Photographing the Roaches
I’m now half-way though a project where I’m trying to understand what makes a good photo essay. I’ve learnt many things—not least the fact that the areas of photography I enjoy most are portraits and landscapes.
There’s a lot of similarity between the two genres. You could argue that a good landscape photograph is a portrait of a place. And a good portrait photograph reveals the landscape of a person.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been building a collection of landscape images of the Roaches. The Roaches is a rocky, gritstone escarpment on the edge of the Peak District.
The weather can be changeable — this is Staffordshire after all — but when the light is good, it’s very, very good. Near sunset, the rocks are bathed in a glorious golden light.
The Roaches is near enough to where I live that I can drive there if it looks like being a good sunset. It’s also a challenge to photograph, since it’s a pile of rocks (albeit an interesting pile). And because I can visit often, I can take my time photographing it — there’s not the sense of urgency I get when having just a day or so to visit a once-in-a-lifetime location.
And I can take my dog too.
Roach’s End is just along from the The Roaches and provides a better view of the setting sun.
This derelict farmhouse provides some interesting foreground interest.
Like many of the stories I’ve been publishing, this one is far from over. I hope to be adding to it for years to come.
This is photo story 26/52. More details about this project.
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