There's a time and a place for run 'n' gun
Trees in the mist in the Derbyshire Dales at dawn
These images I made the other morning up in the High Peaks or the Derbyshire Dales National Nature Reserve as Google Maps refers to it. I’d planned to head up the previous morning and had done all my prep; camera bag readied, coffee pot on the timer, flask out etc etc but one final check of the weather forecast before hitting the sack revealed a startling different picture from the one I’d created my plans around earlier in the day. So after a little deliberation I binned the idea off, popped the lid on a cold one and settled for the following day, for which the forecast would set be altogether a different picture. In fact it was set to go from blanket grey skies one morning to total blue the next, neither of which were ideal for landscape photography but at least I would get some good early light. Often for me, the wee trips themselves up into the solitude and peacefulness of the hills are sufficient to rejuvenate my creative batteries without even hitting the shutter.
Now there are times when I’m more than happy to yomp up a dale or clamber down the side of a waterfall or whatever is required to get the photograph, however this particular morning I had decided in advance, would be a run ’n’ gun. The roads would be deserted and I’d spend the majority of my time down tiny back lanes so the chance of me causing any kind of obstruction or hindrance to anyone else by abandoning my car in the middle of the road would be somewhere between slim and none.
And that’s pretty much what I did. I simply chased the light for a couple of hours and it felt great.
Trees in the mist in the Derbyshire Dales at dawn