Upper Moor Mist and Autumn Colours
A landscape photography blog by Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire based landscape photographer Rob Thorley Photography.
Photographing the beech trees at Upper Moor during autumn was high up on the to do list and it was just a case of hoping the weather conditions aligned with the autumn colours. Whilst it is usually best to have a plan the weather gods didn’t really care. From mid October the weather had been quite miserable. Wind and rain and when it wasn’t raining it was windy. Not ideal weather for woodland photography.
Lying in bed after a curry and a couple of pints I was scanning the weather apps before nodding off and noticed that mist was forecast for the first couple of hours at Upper Moor, but it was also forecasting wind and rain alongside. It was one of them “do I, or don’t I” decisions to make.
I woke at 5:30AM but still undecided I closed my eyes and had an extra half an hour in bed whilst trying to convince myself it wasn’t worth going. The main argument to stay in bed was the wind and rain, which was quite brutal. I also knew the road through Ipstones was closed, so I’d have to find another route over to Upper Moor. And whilst both of these arguments were convincing there was that little vote for going . . . mist.
I’m glad to say that the mist won, although it was now panic mode to get over there before it disappeared. Why didn’t I just get out of bed at 05:30 . . .
I figured out a route via Churnet Valley that would bring me the other side of Ipstones and set off. The drive over was a little slower. It was dark and I didn’t know the roads past Cheddleton, which were narrow, twisty country roads for the most part but once I joined up with the A523 I pretty much knew where I was.
I pulled up at the lay-by just over an hour later and was pleased to see that there was just one van there.
The mist was still lingering but with the wind and rain I was more than aware that it probably wouldn’t last long. I grabbed my gear from the car ever thankful that it was only a one minute walk from the lay-by to the beech trees.
The first couple of shots were what you’d probably call opportunistic. The man from the van was making a lovely silhouette in the mist, so it would have been rude not to take the shot.
I grabbed a few portrait and landscape shots with the 24mm -120mm. I decided to shoot with that lens going down and then shoot with the 100mm - 400mm on the way back up. I had the the 14mm - 30mm with me but I wasn’t particularly feeling that lens for some reason.
I set the ISO on the Z8 to 500 and shot around one stop under with the shutter speed being whatever the shutter speed was. Other than that I was on a five second timer due to the wind and just played around with the aperture as I went.
A photographer in the autumn mist at Upper Moor. The Derbyshire Dark Hedges.
I was really pleased with how these first few images looked on the back of the camera and I did chat to my “photographer in the mist” for a few minutes a little later as he made his was back up the path.
Whilst the wind was problematic the trees were sheltering me from the worst of the rain and of course the mist was just the icing on the cake. The question was how long would it last?
Just as my photographer disappeared into the mist another chap joined me. We got chatting and he said he was local and had been waiting for weeks for a spot of mist. He said he was on, or had just been on the school run and had popped in to grab a couple of shots. He asked if I minded if he wandered in front a bit as he was on the clock. I told him I was in no rush and to fill his boots.
I don’t usually photograph people in my shots but once again this seemed to be one of those opportunistic moments, so I grabbed a few photographs. Opportunistic seemed to be the theme of the day so far and when I checked the images on the back of the camera I was quite pleased with them. It was turning out to be a cracking morning.
After a few minutes he bid me farewell and I was left alone with Upper Moor to myself.
It was a few days later when I found out that this photographer was called Kev. I’d shared a few of the images from Upper Moor on a Facebook group and someone in that group recognised and tagged him. He asked if I’d be okay with him using one of the images for his profile picture, which was absolutely fine with me. We exchanged a few messages and I sent him over the high resolution edits I’d been playing around with and the RAW files, so that he could edit them himself if he wanted to.
It was great to have a chat and put a name to a face.
After Kev had left I carried on wandering down the path grabbing a few images as I went. As expected the mist started to clear and it wasn’t too long before it completely disappeared.
Even though the mist had disappeared, sadly the wind and rain didn’t and it was still pretty brutal conditions. I continued to photograph the beech trees as I went down the path and to be honest whilst there was plenty of autumn colour from the fallen leaves underfoot, what remained on the trees was still pretty green. As such a few of my edits on this page are of a creative nature even with autumn in full swing.
I mainly shot in a portrait orientation to capture the beech trees and the canopy but I also took some images in a landscape orientation. You can check out the full gallery of Upper Moor images for other edits, and compositions of this location.
I was taking a few “different” shots of the location as I reached the end of the beech trees when I noticed that the mist was started to form again even though the wind and rain was still full on.
I quickly popped on the 100mm - 400mm lens and made my way back up the path with a view to capturing some images of the dry stone wall and beech trees on the left of frame.
It was whilst working my way back to the car that I got chatting to a chap who was out walking his two cocker spaniels. As we spoke he said the day before (Sunday) there had been a lot more photographers than dog walkers here and that he’d noticed how popular the location was for photography. We chatted for a few minutes whilst one of his spaniels took a keen interest in my camera bag and desperately wanted to pee on it. Fortunately the man deterred him and they all continued with their walk.
At this point I was actually composing a few shots the other way and it was only while waiting for the five second timer to click that I happened to turn around as the chap was disappearing into the mist. Thinking it look quite a nice scene, dare I say “opportunistic” I quickly turned the camera around on the tripod and fired a few quick shots before he’d completely disappeared.
Unfortunately I only got the shot below and one with half a dogs backside showing. You snooze you lose as they say.
It was the same post I’d put on Facebook that identified Kev where a lady called Mary replied to the post saying she thought it was her husband. I mentioned he had two spaniels with them and described them. She confirmed the dogs were called Dave and Sky and that it was indeed her husband and that he recalled our chat. Mary said he was out daily as part of his cancer recovery programme and asked if she could purchase a copy of the photograph.
I messaged Mary and told her there was no need to pay. We exchanged email addresses and I sent over the high resolution file, so that she could get a decent copy printed.
A dog walker in the mist at Upper Moor, near Matlock.
All in all a cracking morning at Upper Moor. Plenty of opportunistic images and plenty of mist. It would have been nice not have the wind and rain but I guess you can’t have everything.
You can view more images of Upper Moor and my gallery of other Peak District locations.
