Exploring the High Peak with Ilford Delta 100

My favourite photo of the summer, myself sat atop The Trinnacle overlooking Yeoman Hey Reservoir. 1/30s 50mm F8.0 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A.

I found myself in a fortunate position in early summer to have a couple of days spare on a work trip to spend time exploring the Peak District once again. Using this opportunity, I turned my attention to the one part I’d barely seen before - High Peak in the northern part of the National Park. Its rough and rugged landscapes a suitable subject for Ilford Delta 100 in my Bronica SQ-A.

The first steps out of the carpark were quite literal ones through pine forest. The more open woodland of conifers lets in more light and works better for black and white I feel. 1/8s 50mm F8.0 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A.

The path leads you around and through the reservoirs. This was where I saw most of the people that day. 1/125s 110mm F8.0 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A.

The first day I wanted to make my way to The Trinnacle, an impressive but not widely known rock formation that sits in the Dovestone area. I parked up near the RSPB Bin Green car park, walked through the pine forest to Dovestone Reservoir, before walking over the dam crossing that separates it from Yeoman Hey Reservoir. I was fortunate to have hot sunny weather for a long walk near water, but as it was a weekday the numbers of people were fairly minimal and as you move further away from the car parks they do thin out further. As I got up the slopes, I noticed that on such a clear day I could actually look out all the way across to Manchester, many miles away. Thankfully I was able to capture that on film despite the distant haze.

Looking back once I’d gone up the first slope better shows off the dam that splits the two reservoirs. 1/30s 110mm F11 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A with polariser.

An amazing view on a clear day that leads all the way to Manchester at the very top. 1/15s 110mm F16 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A with polariser.

The Trinnacle itself suddenly seem to loom out of nowhere as I turned a corner and at first, I was left scratching my head as to how to safely get up onto the higher right side. The solution turned out to be a leap and a small amount of courage. Though I do possess a cable release it doesn’t quite stretch the distance, but luckily after setting up the shot and perching on the edge of the rock a fellow walker was able to click the shutter and get the image I wanted. It’s probably my favourite of the summer and something well captured in monochrome with all the textures of the rock.

Along the way I came across this memorial cross that stands to remember an MP who lost his life to an accidental gun discharge in the late 1800s. 1/15s 50mm F16 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A with polariser.

The Trinnacle suddenly appeared on the path I was walking. I had a fellow walker click the shutter button once I’d positioned myself on top. 1/30s 50mm F8.0 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A.

The most dangerous feat behind me I followed the path round and headed down Greenfield Waterfall which still had plenty of water flowing despite the already dry spring we’d been having. Cascading water always makes for good long exposure subjects and with uninteresting lighting and green banks, black and white helped simplify the images to keep the focus on form.

As I followed the trail round I got to Greenfield Waterfall which the path follows all the way down back to the reservoirs. 3s 110mm F13 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A with 5 stops of ND filters.

Cascading water makes for great photographic subjects with long exposures. 2s 50mm F16 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A with 5 stops of ND filters.

The second day started out not very successfully with a closed path but ended with a very long walk that took me right up into the moors. My eventual starting point was Torside car park as I wanted to walk up alongside the waterfall Wildboar Clough. However here was a place that had unfortunately been affected by the long spell of dry weather and it had completely dried up. This made for the interesting experience of climbing up a dried-up waterfall, the images of which will be in next week’s blog as I took this on expired colour film.

The cracked peaty soils on the moors that formed in the early stages of this summer’s drought. 1/8s 110mm F16 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A with polariser.

The ruined remains of fencing that had long been abandoned. 1/125s 50mm F8.0 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A.

Carrying on up onto the moors I headed to Bleaklow and the main path that runs through the area, picking it up to carry me partly onto another prominent waterfall – Middle Black Clough. Along the way I did encounter some notable things, including yet another wreckage of a plane (something I seem to have a habit of finding) and the interesting patterns of cracked peaty soils. Bleaklow, as its name suggests, was otherwise very bleak. I only saw two other people up there and it’s not hard to see how easy it would be to get lost, especially in bad weather with low visibility.

I seem to be a magnet for plane wreckage on my upland walks both in England and Wales. This particular frame showed the worst of the uneven develop of this roll. 1/250s 110mm F5.6 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A.

The walk down to Middle Black Clough was not exactly easy as there wasn’t much of a marked path that led there. Wearing shorts certainly gave my legs a great deal of vegetation induced exfoliation. The reward was worth it though with a waterfall that still had plenty of water flowing and its good size set amongst dark, moss-covered rocks made for a good subject in monochrome.

After a long trek up and around Bleaklow, I finally made it to Middle Black Clough. 72s 50mm F8.0 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A with 5 stops of ND filters.

A wider shot gives a better view of the area. I must have had some water droplets on the lens that was aggravating the lens flair on both images as the sun was in the sky above the waterfall. 35s 50mm F11 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A with 5 stops of ND filters 1 stop underexposed.

I rounded off the day by returning to where I had tried to park originally at the Longdendale Trail, passing by the old Woodhead Railway Station and eventually Woodhead Reservoir before I returned to Torside carpark thoroughly tired after so much walking. My last subjects were a Pylon, a common subject in black and white and one that stood out well against the cloudless sky. The strong symmetrical patterns of its internal structure making for a particularly strong image, especially as it is not always possible to get right underneath one. The last image is of the drying bed of Woodhead Reservoir, it too having seen a significant drop in water levels to reveal the differing cracked layers of mud and sand.

Pylons have long made great monochromatic subjects. 1/30s 50mm F11 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A.

I could actually get underneath this one to take this shot of the mostly symmetrical structure. Well suited to the square format. 1/30s 50mm F11 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A.

There’s another set of images that complement this blog, but I will talk about them next week as I feel they deserve a bit of discussion on their own for reasons that will be very clear. Until then I hope you enjoyed this week’s images and hopefully it has inspired you to make your own adventure to the High Peak.

The final picture taken on Delta 100. With the water receding these lovely layers of mud and sand made for a great textural subject in black and white. 1/4s 110mm F16 Ilford Delta 100 Bronica SQ-A with polariser.

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