Nigel Dalton
January 2025 - A Peak District View
About the Image(s)
Let's kick off the New Year with an image I took last year whilst out walking with my wife in the Peak District. We opted for a short walk with a low energy factor as recommended by one of these walking apps. We only arrived mid afternoon so wanted something less than a couple of hours. The guidebook was OK until it came to the second half of the loop and then we were confronted with a steep downhill descent on an open sided cliff face and it had been raining heavily so it was wet. Luckily we found a detour and came across this hillside pathway. The light was lovely, just opening up in certain places and shaded in others.
My standard postprocessing brought a bit more detail out than was there in the RAW file.
6 comments posted
This must have been a beautiful walk! Gorgeous landscape overlooking a luscious valley. I enjoy looking at these images but sometimes, as with this, I find myself searching for a focal point to anchor the shot. Other than seeing a pretty valley, I can't find anything that really attracts my eye. I can see why you'd want this to remember your trip but I think others might appreciate it more if you could narrow the overall vision down to a town, building, house, etc. with the valley as a backdrop. You did an excellent job of keeping everything in focus and perfectly exposed. Posted: 01/01/2025 19:33:32
Beautiful countryside. The sun shinning through on the field in the middle of the image is a very nice touch. I personally feel that the hill on the left side of the frame is not super interesting. I would maybe try position myself to include less of the hill and more of the beautiful green valley down below. Posted: 01/07/2025 02:07:50
Nigel, I feel the brownish elevations on three sides lead you right into the lush beautiful valley. I may be wrong but I feel landscapes sometimes do not have a main subject. I struggle with land scapes all the time. Sometimes the whole expanse of a landscape is the subject. Well done. Posted: 01/09/2025 14:27:46
Thanks guys.
As you say Mike, there wasn't a real focal point and it was the overall scene as Tom mentioned, that was the intention. The lead in from the hill on the left, the ferns in the front and the light on the valley were the reason for taking the shot. Posted: 01/09/2025 15:49:07
As you say Mike, there wasn't a real focal point and it was the overall scene as Tom mentioned, that was the intention. The lead in from the hill on the left, the ferns in the front and the light on the valley were the reason for taking the shot. Posted: 01/09/2025 15:49:07
Nigel, this is a wonderful scenery and I can see the reason you choose to present it in a panorama crop. In a scenery like this I think the "scenery" is the focal point and in my humble opinion the image does not need a "focal point of attention". Saying that maybe a tighten crop would (2:3) eliminating some of the brown uninteresting hill on the left and some of the right would have the eye to focus on the beauty of the valley. From the point of view of composition you have two triangular shapes (the ferns in foreground) and the hills slope with the majority of the scenery. These are always strong elements. The cloudy sky and the brown dominant color in the foreground create an excellent color contrast adding interest.
Best wishes
Michele Posted: 01/12/2025 10:16:28
Best wishes
Michele Posted: 01/12/2025 10:16:28
Thanks Michele, I agree totally about there being no need for a focal point. The image was originally 2:3 but I made a pano to eliminate some distracting stuff and also to let me lead in the ferns from the bottom left hand corner. Thanks for your input. Posted: 01/12/2025 12:11:58