Driving down the motorway at 3 am towards the Peak District I found myself questioning why I was doing this and whether it was worth it. Turns out, it most certainly was.
I attended a workshop hosted by Canon back in November of 2017. Having never photographed in the Peak District before, I jumped at the chance.
The morning was simply put, stunning. Our group set off up Mam Tor in the darkness and upon reaching the summit, looked down into the Hope Valley to see a low hanging fog in the valley, street lights glowing underneath. A landscape photographers dream, the ever-elusive temperature inversion was right there. We all silently hoped it would stick around for the sunrise, knowing there’s always a chance the winds could pick up or the temperatures change in such a way when the sunrises, it just disappears.
The best possible scenario ensued and we all stood for at least two hours, with little conversation, photographing the fog washed valley below. Here are some of the images (in chronological order).
Just before sunrise. Here you see the streetlamps glowing below a thin coverage of fog and the sky glowing orange as the sun begins to come up.
A more abstract shot here. The trees poking up above the fog almost look like islands on water.
As the sun started to rise, it caught on the ‘waves’ of fog, as it slowly billowed around the valley. The cement factory clearly pierces the fog and one of its hidden chimneys blows steam in the air, lit up by the sun.
This is a long exposure. Here you can see how the fog was slowly moving around in the valley as it appears to wash up and down the hills to the side.
I love the contrast here between the foggy valley and the darker trees forming interlocking horizontal lines.
Probably my favourite from the morning. As the fog subsided slightly as the sun warmed the valley, more and more trees began to surface, casting amazing shadows across the surface of the fog.
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