Coming from Ribblesdale, this is one I’d been looking forward to leading.

The Ribble is around 70 miles long – we were at the source, I’m from about 35 miles downstream… so it wasn’t really “my hood” – but I’ve been around Horton, Settle and Ribblehead many times so knew a few gems to show the delegates.

1 – Catrigg Force – Starting at Stainforth

Stainforth is about 3 miles out of Settle and has a handy car park in the village – you have a 1 mile walk up a steep track (it’s worth taking water to lubricate the climb!) then you wander down a little path to the top of the falls.

The gorge is a real treat, Lord of the Rings in character. The falls are in 2 distinct steps and getting up close is a slippery challenge over rocks and fallen branches.

The light levels are low, so even with a polariser (highly recommended) you can get long exposures, like the one in this shot -which was around 15-20 seconds.

2 – Pen Y Gent

The most impressive of the 3 peaks when viewed from Ribblesdale, with his stepped end and “led down lion” shape, you can capture Penygent from just about anywhere and get a great shot

What you “really” need is a bit of dramatic light to get the most of it, and we were treated to a windy, cloudy day – so the patches of bright and dark changed perpetually.

The silhouette of the hill says it all to me – foreboding to climb!

3 – Stainforth Stepping Stones

If you’re heading to or from Catrigg Force, you’ll probably see these stones over the stream. You can use them as a lovely foreground and make these pseudo-olde-worldy photos. The only anachronism being the clothes the father and daughter are wearing!

4 – Ribblehead Viaduct – Magic Light

We were heading over the the Whernside end of the viaduct when the clouds parted letting through this fleeting flurry of light.

Landscape photography is often a hugely patient job – getting up at 3AM and climbing in the dark for that perfect sunrise… but just occasionally a dull day, as this had started to become, can offer up a short spell of magic.

You’ve just go to be ready for it!

So I was encouraging the delegates to get as many shots as they could and test the skills they’d learned on the workshop – we never again get light as good as this on the workshop

5 – Ribblehead Viaduct – Long Exposure

So if you’ve no light, how about trying something different – here’s a demo shot I took using a 10-stop filter, which gave me a 30 second exposure in bright day light. All the clouds had blown a long way in 30 seconds, hence the look of the sky.