It’s that point, just after Christmas, with little opportunity remaining to get out with the camera before the end of the year and with the weather hammering at the window I task myself with sifting through my work over the last twelve months and prising out from it 12 favourites from the year. It’s been a bit of an odd one. We somehow managed to fit in a fair number of trips this year. On the one hand very stimulating but on the other something of an interference in terms of camera work, but it’s always a welcome distraction to point it at something other than the Peak District – as entrancing and beautiful as it is. In between I have actually found little opportunity to engage in a seriously considered study of the landscape but then there has also been an awful lot of of excellent walking, which invariably leads to the discovery of new compositions and views that can be returned to later and captured at a more leisurely pace when the conditions are perhaps more suitable to the subject matter, so it’s all a part of a wider activity of study of the landscape, and to be fair walking new places and studying new views has always been a part of what I do anyway.
So what have I got this time
January – Wardlow Hay Cop
This is taken on one of our regular walking routes from home, around into Hay Dale and then back over to Cressbrook Dale via Wardlow Hay Cop, which is part of the Cressbrook Dale National Nature Reserve. The slopes of Hey Cop are scattered with lovely, characterful Hawthorn trees and the frosty light on this afternoon was a delight, with the backdrop of the clouds on Longstone lending some lovely depth to the shot.
February – Headstones Viaduct
The old boating pool in Monsal Dale backs up from the weir to just in front of Headstones Viaduct and while much of it has now silted up it still offers up a beautiful reflection of two of the main arches of it’s span.
March – Lunch Lane Drifts
In March we had a few days of proper snow, which closed the roads around here for a while. That in itself is always a fun situation (if you’re not in desperate need of the emergency services) and a great excuse to get out on foot with the camera. When it gets windy the dry stone walls snag the snow like this and it builds up nicely in the lanes, between the walls, often with some fabulous wind-carving. If you’re lucky enough to bag a bit of nice light while you’re out then capturing scenes like this is a joy.
April – Flooded forest
A walk through water-cum-jolly dale for this shot, where the willows that have taken root in the silt bar down the centre of the river have been inundated by the high water level in the river. The result is a shot that is more reminiscent of a mangrove swamp.
May – Tokyo International Forum
Japan is a photographer’s dream. There is simply so much to photograph, particularly given the Japanese love of gardens and gardening. The whole country is almost like a work of art and a joy to explore. I came home with hundreds of photographs but this is the one that I am most pleased with. It is taken from the viewing balcony level in the Tokyo International Forum. There is always a caveat when taking photographs of architecture because what you are taking a photograph of is someone else’s art. It’s unwise to ever claim that a photograph of a building like this has any originality because who’s to say that you are not merely seeing the structure in the manner that its designer intended? Great photographs of buildings first require great buildings. Great buildings require great architects and Japan has some great architects.
June – Chrome Hill
When we got back from Japan it was very suddenly spring and stuff was happening. It’s always great to bag a few shots of the May blossom and this little tree on the flank of Parkhouse Hill is a bit of a favourite. The position of the sun was a little tricky but with a bit of good technique I was able to take this lovely shot.
July – Outer Limits
For some reason July was a bit of a damp squib with the camera. The weather wasn’t brilliant and I had a lot to do so really I had to be content with some evening walks in the locality but when your local landscape delivers up something like this does it really matter that you don’t get the opportunity to get out further ? No.
August – Burbage Quarries
I do like Burbage in August. It has a really good mixture of colours. The heather – of course – but also bilberry, which gives you a lovely acid green counterpoint to the warm purpley hues of the heather. Then there’s the warm evening light, which softens the prospect to a lovely pastely fuzziness that you don’t really find at other times of year – a bit like the midge that accompanies it !
September – Arran Sandstone
We had a great trip to Scotland in September, which again yielded dozens of candidate images for this year’s blog but I’m going with this shot that I took on Arran’s norther shore which features a huge outcrop of old red sandstone. The shot was originally made in colour and that offered up a great temperature contrast between the warm red of the sandstone in the foreground and the cold of a blue, evening sky behind but when I popped it into a yellow filter conversion it took on a new dynamic that I hadn’t expected. With the image now in balanced in black and white the mirrored complimentary forms of the clouds and the foregound rocks become much more apparent.
October – water-cum-jolly (again)
I don’t often return to the same location in the same blog but this was a very interesting intersection of angles that was totally unplanned and demonstrates the value of simply going out for a walk to see what you might see. It’s such a complex yet simple shot which took about 5 seconds to create.
November – Ravensdale
It’s now November when the best colours come out in the Peak District and it has been for about 10 years now. The Beech in particular doesn’t really get going until the end of October and this year Ravensdale put on a great show with the colours hanging around for a good 2-3 weeks. This shot is taken looking through beech tree with the other trees in the dale filling the apertures created by the foreground tree.
December – Cressbrook Dale
Staying local again, with the snow making it impossible to get out of the village but offering the chance to venture out on foot to see what the often-overlooked local landscape has to offer the shot-hungry photographer. I mentioned during my lockdown blogs how being forced to study in detail a landscape that is often overlooked in favour of the apparently more dramatic lands further afield is an excellent education. You realise that the composition rules that you derive from those other studies work just as well when you are down here in the hedges in your own back yard.
In summary…
Anyway, there they are. A small selection of my favourites from the year. There’s always more in my social media channels should you be interested. I know it’s been yet another difficult year for a lot of people. We are surrounded by so many uncertainties at the moment. Remember – practicing photography generates Dopamine. Dopamine and Cortisol cannot co-exist so if you go out and take photographs you reduce the amount of Cortisol in your body and heal yourself. It won’t cure the world’s ills but it will at least offer you a little bit more protection.
Thank you for taking the time to look at my work. It’s always appreciated.
Ravenseye Gallery - The Photography of Chris Gilbert 