This one made me laugh out loud.

Lead Mines Clough

This is a compilation of shots from a couple of recent visits to Lead Mines Clough, a steep ravine etched into the landscape by Limestone Brook as it leaves Anglezarke Moor and flows down towards Alance Bridge. Just before the bridge it joins the river Yarrow and feeds into Yarrow Reservoir, which is the uppermost member of the Rivington reservoir chain.

It's roughly a decade since I last visited this area and on that occasion I managed to fall down the ravine and into the river, hurting myself and smashing up a camera in the process, so as you might imagine I was extremely cautious on this occasion as I scrambled over the slick rocks and trod the boggy paths that line the edge of the river to get these shots.

Most of these images were taken with the GFX100S mounted on a tripod with either the 32-64 f/4.0 or 45-100 f/4.0 and a selection of filters, although I did return one evening a few days later when I hiked up from Alance Bridge to Round Loaf in the middle of a very moist Anglezarke Moor. As that was a much longer and more brisk walk I went with my light kit, comprising just the Z8 and 24-70 f/2.8S. The final shot was taken on this hike.

Reflections

This is looking across the head of the Yarrow reservoir where the combined Limestone Brook and river Yarrow enter from the left.

Alance Bridge

From this side of the bank it's impossible to get a clear shot of the bridge, so I deliberately included the trees within the image.

Ang

A Bit Of A Stretch

I liked the way the two branches appeared to be reaching for each other like outstretched arms. It's a pity I couldn't get the camera high enough to remove the distracting bit of the far bank from the background.

King Of The Hill

I spent some time exploring a little triangle of land that sits between the two rivers where they converge. There are numerous interesting trees and derelict dry stone walls here, but this one stood out, towering above the rest.

Long Way Down

Having followed the Yarrow some way upstream, the path gradually rises away from the steep bank and deposits you here above a pretty steep drop. The path does curve around the top of this section, but it becomes extremely thin with a sharp drop on one side and no room for error. As I was on my own and the ground was quite muddy I decided not to follow it any further on this occasion and turned back to exploring Lead Mines Clough instead.

Illumination

A little path leads through the woods and up the hill on the far side of Lead Mines Clough. It's quite dark in the woods, but a clearing in the canopy allows a little light through to highlight this spot.

Contemplation

At the top of the path there's a memorial to the crew of a Wellington Bomber that crashed on the moors in 1943, killing the six men on board. The spot gives a nice view of Winter Hill and Rivington Pike.

Top Of The Clough

This waterfall can be found at the top of Lead Mines Clough, marking the point where Limestone Brook enters from the open moor. Of all the waterfalls along the stream, this one is probably the easiest (and safest) to reach. I think this was taken with a combination of my CPL and ND8 filters.

Precariously Perched

Walking back down through the woods above Lead Mines Clough, you are treated to some fine eldritch looking trees, which have typically planted their roots in the most dubious of spots.

The Big Fall

As far as I know, this is the largest fall in Lead Mines Clough. It's difficult to be sure as you can't easily follow the river as it runs its course, so there may be others lurking out of view. This one is close to the bottom though, but still very tricky to reach safely. Again I think this was taken with a combination of the CPL and ND8 to extend the exposure time. I posted this picture last week, but after editing a few other from this set I decided to tweak it a little, mostly in terms of making it somewhat warmer.

Spellcasters

This pair of trees put me in mind of two wizards hurling spells at each other. This initial picture was taken with the GFX100S shortly after lunchtime, so the light is quite high overhead. It's taken with a CPL to reduce reflections on the wet foliage and like all of the other GFX100S shots in this set it was taken on a tripod.

This next shot, a slightly wider rendition of the same scene was taken on an overcast evening during the week, so the light is different and I think a bit more dramatic. Unlike the previous shot I didn't use a CPL or a tripod, so this is taken handheld with the Z8 at a higher ISO. I prefer the more dramatic shading here, although I prefer the tones and colours in the GFX image.

High tide perhaps? ;-)

That aside, it is a lovely shot, the sky is superb.

Steve, your Lead Mines Clough photos are superb! Thank you. Pardon me if I disagree with you about the Fuji/Nikon colours: I always found the greens in Fujicolor too "fluorescent", and this seems to be a house style. The calmer Nikon seems more natural to me. But I hope we can agree to differ on this, and the problem I have certainly doesnt detract too much from your excellent compositions.

David

"This is a source of drinking water, do not pollute". How to put an idea in some people's minds.

A Bit Of A Stretch brings to mind The Creation of Adam.

A stunning silhouette in King Of The Hill.

And two beautiful waterfall shots.

Love 7t, great colours and clouds add to this image. Those late hours are best with great colours and artificial and natural light balance...

Seems you met Shaun the lamb... 😀
Interesting effect with high res shot.

Nic3e,great contrast between bright foreground and dark, almost menancing background.

Great capture, i like processing also.

Interesting colours, green and reddish. Also I admire your ability to see trees in forest.

My comment wasn't about the general case of these two cameras, but the specific instance presented at the end of the set and more than anything, that could be because of the different lighting conditions when both images were taken.

Having said that, I find there seems to be more flexibility in terms of colour when processing the Fuji images, especially when presented with weak colours in the first place. Subtle colour differences seem easier to tease out of the GFX files than the Nikon ones. This is noticable in the pair of images I posted, particularly the long dead brown leaves, I was able to pull the brown out of the GFX image quite easily, whereas the browns in the Nikon remained quite weak and muddy, despite similar processing and I couldn't get them to pop as much as they do in the Fuji image.

In this instance it could be down to the lighting differences when these two images were taken (different days, different times of day, although both somewhat overcast), but I've observed similar things in the past when directly comparing these two camera.

Both can be very good, but out of the two, the GFX files do feel more malleable in my experience. Now whether one produces a palette more to ones taste than the other? That is entirely in the eye of the beholder and there are no wrong answers.

You definitely have a way with trees.