The Landscape Of The Yorkshire Dales

Since aspect2i first start­ed out we have always run pho­tog­ra­phy work­shops and tours in the York­shire Dales for obvi­ous rea­sons, its beau­ti­ful! Most of our pho­tog­ra­phy work­shops and tours to date have been short and have tar­get­ed an indi­vid­ual aim such as mas­ter­ing com­po­si­tion, mas­ter­ing the tilt and shift lens or spend­ing three days mas­ter­ing infrared photography.

The York­shire Dales needs more time so we have designed this 5 day pho­tog­ra­phy work­shop so we can indulge our­selves for a lit­tle longer in this amaz­ing place. This is a rolling land­scape of many fea­tures, some of which are quite unique. The York­shire Dales is an upland Pen­nine area, most of which, was des­ig­nat­ed as a Nation­al Park in 1954 and stretch­es over 2180 square kilometres.

Prob­a­bly the most fas­ci­nat­ing aspect of this place are the car­bonif­er­ous lime­stone pave­ments which can be found through­out the park. These ancient rock for­ma­tions were cre­at­ed by retreat­ing glac­i­ers dur­ing the last ice age. But don’t be fooled into think­ing the Dales are only about lime­stone pave­ments. Of course we will vis­it places that can­not be over­looked such as Goredale Scar, Janet’s Foss, Hardraw Force and the area around Rib­ble­head, but we will also ven­ture to qui­eter, more unas­sum­ing places where the land gelt­ly undu­lates and stands of trees are perched atop lit­tle hills, and dry stone walls stretch across acres of land. It is these places that encap­su­late the essence of this amaz­ing landscape.

There is a rich source of pho­to­graph­ic mate­r­i­al to explore here. The land­scape is lit­tered with tiny lanes that wind up and down the Dales pass­ing ancient farm­steads, old stone barns in fields and pock­ets of ancient wood­land with tall, mature beech trees. The rivers and water­falls in the York­shire Dales are plen­ti­ful and we will cer­tain­ly be spend­ing some time explor­ing them.

This pho­tog­ra­phy work­shop will cov­er large parts of the Dales so you can expe­ri­ence many of the stun­ning fea­tures this area has to offer. We will be based in the south, quite close to the beau­ti­ful Scale­ber Force and Mal­ham Cove, but we will be trav­el­ing as far north as Keld, as far West as Ingle­ton and as far East as Aysgarth stop­ping at many amaz­ing loca­tions on the way.

It is true to say that the York­shire Dales is still a place where you feel you are get­ting away from the crowds and see­ing a land that is fixed in time and ooz­ing with char­ac­ter and charm. If you want to spend time with friend­ly, like-mind­ed peo­ple and learn from Paul Gal­lagher and Michael Pilk­ing­ton who have been pho­tograph­ing these Dales for many, many years, then we are sure this will be a fit­ting escape. We will be on hand at all times to offer his expe­ri­ence and enthu­si­asm and share ideas with you when­ev­er you want. We will also have the occa­sion­al image review in the evenings and we will offer you guid­ance on how to get the very best from your time on this pho­tog­ra­phy workshop.

One of the aims of this work­shop is to delve deep­er into how you want to por­tray this beau­ti­ful and often com­plex land­scape. We will active­ly encour­age cre­ativ­i­ty and the free­dom to take your time, soak up the moment and explore your­self as a photographer.