Around the first week of February, Matt, Glenn and I headed into the Peak District for a “get-together with cameras”. Traditionally, this is our version of an organised photo shoot; we turn up with our cameras and catch up on each others’ lives while wandering aimlessly around in a photogenic landscape, casually picking out photo subjects and compositions. It’s been a long time since either of us saw Matt, so we had a lot to catch up on. I think we’ve barely scratched the surface so far, and we’re looking forward to continuing our conversations next time.

Mine and Glenn’s back yard really is the Yorkshire Dales. That’s the area we know best, and know wherein to put ourselves for the best opportunities for photos given weather conditions on a given day.  The Peak District, however, is very much Matt’s back yard. I’ve visited and driven through the Peak District a number of times in the past, but never with any local knowledge. Glenn has even less familiarity with the area, having only visited once when very young. Matt, though, knows the Peaks extremely well. Accordingly, we very much let Matt take the lead.

We started the day by meeting up at the Blue John mine, at the foot of probably the most famous of Derbyshire’s High Peaks, Mam Tor. It’s an impressive hill, both visually and geologically.

Mam Tor is slowly collapsing; its East face is falling away over time, taking everything with it including the paths and roadways on its side.

It’s a quite fascinating sight, and the view from there is also an extremely photogenic mix of nature and industry. If conditions had been a little different, and if we’d arrived quite a bit earlier, there is often a cloud inversion visible from the top of Mam Tor.

Having arrived later, and being frankly too old to hike to the top, this is something we didn’t get the opportunity to capture on this occasion.

We made our way round the back of Mam Tor to Edale, where we parked up near the railway station and stopped for a coffee before setting off on the path towards Nether Top. Obviously, being old, we didn’t get all that far, but we did have a decent trek up to the bridge over the spring at Golden Clough.

I took quite a few photos at the bridge but none of them turned out too well. The trees, and the light through the trees at that time of day, made the scene far too complicated for a decent composition. It was one of those occasions when you just had to be there and, although I don’t have any good photos to show for it, it was the epitome of a beauty spot.

I did get some decent infrared shots on the walk there and back, though:-

Naturally (or inevitably?) we found our way to a pub in Edale, where we stopped for a natter and to chimp our tranche of photos thus far.

Suitably refreshed, we dragged our tired little legs back to the car and headed back up to Winnats Pass.

This is a favourite drive of mine, and I try to do it any time I’m in the vicinity. With Matt as our guide, however, this time we were able to find our way to the top of the pass where we could view it from above. With the sun beginning to drop rapidly towards the horizon, the changing light was incredible, the colours quite jaw-dropping and I was almost euphoric as I got my last shots of the day. For me, this was quite literally an astounding moment.