I took an afternoon in the Yorkshire Dales, it was a chance trip, I had time off work and my girlfriend was busy working so even though the light wasn't ideal I chanced my arm and drove over to Harrogate, across to Skipton and up into the Yorkshire Dales. My plan initially was to head up to Malham Cove and the limestone pavement at the top but thick featureless grey cloud meant I decided to drive on. As I find is often the case it is worth persevering as the weather can quickly change and what was initially uninspiring weather can become something rather good.

As I drove up from Malham I climbed right up to the top of the moors, a long way up onto the tops. As I drove towards Settle and Giggleswick I spotted a location which I thought had promise. A dry stone wall lead the eye off towards the distant hills to the North. I set up my tripod which is my favoured way of working. With mid-afternoon light, and the amazing ISO capabilities of my Canon 5D Mk3 I could easily have shot handheld but I prefer to use the tripod for the vast majority of my shots, it slows me down, allows me to perfect my composition and ensure that filter graduations  are perfectly aligned. 

In front of me a bank of gloomy cloud was building, and with the sun coming from the West to my left the wall was nicely illuminated. The clouds were pretty dark but to ensure the sense of foreboding I used a 3 stop hard edged ND grad aligned with the tops of the hills and the bottom of the sky. Liveview on my camera means I can perfectly align these edges, a feature I find really useful.

I took a few shots and then retired to the car as the first spots of rain came down. I am rather pleased with the result, I hope you like it.

There May Be Trouble Ahead