Caption:

Fairbrook, Kinder in the Peak District

Commentary:

Kinder is well-known as a bleak and dour locale. And truth be told, when it’s raining and blowing a gale it is just that - in spades. However, when the sun is shining and the heather or ferns are at their best, it can be a gorgeous place to spend a day in beautiful, serine and inspiring surroundings.

It is also as close as the Peak District gets to being a mountain environment. As such it attracts plenty of visitors both on foot and on a variety of (two) wheeled platforms. Rock climbing on Kinder is best restricted to high summer, though those interested in running and mountain biking get to play all year round. Anyone looking for winter climbing will, of course, be limited to a few short winter days.

And, as they say, a road runs through it. We are talking about the A57 here; the infamous Snake Pass, which runs east/west providing a vital infrastructure link betwixt and between Sheffield and Manchester. Many travel the Snake daily. The Snake is all things to all drivers. To photographers it provides quick access into some great valleys which, under certain lighting and seasonal conditions, take on a haunting appearance.

On two recent trips, I was treated to both high-light and low-light and the views were completely different. I stopped on both occasions and shot some frames of Fairbrook, a mile or so east of the Snake Inn. The high-light shot shows Fairbrook in beautiful clean, strong late spring daylight. The low-light was completely different and shows Fairbrook in a more sombre and foreboding mode.

Eventually, I figured that I preferred the haunting look of the low-light shots best.

Capture Notes:

Nikon D300, 18-200 AFS f3.5-5.6G, 1/250 secs @ f7.1, ISO 400 matrix metering

Keywords:

Peak District, landscape photography, Kinder, Fairbrook