PEAK DISTRICT HEATHER PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

Each year, the brown moorlands of the Peak District comes to life for roughly 3 weeks when the heather turns to a vivid purple, ravishing the moors. It is a visual spectacle, with landscapes completely transformed. It becomes a photographer’s paradise.

On this workshop we will look at spending a day out in the Peak District to capture the heather at its best. 

The moors around Hathersage are some of the best the Peak District has to offer, and this day is designed around spending time high up on the edges and moors to capture the heather. Most of the locations will be approx 15–20 minutes from the car, with not a lot of ascents involved in comparison to the view you get.

We will spend the initial part of the day checking out some classic spots, but as the light might still be a little harsh this will be a time to concentrate on composition and the technical aspects of photography. You will hopefully still get some photos you are proud of, but our main objective for the day is having everything polished to capture sunset. Some locations we may visit are Carhead Rocks, Stanage Edge, Burbage Rocks, Curbar Edge & Higger Tor. As I am running this workshop both days of the weekend, I aim to visit different locations on both days – although the sunset spot is likely to be the same for the reason given below.

We have plenty of areas to choose from for sunset, but the pinnacle of heather locations in the Peak District has to be Millstone Edge and Over Owler Tor. This small but diverse area has so many compositions to photograph, and to top it off is the best display of heather in the Peak District.

We will meet at 13:00 and do a meet and greet with the other photographers to get to know each other before heading out. 

We will break for some food around 16:30 and if there’s time we will do an introduction to post-processing to show you the basics of Lightroom and how to edit an image. The day will finish after sunset plus the time it takes to walk back to the car, approx 21:00.

Upon booking, you will be sent an order confirmation email which includes meeting details, kit-list, discount codes and a questionnaire for you to fill out. This questionnaire just allows me to get information about you so I can plan the day appropriately for the whole group.

Throughout the day we will look at techniques such as focusing, using a tripod, use of filters vs exposure blending, composition, working with the light and more.

I am more than happy to discuss other more advanced techniques on 1-2-1 basis as well as to the group, depending on what is beneficial.

The day is tailored around you as much as possible, and I strive to give each of you on the course for that day the best day possible. At the end of the day, you will have hopefully learnt new techniques and taken away some imagery you will be proud of. I am a friendly and relaxed tutor and I welcome you to keep in touch with me after the course to ask me any questions you may have looked over on the day. I have also created a Facebook client area where you can keep in touch, share your photos and keep in touch with other attendees from the day.

There will be a maximum group size of 4 meaning there will be plenty of 1-2-1 time. I will be on hand throughout the day for any questions, and my focus will be on ensuring you have the best day possible.

What if the weather is poor? Don’t worry, unless it’s torrential all day, I have plenty of locations that suit a variety of weather and with my experience, you will still get to the best locations possible and you will still get some great images, for example waterfalls are brilliant for those overcast days. As we are in the UK, we see more grey than we do yellow and I am well adapted to getting us to the best spots if we need to change itinerary. This may even include chasing the light, with my knowledge of how the weather works in certain areas and using forecasts, webcams and other tools on the day to help us make those decisions, which I will share with you. We will spend a lot of time working on technique and composition and most of the day is designed to work up until that hopeful sunset so you have the skills to get the best you can at the end of the day. So even if we don’t get the weather or even that sunset you will have learnt a load of new skills, even if you are a more advanced photographer which you can take away with you and use on your next photographic outing.