Landscape Photography comes with many assumptions and one of those assumptions is that it has to be done in remote places; where very often you have to walk through a remote area to capture the perfect landscape - but that of course could not be further from the truth, and even with a sore knee, the ability to capture landscapes can be challenging. Or can they? Well the month of May has already arrived and with a certain warmth in the air, I had something in mind, which was to capture a view of a glorious landscape with a church in the middle of it. But how was I going to do that? The answer of course would be from a viewpoint, but even before then, I had found something curious and perhaps “ever so slightly out of place.” That thing which was out of place was situated in a place called Ilkeston, a former Bath Spa Town in Derbyshire, that back in the day would have looked completely different to what it does in today's modern times, but as I was standing in a car park, just a normal ordinary car park, I noticed something completely obscure.
“Sometimes within photography, the obscure makes for interesting and quirky captures. Here I was standing in an ordinary car park, a view across to The Bennerley Viaduct and The Erewash Valley, yet behind me was something that I had spotted, abandoned and had history to it. An Old Massey Ferguson Tractor, an unusual sight to say the least.”
And after capturing its atmospheric look, I decided that Black and White would be the best style of editing to do, and below is the photograph of this sight that I had seen, abandoned and looking like it was slowly going to waste, without the love of someone restoring it.
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| Obscure and Abandoned in a Derbyshire Town. |
Needless to say that I was intrigued and asked the following question, “Why would anyone abandon an old tractor right next to an ordinary car park in a Derbyshire town?” If anyone does know then letters on the back of a postcard. But after capturing the abandoned tractor which was an oddity in it’s own right, I then looked across the wall in the car park, and ahead of me the view of the industrious looking Erewash Valley, a valley that has seen a lot of changes, but in the middle an interesting view of The Bennerley Viaduct, framed by the surroundings of The Erewash Valley and it’s contrasts of countryside and urban landscapes that blend together to make something slightly different.
On the one side of the car park, the abandoned tractor, the other side of the car park, over an unassuming wall, a view across a valley that has been changed over the years, that has a certain charm to it and characteristics, one minute you can be enjoying the serenity and calmness of The Erewash Canal and be surrounded by nature - the next you can be walking via an urban area, a clash perhaps of landscapes and how they have changed, but there was something about the view of The Bennerley Viaduct that I had captured that I just liked, perhaps it was due to the layers and having the viaduct framed in the middle amongst a bigger landscape.
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| Industry and Urban Layers - (Black and White.) |
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| Industry and Urban Layers - (Colour.) |
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| Bennerley Changes Framed - (Black and White.) |
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| Bennerley Changes Framed - (Colour.) |
But after that landscape, a second location was then on the cards and that was a viewpoint that I discovered during Covid, but one that has a certain charm to it. Behind me was the edge of an urban area, at Alma Hill, in Kimberley, yet in front of me an unobstructed view of layers of green, lush spring green with life awakening again after the deep sleep of Winter, and last time I had captured this view was in October of 2022, with a glorious theatrical display of colour, now though the landscape looked lush and full of shades of green - all creating glorious layers before the centrepiece, the 15th century Greasley Church, a sandstone landmark that has a photogenic quality to it that from a high point is just photographic perfection that throughout the year will change along with the colours of each season. This time around I wanted to experiment slightly with compositions and I had to think of how I would frame the church. One of the photographs that I ended up taking had a leading line through the crops of the field in front of me; unusual maybe but one that I really liked upon reviewing it.
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| A Greasley Spring Scene. |
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| Greasley Layers. |
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| Greasley Rolling. |
On the way back, with my slower outlook and pace of life, I noticed that within some of the glorious gardens, colour, colour that is often ignored and that before Covid I would have ignored, but this colour was like artwork, nature's artwork which is what it was, vibrant and different and just calming to the mind - for how many times do people ignore the free artwork that can be found within their own gardens?
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| Purple Framed. |
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| Blue Oddity. |
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| Carpet of Pink - (Portrait.) |
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| Carpet of Pink - (Landscape.) |
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| Surprises of The Urban Garden. |
After the glorious colours of plants and flowers, artwork of nature, it was then onto the third and final location; this time a lane through the countryside in Watnall, a more rural area with views over in the distance towards Bestwood Country Park and Nottingham City Centre, however the lane that I was on, well it was appropriately known and named as “Narrow Lane.” And a Narrow Lane it sure is, but it is a location of hidden delights and beauty that make you constantly look 360 degrees around you, and the colours that I would set my eyes on, well that was a bright yellow surprise, and the first photograph that I captured just spoke words of calm, for sometimes the best photographs that can be captured are the most simplistic scenes and after looking at the back of the camera, I knew that something of beauty had been captured.
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| The Lane and The Yellow Beauty. |
Swathes upon swathes of yellow rapeseed plants is what I could see in the distance, and again finding the perfect place to capture its beauty was on the list, I just wanted to capture the raw beauty of the nature and it’s artwork of creating a picture that was like something an artist can create using paints, for here though nature had created this artwork, the artwork of glorious delicate yellow flowers, and whilst the skies had changed slightly, a contrast between the yellow and the slightly darker skies above made for something slightly ethereal.
Thankfully a short distance later, and the perfect place/location had been spotted, and of course “roadside photography mode” well that kicked in, and in front of me I could see the beauty of the rapeseed plants, creating something of a “carpet of yellow” a magical and magnificent thus opulent carpet, that many people would probably ignore, but me I just wanted to capture its simplistic beauty, and that I did.
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| A Yellow Portrait. |
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| Simplicity of a Yellow Landscape. |
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| Distant Yellow Rolling. |
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| Time within The Yellow Carpet. |
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| Simplicity of the Yellow Infused Countryside. |
Afterwards I reviewed what I had captured and I was blown away, blown away by the fact that I had been to three different locations, all within “close proximity” to each other, and those three locations, well they were triangular, from each location it was possible roughly to see the last location that I had been to, an oddity within its own right perhaps, but what I had captured was beauty, the beauty of nature and architecture, plus the surprises that roadside photography can throw at you, from an old tractor next situated within a car park - but each photo, had something else, layers to them, layers that provided something of a journey to the subject and something interesting within them, framed perhaps, for the three locations all different, but somehow they felt linked together within a certain intrinsic way, and whilst I still have a sore knee at the moment - a right pain, it is still possible to capture amazing scenes, even if you do have to opt for different tactics and carry out photography in a slightly different way, for roadside photography is a thing that many landscape photographers carry out, and sometimes the best photographs are those that are captured from the roadside.
