RPS Landscape Group Newsletter, November 2022

LANDSCAPE Newsletter

November 2022 Volume 7 Number 8

Submissions The copy date for submissions to the next newsletter (January) is Friday 23 December 2022.

Please note that it may be necessary to hold some submissions for a future newsletter.

If you have an idea for an article, please send a brief synopsis (up to 50 words) of the purpose and content of the piece.

Please submit your images as jpeg attachments, sized to 1200 pixels along the longest edge and borderless. Do not embed images in an email.

Please send all submissions to: landscapenews@rps.org

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Cloud and mountain peak layers at dusk

by Jo Court

RPS Landscape SIG Committee Richard Ellis ARPS (Chair) Mark Reeves ARPS (Vice Chair) Mark Edwards (Treasurer) Andy McLaughlin (Secretary) Chris McIntosh (Pro Events Manager) Dave Glenn (Member Led Events Manager) Sue Wright (Web Editor) Peter Fortune (Newsletter Editor) Robert Brittle ARPS (Magazine Editor) Fiona McCowan FRPS (Member without Portfolio) Colin Balfour (Member without Portfolio)

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C O N T E N T S November 2022 Volume 7 Number

Editorial Peter Fortune, RPS Landscape SIG Newsletter Editor

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Chair Chat Richard Ellis RPS Landscape SIG Chair

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Join Us, Magazine Editor 6 Quick links RPS Landscape SIG Website

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Articles by Members •

Hartland Peninsula by Anne Whitely

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Dinorwic Quarry, North Wales by Dibs McCallun

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Keeping equipmebt light and easy for mountain hiking

by Jo Court

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Dawn Photography by Roger Styles

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Monthly competition

Winners announcements for October

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Events

Landscape Group Events 30

Other RPS News 31

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EDITORIAL Peter Fortune, Newsletter Editor It is that time of year again! My son was born on 12/11 a day remembered within the family as being 6 weeks from Christmas Eve. This being the last Newsletter of the year look forward beyond Christmas and the New Year and plan breaks and holidays for when the Winter is passed. The fact that I am writing this now tells you that I am an optimist and a warm weather person. Having said that the next edition of the Newsletter will be in January and a list of the planned editions for 2023 are set out below.

January, March, May, June, July, September, October and November.

The deadline for each edition is the Friday of the previous month. However deadlines are a guide and can be treated a little flexibly if the situation warrants.

This month we have a range of articles that, hopefully will interest members:- we have an article written about the Hartland Peninsular in North Devon, an article describing a quarry in North Wales, an article describing the benefits of having light kit when out in the open air and an article about the problems and issues in Dawn Photography + all the usual features.

Regular readers will know that I am a Nikon man and I have moved to mirrorless owning a Nikon Z7 and having declined take up all the upgrades and new models which Nikon have brought out. An Uncle of mine who coached me in photography when I was young kept the same camera (a film camera) for about 30 years and Lone Tree © Peter Fortune although he lived into the digital age never switched to digital photography.

When I look at what he was able to achieve with his manual camera and film, I remain in awe of his technical and visual skills - he achieved results that would have won him competitions in many a camera club were he to have had any interest in competing.

For myself I really love the mirrorless system particularly with the in body stabilisation which Nikon have developed. I have tested the validity of the claims for dramatic improvements in the camera performance without camera shake being apparent. It enables me to leave my tripod at home in almost all circumstances except when planning pre-dawn and post-sunset shoots. It also causes me to wonder what the camera makers will come up with next?

As mentioned above, this is the last Newsletter of 2022, and I therefore wish all readers a Happy Christmas and a prosperous 2023!

Peter Fortune November 2022 Volume 7 Number 8

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Chair Chat

Richard Ellis ARPS, Chair

With the landscape prime season well underway this has been a very busy time for the committee. We have been launching the autumn and winter programme, running trips and talks and preparing the budget for 2023. All this is very positive and we look forward to sharing this with you in due course. Regrettably events have been somewhat overshadowed by the unreliability of CRM. I seem to have written lots of apology emails recently to people whose experience has not lived up to what we expect. We are sorry this is not working properly and realise it is very frustrating. Although HQ are working to fix this system it still does not perform and we and other groups are forced into a series of work arounds. We will keep monitoring the situation and providing updates.

