Helen Stephenson's Derbyshire Break Pictures - December, 2005 - Monsal Dale

I've started the page off with the picture above, which was taken from the top of Cressbrook, and shows layer upon layer of countryside receding back into the morning mist.

As we were staying in Cressbrook, we had plenty of opportunities to photograph the views down Monsal Dale and across to Monsal Head, so these pictures were taken over the space of several days.

Here we have the "artistic" view across Monsal Dale and beyond, two views looking down along the upper part of Monsal Dale, and a close-up showing the River Wye running through the valley. Sorry about the telegraph poles!

Next are two more pictures looking down the upper part of Monsal Dale. These were taken from high up behind Cressbrook on the Litton Road on a beautiful misty morning.

From the same misty morning, here's a tree with the last vestiges of its autumn colour still intact, shown against the misty background of Monsal Dale.

The next picture is one of my favourites. Taken behind Cressbrook at the start of the Litton Road, this view looks across to Monsal Head.

I've shown three more pictures of similar views, but I don't like these as well. A little more work in PhotoShop could probably bring out more detail in them, but I like the first one better, so that's where I concentrated my effort.

Now I'm going to move onto something different. The rest of the pictures on this page were taken from outside the cottage at the top of Cressbrook, and caught the approaching twilight over Monsal Dale. My tripod wasn't handy at that moment, so these were taken with the lens wide open and the camera set to ISO3200. I think these might look good printed on rough watercolour paper. They're definitely not a glossy type of picture!