Jan 172012
 

Mam Tor Peak District www.pauldaviddrabble.co.uk..15 January 2012 Image © Paul David Drabble (Paul David Drabble)

Mam Tor on the Western end of the Hope Valley in the Peak District is a 517 metres /1696 feet hill. Known as Mother Hill around  3000 years ago a group of Celtic People built a Bronze Age hill fort here and called it home.

Mam Tor is also known as the Shivering Mountain because of its instability.  A  land  slip that probably began in pre-historic times and is still active today has opened up the whole side of Mam Tor, revealing what’s inside. It’s a classic example of a  rotational landslip and during  heavy or prolonged rainfall water seeps between the layers of rock causing them to become slippery. This allows the different layers shale and sandstone of  to slide over one another resulting in further land slips. Experts believe this will only stop when face of the land slip reaches 30 degrees in probably another 1500 years.

Don’t expect to visit here and be able enjoy solitude especially at weekends not even on a cold January Winters day. It is such a popular spot that steps and a paved path have been added to protect Mam Tor from the thousands upon thousands of feet that tramp over it every day.

Photography Information

Nikon D700 Camera

Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens.

Shutter Speed 1/3200 sec

Aperture f4.5

ISO 640

Aug 142011
 

I know its another dog photo but I think  its a particularly good one. That’s because an upside of being a professional photographer is every now and again a day comes along where you have access to equipment that is well beyond the reach of any but the most avid and dedicated or well funded amateur photographer. In this case that piece of kit was a Nikon Prime 300mm f2.8 Autofocus.  At today’s prices you will see no change from £4000 for one of these. Yes that does say £4k, four thousand Great British Pounds for a brand new  f2.8 VR version.  That upside of professional photography also has a down side. The laws of photography as a business say if the item doesn’t pay for itself you can’t buy it.  You may get to borrow it or hire it but you dont own it. So having a 300mm on loan I thought I would use the day take a photo or two for myself.

The photo below is Wallace at full speed chasing down a ball. Its shot on my D700 body coupled the afore mentioned 300mm.

Technical Info for Photo of the Day

Aperture; f3.5

Shutter; 1/4000

ISO; 640

Continuous Auto Focus

Hand Held

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