Lived Up To The Legend
If you’re in the North of England and you want waterfalls, you should probably go to the Yorkshire Dales as there’s loads. But the Lake District has its fair share of waterfalls, and Stanley Force is one of the more impressive ones. I’ve been after shooting this one for years, and the other day I finally had the right conditions: overcast skies for soft light, in the middle of the summer for a full on lush environment.
Stanley Force sits at the head of Stanley Ghyll, a gorge in Eskdale that cuts through the granite of the Eskdale Fells. The result is a narrow and deep ravine that has been made more accessible with three wooden bridges. Incidentally, the gorge and waterfall are named after the Stanley family, who owned and lived in nearby Dalegarth Hall when the area was becoming popular with Victorian tourists. Stanley Force is a 60-ft drop and, surrounded by all sorts of ferns, moss, lichen and other vegetation, is an incredible sight.
Stanley Force, Stanley Ghyll, Eskdale, Lake District, Cumbria, England.
ISO100, various apertures and shutter speeds, 14mm (21mm full-frame equiv.) using a slim circular polariser on my Sigma dp0 Quattro. This photo was made with four exposures at ƒ/8 to get all the highlight and shadow information, and then another underexposed frame at ƒ/22 to get a darker but longer exposure for the highlights of the water. Processed in Sigma Photo Pro, blended in Photoshop, edited in Color Efex Pro and Macphun’s Luminar.
