So at the start of 2020, I set myself a challenge of capturing Mam Tor. We have hiked on and around Mam Tor on so many occasions, but I still hadn’t captured an image I was happy with. This is down to several factors, including weather, but primarily down to the fact that, in the afternoon, Mam Tor sits in its own shadow, covering up much of the detail of the iconic landslip.
Given this, I knew I needed a morning shoot to capture Mam Tor at its best. I already knew the place I wanted to take the photo from as I had pre-visualised the shot on my last hike up along The Great Ridge: the shot I needed was from ‘Lose Hill’. Given the light is best at the beginning and end of the day, I decided to go for a sunrise shoot! It’s mid January, so I set off around 6:30am to arrive around 7:30am. To hike up Lose Hill from Hope was going to take me around 40 minutes, so I should arrive on the hill top at around 8:15, just in time for sunrise!
Sadly, when I arrived in Hope the prospect of a sunrise was limited as there was a lot of cloud cover… added to this, the route up to Lose Hill was extremely muddy, making hiking up much more difficult than it should have been. In the end, it took me around an hour to hike to the top to be greeted by cloud cover…
Given the effort I’d gone to, I wasn’t going to let it go to waste; so just decided to take in the beauty of the surroundings, have a rest and drink some coffee.
45 minutes had passed and the cloud wasn’t looking to lift so, after taking some test shots around Lose Hill, I decided to make my way down to Back Tor, mainly to keep me warm, as standing around is an easy way to get cold quickly, and just to see if there was anything else I could capture. As I made my way down to Back Tor, there is this most wonderful brick wall on the side of the footpath to which I tried to capture some of its beauty.
As I reached Back Tor, I could see the clouds beginning to open and a glimmer of hope of some more interesting lighting! I decided to head back up to Lose Hill so I had a chance to capture the images of Mam Tor I had pre-visualised. On my way back up, I managed to capture this image of Lose Hill from The Great Ridge.
Equally turning around to face Edale provided an interesting view of The Great Ridge and Kinder Scout, captured below.
So, after a rather brisk walk back up to Lose Hill, so not to miss the light, I turned around to see the conditions over Mam Tor were ideal! Low morning sun, wisps of cloud in the sky and a beautifully clear view.
I managed to capture the following three images from the footpath back up to the summit of Lose Hill in a landscape, portrait and square orientation.
I was dead happy I’d managed to capture the image of Mam Tor I had pre-visualised on my last trip up along The Great Ridge.
It was now about 11am and the light was still good, so I made a decision to pop on my long lens to capture some closer shots of Mam Tor. The wind was blowing a gale and I was worried that, even with the tripod, a long lens shot might end up blurry! Thankfully, I had two tricks up my sleeve. Firstly, I managed to bury myself and the tripod in a ditch, blocking much of the wind. Secondly, my Canon 70-200mm f4 has Image Stabilisation (IS), designed to steady the lens when being used handheld. Taking advantage of these two options really helped me capture some closer images of Mam Tor and The Great Ridge perfectly.
I really love this image: the detail in the landslip and de-focused foreground of the ridge really focuses your attention on the ‘Mother Hill’ Mam Tor. I love this image so much I have included it as part of a Limited Edition Peak District Postcard Pack (10 Pack).
After caputring some lovely closer images of Mam Tor, I turned my attention to The Great Ridge, here captured in a Mono. Again, I love this image so much I have also included it as part of a Limited Edition Peak District Postcard Pack (10 Pack).
I was really happy with the images I had captured. As time was getting on, it was about 11:30am now, and the cloud cover was starting to come back in, I decided to get my camera kit packed up ready to hike back down ready for some lunch. As I was popping my wide lens back on the camera I saw some interesting light over the Vale of Edale, creating some lovely contrast over the Kinder Scout Plateau, captured below.
I hope you have enjoyed reading and viewing the fruits of my labour on this shoot. A combination of pre-visualisation, adaptation to weather conditions and determination allowed me to capture these 11 images in the space of around an hour and a half.
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.