On a personal level I enjoyed a fantastic week in the glens (Affric, Cannich and Strathfarrer). The weather was unsettled resulting in constantly changing light.

This presents its own challenges in that you needed to be set up and wait for the light whilst hoping that you did not get rain. It reminded me of the importance of not fighting the light but working with what the conditions give you. If it is overcast and constant light that is a great time to get into woodland and explore more intimate landscapes, whereas shower light can work really well for the grand vista.

As the year draws to a close it is a good time to think about projects for 2023.

The RPS will have a summer exhibition so you could enter some of your work to that. Talking to lots of photographers I am amazed how many people do not know that if you have a subscription to Lightroom, Adobe provide you with a free website. This is on the My Portfolio part of the programme and allows you to link collections in Lightroom to your own website. Setting up your own website is a great way to show your work.

I hope that you are getting out and about and we are all looking forward to seeing the results of the ‘closer to home’ project.

Enjoy your photography.

Richard

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RPS Landscape Group Advancing the Art of Landscape Photography

Credit: Misty autumn morning (c) James-McCracken LRPS

Q ui ck L i n k s t o t h e R PS L a n d s c a p e Gro u p ’s We b s it e The Landscape group website features photography submitted to the Landscape group’s monthly competitions. Member’s images are proudly displayed throughout the RPS Landscape Group website.

Click on the image links below to open pages on the RPS Landscape Group’s homepage or go straight to the homepage from here, www.rps.org/groups/ landscape/.

You will find information on how to take part in the Landscape group’s Events, Circles, Competitions, Projects, read informative articles written by Landscape Members and more!

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Hartland Peninsula Landscape Photography Workshop

by Anne Whitely On a bright, sunny and mild October morning 5 keen amateur photographers met with Robert Harvey on Hartland Quay, North Devon. We were all looking forward to a day of landscape photography on this dramatic, unspoilt and relatively unknown area of the North Devon Coast.

Robert outlined plans for the day, advising on lenses and suitable footwear for each location - 3 in total on the itinerary. He then told us something of the amazing geological history of this coastline, which was laid down during a time when it was in a shallow sea and then the sedimentary rocks were twisted and contorted through shifting movements of the Earth’s surface.

Our first location was from the viewing area on the rocky promontory close to the Hartland Quay hotel where the waves crashed over the jagged dark rocks. There were a number of photographic considerations given the wide dynamic range of highlights and shadows and the amount of white water covering the sea. Robert advised us to bracket our shots and to experiment with different shutter speeds. Eventually we settled for 15 stops of light using Neutral Density filters to smooth out the white water and to capture the water running from the rocks. Eliminating the distraction of the white water helped to focus our attention on the rocks and water flow, anticipating when to release the shutter. We considered climbing down the rock wall onto the beach where the shiny black large boulders were beginning to appear. Having discussed the health and safety issues we all decided that this was a ‘step too far’ at the start of the day and decided to move to our next location at Welcombe Beach.

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Hartland Quay Rocks

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The narrow lanes in this area are like a ‘spiders web’ and a test of navigation. Fortunately they are not too busy and our small convoy of cars was able to follow Robert as he sped up and down deep valleys often with grass growing up the middle of the many potholed lanes. The track down to Welcombe is especially challenging as it is narrow, long and has no passing places, at the end however is a small car park with no facilities, but we were rewarded with a magnificent vista. This is a stunning beach - mainly rocky with long ridges reaching into the sea - resembling large jagged teeth.This beach is famous for the Crackington fault formation which can be seen in the cliffs and echoed in the twisted sedimentary rocks out to the sea. On a falling tide we were again looking to maximise wave movement amongst the interesting rocks and without totally submerging them in water. Lighting conditions were testing as sunlight glistened on the rock tops leaving strong highlights. Robert advised on bracketing 3 exposures (2 stops either side of the mid point) and also positioning tripods on rock as opposed to sand, which only sinks as the waves retreat down the beach. At most times we were the only people on this beach - solitude, seclusion and spectacular scenery, what more could a landscape photographer want? There is a small waterfall here and also lots of colourful geological formations of sandstone and mudstone, which would make good abstract images.

BlackChurch Rock

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Waterfall Mouthmill Beach

Our last location was Mouthmill beach and Black Church Rock and another journey through the lanes.

