Saddleworth Photo-walk…Early July

On Thursday, 12 members of Oldham Photographic Society gathered at Dovestone for an evening photo-walk. It’s an area I know well and have photographed many times over the years. The light was low enough to give some warmth to the landscape, but it was sometimes a bit shadow-less, so the presence of a few clouds moving across did help. It becomes a challenge to photograph the familiar scenery in a different way and to find some new viewpoint, given the constraints of the evening. I took a conscious decision not to photograph the water of the reservoir and to concentrate on just one feature…the warm colours…especially the golden grasses, which are at their best at this time of year. Here are some of my favourite shots from the evening. Some of the shots were stitched panoramas and some are crops from original 3:2 format.

PS: I am not a real landscape photographer. I do not own any Lee filters or a photographer’s vest. I was not carrying an ultra wide angle lens (all the shots were taken on my walkabout 24-105mm lens). It is theoretically the wrong time of year for landscapes and the wrong time of day (I don’t get up before dawn). I did not have a tripod or monopod or camera bag with me.