Littondale - Yorkshire Dales photography workshop

Littondale, the enigmatic valley that cuts off from the main route through Wharfedale after Kilnsey crag has to be one of my personal favourite locations in The Yorkshire Dales. The landscape doesn’t get any more typically “Dales” than here at Littondale. Vibrant, green velvet like meadows are partitioned by ancient drystone walls and traditional fieldbarns or Laithes, creating a beautiful natural patchwork on the landscape. The river Skirfare flows through the valley bottom flanked by the crag of ‘Hawkswick Cote’ and the spectacular gorge of ‘Yew Cogar Scar’. Littondale is also known to be the inspiration for the fictional location of ‘Vendale’ in Charles Kingsleys’ novel, ‘The Water Babies’ and it’s easy to see why he chose it.

The valley runs in an east to west direction. This means that the light can be very good at both ends of the day. The workshop will start at Arncliffe village; from here we’ll make our way to one of the footpaths that climb the valley side. The footpaths can be quite steep in places but we don’t have to walk too far before can start taking pictures. Telephoto lenses in the range of 70 – 300mm focal length can be very helpful for isolating the lines and patterns of the drystone walls in the valley below. Wide angle lenses also come in very handy for including the many foreground elements we have at our disposal. We’ll cover at least three or possibly four separate locations throughout the day.

The workshop will suit all ability levels from complete beginners through to more advanced enthusiasts. If you are quite new to digital photography we can cover the basics of camera setup and use of different camera settings to manage depth of field, focusing and exposure. By the end of the day you should be comfortable with using your camera in fully manual mode. We will also cover the use of neutral density graduated filters (ND Grads), Polarisers and straight ND filters. A good proportion of the day will be spent explaining the different methods and ideology behind seeing images and the type of things to look out for when composing a photograph.

For more advanced enthusiasts this is a chance to take advantage of my many hours spent walking the hills in search of the perfect viewpoint. Littondale is not as heavily photographed as some other areas of The Yorkshire Dales and as such there are no classic or obvious cliché shots. This makes Littondale a compositional challenge but one which I always look forward to. One thing is for sure, you will come away with original images of a spectacular landscape.

Meeting time is 10am at Arncliffe Village and if everyone is in agreement we will have dinner at the Queens Arms, Litton as the food there is excellent. There will be some walking involved in this workshop, although only short distances some of the paths are quite steep. The walks will be broken up every few hundred yards with us making images but because of the quite steep paths an average fitness level is required and you should also make sure you have sturdy footwear.