Strange encounters in the woods…

I had a strange morning yesterday and I’m still struggling with the aftermath a bit. 

By way of back story – I’ve been meaning to explore the Peak District a bit more, as it’s on my doorstep and there are plenty of great locations for a day’s shooting. After visiting a recent exhibition, I’ve been following the work of Dav Thomas (check him out – inspirational) who shoots a lot of his images in the Peaks, and the location of “Padley Gorge” cropped up regularly. It wasn’t a place I was familiar with and after seeing more images in a magazine, I decided to head out early on Sunday and check it out for an autumn colour location.

I got there early and as a location, it had almost everything you could want with mature woodland, moss covered boulders and a river tumbling through the rocks – wherever you looked there were great opportunities for making beautiful images – you don’t even have to walk that far from your car! I worked my way into the woods, enjoying the “newness” of seeing a place unfold for the first time and looking out for a first shot. I spotted a likely subject and started to set up my tripod and get everything ready to shoot. As I was readying to compose my first shot, an older couple walked past on the path above and I shouted a “good morning” (only polite after all). The woman replied, but her partner ignored me and proceeded to set up his gear right in front of me, in my shot.

I was a bit taken aback – had he just not seen me? I decided to pack up and move further into the woods – there were plenty of other great subjects. Unfortunately, he then did it again repeatedly – walking into my frame while I was shooting, looking at me and standing there until I basically gave up. This was not accidental behavior. After 3 or 4 of these, I decided to go far deeper upstream and shake him off, I found a great subject and spent a half hour composing and shooting unmolested – before it happened again and a completely different couple did exactly the same thing. 

By now I was getting pretty fed up – I explored for locations a bit further but by now it was about 11.00am and I decided to call it a day – I turned and retraced my steps back down the gorge. During the 10 minute walk back, I then encountered more people with cameras than I’ve ever seen in one place - even at weddings! You couldn’t move for tripods – people were even shooting in the footpath – I couldn’t get past without waiting for them to finish (a courtesy that I hadn’t received earlier). There must have been 40 plus shooters crammed into one small area, with a frantic undercurrent as they all competed for space. It reminded me of images you see from some of the African game reserves, where 15 Landrovers full of tourists are snapping away at one tortured lion! It’s just not right.

This is the bit that I’m still bothered about. A great location that also has easy access and parking is going to be popular, but there seemed to be a frantic nature to the way people were snapping away – like they didn’t care who they pissed off to get the shot – they were taking it! A year ago, in Barcelona, I’d set off early for Parc Güell to get some Gaudi shots and even at 8.00 am the park had started to fill up. I tried to get a shot of the famous  lizard fountain, but tourists kept getting in the way, until an oriental woman stood directly in front of me – I still have the close-up shot of  the back of her head! I can understand this kind of thing from tourists – you’re only there for a short time and everybody wants the same shot. They've paid to be there - they're taking it!. What still bothers me is that the exact same thing was happening in the woods…

As I’ve said before – I came to photograph as an offshoot of loving the outdoors first. I would be as happy just walking the woods without a camera, enjoying the spectacle of such a beautiful place, and as all hill walkers know, if you pass somebody out in the hills, everyone is polite. It’s a pity that this attitude doesn’t seem to be universal amongst outdoor photographers…it doesn’t make any sense to me. So far I've not met another photographer in the field who's returned a "hello", which is fairly worrying! As a group they don't seem happy to share (maybe they're all only-children??) Also photography has become so popular recently (and I know I’m just adding to that), I can see how difficult it would be to make a living from landscape photography, without having a niche and extraordinary talent. As a graphic designer, it reminds me of the late 80s/early 90s, where everybody with access to a pc thought they were suddenly graphic geniuses.

I’d encourage anybody to visit Padley Gorge – it’s a truly beautiful spot and you can get a bacon sandwich when you’ve had enough of the creative process…

But do get there early!

Be polite and considerate – we’re all just trying to get the shot but it's not a competition – I wouldn’t want to get mine at the expense of yours.

There’s definitely something to be said for a long walk in and as far as I’m concerned, the peace and solitude of a location definitely feeds into the final image. It sorts the men from the boys! I’ll be returning to Padley in 3 weeks or so, when the autumn colour kicks in – I’m sure it’ll be beautiful. Judging by the undergrowth, I'll bet it has a great show of spring bluebells too, but next time – I’ll be there on a week day, hours before the mob.

Enjoy your outdoor photography and to quote Keanu Reeves:

Be excellent to each other…camera dudes!