Surprised at Dawn

On switching horses just in time

My second visit with Julian Ashley to the Peak District was lots of fun and turned up a surprise image. We arrived on the Friday – from different parts of the country – and met up briefly with Tim Parkin and Dav Thomas for a natter at what turned out to be the target for dawn. I took the time to scout a potential dawn image and then we went on to the B&B in Hathersage.

Given that there was no chance of dawn on the Saturday, the day was spent playing around in Padley Gorge – which went well until a long late lunch ended proper photography for the day!

Conditions on the Sunday morning looked promising with frost and light forecast and we were in position well before sunrise. I set up the scouted image – the alternative – but felt a little uneasy because of the lack of clouds. I looked behind me and realised that the real image was going to happen when the light got up – a really nice tree surrounded by frosted heather.

So I changed horses. I exposed a sheet for the view down the Hope Valley, reached for my 240mm Fujinon and set up the main image, waiting for it to light. I made two sheets – one with and one without the wind and it turned out that the moving leaves made the image. The surprise image made it into my Alchemy series.