After a frustrating few days in The Peak District at the end of May I was finally rewarded with a decent days photography. It wasn't that the weather was bad the previous few days it was quite the opposite it was too clear with not a cloud in the sky. I had woken up the previous three mornings at 02:45 AM and making the hour journey from Manchester to the Peak District  only to be greeted with a clear and lifeless sky on each occasion. Persistence plays an important part in my photography and I will often return to a place time and time again without taking a single picture until the conditions are right. On the forth day things were looking a bit more promising, the forecast had predicated a clear sky all night up until about two hours after sunrise when rain would then set in for the rest of the day. I knew there was a chance of capturing some nice stormy images so for the forth day in a row I headed out for sunrise, setting my alarm for 02:45AM. All was looking good until about thirty minutes before sunrise when the rain arrived, I waited in my car for two hours for a break but nothing happened so I headed back to where I was staying and back to bed.

On the fifth day I set my alarm again and headed to Leash Fen where I had been for the previous four mornings hoping to get a good sunrise with lots of Cotton Grass from the Fen in the foreground. As I was driving through the built up area of Stockport I was not getting my hopes up for a good sunrise however after finally reaching the countryside I noticed that lots of the valleys were filled with mist. I had arrived in plenty of time and all was looking good at Leash Fen, I still had plenty of time to wait until sunrise so I sat in the car waiting. The mist all around was fantastic so I drove to higher ground overlooking the fen and unpacked my 70-200mm Lens. Sunrise was now about thirty minutes off. As I sat waiting I noticed the mist & fog was lifting from the fen and completely disappearing, I quickly grab a couple of banker shots but was now really questioning whether to stay or go elsewhere. On one hand I wanted to get the shots of the Cotton Grass I came for, but knew that there were better locations to make the most of the mist just a short drive away.

I decided to head to nearby Curbar Edge, as I arrived at the Car Park the sun was now starting to rise so I quickly made my way up onto the edge and set up my gear, I opted for a two and a three stop Lee soft ND Grad to help control the exposure and get plenty of detail in the foreground. With a few breaks in the sky behind me and plenty of morning colours reflected in the sky it was simply a case of firing off a range of images using different rocks for foreground interest.

By now I was happy with a few of the images I had captured of Curbar Edge and with sun still really low in the sky I felt the need to try and get to another location to make the most out of the conditions. I knew Froggratt Edge was only a short distance away, however I had not been to the location before so had no idea if there was much potential for good images here. I decided to make my way to Froggatt anyway, walking and running as quick as possible. After finally arriving at Froggratt Edge I was fortunate the cloud invasion still had not burnt off and was in fact actually better in the valley beneath Froggratt and now there was plenty of cloud in the sky adding some further interest to the images.

After spending a good thirty minutes at Froggratt Edge I decided to make my way back to the car and began the long walk uphill towards Curbar Edge, thinking to myself why did I wear a winter coat and not pack more water on such a hot day.

After finally getting back to Curbar I couldn't resist one quick shot of the above millstone, unfortunately by the time I had set up my equipment most of the light that had been teasing me had now disappeared with only a little bit in the distance and this showed no sign of changing anytime soon.

After arriving back at the car I decided to head towards Robin Hoods Stride on Harthill Moor, I had not been here for years and could not remember when the sun would be in the best position to shoot the rock formation, after arriving I quickly realised the sun was not in the best position so I decided to capture a few quick images of the nearby Nine Stone Close Stone Circle.

After leaving Harthill Moor I decided to head home, however I couldn't resist a quick stop at this picturesque packhorse bridge in Bakewell.

By around 11:00 AM I was exhausted and could barely stay awake so I decided to head back to Manchester and back to bed. I don't personally have too much of a problem waking up at 02:45 AM for a Spring/Summer sunrise on just a couple of hours sleep and then grabing another three or fours hours when I get back in the morning at around 07:00 AM, but on this particular day my nap was well over due. After grabbing some quick breakfast/lunch I headed to bed for the afternoon and finally woke up at around 06:30 PM, just in time to get up and head out for a sunset at Cressbrook Dale.

Cressbrook Dale is a location I had felt would make a good landscape image for a number of years but previously I had not had much luck here. On this occasion I was lucky enough to capture the last light illuminating Peter's Stone, whilst I am not 100% happy with the shot it was a nice end to a successful days photography. One of the things I love about the Peak District is that it can be frustrating at times to photograph but when the conditions are in your favour you can come away with lots of completely different shots all captured on the same day.