Black Tor Tree

Back in February 2012 I was staying in my caravan in the beautiful heart of the Peak District "Buxton", on one day I had a very early morning flight so I decided to get up with the larks on the previous day and spend the day walking with my camera in a bid to be asleep early ready for my early flight from Manchester. I drove out to Castleton in the dark winter morning and had to use a head torch as I set out across the meadows, up through the village of Hope steadily climbing, the cold winter sun was beginning to illuminate the sky with it's pale yellow blinding luminosity. The walk took several hours with brew stops, photo opportunities and trying not to fall on the ice, in hindsight I would have worn crampons, oddly people often underestimate the ferocity of British fell weather thinking people only get in trouble in true Alpine conditions, trust me on this, if you are heading to the hills this winter go prepared. As tramped along the frozen snow of the Black Peak I was becoming more and more aware of exactly how cold it was, my breath was freezing on my stubble causing little beads of ice and on my brows and lashes too, all around me everything was covered in ice, to go with the minus conditions there must have been a recent fog to give everything such a comprehensive coating. I saw this tree which stands alone glistening with frost crystals and decided to capture this moment in time, my moment caught and made into a tangible item, shareable and show-able the true essence of photography. I used the stunning Sigma EX 28mm F-1.8 for this shot coupled with my cropped frame camera gave me a normal 48mm length but with a slight curvature caused by the optical properties of an apparent wide angle lens. Used at F-2.8 this lens is another one of Sigma's class winning lenses. I feel I could have used a smaller aperture to help make the foreground detail a little more crisp. I like the tonal values of this image I feel it conveys the clean fresh day and the pure ice air, still no breeze motionless leaves and fronds petrified in a coating of frozen moisture.
On taking this photograph I mounted my Canon EOS 400d on my quite new Olivon tripod and was somewhat disappointed when I tightened the locking screw for the head to develop a crack in it's cast aluminum construction.
No filters were used on this shot and post exposure manipulation was limited to a slight crop and monochrome conversion. I feel it stands as proof that lower level cameras can compete with even the best full frame models for technical excellence and capability
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