The weather was still fine with more clouds building and rain forecast. As is often typical in photography we had sunshine all day - these locations work best in overcast light - but for the last location we really wanted sunlight to shine on the rock arch and bring out its colour. There is a NT car park at Brownsham and then a walk down to Mouthmill beach which is just over a mile; the track is modestly sloping, very wide and muddy in places.

Arriving at the beach we were again alone amongst the elements - the deserted beach, dramatic rock formations and the huge rock arch help to create that sense of mystery, remoteness and a landscape which is like something from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. We had about an hour before the obliging sun slid behind the hill but during those last moments we were able to capture the rock arch cast in a golden glow, reflected in a rock pool. Most of us had wet feet, you need walking boots here to grip the wet rocks and traverse the large boulder field to get into a position to photograph the rock arch.

I used a wide angle lens 16-35 mm on a full frame camera. We used bracketing and focus stacking to secure the image. We walked back to our cars as light was fading around 6.30 pm and the first drops of rain fell. A full days shoot - excellent value, well planned and organised by Robert who was attentive and instructive; suggesting compositional aspects and techniques applicable to individual’s needs.

Last Light Mouthmill

A very good day in South West England - thanks to the RPS landscape group and Robert’s guidance - please can we have more field trips in ‘our neck of the woods’? The equipment I used - Canon EOS R5 mirrorless with EF 16 -35 mm, EF 24- 70 mm and RF 70- 200mm lens, remote release and filters, together with my iPhone .

All Images © Anne Whitely

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Dinorwic Quarry, North Wales

by Dibs McCallum

Over the course of 4 years, I have made numerous trips to one fantastic part of the UK called Dinorwic quarry.

This abandoned quarry that started its mining history in 1787 and eventually closed in 1969, is located to the North West of Snowdonia National park and attracts people for all sorts of activities, climbing, hill walking, dog walking, cycling, caving and the odd photographer or 2, due to its relatively easy access and amazing charm.

From the 1st time, I became aware of the site from the urban exploring forums I was keen to visit as it looked so cool with all its industrial and rugged charm, nothing and I mean nothing could have prepared me for the scale of the site This is still something that amazes each time I visit, as the scale of the reported 700 acre site is just something that photographs, I believe can’t do justice.

Over the course of my visits, I have encountered most of the seasons. I had had blistering sun, howling wind, horizontal rain and pea soup fog. All these add to the charm of the site and really do make for some outstanding photography if you are well prepared with the correct outdoor gear.

After some great walking uphill and finding old machinery, and old buildings there are so many places you can just sit and watch the world go by and if you are lucky see the mist just roll by, a perfect time and place to be gathering your thoughts. Slowing everything down while you are on the site and really walking around with your eyes wide open is important for your own safety, but also as there are so many small things that will just go unnoticed, etchings here and there, animal skulls, rusty bits of machinery, tell-tale signs of times gone by. So it goes without saying, having a photography buddy or 2 with you is a great idea for safety, but also as another set of eyes to spot things as you explore each level of the site and while you walk about, or maybe to help keep an eye on those smelly mountain goats that may be sniffing out your sandwiches.

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Overall my visits have ranged from small workshop groups to trips with a friend and 4-hour quick visits to 10-hour explores of the site, I am still yet to see all that the quarry has to offer, the place is one giant maze at times, zigzagging here and there with paths going one way and opening up into yet another epic view or leading to more caves to light up with torches that have you stopping with your camera, so I think there will be a few more trips on the cards in the colder months as I want to start documenting the site in the snow.

It goes without saying, this can be a very dangerous site and you do need to be careful. While checking it out, there are some areas that are fenced off to keep people out for their own safety. When the fog or mist rolls in, you can become disorientated, so being able to use a map can be very helpful if you are walking far off the well-trodden paths.

If you are in the area for photography and are thinking of only stopping by for a few hours, I would not bother, wait till you have at least 4 or 5 hours spare as you will want to at least see a few bits of it, and then I would think you will be planning on your revisit again.

To help plan out a great days photography, you have the amazing lone tree at Llyn Padarn you can shoot for sunrise, then nip into Llanberis for a cooked breakfast, then head up into the quarry for the day, this is a day you will remember for a long time.

All images (c) Dibs McCullum

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Keeping equipment light and easy for mountain hiking

by Jo Court

In 2018 we discovered a beautiful area in Northern Spain, a mini Swiss Alps, and this summer saw us return for the third time.

