ShowcaseEdale and Kinder last weekend, Zf and the 40mm only

Left the zoom at home on purpose and took only the 40mm for a two-day walk from Edale up onto Kinder and back round by Grindsbrook. Partly to save weight, partly to stop myself faffing.

Saturday was a write-off for anything big. Fog sat on the plateau all day, which I'd have moaned about with a wide lens, but at 40mm it made for a run of small pictures. A single rowan leaning out of the murk at the top of Grindsbrook Clough. The gritstone outcrops fading in steps behind each other. A couple of walkers in red cagoules who ended up exactly where I'd have put them if I'd been allowed.

Sunday cleared around ten. Got the bracken going copper along the edge with the Vale of Edale still holding mist underneath, which is about as good as that view gets. That one I'd have liked something wider for, I'll admit. Ended up doing a three-frame stitch handheld and it worked better than it had any right to.

What I'll take away is how many of the keepers were things I'd have walked straight past with the 24-70 on, looking for the big view. Cheers

darkslide said:

how many of the keepers were things I'd have walked straight past with the 24-70 on

That's the bit nobody believes until they try it. Same with a 50 on the Norfolk coast... with a zoom on I'm forever hunting for the one big picture of the whole beach, with a fixed lens I end up with a dozen small ones of groynes and dog walkers and they're always better. A fixed lens makes you look instead of zoom. Sounds like a cracking weekend.

Fog on Kinder in October sounds dreamy. I'd have been blown off the hill by now if it was Scotland. The rowan one sounds lovely, would love to know how it prints. I did something similar on Ben Lawers last year with just the 12-40 parked at 25mm because my hands were too cold to zoom, and those ended up being my favourite set of the whole year. There might be a lesson there

Handheld stitching at 40mm is underrated. Most of my wide shots are three portrait frames now.

mfrost said:

Most of my wide shots are three portrait frames now.

Same. The only time it falls over is when something's moving, and on Kinder that's usually just me. Or the cloud, which on Sunday was doing about forty miles an hour across the top. Two of the three attempts had a seam where it had changed shape between frames.

darkslide said:

Got the bracken going copper along the edge with the Vale of Edale still holding mist underneath

Lovely write-up. If that one holds up at a big size, print it. That kind of tonal layering, warm foreground and receding cool grey planes behind, is exactly what screens flatten and paper brings back. A handheld stitch at 40mm will have more than enough resolution for A2. I'd go for a matte cotton paper rather than a lustre, the mist will thank you.

Kinder in fog is grand until you lose the path. Ask me how I know.