Wishing you all a Happy New Year.
After the recent appalling weather that we have endured during the Christmas holiday period, it was refreshing to see a reasonable weather forecast for the first working weekend on the New Year, to begin this year’s photography exploits.
1st Mornings Trip.
The first trip of the weekend as planned to be Wasdale, overcast conditions were forecast, but when I left the house, I found the car covered in a layer of frost, on the drive to Wasdale, my concern was that the sky’s would be cloudless and not very photogenic.
I arrived well before sunrise, not that this matters at this location as the sun needs to clear the imposing screes and Scafell before any light begins to reach the valley.
I parked the car and decided to take a long leisurely walk along the shoreline of the lake and see what photographic options confronted me I found a selection of images has I walked along the Lakes shoreline, looking for any interesting leading lines, and keeping an eye out for any interesting light that may appear.
At first, I used a couple of rock formations for the foreground interest, not very original, but I had to use something.
I next found a little water inlet which became the foreground and its shape sending the eye through the image.
I then scrambled on to some rocks that were stretching out into the water of the lake to try and make some use of them, the image is below, do you think I have succeeded in make an original image of a well worked scene?
I could not resist in shooting the good old “Selfie”, I think by placing myself in the image it adds an element of scale to the scene. What are your thoughts on the “Selfie” images, are they a gimmick, or are they a useful tool to use?
There were some Birch trees on the far shore of the lake, stripped of their foliage, but the branches having turned that purple-ish colour which contracts to the sharp silver of the tree’s trunks. This contracting with the greens and browns of the winter foliage on the ground.
Has I trudged over a sodden peat bog heading towards the road, I found a little puddle which was frozen, but the leaves and vegetation was visible through the ice, I positioned the camera to create a leading line of this puddle, looking towards the huge fells of Yewbarrow, and Great Gable.
To finish off the mornings photography I decided to create a panoramic of the vista that is Wasdale head, with Yewbarrow on the left, Great Gable in the center and Scafell on the right.
Day 2’s Trip.
The forecast was for a hard frost during the night, but mist was scheduled to appear just before sunrise in several locations, not wanting to drive to far in case of a now-show, I decided to head for Derwent Water, as this is normally a good location for misty conditions.
My plan was to head for the southern shores of the lake to try and capture something a little different form the images that I already have of Catbells etc bathed in mist.
Myrtle, and Abbots Bay’s were my intended locations, for which I did not have a pre-determined plan on what I wanted to do, or capture, one of them times when you just shoot what appears at the time.
I soon found a partly submerged fence which had collapsed in the middle, I managed to get a couple of shots using this as the main interest, with the bank of mist in the background.
From here I took a 2-minute walk along the path towards Great Bay to find the trees and shrubbery were covered in a Hoare Frost, so I had a play-about here trying to pick out some of the frost covered shrubs and trees against a dark background.
Back to the lakeshore, but slightly further along, I came across a lovely little lone tree which was growing on a partly submerged rock, the water was flat calm, so allowing the tree to create a lovely reflection in the water’s surface, I played about with this composition for a while, capturing a couple of very nice images as I did.
I then found another frozen puddle, this time on one of the rocks that protrude out into the water, I thought the ice formation would make an original fore ground item, so set about taking a image of this.
By now the sun was up and most of the mist had dispersed, but a huge bank of mist remained at the northern end of the lake, even though the sky was cloudless, the sun was illuminating the wintery Skiddaw with its brown winters colour, so I grabbed a few images of this view, and of course captured a panoramic of the whole scene, as I do!
After this I went back to the car to set off home, but has I drove along the lower slopes of Catbells towards Portinscale, I notice that the mists were moving along the lake towards Lords island, which was becoming swamped in mist, I stopped the car jumped out and grabbed a image of this scene, no planning, just point the camera and shoot, surprisingly, (I think) that this is one of the best images form the whole mornings trip.
Until next time, stay safe, enjoy your photography, and please feel free to comment on this news article or on any of the images contained within it.