On our first trip I took photos with my point and shoot automatic camera. On route back to England I decided to hand in my notice at work and re embark on my creative journey. I had painted watercolours and taken photos from the age of ten and graduated with a BA in Fine Art in 1992. I enrolled immediately on all the adult education digital photography classes (having previously only worked with film) and in November of that year bought my first DSLR; A Nikon 750 with a sigma arts f2.8 24-70mm lens and a Nikon 70-300mm. I added to this collection of lenses over the following couple of years and was in love with my kit.

Before the storm, Spainish Pyrenees

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Cloud inversion spills over at dusk

Dawn above the clouds

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Cloud and mountain peak layers at dusk

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Evening arrives in the mountain peaks

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Good morning from San Glorio

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Our second trip was in 2020. I booked us into a remote mountain refuge before leaving the UK. We had attempted the walk the previous time without success due to the snow, the evening drawing in and the lack of experience and walking poles. This time I was determined to witness the magic from the peaks at both ends of a day. We began the ascent sooner in the day and on reaching the particular dodgy snow path saw others crossing and decided it was okay. We reached the refuge and it was one of my most magical moments.

Despite buying super down feather sleeping bags the bitter wind froze us all night. I tucked my camera within my sleeping bag to keep it from the cold and at first light jumped up and out of the tent the (refuge was closed due to COVID). Such was my excitement I almost forgot to put on my boots. I climbed up and watched the dawn break above the clouds…with my camera of course. We walked all day, every couple of days and I managed the camera on a strap diagonally across my body with a spare lens and travel tripod in my bag. My husband helpfully carried my water.

But….in June of this year, whilst finishing a hike in Wales, my knee went.

I could hardly walk and was most concerned in regard to the holiday we had booked for Spain in August. So I purchased a Nikon Z5 with a travel 24-200mm lens. I accepted what was likely to be a drop in quality from the two lenses I usually carried and also a drop in focal length. I like to use a telephoto lens in landscape work and my Nikon 70-300mm was sharp throughout. This lens seemed to lose it after 150mm and wasn’t good in low light with an aperture of f4/6.3. But I wanted to be able to walk in the mountains. With a new knee strap, lots of ibuprofen, walking poles and this much lighter kit we went out hiking every other day. I quickly adjusted to my new camera and found its performance to out-do my expectations. I tried not to shoot past 150mm and carried a tripod as usual.

I try to edit images from the dusk and dawn times asap when the light and colours are fresh in my mind.

All images © Jo Court

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Dawn Photography

by Roger Styles

Norfolk Dawn

I cannot claim to be a dedicated dawn photographer. It has always been by chance that I have been up and about at the sunrise hour. Take, for example, while staying in a holiday cottage just a stone’s throw from a Hadrian’s Wall it was a whine from our dog that told me he needed to go out. Hence, outside in my dressing gown at around 5 am, I saw a clear starry sky and mist across the nearby fields. That’s interesting, I thought. So, our dog’s need having been satisfied, I dressed, picked up tripod, camera and lens, donned wellies, and set off to cover the few hundred yards to Hadrian’s Wall. For the next hour and a half, I watched and clicked away as the scene in front of me changed by the minute. It was very special to watch this natural miracle unfold and to be the only person on the hillside witnessing the unique sequence of changing light which would never be repeated.

I learned a lot from this experience in terms of trying to control highlights and so on, but I also learned it is essential to have a very good head torch because, as daylight unfolded, I realised that not only had I entered a field of cows, but I was also standing in a large cow pat!

Of course, it is often the changing colour in a dawn sky that catches our attention, and it was that which caused me to be standing on a sloping shingle beach on Kintyre, looking out past the tip of the Isle of Arran to the isolated dome of Ailsa Craig as the sun rose off to my left. This would require a panoramic shot, but my repeated attempts to get the tripod sufficiently stable and level on the sloping shingle were failing as the sky became lighter by the second. There was no alternative.

It was going to have to be a handheld panorama of several portrait-format shots. Although fewer landscape-format shots would have been needed to cover the vista, when merged these would have resulted in an unacceptably narrow letterbox image.

So, setting exposure manually at the brightest area of the view and using manual focus set at the central distant point I worked steadily left to right across the scene, overlapping each shot by about a third while using the horizon and the handy green horizontal line in the camera viewfinder as a guide.

