard started to click, click, click…. Well I assumed that the solar panel was still providing the circuit some power? Replacement was quick and easy and then reattached the cables.

Eureka – the engine started first time! That was one worry out the way. So back to enjoying the day – we stayed at the motorhome until after lunch to give our aging dog more time to rest.

We then set off to visit Lud’s Church – No not what you think; it wasn’t a religious site, but a chasm in the rocks behind the Roaches. It was a steady one mile uphill walk from the carpark with Holly getting a carry for any of the steeper sections.

There was a steady stream of people heading through this popular site so taking photos and avoiding people was going to be difficult. Patience was required (yes, even Vanessa had to be tolerant) or in some cases I had to use a new AI removal feature in Lightroom to magically erase them.

The most remarkable point about these photographs was the OM-System cameras we have changed over to from Canon. As you might expect the light level was quite low in the chasm and we had to use them hand held as there were just too many people passing through to consider using tripods.

In the two images below, the camera was set to ISO 1600 with an f10 aperture. The shutter speed was 1/5th second. Look at the blown up section in the 2nd image of the plants growing on the rock face – and these images haven’t been sharpened in Lightroom.

The chasm turned to the left past this point and after waiting 10 minutes for the people to clear, I gave up and took the image with approx. 12 people in the way. Thanks to Lightroom’s AI deletion tool I still got a good photo.

On the return journey to the car we passed a converted watermill and stopped for a well deserved latte and flapjack.

We had a quick reccy of the Roaches on our way back to the motorhome to select a spot for an evening shoot, hoping to get the early evening light. Then enjoyed a nice steak meal before returning.

Despite the sky being clear in front of us, there was a significant cloud covering behind us, which we hoped would still allow a few bursts of sunshine….

After this photo we had to wait about 30-40 minutes for the sun to appear beneath the clouds and hopefully light up the scene with some great warm light…

Unfortunately, the clouds behind us were a fiery red, but that didn’t extend to the clouds in front – a pity as that would have been a great final image. Another evening we may have more luck.

The Peak District

An Interesting Start to our Holiday

We’d been preparing the motorhome ready for the trip for a few days with no issues. We had one problem to overcome on the day we left home as our 13.5 year old dog, Holly needed acupuncture (which frees up her back and joints) at the vet in Burley, which was in the opposite direction to our route north. So I was going to travel onto the M27 and meet up with Vanessa at the Rownhams services. Meanwhile I finalised a few checks before leaving including a fuel level check – unfortunately I couldn’t start the engine.

I tried to jump start it with Vanessa’s hybrid car (using some dumbbells to keep the accelerator depressed), but this didn’t work so I had to call out the Driver Guardian service. They would get to me by about 11:50 (a 90 minute wait), so I contacted Vanessa to return home.

Well the recovery truck was delayed eventually getting to us at 13:20. He had to use the large set of jump leads from his lorry to get me going. The alternator was working and charging the battery and he was sure it would now be OK with the 4.5 hour journey sufficient to fully charge the battery.

So I set off with Vanessa following, just in case of any issues and the plan to couple up with the car at Rownhams Services. I was still sceptical about the battery health, so left the engine running while we connected up the car. The journey took about 5 hours with 2 short comfort break stops (leaving the engine running each time). We eventually arrived at our campsite around 7pm and reversed the van onto the pitch. I stopped the engine to use the keys to get the levelling ramps out and restarted the engine!!! Oh no it didn’t, the battery was still dead so clearly not holding any charge.

To cut a long story short, I tried to source a battery in Stoke-on-Trent (20 minutes away) but the one they requested for delivery later that day was wrongly listed in stock. My son is travelling up to see us on Tuesday, so I rang Adams Morey in Southampton – yes we have one; great I thought…. They phoned back this morning – sorry their stock listing was wrong, we don’t have that battery! Aaaagggghh. So our search for a battery continues, at least we don’t travel home for another week.

We did finally get out for our first day….

Whilst awaiting news of the battery, we visited an old friend who used to live in Southampton and we went out for the day. First plan was to try and find a water course where 2 streams meet, which is the point where Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire meet. Well in an area of no phone reception I failed to find the correct path to the ‘Three Shires Head’ viewpoint. So we returned to the car and headed off for lunch at the Rudyard Hotel. Afterwards we walked down the the nearby lake and I tried out a few infrared shots with a converted camera that I had borrowed.

A month ago we traded in all of our Canon cameras and lenses as the weight was getting too much for our elderly frames to carry. We have purchased OM-System cameras and lenses (previously Olympus) which have a sensor of half the area, but same pixel resolution. Thus all lenses with a similar focal length to Canon are half the size and weight (and much cheaper). We’ve been trying them out for a few weeks now, but this is the first time using them on a photographic holiday.

Gentle evening light across the valley leading to the Roaches

Our campsite is quite close to the Roaches, so we tried to find a hilltop location to take a picture of them in the warm evening light.

The Roaches

Tomorrow I’m going to find the Three Shires Head, so watch this space.