Great work Vahur.
I like #2, swordhead girl and the last.

The GM5 came with a very decent, very diminutive little 12-32mm kit lens, which iirc has some IS. There was also a matching 35-100mm. Neither very bright, admittedly.
My GM5 is in need of some repairs though, not the most robust of cameras.

Summer Solstice Evening Walk to Round Loaf

For the last four years I've made the pilgrimage to Round Loaf, our friendly neighbourhood Bronze Age Bowl Barrow, on the eve of the Summer Solstice. My usual route takes me up onto the moors from White Coppice, but the powers that be decided to kick off Coppice Fest (yes, that's a real thing) on the same evening, making White Coppice a potential parking nightmare, so instead a different route was required.

As I've been trying recently to get my walking distances back up to something borderline respectable, I decided to set out early in the evening and do a larger than usual circular walk, exploring some bits of the moors that I've never visited before. I knew I was going to start at Jepson's Gate and had a vague notion that I wanted to include Standing Stones Hill in the mix before arriving at my main objective; Round Loaf at some point before sunset. These parts of the moors are pretty much pathless according to OS Maps, but although absent from the maps, there are well worn paths across the moors, many of which converge on Round Loaf. I knew that a path exited Round Loaf in the general direction of Standing Stones Hill, but had never followed it and needed to know where to find it from the other end, so I spent quite some time planning my route using the aerial view on OS Maps scouring the images as closely as I could for any indication of regular human perambulation between these locations.

Eventually I ended up with a route that was roughly 6 miles long, with around 600ft of ascent. Carrying my recently acquired ultra light weight kit consisting of the Fuji X-T50 and Sigma 18-50 f/2.8 standard zoom lens, this should have been within my current reduced capabilities.

The Sigma lens was a bit of a gamble, I got it mainly because it's lightweight and compact, yet still opens up to f/2.8 across the range, unlike the Fuji kits of a similar range that are all variable aperture. I already own the Fuji 16-55 f/2.8, but frankly, if I'm going to carry that thing, I may as well just take the Nikon as it's a chunky behemoth of a lens. Every review of the Sigma lens that I found seemed pretty favourable with a few caveats, so I figured I'd take a chance on it. It had arrived earlier in the day and a few shots taken in the garden at lunchtime looked okay, so I figured I'd risk it on this big walk. Together, the camera and lens combo came to 768g, so a pretty light, compact kit I could carry in my hand throughout the entire walk, with just a wrist strap for safety.

All images were shot handheld on the above combo, processed from individual raw files in Capture One Pro 23. This version of Capture One does not support the X-T50 and I wasn't planning on spending several hundred pounds to upgrade software I'm perfectly happy with just to get it to work with a camera that has an identical sensor and processing pipeline to at least two other cameras that version supports (namely the X-T5 and the X-H2), so I changed the camera tag in the raw files to the X-T5 using EXIFTool so that Capture One would work with them. This appears to work okay, just adding an additional batch process step when I ingest the images into my editing system, with the only penalty I'm aware of being the loss of the Reala Ace film simulation, which I'm not overly concerned with. If the Capture One ever add any new features that actually useful for me in the future, I will happily buy a new version, but the last few updates have been very lacklustre and the new licensing scheme feels very overpriced. Still, at least I get to stick it to Adobe, I bet they're really feeling the impact of the £10 a month I'm not paying them right now! ;-)

Information

The walk started at Jepson's Gate, passing through the site of Pikestones on my way to the open moor. Pikestones is the remains of a Neolithic burial cairn. The whole structure was about 45m long in its heyday and would have looked like a large elliptical bowl structure with a tunnel entrance at the North end, but it's been heavily looted over the years and the only significant structure still standing is the fallen slabs that made up the tunnel entrance.

I'm sure this informative sign would have told us something along those lines, maybe even providing an artists impression of what the site would have looked like back in the day, but alas, it's weathered even more poorly than the stones themselves.

