Near Youlgreave

Ah! Superb light!

It took me a little while to notice the stone wall. I'd like to see it feature more prominently in the scene, without overpowering the bucolic landscape.

 

The light is beautiful on both land and sky.

Thank you gents. It was the light that got the camera out of the kit bag. And then I had to search for the composition. The gap in the wall was the entry thru to the main tree and the dip where the the two hills are conjoined. It was also the way to the black plastic lined hay bales - which you kindly didn't mention :)

hay bales? what...oh, yes there they are. Bring me my glasses, nurse!

It took me a minute to find the stone wall, now you expect me to search for some tiny black dots?

Did anyone take the time to inspect the Larger view? Everything seems bigger in that version, by about 100 pixels. The light is indeed very attractive, but I might have removed that lonely dog near the centre though.

What's the story on yon four legged creature? Horse? Dog? Pack Mule?

On second thoughts, the horse should stay (sure it's a horse).

My previous comment was a failed attempt at trying to be funny. I won't give up my day job, just yet...

LOL.. yeah those hay things in black plastic... I never seen those before a couple of years ago. They can really spoil a landscape, but they are rather small in this picture... the picture is large but everything is small... if that mammal is a horse than this is a huge scene! I agree with John that it might have been nice to have the stone wall featured a bit more, but I don't see how this could have been achieved withouth drastically changing the composition. Beautifull light.

A horse, you say? hmmmmm.

 

Well, about the tree, I think the tree is combative to the wall. A a point of entry, it confronts the traveller right where they would enter, which causes their eye to leap over it, and downplay the wall altogether, which works to pull the eye into the landscape, whereupon it is greeted by the she-wolf in the center.

 

In other words, removing the tree, using any of the various kinds of saws or cutting tools available at fine hardware shops in your area, or through catalog, would probably make the wall more visible, and scare the werewolf away.

How to make the wall a fraction more prominent? This'll do it.

However, now that I notice that stalking leopard, I can see why Phil resisted moving closer to the wall.

Hi fellas and thanks for stopping by. A nice bunch of comments to get my teeth in to. Yes, I suppose those black bales are on the titchy side now. It was the white dots that bothered me. I burned in the highlights. When I was looking through the viewfinder though, they were blinking at me like a dozen lighthouses. They drove me crazy. I think I've now gotten over it. Leaving me to gnash my teeth coz o' them friggin' pylons on the horizon, dammit!

There is a serious side to this post though as the story behind the animal you see in the middle of the picture (as demanded by Doug) is one of overwhelming sadness. That of the Derbyshire clef-pallet tapir. Originally introduced to the fields and forests of the English Peak District by Oliver Cromwell in celebration of his defeat of Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bakewell in 1387, its numbers quickly swelled such that by the late sixteenth century it had become revered as a courtly banqueting savoury and a fashionable hors d'oeuvre:

Fortune bestowed you our sweet virgin queenPartake yee a tidbit of tapir spleen?(William Shakespeare Sonnet XXXIV)

During the World Wars, the tapir was used by restless POWs as a fiery alternative to sheep, hence the musicahall success of

Rub a dub dubTwo men in a tubTwo Gerrys tubbed a tapir

similarly, some thirty years later, a parody of "It's a Long Way to Tiperary", became the boastful "It's a schlong's way to Tub a Tapir"

Alas, after 400 years of feasting and fornicating, man's unrelenting misuse of the animal has brought it to the point of imminent extinction and impending doom. A suggestion then that the tapir should stay in the picture "in memoriam". Here you see one of the last three left anywhere in the world. With typical tapirian misfortune, all three of them are gentlemen.

I've got exciting news Phil! Those three lonely gentlemen tapirs are in for a treat! A short drive north from Youlgreave is some female tapir company! In my effort to help reduce tapir loneliness, here's what I'm personally prepared to do: Pay their entry fee to Tapir Heaven! All you have to do, is round 'em up and drive them there, Phil. You'll do that for these fella's, won't you?

Probably falling a little behind in this thread. If you were to use John's lawnmower to improve the visibility of the stone wall, would you then have to tick the box and state that this image was manipulated?

Personally, not averse to a bit of tampering with a potential photograpic scene. When asked as to what I'm actually doing (by she who must be obeyed, for instance), I usually reply by saying that I'm just doing a bit of Photoshopping, before the exposure...

Tapir Heaven sounds like a great idea!

Not so fast, John and Pete, I think Phil is trying to pull some wool over our eyes. Take a look at this enlargement, and then compare to the tapirs pictured in John's link. Notice how high the head is held, yet, from John's link, the animal looks as if it could never hold its head that high.

 

Care to fess up with the truth, Phil?

Well I did see one picture with the animal holding his head high, YET a google search on Debyshire's tapirs didnt really lead to anything concrete... so the only possible answer to this mistery is that this tapir has disguessed himself in something else, maybe even ferocious, to scare of hunters and survive all the killings.

ok that doesn make sense...

Forgive the fool that doth misquote,

For 'Fayrie' Queen I ought have wrote.

No tapir spleen e'er passed her lips.

I 'fess I was but telling fibs.

Well that's a big disappointment for the Brazilian lady tapirs at the South Lakes Wild Animal Park.

tsk, tsk, tsk. Tapir lovers across the world will be very disappointed, too.

Tapir love: the love that dare not bray^(*) its name.

Hhmm, Tapir love... Unfortunately, it is inevitable that responses to this thread will tapir off.

Thanks for the educational value, Phil. I never realised that tapirs are related to both horses and rhinoceroses... At least this thread hasn't turned into a white elephant!

^(*)... or neigh / bleat / snort, I can't decide

Recently people seem to see tapir everywhere including in POW's thunder...

IMO, we are in presence of the grand-grand child of Baskerville's hund lost in the Dartmoor

This might be one of the more convoluted threads on PN. Still I like the image. Keep the horse or tapir or hephelump or whatever it is in the image.

 

To maintain the convoluted nature of the thread, let's have a trivia quiz:

 

What feature-length cartoon featured animals called hephelumps and woozels? (Not too sure on the spelling of the first critters.)