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Hadrian’s Wall Dawn

However, in spite of trying not to inadvertently alter any of the camera settings I might, I suspect, have slightly nudged the zoom ring, because after merging the 8 images in Lightroom, and inspecting the resulting panoramic image closely, I could see a tiny step on the right-hand section of the horizon. The fault may not be noticeable in this article and to be honest it doesn’t spoil my enjoyment of the result, but rather it is another valuable learning experience.

The next example is a simple 7 am shot of sunrise over trees in Norfolk late one September. It might be what a camera club judge would call “just a grab shot”, but it is nevertheless one of my dawn favourites.

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I said at the start that I am not a dedicated dawn photographer, but the experience has always been enjoyable and has sometimes resulted in a pleasing image. My learning points so far are, to know my camera so well that I can operate it in near darkness, visit a promising location in the daytime first, practise taking a panoramic image in any location to perfect the technique, and have a good head torch to avoid cow pats! I should add that using the many weather, sunrise/sunset apps, and also tide tables is advisable, but I will most likely continue to be a “by chance” dawn photographer thanks to our dog who is shown with my wife in the final image, taken at a decisive moment early one January morning at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s Wall.

Decisive Moment at Sycamotre Gap

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Join an RPS Landscape Circle FREE WIT H YOUR RPS L AND S CA P E G R OUP MEMBERSHIP Each group meets over Zoom or discusses images

by email. Group size varies from 6 to 10 members.

To join a circle, email the RPS Landscape Group Circles Co-ordinator David Travis ARPS at landscapecircle@rps.org.

In your email, please say which type of circle you would like to join (see below).

01.

Processing Circles

03.

eCritique Circles MEMBERS SUBMIT A DIGITAL IMAGE FOR CONSTRUCTIVE CRITIQUE BY THE OTHER CIRCLE MEMBERS.

O NE M EMB ER SU B M I TS A RAW I M AGE FOR THE OTH E R MEMB ERS TO E D I T.

02.

Print Circles MEMBERS SUBMIT A PHYSICAL PRINT FOR CONSTRUCTIVE CRITIQUE BY THE OTHER CIRCLE MEMBERS.

https://rps.org/groups/landscape/what-we-do/

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RPS Landscape Group

Monthly Competition

Winners Announcement Members submitted another stunning collection of images to the Landscape Group competition during October

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October 2022 1st Place Water’s Edge by Lindsay Southgate ARPS

We landscape photographers love a battle with the weather don’t we? A recent week in the Lake District was accompanied by an awful lot of rain so I was delighted to get out one afternoon and capture this image at the edge of Derwentwater.

The clouds were scudding through quite fast giving some beautiful fleeting light on the hills. The water level in the lake was very high enabling me to make the most of the flooded banks in the composition. By using a long exposure I softened the water and the clouds a little in order to give the sense of calm I wanted to portray.”

Instagram: @lindsay.southgate Website: lindsaysouthgate.com November 2022 Volume 7 Number

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2nd Place Night Time at the Isle of Dogs by Peter Benson FRPS

3rd Place Mist at Sunrise by Mark Cresswell

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How To Enter The Landscape Group monthly competition webpage can be found here Landscape Group members may submit one jpg image per month. Before submitting, please resize your jpg image to no more than 2000px wide and name your image file; ‘title by-firstname-lastname’ i.e. Winter Morning by Julia Smith LRPS. Members are able to add their own image on the by clicking on ‘Add Photo’.

 Please add your email address and name.

Click on Select file to upload your image and save.

All submissions will be displayed on the Landscape Group’s Monthly Competition webpage.

Winners and runners up will have their images displayed in RPS Landscape publications, RPS Landscape Facebook and the RPS website.

All Landscape Group members will be invited to vote and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed winners will be announced on the RPS Landscape Group website and Facebook on the 1st of the month.

Open for entries 1st to 23rd.

Voting takes place 24th to 28th.

The Prize is the superbly written and illustrated book by Robert Harvey, Britain’s Best Landscapes and How to Photograph Them.

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Landscape Group Events Listed below are the events coming up that are not sold out, cancelled or postponed at the time of writing. To view the events listed below and all RPS Landscape events go to the RPS Members Portal login here

To view all Landscape events go to the RPS Members Portal, login here

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Other RPS News Click on the images to find out more

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