While hiking in the wind and rain the other week I had spotted a location along Ladybower Reservoir that would make for a fabulous landscape photograph. Obviously the conditions weren’t ideal for capturing beautiful landscape photographs, so knew I’d have to make a return visit to shoot what I had visualised.
Roll on two days and the conditions were gorgeous so I decided to head out to capture the image I’d pre-visualised! I parked up on the A57, just before the bridge over Ladybower, and set off to the spot. On my way I spotted Bamford Edge beautifully reflected in Ladybower from the road side, captured below.
Happy I’d got an image in the bag already I then made my way down to the spot. It was a good 15 minute walk to the scene I had pre-visualised, with this quaint little bench overlooking the reservoir, with Win Hill in the background. Unfortunately somebody was sat on the bench when I arrived so I decided to use the time to capture some other images of Ladybower while I waited for them to move on.
Thankfully, within 30 minutes or so hikers left the bench and it could become my prop! Just in time too as the sun started to drop and drop. As I mentioned, I had pre-visualised what I was after while hiking a few days prior. I couldn’t have asked for better conditions than this evening! The water was still, so still, it looked like a mirror, and the way the sunlight came past Win Hill and hit the trees on the other-side of the reservoir was just brilliant.
Once I had captured the image I was after I decided to see what else I could do with this brilliant scene. I felt given the width of the scene and the reflections a panoramic image would work well, here captured below by stitching 3 photographs together.
As the sun began to drop, and twilight set in, the colours of the sky and the reflection in the water went a beautiful dark blue and purple. Firstly captured in a portrait orientation and secondly an image with similar framing to my original pre-visualised image.
It was an amazing 2-3 hours out on the water’s edge. The weather was fantastic, the scenery was spectacular and it was lovely chatting to hikers and cyclists as they passed me.
All the images in this blog are available as high quality photographic prints, along with a range of bespoke frames, for you to enjoy in your home. Why not take a look at my full Peak District Print Collection.