Wandering The Moors (mostly) with the 100-400
I only managed to get out for one moorland walk this week, but what a lovely evening it turned out to be. I followed what's becoming something of a regular route around Withnell Moor, heading up past Cocker's Folly, onto Ratten Clough, then across the moorland path to Botany Bay Farm. There's still a herd of cows roaming around up there, which had decided to camp on the path just West of Botany Bay Farm, so a bit of improvisation was required to reach the farm ruins without getting too close, followed by a return to Ratten Clough via Solomon's Temple so I wouldn't be bumping into them in the dark.
I took two lenses along for this hike, the ever trusty Nikon 24-70 f/2.8S and my new Nikon 100-400 f/4.5-g.6 VR S, along with my Nikon Z7 and a big bag to put stuff in. The 100-400 isn't that big or heavy for what it is, but it's still a chunky lens to hike with, pretty much filling the camera compartment of my Mindshift Rotation rucksack all on its own. I think I need a better solution for carrying this and changing lenses. Talking of changing lenses, I was initially swapping back and forth between the two lenses, but for most of the moorland walk I ended up with just the 100-400 on the camera, which worked much better than I had initially expected. I suppose on a barren and desolate chunk of moor, most of the visual interest is in the distance, although there were a few instances where I needed to "zoom with my feet", albeit in the opposite direction to what that phrase usually implies.
I did have one interesting bird encounter, with a Kestrel (I think) taking a break from looking for lunch in my favourite lone tree, but it flew away before I could get close enough to do it justice at the 400mm end of the lens. A bit more reach would be cool, but I don't fancy having the 180-600 hanging off my camera while I trudge around, and that range is bit too long at the short end for my purposes, so I may have to invest in the 1.4x teleconverter as a compromise at some point.
All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the new lens, it's definitely worthy of its 'S' branding and hopefully it'll do me good service and not suffer some horrible demise (historically, I've slipped and fallen on rocks, smashing a 24-70 f/2.8 AF-S beyond economic repair, and also gone flying in mud to land on top of what was at the time a recently purchased Panasonic/Leica 12-60 f/2,8-4.0, that did at least survive with just a bit of a ding to the metal filter ring which I managed to straighten out enough with pliers enough to get a filter on it, but it was eventually taken out in a horrendous rainstorm that proved to be just a bit too much for Panasonic's weather resistance. Ah, the good old days in The Lake District. Anyway, I digress...).
I'm toying with the idea of getting a 2nd Z body for it so I don't need to do lens swaps, but I'm not sure how practical that would be to carry. I think I'm really just looking for some way to justify a Z8 to myself. Fortunately, limited stock in the local(ish) camera store has prevented me from making an impulse purchase. So far.
All images were taken hand held and processed from individual raw files in Capture One Pro 23. May involve use of a CPL.
1. Withnell from Withnell Moor
The village of Withnell taken from the moor that shares its name. I think the distant hill in the background is Pendle Hill.
2. Unnamed Cocker's Folly Memorial
Cocker's Folly is littered with these sad little memorials. Some are named plaques, attached in no uncertain terms to the trees that stand on the site, but I quite liked this simple little cross stuck in a mound of rocks. A bit challenging crouching down for these sorts of shots at the moment, so this probably didn't get the level of experimentation it deserved.
3. Darwen Tower Across The Moors
From the heart of Withnell Moor there's not a lot to see, but Jubilee Tower (known locally as Darwen Tower because that's where it lives) can be seen poking over the horizon from most places across the moor. It's about 3 miles away from the spot where this was taken.
4. Ratten Clough Is Golden
This is the shot I wanted to take the other week when I was intercepted by cows occupying the path at this spot. I could have done with more interesting details in the sky, but I quite like the golden light at this point in the evening.
5. Wall and Tower
While I quite like this composition, I don't think the golden light works here and it would be better served with a more gritty and moody look. Hopefully I shall return when the weather is more inclement.
6. On The Prowl
As I approached Botany Bay farm, cutting across the moor to avoid the cows on the path, I noticed something odd about the Beech tree. On closer inspection through the viewfinder I saw it was a bird of prey taking a breather in between prey. Really, it was a bit too far away for a 400mm lens, but I took a few shots at the long end anyway, catching it in this neck wrenching pose. This has been heavily cropped and then upscaled and sharpened in Topaz AI. It's not showing the lens at its best due to the ridiculous crop, but when you take a look at the following image showing just how tiny of a crop this is, I don't think it's too bad.
Unfortunately this is a close as it let me get and as I started to approach it stretched its wings and flew off out of sight. If I'd had the AF set up for wildlife I may have caught it taking flight, but as it was I just ended up staring at the 'i' menu trying to work out what options to set as it coasted off over the horizon.
This shows the tiny crop that the previous image was taken from...
7. Botany Bay Farm
I took a number of different compositions of this tree and wall combo, but this is probably the most pleasant of the three I eventually settled on.
8. Sheepish Sunset
With cows on the direct path between Botany Bay farm and Brinscall, I decided to take a different route back to Brinscall, crossing the higher part of the moor past Solomon's Temple and eventually exiting via Ratten Clough. It was getting dark as I crossed this particular section of the moor as the sun had slunk somewhere behind the Irish Sea Perma Fog™. So it was, that I was rather surprised to be faced with a soft red glow as it broke through a small gap in the cloud bank, exciting the atmosphere before it. This almost perfectly lined up with a pair of sheep having a natter on the moor, but as I raised the camera to take the shot they wandered off to join the bigger group shown here. This particular bunch of sheep were not particularly cooperative models either, as every time I moved to centre them up with the sun breaking through the clouds they'd move a bit, either one way or the other. From the large number of shots I took I think this is the best one.
9. Last Light at Ratten Clough
Finally, I returned to Ratten Clough. With the failing light I'd swapped back to the 24-70, when I came across this short lived view. There was no time to swap back to the longer lens and reposition myself, so I just took this. Like the sheep shot, it's the middle one of a -3EV three shot bracket, pretty much exposed to stop the sun burning out, but with enough detail left in the shadows to pull the brickwork on the farm ruin back up a bit without getting noisy.
