Better late than never, here’s a quick resume of my trip to the Lakes in October 2018. I’ve now had the time to whittle down the images to only a few - I didn’t get a massive haul of good images - just one that I’m rather pleased with and a few other ones worth sharing - but that’s about par for the course. In the process I feel like I learnt more of the lay of the land and some good places to come back to, which is half the point of my trips - the Lakes aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so I’ll apply what I learnt on the next visit.
First visit to Wastwater - hopefully the first of many
I finally found the time to venture over to Wastwater - somewhere I’d wanted to go for a while. It was only a quick visit as the light was fading but I was impressed with the remoteness of it and would love to spend a lot more time there exploring the coastline. Just as I’d pretty much given up finding anything useful, I noticed a little composition that I thought would work - I didn’t necessarily think of it as a black & white shot at the time but it quickly made sense upon reviewing afterwards, as the colour added very little.
Another promising first visit: the Haystacks area
Another first on this trip was taking a half-day hike up the Haystacks, near Buttermere. It was a nice trip - not too much ascent to tire you out but still good views and some varied opportunities. The shot above was really just to document the bothy I came across, although in retrospect it came out better than I thought! Within 15 min of reaching this plateau, though, I came across an altogether better composition - see below:
Faint rainbow in the middle distance - changeable conditions from Haystacks looking over to the northwest.
The shot above was one I used in some recent camera club talks, as a good example of how walking around a bit (and trying both landscape and portrait orientations) can make a big improvement to the first composition you stumble across. It was stepping back ten metres, including the second pool and switching to portrait that made the difference in this instance. I was hoping the rainbow would get much stronger but I’m not too bothered - it wasn’t an essential part of the shot in the end.
Morning haze, frost and colours in Borrowdale
A bit of a change now - something more like I’d envisioned finding on this trip - this example from Borrowdale in the early-ish morning. I tried many things that didn’t come off here but this was one I was happier with.
Lone sheep up on Lang How
A shot of a lone sheep lit by scanning rays of a sun was my only take-home photo from a trip up to Lang How (another easy ascent) but again, it was good to take in the views.
Early morning mist at Derwentwater
So far you’ve not seen many lake images from the Lake District here but don’t worry - I did of course come across some on my travels, like Derwentwater in the scene above. The autumn colours don’t really come through but that’s another shot for another day - specifically, a post-sunrise one!
Swan taking off in the early morning sun - small lake near Windermere
During a very nice early morning wander near Windermere, I did come across this outcrop of trees - the scene itself wasn’t so great but, in the image above, a swan decided to take off while I had a slow-ish exposure running, so I cropped in afterwards to frame this nice little shot!
Grey heron by waterfall
Another unexpected photo-bombing by a bird gave me my best shot of the trip (see above). There was nothing spontaneous about the location, as I’d been busy refining a composition above a small waterfall for a while. However, just when I’d got everything ready for the ‘final’ shot (or rather series of shots, where running water is involved), a beautiful grey heron swooped into the shot (giving me quite a surprise) and, miraculously, stayed perfectly still on its rock for the six seconds needed to capture this shot. It’s not really a big part of the shot and I’d be pretty happy with it without the heron, but I think it adds some more interest.
Morning sun finds its way through the forest
The final image of the series - just a some morning sun shining through the forest. Hope you enjoyed this set and hope to bring you more from this amazing national park in 2019!