Sunset at Black Coppice
I had planned to head up to Great Hill again on Thursday evening and the weather looked quite promising too, but general apathy meant I only managed to drag myself out relatively late, leaving slightly less than two hours from the moment I first set boot on moor until the time sunset was due to occur.
My first port of call was Black Coppice where I'd intended to spend a few minutes exploring the area where I'd planned to go last week before the other photographer set up shop there, before moving on deeper into the moors. This plan also hastily went out of the window and I ended up spending way too long exploring the top of the quarries and seeing what compositions I could come up with incorporating the the heather that's probably a little past its best now, but still rather vibrant. I got a few nice shots, but nothing particularly exciting considering the amount of time I spent.
Eventually I set off up the Black Brook path that leads deeper onto the moors. After 20 minutes or so of repeatedly stopping to grab shots of backlit heather or awkward shots of the heather laced grass on the far bank I realised that if I carried on I was going to end up totally cut off from any sort of view when sunset happened and took the executive decision to turn back and spend sunset on Black Coppice where at least there would be views, although, as it turned out, very little time to really think about what to do with them.
All images taken handheld with the Nikon Z7 plus either 24-70 f/2.8S or 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 VR S. Processed from single raw files in Capture One Pro 23.
1. The Goit
The Goit is a man made canal running from the Roddlesworth (yes, that's a real place name) reservoir chain to feed into the Rivington chain at Anglezarke (that one is too!). I've taken this shot a few times now in different evening conditions. Here, the upper the canopy is a little less intensely lit than it has been on previous occasions, which I think adds to the weight of it when used to frame the rest of the image.
Just lately I've been watching quite a bit of Steve O'Nions on Youtube, who shoots a lot of B&W film which has inspired me to try a few B&W conversions, included here as bonus pics. When processing these, I've been thinking about what my preferences were when I used to shoot on film back in the stone age late 1980's. I was never a fan of grainy film, preferring to shoot on fine grain high contrast emulsion like Pan F and then print on multigrade paper at a middling contrast level, so this is what I've aimed for here. With some selective colour biasing, plus a bump in contrast and exposure this conversion seems to have taken on a bit of a glow the colour original didn't have. I almost feel like getting the Bronica out. I wonder if it still works?
2. Backlit Grass
I was quite taken with this backlit grass set against the colours of the quarry. I tried a number of shots here, but this is the best one I came up with. Not quite what I was aiming for, whatever that was. I do like the grouping of three trees in a row at the back, which also feel like they need further investigation.
3. Sheep In a Quarry
An inquisitive sheep inspects a nook, or maybe a cranny. Regardless of whatever kind of orifice it's eating ferns from, I liked the subtle tones here between the heather, grass and rocks, plus the texture on the quarry wall.
I also figured this one would make a nice B&W conversion, which is kind of ironic considering how much I've just waffled on about subtle colours. I think it emphasises the rocky textures quite nicely though.
4. Nab and Quarry
Looking towards the setting sun (just off the top of the frame), really pushing the flare rejection of the 24-70, which it handles admirably.
5. Cricket and Heather
Looking in the opposite direction towards the cricket ground, what most local people think of when someone mentions White Coppice, but that's actually the name of the grassy hill leading off out of frame on the right.
Another B&W conversion that once again reminds me of high contrast fine grain film. Somehow, this image looks old.
6. Black Combe
A shot from the 100-400. Not as good visibility as last week, but still a recognisable lump in the distance. Having walked most of the Lakeland fells over the years, Black Combe felt a bit odd as it's on the coast, which gave a strange feeling having nothing but sea to my left as I followed the path curled around its western flank that leads to the summit. I haven't used any dehaze tools on this (in fact, I find their effect quite objectionable most of the time), but it's interesting how there's a sudden demarcation in visibility around about the middle of the frame. The trees on the other side of that hill are probably a lot further away than they appear.
It's also worth mentioning how good the image stabilisation is on the 100-400, particularly for static subjects. This shot was taken hand held at 400mm and is pin sharp at just 1/125 and I've handheld equally sharper images at much longer exposures than that. It's fair to say, I quite like this lens.
7. Layers
Looking through the growing haze towards the Mormon temple at Chorley North. I like how the scene is divided into discreet layers of tone.
8. Mysterious Fiery Ball In The Sky
A wider shot including this strange, rarely seen orb that I was lucky enough to snap as it slowly descended in the sky.
9. Where It All Went Wrong
This had been such a promising sunset, with nary a cloud in the sky and hints of what looked like the Isle Of Man visible on the horizon, so I had high hopes for how it would end, but alas, my old nemesis, the fog bank, was lurking over the Irish Sea, practically invisible until the sun started to clip the top of it and revealed it hiding in plain sight, as it began strangling the vibrant life out of the nascent sunset.
