High Force

 Part of the Raby Estate just outside of Middleton in Teesdale, in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is High Force. "Force" being taken from the Viking word for waterfall. The waterfall is 21 metres high with a vertical drop.

The river Tees flows over the rocky outcrop and when the water level in the river is high it flows either side of the central column thundering into the cauldron below. In my 100th blog post in Dec 2014 I posted a couple of shots of the waterfall in full flow, from a similar position on the rocks as these shots were taken however that close to the falls on that occasion I was covered in spray as was the lens of my camera so the images were not so clear. It certainly wasn't possible to do long exposures like these however I would say it is worth a look just for the comparison so click on the highlighted link above.

I have heard that on very rare occasions the river completely covers the whole outcrop falling in one complete curtain of thundering water, I have not seen it like that.

These shots were taken on a relatively fine day (20th march 2023). I used my Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L series lens a variable ND filter with an ISO of 100 and the aperture at f22 The first image was at 45mm and the others at 58mm. the first two images were shot with a 13 second exposure and for contrast the third was taken using a 20 second exposure.

This final image was shot at 40mm with f/6.3 and an exposure of 1/40 sec. I have included a person in the picture for scale and at a faster shutter speed you can see how rough the water is and how effective the long exposures above have been in terms of smoothing out the falls and the surface of the water in the cauldron below.

Fabulous Fungus

Here are a couple more shots of fungus from my recent visit to High Force. I think these follow yesterday's image of the rock face really nicely because of the layers or different strata as the fungi grow up the side of the wood in the way the different layers of rock proceeded up the cliff side.

All Stacked Up

The River Tees winds it's way towards  the sea near Redcar, starting 85 miles away on Cross Fell in the Pennines.

In places it is a gentle slow flowing river but in others it forms cascades and waterfalls as it carves it's way coastwards.

The picture I have chosen for today is an example of the type of rock it has to negotiate along its journey. I like the structure of this cliff with the layers of rock laid long ago and gradually worn away by the force of water.

It's a Gift

Today is a milestone for me because this is my 100th blog post and I have decided to make a special offer to mark the occasion.  So take a look at the pictures then read on for details...

So today's pictures are of High Force in Forest-in-Teesdale.  It is a spectacular sight most times but after heavy rain it becomes a raging torrent and the noise is incredible as the River Tees thunders over the falls.  The first picture is actually of a small stream which feeds in to the Tees, here I experimented with a long exposure to get the milky effect.  Getting shots of the falls themselves was tricky as I had to climb over the fence to get to the rocks which were treacherously slippery, then I had the spray to contend with, it was like being in the shower and the spray on the lens caused the autofocus no end of difficulty.  Hopefully you will think the effort was worth it.

Now for the announcement you have been waiting for... I have now been blogging for 100 days consecutively and in that time my blog has been viewed all around the world, in the UK, Canada, the USA, in Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria, Morocco, Australia and all across Europe.  I am so happy that it has taken off so well and hopefully this will continue.

To celebrate the 100th post I wanted to do something to say thank you for the support that people have given me so I am going to give away a mounted print of one of my pictures.  To be in with a chance of receiving this offer please either retweet the link on Twitter or share the link on Facebook saying which of the pictures you would like to receive.  For every tweet or share on Facebook I will enter you into a draw and on New Years Eve I will pick one lucky person at random, the more tweets or shares the more opportunities to win and there will be four more posts between now and the draw itself so come back every day and get tweeting and sharing, and good luck .