Peak District Roadside Landscape Photography
A landscape photography blog by Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire based landscape photographer Rob Thorley Photography.
It’s the backend of January, so it’s a belated Happy New Year from me. The Christmas turkey is well and truly gone. The decorations are all packed up and put away. And I am heading back out into the Peak District for a little bit of landscape photography with a difference.
For a while now I’ve wanted to photograph Ramshaw Rocks at sunrise from the roadside. Ramshaw Rocks run pretty much north to south and the most dramatic profile of the rocks is east facing. With that configuration it stands to reason that some nice early morning light could make for a few nice photographs. The only problem, which is the same for most locations is where to stand to get a composition that works. This was today’s challenge, so very much a location scouting shoot.
I have mulled this one over before to some degree. The two images below are from a few years ago up by the Winking man pub with a telephoto lens on. They’re taken either side of the A53, so looking towards the south. Whilst these are quite wide shots of the profile of Ramshaw Rocks I think with some refinement they may work at sunrise. What I was after today however was a much closer perspective of the rocks looking north.
One of the main challenges today was the A53 itself, as per the photograph below this road is quite a busy one even early doors. I suspect the ideal spot may be the middle of the road but given the winding nature of the road, the speed traffic travels along it and the crest of the hill directly behind it’s not the smartest option. Even photographing from the verge of the road can be a bit of a knee trembler when the lorries come tanking past. There’s not a lot of grass to work with, so definitely one to take care on.
The A53 roadside view of Ramshaw Rocks in the Staffordshire Peak District.
I started off down by the lone tree but I was finding the tree to the right of the frame was a bit too distracting. I tried to zoom in for a tighter shot and cut some of it out but it still wasn’t quite working for me. At this point I wanted to keep the s-curve in, so shooting from the other side of the road wasn’t going to work either. Even if I hadn’t wanted the s-curve the hedge at the side of the road was too high.
From this spot on the roadside I think the image below was my favourite, but it felt like a compromise. I went in much tighter and whilst for the most part it solved the problem of a distracting tree it also cut off a chunk of the s-curve and with the road now positioned to the right of frame it just didn’t feel balanced.
A roadside view of Ramshaw Rocks in the Staffordshire Peak District.
With the tree causing me a few problems I used my legs as the zoom and walked back up the road to get the other side of it. Going past the tree meant I was giving up on the s-curve but it meant that I could shoot from either side of the road as I was also past the hedge.
From this distance I felt that shooting from the left side of the road was still a bit unbalanced, although a tighter angle improved the composition. Shooting from the right hand side however is probably the better angle to capture the profile of the rocks, as I feel it has a better balance.
All in all a very enjoyable morning. Did I get what I wanted? I’m not sure but it still felt like time well spent. As I reflected on the morning part of me thinks I got distracted by the s-curve in the road. Afterall I was there to shoot Ramshaw Rocks and not the A53, so maybe I need to try a few more spots along the roadside before I settle on “the shot”.
Anyway I hope you’ve enjoyed these. I have added a few other images from today in my Peak District gallery of The Roaches if you want to check those out.
You can view more images from The Roaches, and my gallery of other Peak District locations.