Brunt

The plantation known as The Flat runs along one edge of the Pikestones site and was unfortunately burned down in part some years ago (or "brunt" as they used to say in these parts). Here's a plucky tree making a failed bid to escape the ravaging flames.

Charming

Someone had placed several of these freshly made wicker charms around the Pikestones site.

Fallen

Another group of trees trying to leave The Flat on the moorland side.

Sole Survivor

This tree has managed to remain standing while surrounded by devastation.

Looking Back At The Flat

Here, I've passed The Flat and turned to look back. Pikestones in behind those trees in the distance on the right hand edge of the frame.

Holts Flat

My route took me along the North edge of Holt's Flat, a nearby plantation that seems to be doing a lot better than its neighbour. Unfortunately, it shortly after passing Holt's Flat that my route went awry, taking me through a meadow of high grass, which concealed all kinds of (literal) pitfalls including potholes, divuts, bogs and marshes. Nice. Slowly and carefully I made it through to the gravel path that leads up to Standing Stones Hill. I had planned a more direct assault, but would probably be dead in a ditch now if I'd carried on in that direction.

Winter Hill

This was taken from the path leading up the side of Standing Stones Hill, looking towards Winter Hill. You can just make out the dark trees of Rivington Terraced Gardens on the far right of the Winter Hill mass.

Target In Sight

As I made my way up Standing Stones Hill (which despite its name, suffers from a complete lack of standing stones), I caught sight of Round Loaf, nestling in isolation on Anglezarke Moor. Surely the route between here and there would be a piece of cake? Sure, if you like your cake to contain, mud, bogs, concealed rivers, waist high grass, divuts and very abrasive heather.

Redmond's Edge

The highest point above Standing Stones Hill is known as Redmond's Edge and is home to the closest we'll see to and standing stones in the form of this gradually disappearing dry stone wall. Surprisingly there were actually other people up here. In the far distance, you can see Pendle Hill, probably swarming with amateur witches on a significant night like this and just in front of it stands Darwen Moor, with Jubilee Tower on the top.

An alternative shot of Redmond's Edge.

Caution: The Following Path is for Experienced Idiots Only

And so I left Standing Stones Hill, following the path I'd plotted using aerial photography. You can see the initial route I was following leading into the frame on the right hand side. Round Loaf is on the other side (well, the top really) of that hill on the right, it's about half a mile away, what could go wrong? Well, it's half a mile of treacherous, boggy moorland. The first obstacle being this lush looking moorland grass. The path I was following suddenly cut out, leading me wading through this stuff as it grew higher and higher, catching my feet in the concealed obstacles below and at one point sticking one foot deep enough in a bog to get some water inside it. Great. After the grass, I once more found the path which led me to a patch of heather where it promptly ended again, leaving me to force my way through the coarse heather. The final obstacle before reaching the hill, was a concealed river with its own steep sided valley. That was fun and I managed to cross it without falling in, which is always a plus and finally, I was able to carefully scramble to the top of the hill, having survived the kind of route you'd have to be stupid to follow. Erm...

The Last Leg

Once I'd reached the top of the hill I could see my prize, Round Loaf. All that remained between me and my goal was this last stretch of pathless, boggy moor. I proceeded with caution...

Final Approach

Getting close now, but still taking every step with care. Every step elicited an unnerving crunch from the ground below, like I was walking on the surface of a giant Creme Brulee and could fall into the soft interior at any moment. Okay, an icy lake may have been a better comparison, but I'm kind of hungry as I write this, so the sugary dessert got first billing in my minds eye. Anyway, after an interminable number of crunchy steps (I still don't know exactly what was crunching, parched, dead heather perhaps?) I arrived more or less intact at Round Loaf.

