Way To Wasdale Head.
Over the bridge and beyond Wastwater, to face the peaks and to conquer them…
Once you’ve hiked past the northern tip of Wastwater, there’s this little bridge that crosses the beck before following the road towards the head of the valley: Wasdale Head. If you’re a fellwalker or mountaineer, there’s everything you need in Wasdale Head to tackle the various mountains around here: an Inn, a wonderful pub and restaurant, some car parking and a mountaineering shop. In fact, the Wasdale Head Inn itself sums up the area perfectly:
England’s highest mountain, the deepest lake, the smallest Church, and the original world’s biggest liar can all be found in this tranquil corner of the Lake District.
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Wild Garlic Forest.
A treasure hidden in plain sight of the ancient market town…
So, this photo is out in the middle of a forest somewhere, right? Nope. As you go up the hill of Gillinggate in Kendal, there’s a little path that slopes off from the main road. Walk down the path and you see, well… this!
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Illumination Before The Storm.
The lush valley of Longsleddale glows in the final light of the day as the mountainous head darkens with the oncoming storm…
Today, I think me and Lisabet timed it just about right. We knew today was going to be a rainy one, but there’d be patches of breaks in the cloud to allow the light to come through. I do like me some dappled light. So we headed to the small farm of Sadgill in Longsleddale and made our way towards the head of the valley, shooting as we went. I managed to catch this scene as the sun broke through the thick to illuminate the valley. Later, the sun faded and the rain came…
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M For Mountain.
Looking back at the fells surrounding Kentmere Reservoir and the end of another beautiful day…
There are a few things I’ve learnt about trying to shoot the Kentmere Reservoir: it’s better to shoot the valley and reservoir during the rise of the sun rather than as it’s setting. As the sun sets, it falls behind the high fells that surround the reservoir, so whilst you might get interesting colours in the sky, the fells themselves are sunk into a deep shade, making the overall lighting of the scene very difficult to manage. It will be better during sunrise, then the light shoots directly into the reservoir valley and will illuminate the entire scene. As it is, some of the better shots I got from our exploration of Kentmere came from making our way back to the car away from the reservoir, such as here when we got soft pastellian colours and the ‘M’ shape of the fells that point towards the reservoir. =)
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Derwent Sunstar.
No-one else around but The Lady and me, the gentle sloshing of Derwentwater and the luminescence of the sun…
These sunstar shots are definitely a little trickier to process, but I think I’ve settled on a methodology: on the field, I shoot two sets of 7 bracketed exposures (from -3EV to +3EV), one set is shot at an f-stop of my choosing for optimal focus and sharpness (in this case, f/8) and then I shoot another set of 7 at f/22 to get the sunstar from the sun. The two bracketed sets are then processed identically in Luminance HDR, before merging them together in GIMP and blending in a few more of the original RAWs. This way, I get excellent sharpness and focus throughout the photo and I get the wonderful sunstar rays. =)
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Sustainer Of Life.
The mountain tarn and fells glow in the sunset light, feeding the lives of thousands from miles away…
Me and Lisabet really were very fortunate to get the light just right once we’d ascended to Hayeswater. The fells surrounding the tarn glowed in the late evening light; I was hypnotised by the water. But I made sure to shake off reverie enough to fire off a few compositions. =)
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High Above The Struggle.
From high up the mountain pass and gazing at how far we’ve come…
Before me and Lisabet arrived at our ultimate destination of Hartsop Valley for some glorious sunset/valley/mountain/lake action, we stopped at several more spots along Kirkstone Pass. There are a ridiculous amount of scenes and compositions to shoot along the pass, nevermind how the character of the place changes with the seasons. This was my first time exploring the mountain pass on a summer’s evening, from high up the pass; you can see the winding road in the mountain known as The Struggle and in the far distance you can make out some of Windermere. =)
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Crag Of The Yoke.
Rainsborrow Crag and its cave tower over the valley and sheep of Kentmere on a soft, pastellian evening…
Here’s a tip if you’re new to landscape photography: if you’re shooting a scene that has a particularly boring sky, fill it up! This is what I did in this photo: me and Lisabet hiked to and around the Kentmere Reservoir during sunset but unfortunately the sky was totally cloudless; I always prefer some cloud action especially as it affects the colour of the light from the setting sun. So for this composition, I shot with my tripod high up and pointing the camera down slightly; with the wide angle lens this helped the path to zoom very nicely into the scene and point towards the wonderful texture of Rainsbarrow Crag. Even better, placing a mountain towards the top of the frame on a wide angle lens makes it stretch out a little and make it seem bigger. Because, y’know, it was pretty big and impressive! =)
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In The Garden Of St. John.
Daffodils bow gently in the wind, as the spires of St. John’s Parish thrust high into the afternoon sky…
This was one of those perfect scenes that make me stop whilst en route to somewhere else. Me and Lisabet had spotted the church and its distinctive colour (it’s made from soft pink sandstone mined from the Eden valley) but once I espied the daffodils in the church grounds, with the thick fluffy clouds in the late afternoon, I knew there was a composition. =)
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Herdy In The Pass.
A single Herdwick ewe chews cud and gazes down from the lofty heights of Honister Pass…
If there’s one consistent, defining characteristic of all the wonderful Lake District landscapes, it’s the presence of the Herdwick sheep throughout the lands. They are, indeed, a treasured symbol of the Lake District, 99% of all Herdwick sheep can be found solely in the Central and Western Lake District area.
And like the landscape, they are particularly hard-wearing and rugged: they have been known to survive snow drifts and blankets for days by solely by sucking on the oils in their wool. They are also excellent climbers, so it’s no surprise to find one here near the summit of Honister Pass. =)
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