Lumbypics: Stick to what you know

Originally I'd gone looking for sheep on the moors on Monday evening but as I wandered a sheepless landscape I came upon one of the abandoned farmsteads. The moors and their stonework always strikes me as worth photographing. Usually I'm up there in the middle of the day but this time I had evening light to deal with. While it adds warmth and contrast the contrast can be too much. You also have to contend with your own shadow getting in the picture.

While most people seem to go for the views without signs of human intervention I'm always drawn to the opposite. I think that these features make for some element of story telling, whether the buildings are extant or in disrepair. The he distant mill seen between the old gateposts symbolise, for me, the way the industry of the valleys was partly the cause of the abandonment of the hill farm itself.

It's difficult to believe that it was only in the 1960s when this particular farmstead was deserted and the buildings demolished. Why the outdoor privy still stands is something of a mystery.

Decaying buildings are often a subject for photography for some reason. Throw in some golden hour light and away you go. A kind of architectural romanticism.

I played around trying to get a good angle on the subject with the light more over a shoulder. I was trying to frame the outhouse with the branches while making the frame work as a whole. Back on the computer a mon conversion seemed to work better with the graphic nature of the stonework and branches. There were a couple of niggles though. The distant tree wasn't obvious enough and the smaller tree trunk by the wall to the right not clearly enough defined. With the weather set for the following day I decided to make a return trip armed with a wider lens.

While the light was similar there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and try as I might I couldn't frame the shot as I had envisioned it while I waited for the sun to slide into position. Giving up I started to look for a different viewpoint. I got one that worked, but the exposure was tricky and the cloudless sky annoying. I'll not be having a third try. I got bored out of my nut waiting for the light. I really shouldn't try to do landscape photography for the sake of one-off pictures. Although this subject does at least have a back story rather than simply looking nice in a frame. Which seem to me to be the aim of 99% of the genre.

On my unplanned first visit I was walking in hope of finding my way back to my car, not having planned a route and not wishing to retrace my steps. As I neared civilisation I spied some sheep within camera range at last and made a sheepscape.

On my second visit I had not only swapped to a wider lens I'd packed a longer one too in case I spied some sheep. It paid off. Not only did it give me something to look for while waiting for the bloody light but there were sheep in the area. Again I tried to look for some sort of story, or message maybe. The traditional land use for the moors of sheep keeping and the contemporary use of energy generation.

I took quite a few sheep pictures but most have been binned and the rest are just pictures of sheep looking sheepish among the rough grass and stone walls apart from some of sheep bones on the ground by the privy.

Having resigned myself to failure at the farmstead I turned for home. At this time of year the uplands are brightened by foxgloves. There aren't many flowers or plants which I get the urge to photograph, but foxgloves are one. I'm as good at flower photography as I am at landscape - so why I combined the two is anyone's guess! Technically these pictures don't stand up. Hand-held, of course, barely in focus and at high ISO they'd not win any prizes. But viewed small they look okayish.