Withnell Moor
This weeks evening wander to Withnell Moor started quite promisingly, with blue skies and a good sprinkling of broken cloud. These were great conditions to be out walking in and I was optimistic that things might hold together for a spectacular sunset. Of course, this didn't happen and as the sun dipped towards the horizon, that pesky fog bank out in the Irish Sea did its dirty work and drained most of the colour from the scene.
All images taken handheld with the Nikon Z7+24-70 f/2.8S or Fujifilm X-H2+50-140 f/2.8. A CPL was used in most of the Nikon shots, I've still not got an adapter ring for the Fuji lenses though, so they're having to slum it without such niceties. All images were processed in Capture One Pro 23 from single raw files unless otherwise noted.
The Path To Cocker's Folly
I've photographed this little path which heads out across the moors from partway up Well Lane before, but only recently discovered where it went (by exploring it). It turns out that it leads to a path that runs across and up the steep front face of Withnell Moor, providing a much shallower climb than Well Lane itself, which just tackles the contours head on. Eventually it runs across a path that leads up the final climb to Cocker's Folly, a genuine place name that I'm constantly expecting to accidentally trip a profanity filter with.
A Magnificent Tree
The path on the other side of the stile seen in the previous image leads past this rather splendid Sycamore tree. I was initially attracted to its patterned bark, gently side lit by the sinking sun, but once I'd stepped beneath its sprawling canopy I was regretting my decision to not pack the 14-30 as its writhing branch structure was incredible, but impossible to fit into the frame with the 24-70. In the end I had to crouch as low as I could and approximately frame the shot using the LCD on the back of the Z7 that unfortunately does not tilt in any useful way for portrait orientated photography. Maybe splurging on a Z8 is the way forward? My knees would certainly thank me for it, although I'm not sure a more articulated screen and the ability to display a horizon and histogram at the same time (the only features that would significantly help with my use case, well the rolling shutter free(ish) video too if I ever get my finger out in that direction and start producing videos again) is worth the price of admission.
Cocker's Folly
The windswept Cocker's Folly looked great in the late evening light, decked out in its spring coat. A far cry from the skeletal structures I was photographing a mere month ago.
Bonus pic - the same scene almost exactly a month earlier...
Ratten Clough
On my last visit to these moors, I discovered a path between Ratten Clough and Cocker's Folly that I hadn't trodden before. This time around I walked it in the opposite direction, which is always a good idea as a photographer as you see things you might otherwise have missed, such as this nice shot of Ratten Clough. This is a site that I've always felt should yield better images than I've been able to capture there to date. I think this is one of the more pleasing ones I've taken of it, although subsequently finding this composition during editing led to a substantially heavier crop than I would have liked, coming in at about 23 megapickles. It was taken at 51mm, so if I'd seen this framing in the field I could have achieved something close to this with 70mm. Ah well, next time...
Withnell
The initial thing that drew me to this scene was the cotton grass sprinkled across the moor. Drop it out of focus with a wide aperture and it can make a nice foreground element on an otherwise largely featureless landscape. When taking images like that, I always shoot some at a tighter aperture too, in this case f/5, which turned out to be a good strategy as I preferred this image. This was partly because the slightly crisper cotton grass in the foreground just looked better to my eyes, but also because the 50-140 is such an erratic lens to focus, I could not get a sharp image of the distant village at f/2.8, even focusing manually with the viewfinder zoomed in it remained stubbornly soft. This seems to be a problem at certain focal lengths, it's fine at some, although never super crisp. I've had two of these lenses and the previous one was even worse. It's such a shame, as this combo really complements the Z7+24-70 as a manageable two camera setup for hiking around the moors, but it's so erratic. My Fuji 100-400 is so much more reliable, but the gap between 70mm on the Nikon and (effectively) 150mm on the Fuji is just too big for my liking.
They say a good magician never reveals his secrets, well, I'd be a terrible magician and I always feel a bit guilty presenting these (I think) nicely coloured sunset shots, when the reality was a bit more grim without giving a bit more insight into the truth behind the image. I thought the tonality in this scene was really nice, but the sky had gone a wishy washy blue/grey colour after then sun had done its premature disappearing act into the fog. But a few selectively masked layers over the image and a nudge on the white balance's tint slider later made for what I felt was a more pleasing image. Here's a before / after comparison from C1P (with all processing removed on the left) which shows the straight out of camera image compared to what I felt was the final image. What do you think? Are people interested in seeing these sort of processing comparisons or would you rather not know what electric trickery is going on behind the scenes?
Botany Bay Farm
A trip to Withnell Moor is never complete without visiting the lone tree at Botany Bay Farm. I took a number of shots from different angles, attempting to counterbalance the tree against different parts of the broken wall. While doing this I noticed a small bird on the wall and quickly switched focus to that for a couple of shots (prompting it to almost immediately fly away of course). I didn't think an out of focus shot of the tree would work, but I much prefer this shot to those I took with the point of focus reversed. I did the square crop with Instagram in mind, but actually think I prefer it to the 3:2 original. Similar colour toning has been applied to the upper two thirds to achieve the purple sky.
