My location for motivation | Stiperstones

After a few unsuccessful photography trips I had been feeling less than enthusiastic about the photos I’d managed to capture recently and it had caused me to struggle to motivate myself to head out again. I didn’t really feel like going on another long(ish) drive to an unfamiliar location and only have the hope of taking a few decent photos (rather than a having a preplanned idea of what I was going to shoot) and then somehow manage to create a vlog out of it. 

Despite my lack of enthusiasm, it was heather season and for one reason or another I missed out on the heather last year. I didn’t want to miss out on it this time round and had been aiming to capture a few shots for my portfolio and attempt to film a half decent vlog during this beautiful time of the year, so it was time to get myself motivated to at least leave the house for a bit, but where to go?

The answer was easy… Stiperstones. One of my favourite local locations, one that I enjoy spending time in no matter the weather, one that I know has plenty of heather and one that I have always found to have a motivating effect on me.

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Stiperstones | My Location for Motivation – The Vlog

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Stiperstones – The Location

Stiperstones is a distinctive rocky ridge in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. At 536m it’s the second highest point in the county of Shropshire and is well known for its tors of quartzite. The views from the ridge are spectacular, looking down on the Shropshire plain to the north, to the east the Shropshire Hills and to the west on a clear day you can see all the way to the mountains of Snowdonia.

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The Images

After struggling initially (with both composition and trying to get my tripod positioned correctly) I am pretty pleased with the photos I managed to capture during this vlog.

Heather at Manstone Rock – The First One

The combination of the sun and haze made it almost impossible to photograph the views to the west during the early evening so I decided to make my way down the ridge a little and shoot towards the highest rock outcrop on Stiperstones, Manstone Rock. The warm sunlight coming from the left of the frame highlighted the heather in the foreground and really enhanced its beautiful colour and the rocky foreground scree does a fairly decent job of leading you through the heather towards Manstone Rock and the hazy views in the background. I’d have preferred a little more cloud in the sky but overall I’m pretty happy with this shot.

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Hazy hills sunset – The Second One

I was still looking for my second shot when the sun kind of forced my hand. I was hoping to position myself a little further to the south along the ridge so I could place the farms a little more evenly in the frame, but the sun was setting fast and, as anyone who has been up to Stiperstones knows, you do not move quickly up there! The rocky pathways are difficult to walk along so running (especially when distracted by the view) is asking for broken ankles! Rather than missing out on the beautiful hazy sunset I decided to hold my position and take the shot. I love the colours in this image, the rolling hills and the hazy silhouettes of the mountains of Snowdonia in the distance but, as I had initially thought, I would prefer the farms to be positioned a little more centrally or even removed altogether by shooting with a longer lens, which I didn’t have with me at the time.   

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My favourite rock – The Third One

This is my favourite photo from the day. I know from my experience of visiting Stiperstones for a sunset that you never leave early and that was definitely the case on this evening as the haze carried the subtle post sunset colour a little further over the landscape than it might normally have reached. The composition is one I spotted earlier in the evening but I felt that it wasn’t quite working with the conditions at the time. Although it is quite a dark image overall (it was very low light at the time) I really like the ambient light picking out the colour in the heather and touching the edges of the rock formation. I’m not sure of the name of this rock formation, or if it even has a name, but it is my favourite at Stiperstones and I’ve been taking photos of it from various angles since I started photography, I think that this is my favourite image so far!

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Stiperstones works it motivational magic again

It was a slow start to my evening up at Stiperstones, I started with a slightly negative mindset which meant that I was a little bit too disappointed by the amount of haze I found when I reached the Stiperstones ridge, although I was pleased to see how beautiful the heather was looking. Initially, I struggled to find compositions and was trying to force shots that had no chance of being successful. I’ve found this to be the case a lot of the time when I film a vlog, I feel that I need to get that first good shot before I can start creating a half decent vlog and I end up spending too much time trying to force compositions that I know will never work.

However, I took a few moments to sit and enjoy the views, and appreciate the fact that I was actually warm for the first time ever at Stiperstones. This soon sorted me out and reminded me that the photos and the vlogs are all secondary to spending time and enjoying the location I am in. This is definitely something I’ve forgotten recently with the pressure I have been putting on myself to create the standard of images and vlogs I deem worthy of sharing. As soon as this realisation occurred, the photography became simpler and the ability to talk to the camera in (reasonably) coherent sentences became much easier! 

As I said in the vlog, I made my way down from the ridge that evening already looking forward to my next trip out, having been reminded once again why Stiperstones is my location for motivation.

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Recent Blog Posts

Here are some more of my recent blog posts covering my YouTube vlogs – watch the video, read about the locations and have another look at the photos I managed to capture.

Escaping the crowds in Snowdonia | Afon Cynfal

Searching for bluebells in the Cambrian Mountains

Landscape photography with a telephoto lens | Foel Fadian

For more photos from across Wales, the UK and beyond follow my Instagram account

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