Roach End to Hanging Stone
A landscape photography blog by Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire based landscape photographer Rob Thorley Photography.
It’s the end of November already and this morning I found myself heading over from Roach End to Hanging Stone in the Peak District National Park.
I’m not trying to big-up my physical prowess, as I’m far from being fit but believe it, or not this is my second visit here within two days and what a difference a day makes, or two in this instance.
I’d been for a wander on Tuesday (25th November) with just my drone, and mobile phone. Hopefully the wife isn’t reading this . . . I’d bought the new DJI Mini 5 Pro on the day of its release, which I think was September 17th and to this point I hadn’t used it. At the time it was one of those “must have” purchases that I occasionally make, mainly due to the possibilities of the new one inch sensor.
Granted the weather had been poor since I’d bought it and to be honest I’m not a drone enthusiast, so there was no burning desire to be out flying it. Personally I see my drone as just a tool the same as my tripod. Nonetheless I thought after two months I should get past zero minutes flying time and see if it actually works.
Tuesday was a cold, crisp blue sky day, so I thought I’d just burn up the four batteries I have and reacquaint myself with the controller and have a play. As nice as the day was however it was a bit blustry up top. I’m sure the Mini 5 Pro would have been fine but I had a serious case of “couldn’t-be-arsed-ness” and the drone never made it out of the bag. It wasn’t a wasted outing however. Whilst the drone didn’t get an outing the mobile phone did.
It’s been about two and a half years since I’d been over this way and I’d forgotten about the different compositions and views that you can get. It’s not somewhere that’s really well photographed (as far as I’m aware), so there are possibilities to get a few shots that aren’t the norm. I spent a good few hours wandering over to Hanging Stone, trying a few compositions with the mobile phone with a view to coming back later in the week with the Nikon Z8.
Fast forward to today and it’s Thursday, 27th November. Two days later and it’s brutal out there. The more I use the BBC weather app the more convinced I am that they use a random number generator for wind speed! 10 mph it wasn’t.
Low cloud, mist and rain in the Staffordshire Peak District.
I pressed on regardless of the wind and managed to get a nice couple of shots with the low cloud / mist and rain drifting across the landscape. I think they show the mood of the day quite well. Unfortunately there were no real views back into the Peak District. The low cloud had masked the landscape in that direction, so you couldn’t really see past the valley.
Carrying on along the ridgeline I took a few shots looking out towards Bosley Cloud and the Cheshire Plain. The weather it has to be said looked a touch better over that neck of the woods but it felt like flogging a dead horse.
I’d got the ISO cranked up to 500 but with the movement in the grass and the vibration on the tripod I wasn’t feeling it. I had wanted to get the 100mm - 400mm lens out but there was absolutely no chance of getting anything with that today, so I stuck with the 24mm - 120mm f/4 and it wasn’t quite doing it for me.
As a side note. This part of the Peak District is pretty quiet and there are some really popular walks available and I made a mental note that the next time I visit Luds Church I’ll give it a go from this direction.
Signposting various Peak District walks along the path to Hanging Stone.
At the top of the next rise I gave up on the photography. I’d come out wanting to use the 100mm - 400mm but with the wind it was pointless getting it out of the bag. I suppose I was a bit unfulfilled with the way the morning had turned out and felt like other than blowing away the cobwebs the day was a bust.
I sheltered behind a dry stone wall and took a last long shot of Hanging Stone before turning around and heading back to the car.
Hanging Stone in the Staffordshire Peak District National Park.
Whilst today just didn’t really happen on reflection the exercise of revisiting the location and refreshing my memory was really worth while. I just need to make sure I get back to it at the right time of the year, time of the day, and when the conditions are right to make use of the long lens.
To end I’ll use those immortal words of Arnie . . . I’ll be back.
You can view more images from The Roaches, and my gallery of other Peak District locations.