The View From Round Loaf

This shot was taken a few minutes before the actual moment of the solstice, the point where the sun pauses in its progression across the horizon before starting its journey back in the opposite direction to its winter position. I got talking with a couple of chaps up on the summit who were interested in the occult and unexplained phenomena. Apparently, 22 ley lines converge on Round Loaf and, if you believe such things, the energy of the ley lines peaks at the moment of the solstice. One of them reckoned he could feel it, me, I just felt knackered from wading through miles moorland to get here, so if there was any earth power to be had, I wasn't getting any of it. Curiously though, the previously silent birds on the moor all started singing at this point as if they sensed something. Me, I just sat and enjoyed the peaceful scene, lost in my thoughts as the tranquility of the moors filled my senses, well, apart from those bloody noisy birds making a racket (just kidding). Oh and the midges, the midges could definitely sense a change in energy levels as they suddenly became a lot more interested in a tasty Steve shaped snack. Hmmm, maybe there's something in this ley line stuff after all? Who knows. Time to exit before I get bitten to death...

Sunset At Pikestones

Finally, after an enjoyable romp back across the moors on real paths, I arrived back at Pikestones just as the sun was setting over the brow of the hill, so I took this shot of Pikestones with the setting sun behind them.

Yep, it's about the same size as that 20mm I've got on it in the picture (unless you extend it). For an ultra compact kit it's difficult to beat and if 16MP is enough, it's a great little camera. There's a 35-100 f/2.8 that complements the 12-35 f/2.8, for a 200mm equivalent, that's also a neat little lens.

Now, if Panasonic decided to make a new GM5 with that 25MP sensor in it, I'd be quite tempted.

Really like the zig zag pattern marching down to the vanishing point.

Now this is a really cool shot. You really caught the right moment.

These are my favourites from this set.

All very helpful, many thanks for that. I wonder if I would miss the weather sealing?...

Wonderful midsummer evening feel to these. I've heard it said that you can successfully construct ley lines through Tesco's supermarkets 😉

Yeah, for me, that's its only real weakness. But then, nothing short of a Leica compares to Olympus ILCs in terms of weather resistance, I wouldn't risk any of my other cameras in some of the conditions I've taken my E-M1 MKII out in, which is one of the reasons I still have it, well, that and it's so heavily used it would be practically worthless if I tried to sell it, so I keep it for the rainy days that the other cameras wont handle.

That explains so much!

No one likes water in their boot on a long hike. (I'm theorising, of course).
This shot is my chooice, I like the light on the foreground plants.

I'm down too. Or even something approaching that size. I just don't get why M4/3 abandoned their USP.

Sorry to butt in.

The EM5 was a perfect camera for hiking, I hardly knew I had it slung over my shoulder. I had the Panasonic 12-35 and 35-100 2.8 lenses as well as the Olympus compact wide angle. This was/is a very valid combo for hiking and travel. My long time screen saver is an EM5/ Panasonic 12-35 2.8/ shot and it is nice and sharp and detailed on my big screen. My problems with M43 started when I bought the Olympus 7-14 wide angle. Like the other Olympus 2.8 lenses, it removes the size and weight advantage of the system, I came to hate this heavy bulky lens. I really believe Panasonic understood the system better and made/make nice compact lenses.

It is true they only seem interested in chasing the long lens wildlife market right now, and forgotten those who want something practical for hiking and travel. But I think a conceptual mistake was made when Olympus went after shear optical quality with their 2.8 zooms, and other premium lenses, at the cost of weight and bulk.

When I discovered that a Z7 + 24-200 weighed the same as an EM1 + 12-100, the choice was pretty easy. It might have been different if the 12-100 had been a lightweight lens, and the cameras had at least moved up to a 24Mp sensor.

You have done a nice job with these. Taking pictures of dance is very difficult, as the pictures we like are not the ones the dances like and vice versa.

A great set as usual. The Holts flat shot of the trees and the final approach are my favourites.

Rainbow Bee-eaters

Over a few days I managed to get closer to these fascinating birds. They are migratory and seem to have moved on now.

IMO it's hard to shoot foliage in BW as colour information is lost and often all the details is gone with colours. But in these shots the foliage makes nice frame to those impressive structures without getting too much attention so I think BW suits very well.