It’s only when life deals you a whacking blow that you really understand why you should always live life to the full.

Rays of Hope

I always only ever took up landscape photography for its beauty, the want for being there when the most delicate or dramatic scenes occur. But most of all for the peace, tranquility and the chance to clear the head, relax and, sometimes, ponder. Due to this, it is photography that has got me through the most difficult six months of my life.

Today’s image of snow-laden Wensleydale from Preston Scar was made Boxing Day 2009. Time I needed to contemplate the inevitable after a very emotional Christmas. Standing on a hill-top for over four hours on a freezing cold and windy afternoon might not sound like a lot of people’s cup of tea, but I felt just at home there as anywhere. Unfortunately, the day was drawing to a close and it would seem as if the light had evaded me once again due to a thick blanket of snow clouds blowing evermore in my direction. Therefore, I decided to pack up and head home.

Heading back down the scar I noticed a small chink of light appearing through a mass of cloud. Finding this pleasing composition, I set up the camera once more and waited to see what would happen. Some of my most successful images have been made when shooting directly into the sun (or Contre Jour), but I do find them the most challenging to meter for, needing heavy filtering for the sky in most cases. Thinking for a second I’d missed the perfect moment as the clouds covered the sun once more, I noticed a small shaft of light start to poke through the distant cloud… then another and another until this beautiful scene appeared before me creating an unusual effect of a monochromatic foreground ascending to a wonderfully warm, colourful sky covering the distant village of West Burton with golden rays of sunshine. That few minutes of crescendo followed by a satisfying click of the shutter was a welcome tonic that day.

Even in the darkest times we looked for rays of hope and I know I’ve learned a lot about myself and family and how we’ve all grown closer and stronger from the experience. I also had a lot of things confirmed too. Like the astonishingly talented surgeons we have in this country, like the wonderfully understanding doctors, like the amazingly caring Macmillan nurses. But one thing that I’ve learned the most, which I didn’t realise, is that we have real, living angels amongst us.  Marie Curie nurses work tirelessly day and through the night to help the terminally ill……. and do so entirely voluntarily……. In my book all the above should be the first in line for Knighthoods, OBE’s and so on, not actors, pop stars and footballers as seems so often the case.

In Memory of my Father who loved the dales whatever the season, 1935-2010.

Technical Data: 150mm, ¼s @ f22, Provia 100F, 0.9 + 0.6ND Grad.

As usual you can find this image and more in the ‘Recently Added’ section of the Gallery, Enjoy.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 7:30 am and is filed under Mark Banks Photography Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.