It seems like we have been to Mam Tor about 1000 times in the last couple of months, each time it's been a bitter disappointment and a wasted morning. Would this trip be the one we had been waiting for? The short answer is yes, it really would. The Met Office had forecast a clear and cool evening with rapidly rising temperatures in the morning, the perfect ingredients for mist. We dragged ourselves out of bed at 4.am. and drove to the lay-by. The walk to the iconic gate/ridge is not a difficult one by any means but at that time in the morning, everything is just a little bit of a struggle.
We met James Pedlar at the gate and were also accompanied by fellow photographers Steve Owen and Chris Upton. The sky was clear of cloud but there was a wonderful blanket of mist covering the town of Castleton, all we needed now was some soft sunlight. The sunrise was still around 40 minutes away, we setup our composition, took some test shots and chatted whilst we waited. Before we knew it, the sun started to poke its head above the horizon, we started to take our shots, it was amazing to watch it all unfold.
This was the first time I had encountered mist like this and hadn't ever shot it before, I didn't realise (or think about) the fact that my lens would suffer with condensation issues. I kept wiping the glass and thought that I had done a decent job of clearing the moisture, it was only when I got home that I realised the slight bit of residue on the glass had caused the sunbursts to streak and look very odd, it ruined quite a few images but with a bit of post-processing this one was rescued:
That was the shot that I had in mind but the mist presented us with lots of other opportunities too. There are too many images to post in full screen so I've added a small gallery of the best ones below (click on any full larger version):
It had been a fantastic morning with a really good range of images captured, it was exactly the morning we had been hoping and waiting for. We even briefly ran into Michael Cummins which was super. We must also take this opportunity to say another thank you to Chris Upton who donated to our 73in73 challenge :) Tracy took some really nice shots of the morning too, she is getting better and better as the days go by, these are some that she took:
Not only did we come away with some great shots but we had a super morning with yet more friendly and welcoming people. Another great chapter to this story and another memorable morning. Whilst I was busy cleaning my lens (trying to), James took this shot to add to our collection of 'Gracescapes'
