Broomhead Revisited

Broomhead Revisted

Landscape Photography

I was quite impressed with my early December outing to Broomhead Reservoir. I have returned a couple more times over the holiday period.  On both of these days it was very muddy and clarty, wellies were the footwear of choice. It is quite funny to think walking is more difficult to do than running in such conditions.

I used a ND 0.9 soft grad filter to help define the clouds as the sun was beginning to dip. The water was fast enough for a degree of motion blur. In fact  this is my favoured graduated filter to capture the contrast in  the sky. It has been used in all of the images, even with the little stopper

Using the 17-40mm lens, being a wide angle you have to be a little more selective on composition. For the The image above, I saw the opening between the trees as a great example of framing, the tree canopy, the reflections and the grass. The clouds on the horizon almost look like snow covered mountains.

In this image, I wanted to capture the motion blur of the water and some movement in the clouds. An interesting spiral had formed reflecting the last bit of light as the sun was setting.

The above images were taken on 19th December 2020.

Post Christmas Day

After having a relatively quite Christmas due to COVID-19 restrictions, even though they were eased for just one day. Skyping and zooming family was fun, after that I did not feel like much socialising. Friends had been pending test results. The decision was made, no cocktails or games at theirs. As the new strain is floating around I was happy to do a very insular Christmas.

My “long suffering partner” who is not only photography widow, he is also a running widow too; bought be the upgraded LEE filter holder and polariser attachment to go with it. I must say I am overjoyed, the fact that you can clip the holder and lock it, rotate it locked on and then add the polariser with the attached without juggling things to much is working well. Screwing the polariser on and off was quite problematic with the previous system. The new adaptor clips on and off. I have also managed to work a way of packing my 8 filters, holder and polariser into my filter pouch. The only thing that is a bug bear, there is no cover for the holder to allow you to keep it attached to the camera. Cokin have one, so why has LEE not done one too? I would like to leave my holder attached, as I do not trust myself in slippery conditions to carry my camera out of the bag….

A view of the pump house with the spillway bridge, just around sunset. That piece of wood still sitting there from my previous outing.

I knew the clouds were going to reflect the light from behind therefore I took a shot from the dam wall. The spillway is the continuation of Ewden Beck into More Hall Reservoir. Along with the moon rising, makes for an interesting shot, the two bushes clumped to the left, the trees lining the spillway and the body of water just glimpsing through the trees below the horizon, finished with the colours of the sky and clouds The grass is particularly green, which is quite astonishing as you would have expected some snow. It has been a particularly wet and rainy start to the winter this year.

I tried to get a shot with the bridge to the right hand side. This prove difficult, the light was very strong even for the little stopper, and people insisted in being in the frame. I gave up and waited for dusk. The highlight on the pump house and the reflections on the reservoir just add a little more to the scene. The ripples on the spillway are almost tangible and are like little meringue peaks in blue.

The last three images were taken on 27th December 2020

Gallery

The collection so far.

 

Thank you for stopping by my blog today.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Let us hope 2021 brings better times for everyone.