Agree!
This was also my favourite of Nigel's series!

Looks like a fun and colourful event

Nice shots but,...
Oh those conditions really don't look too inviting. I admire your "get up and go" attitude.
I can imgaine how the troops were rallied, "Come on; it's Cold, Wet and Windy, so what are we waiting for ?"

Glad it turned out sunnier towards the end.

Some nice portraits in this set. Unusual, but nicely done set for you.

I have always been fascinated by those carnivorous plants. A good subject for indoor photography.

Thanks, I love my mountains, I choose this home for the unimpeded view.
When I was in Ohio I was completely lost, with nothing on the horizon.

No, these are Hybrid from South-American species

Thanks!!
"L'hautil" & "Tina" are shown in the composition, while in its back there is a couple of "Anna"

Here a micro Ping Laueana, 6 months ago

As per today, a few minutes ago.

😒

Very nice.

Rich

Nice, it really has volumetric effect, especially in clouds.

So this is the famous Hastings battlefield? Even I with little knowledge of history have heard of it...
Sheeps are nice addition to otherwise empty foreground.

Seems to be Hare Krishna on side of cart? Nice set, interesting to see such ethnic celebrations.

Oh dear. It was a picture of health too.

Yes there were many of them.

Not Quite The Set I Had Planned

Last weekend's trip to Dufton was supposed to be the opening act for a number of hikes throughout the week, but we tend to expect a certain kind of summer weather here in the North of England and this year did not disappoint, with heavy rain and high winds in most of the places I'd planned to visit, scuppering that plan.

The weather picked up towards the end of the week and I planned out a more extensive afternoon exploration of the hills above Dufton for Friday, only to be scuppered by that other guaranteed component of a British summer; roadworks. Firstly a two hour delay on the motorway for no obvious reason, then, 70 miles later in the middle of nowhere and just four miles from my destination I hit a road closure. The best route around it I could work out would have taken an additional 30-40 minutes, by which time I'd have risked getting stuck on the fells in the dark, which, as this is "shake hole" country, I didn't fancy, so I just turned around and spent the next 90 minutes driving back home in quite the gloomy mood.

The weekend opened to more torrential rain, but on Sunday, the weather forecasts were all over the place and, having not walked anywhere all week, I decided to just chance it and spend the afternoon on the local moors.

As it turned out, I managed to almost completely dodge the rain during the three hours I was wandering about. Of course, when I reached the wind break on the summit of Great Hill and sat down to enjoy a pork pie and some water, that's when it started to rain, forcing me to don my jacket and move on. Naturally it stopped again shortly after.

Anyway, seemingly vindictive weather aside, I had a really nice walk and was lucky enough to spot some Kestrels hunting above the moors, which kept me occupied for quite some time as I wrestled with the Z7 trying to photograph them.

All images taken hand held with the Nikon Z7 + 24-70 f/2.8S or 100-400 f/4.5-5/6 VR S. Processed from individual raw files in Capture One Pro 23. As the Kestrels never really came close enough for a 400mm lens, shots of them have been heavily cropped and upscaled in Topaz AI from images whose resolution wouldn't look out of place on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

1. On The Hunt

The Kestrel glides effortlessly back and forth high above the moors searching for prey, while the photographer below tracks it, with apparently far more effort. For landscape photography the Z7 autofocus is largely bulletproof, but in this application it wasn't really putting much effort in at all, yielding way more out of focus images than in focus ones (AF-C, limited focus range, mid or large focus box). More practice is required I think. Or a Z8. In reality, I can't blame the Z7, at the sort of distance this was taken, it was a really small target to lock onto, but occasionally it did and this one caught it at a pretty nice angle.

2. Target Acquired

Eventually the Kestrel found what it was looking for and began to hover above its prey. You'd think that would make it easier to get a good shot, but I've got lots of out of focus images that that say otherwise.

3. Late Lunch

After brief bit of hanging in the air like impending doom, the Kestrel fell to the ground and disappeared into the grass. When it emerged, I was surprised to see that, rather than just flying off, it fluttered to a nearby rock and perched on one leg while eating its prey, a rather unfortunate beetle, that was firmly gripped in its free claw.

4. Distant Dockland

A group of cranes, roughly 25 miles away on the docks in Liverpool. Looking at this I find myself reminded of the scene from Jurassic Park, showing the herds of dinosaurs grazing beside a lake for some reason.

5. Chorley

The damp slate roofs of the town below, gleam under light from a gap in the clouds.

6. The Heapey Moor Hiking Superhighway

Most of the paths around here are a bit rough, either boggy, indistinct or just falling apart. All except this one, which is just an anomaly. I think it's used as an emergency vehicle access route onto the moors in the event of fires or accidents, so it gets maintained a bit better than all of the others.

7. Clouds Over Heapey Moor

Looking back towards Chorley from the junction on the superhighway where it joins the path that leads off across Heapey Moor towards Coppice Stile, a path composed of the standard path building material around here; bog.

8. Storms Over Pendle Hill

The view from the top of Great Hill, as localised showers hung gloomily above Pendle Hill. The white buildings just right of centre are part of the Shadsworth business park near Blackburn.

9. Darwen Tower

Moody light over Darwen Moor and Jubilee Tower. It was around this point that the rain started at the summit of Great Hill, so I donned my waterproof and set off down to the moors below.

10. Descent

I can't have walked more than a hundred yards before it stopped raining and brightened up again. This is the view from the little used path that leads diagonally down the South side of Great Hill towards the Great Hill farm ruins, nestled in the trees in the lower left. Despite that cloud top right looking a bit dodgy it never rained again during the rest of the walk.

11. Return To White Coppice

As I scrambled down into the Black Brook gorge, I was treated to this view. The texture and light on the rock face on the right particularly caught my eye.

The kestrel portrait is great. Such characterful little things, I always think they try so hard to be tough and ferocious like their bigger cousins. The light in the last one is beautiful - the upside of unpredictable showery weather!
Sorry to hear your trip to Dufton was such a disaster! Better luck next time. We had friends leave here with a plan to climb Pendle Hill last Saturday - needless to say they abandoned that idea and went into Manchester art gallery instead!

It has been a great summer so far :) But I wont complain, if I have to pick between 35C + heat waves to this weather, I would pick great British summer.
I am sorry to hear you caught up with essential works and traffic management. I think a serious part of GDP is generated by traffic management companies here. But everything has to be safe, doesnt it ?
Loved kestrel photos but the last one, goodness me! It is so good