Our favourite time of year for photography in the UK is October and November. As the days get shorter and light becomes softer it lends a magic to the landscape like no other season. What it lacks in Spring’s optimism is more than made up for with misty mornings and striking colours. We have spent several days walking areas local to Matlock creating a project of this captivating time. It has been a powerful reminder of just how much I have taken some of these places for granted recently. Many locations are areas from my boyhood/youth and since then I have not revisited some for more than 45 years. With very few exceptions most locations have not changed much and those that have are merely victims of erosion, being spared from housing developments’ slow destruction. To stand in some of these places again was a poignant experience as I realised an entire lifetime has been shaped and slipped by since I last visited.

I made a point of using a single lens and camera for each visit, as an important part of the project was to ensure variation by using different properties provided by specific lenses. As there were no lens changes each day, I was forced to work within the parameters of what was attached to the camera which on the whole, worked very well. Consequently the list of equipment used is long, consisting of Leica SL2-s, Leica TL and Pentax K3 mkiii bodies. Lenses were Leica 16-35mm zoom, Leica 35mm APO , Leica 90-280mm APO Zoom, Leica 55-135mm APO zoom, Pentax DA 20-40mm zoom, Pentax DFA*50mm and Pentax DFA*85mm primes.