Some Comments on my Recent Photography:The Yorkshire Dales

This is one of a series of articles about the work of Morse Bros Studios. Our hope is to offer some of the photos featured in this article.

A couple of weeks ago he wife and I went back to the Yorkshire Dales for a spur-of-the-moment weekend visit. Personally this one of my favorite parks in the UK. We stayed at Low Gingerfield B&B and I can recommend it as a comfortable and friendly place to stay.

I took along my Fuji 690 GSW and Fuji G617 cameras. The Fuji 690 is a 6x9cm negative behind a 65mm lens, the Fuji G617 is a 6x17cm negative behind a 105mm lens.

They both give wonderful expressions of this landscape but speak with distinctive voices. The 617 gives voice to a wide view through the extreme width of the negative. The lens itself is almost a short telephoto given an 80mm is a ‘normal’ lens on a 6x6 negative. The 690 however has a reasonably wide negative but a substantially wide angle lens.

The 617 gathers in the wide open countryside but also hungers for the foreground. The first photo below I feel really conveys the mood and scene as I remember it for all the of the distant parts. The third 617 photo has the benefit of the dilapidated drystone wall in the foreground while still giving a sense of the scale of surrounding hills.

The 690 with its reasonably wide negative and wide 65mm lens can really succeed in placing objects into a grand large country context. Most effectively the third photo of Force Gill where the waterfall is placed in the larger context of the Whernside landscape. It doesn't fail to draw your eye but you are made aware of the insignificance of this landmark in the face of the landscape.

The fifth photo of the Ribbblehead viaduct nestled in the valley has this effect though more so. It is almost easy to miss it down there but for the fortunate play of light and the clouds which is what drew me to the image. In each case I like that I have been able to turn on its head the notion of British landscapes being small and more intimate. This is my, perhaps unique, experience of it. It is always smaller and the distances shorter than I expect. And despite living here for the last 12 years I still cannot shake this sense borne from my up-brining in the intermountain west of the United States with the vast distances present there. My conceit and enjoyment of these images is that I think it places the landscape in this kind of big country context, and perhaps it is a reflection of my British compatriot’s vision of this wide open landscape of the Yorkshire Dales.

While we were there ostensibly for hiking I did manage to get a few photos in. The weather was cold and windy but dry and it was partly cloudy which made for some nice views.

The first photo is over Wensleydale and takes in a classic look for the Dales. This I have printed to 20 inches wide quite effectively.

Fuji G617 Kodak Ektar

Along the Ure River. Fuji 690 GSW Ilford FP4+

On Sunday we took a long 8 mile hike to Whernside the highest point in Yorkshire. We had a stiff cold wind on the top and some hail which we weren't quite well enough dressed for. The remaining photos are from here.

The hike starts by the Ribblehead Viaduct which is impressive to walk beside.

Ribblehead Viaduct. Fuji 690 GSW Ilford FP4+

Whernside. Fuji G617 Kodak Ektar

Part way up the hillside there is a lovely waterfall on Force Gill.

Force Gill. Fuji 690 GSW Ilford FP4+

Further up a small lake comes into view. When reflecting the blue sky it has a captivating purple quality owing to the brown peaty-colored water mixed with the blue of the sky. (Lost of course in the black and white photo below!)

Small lake at the foot of Whernside. Fuji 690 GSW Ilford FP4+

We took a small break along a remnant of wall that afforded a nice view. It was a challenging day for the G617 as I was shooting ASA 100 film handheld. A center filter means I need to overexpose by at least one stop bringing the effective film speed to ASA50. The G617 only goes down to f8. I shot this at 1/60 sec at f8. It gives a nice depth of field and a break from sharpness across the whole scene which is surprisingly effective. I had to estimate the focus at 3 meters as the G617 does not have a way to view the focused image. Normally this would be shot on a tripod stopped down to ensure better sharpness across the scene. Porta 800 is my normal choice for handheld with this camera when metered at ASA 400 it works quite well.