A Marvellous March (For my photography)

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March has been a marvellous month for me, during this time I have been reasonably busy with my photography.

Wasdale

I started the month with a visit to Wasdale, which produced some reasonable photographs which I shared on social media, including a couple of drone shots.

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View along Wast Water towards Yewbarrow and Great Gable
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A drone shot showing the road heading towards Wasdale Head

Isle of Harris and Lewis

Shortly after this I set off the Isle of Harris and Lewis for a week’s photography on a workshop organised and delivered by Dean Allan Photography.

I had attended one of Deans workshops in Assynt a year before which was probably the best weeks photography ever.

We (Carole & me) had visited the Isle of Harris and Lewis once before for four days, this ended up being a very hectic few days chasing the honeypot locations. This inevitably lead to a huge amount of time being wasted by travelling from one location to another.

The plan behind booking onto Dean’s workshop was that he would take the hassle out of locating and finding the photo locations.

There are a (very) large number if images which I captured during this week, the plan is to create a specific blog post reflecting on this visit in the future, once I have completed editing them.

Woodland Bird Photography

Upon returning home, the photography continued with a visit to the Cumbria Woodland Photography Hide, it is a place that I have visited on many occasions.

Stephen and Linda have done a fantastic job in getting the hide up and running and securing the visit of the Sparrowhawks and the other small woodland birds.

On this visit, I was very fortunate to photograph a male and female Sparrowhawk, amongst the large number of small birds, I even managed to capture some in flight.

Male Sparrowhawk, tony-tomlinson-photography
Male Sparrowhawk
Bullfinch, tony-tomlinson-photography
Bullfinch Landing

 

Low Rigg

Three days after the visit to the hide, I was off to visit Tewet Tarn, another place that I have been visiting for a few years.

I am specifically looking for a replacement image to use on my website, the one I have on show now is a really nice photograph, but I am conscious that it is becoming several years old, so a replacement would bring a nice update to the website.

After checking the weather gods, it looked very promising for a clear sunrise, with a smattering of cloud cover.

When I arrived at the Tarn, I was very hopeful, the sky was showing signs of pastel colours, just what I wanted, then within 5 minutes it was gone. The sky was ow a boring blue, with very little cloud cover.

Still, I was here so it was time to make the best of a bad situation, I took some photos of the Tarn from higher up on Low Rigg fell, then took a walk over the fell towards High Rigg fell.

Blencathra, Cumbria, Lakedistrict, Landscape, Low-Rigg-Fell, Spring, sunrise, tewet-tarn, tony-tomlinson-photography
Tewet Tarn form Low Rigg with Blencathra in the background.

I found a dead straight drystone wall which made a interesting leading line for another photo looking towards Blencathra.

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The straight drystone wall leading towards Blencathra.

A little later on I came across an area of Daffodil swich contracted against the surrounding colours, so I framed up a couple of shots using these as foreground interest.

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Daffodils in the Valley

Finally, I consulted the OS map to see what paths were local to me, I followed a bridleway back towards here the car, hoping to come across something worthwhile to photograph.

Sadly, nothing caught my eye, so it was a swift journey back home for some breakfast.

Blea Tarn

My next trip out was three days later, the 26th of March, again the forecast was looking favourable, so it was time for the long run to Blea Tarn.

The reason behind this choice was that I have a image on show on my website, but it has been there for a while, time for a re-fresh.

As I pulled up at Blea Tarn with the sunup and hitting the Langdale Pikes opposite, also, there were a few photographers already in place capturing their shots.

It was not long before I was in position on the lake shore and trying to find some reasonable foreground rocks, I hate having loads of them in the foreground.

Again, the only blight on the horizon was the lack of cloud cover, just a boring plain blue sky, not to worry, you have to work with what you are given.

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Blea Tarn and those fantastic reflections

Chatting to several of the fellow photographers, it was interesting to hear that they were on a four-day workshop in the Lakes organised via Jessops.

It was nice to chat with them to hear what and where they had been too in the previous days, and whet their plans were for the remainder of the day.

Back to the photography, I had moved location to try and create something different, shortly afterwards moving higher up the hillside to change the angle of the scene.

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The Langdale Pikes beyond Blea Tarn

Once I had captured all that I needed, I took a short walk further around the lake where I took a couple of photos using the wooden fence as a leading line, and another close-up of a frozen inlet.

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The Frozen Inlet
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The latted fence leading into Blea Tarn

It was soon time to get back to the car and head home for a well-deserved bacon sarnie, the benefit of these early sunrises, a 4.30am alarm, but you are home by 10am.Thank you for finding the time to read my news post, until next time stay safe, and enjoy life.

A Frivolous February.

crummock-water, Cumbria, lake-district, Landscape, long-exposure, mellbreak-fell, Reflections, snow, sunrise, tony-tomlinson-photography, winter

February 2026 has been a very slow and unproductive month for my photography work and my social media updates.

There are the usual reasons for this, my lack of enthusiasm, time constraints, shocking weather in the Lake District, and family commitments.

 The major reason for my lack of photography is very personal, that being my wife, Carole has had major surgery and has needed me to support her through her journey

She isn’t out of the water just yet, but she is on the mend, and hopefully it wont belong until she has her mobility and independence back.

 So with this aside, what have I been up too during the month of February, there isn’t much but here it is!

 Red Squirrels.

 The first weekend of February, a good friend of mine Lorraine introduced me to these adorable creatures at a local location.

 I have always wanted to see these creatures in the wild and to photograph them, this visit fully met my wishes. Once the Squirrels became use to us, they were soon scampering about snatching the food that we had laid out for them.

 Despite the speed and agility of the squirrels, and me still getting use to my new camera, I managed to get a few reasonable images form this visit, many thanks to Lorraine for her support and guidance.

tony-tomlinson-photography, red-squirrel, wildlife, winter, cumbria,
Red Squirrel feeding
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I’m watching you!
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White Belly

Derwentwater

I had a little bimble (a leisurely walk or journey) around Derwentwater, hoping to meet the forecast mist, sadly this was missing, but a nice wee walk anyway!

The Centenary Stones, created to celebrate the Centenary of the National Trust in 1995.

The Green Curved bench was placed on the headland of Calfclose Bay by the Keswick Lions Club to celebrate the Millennium.

The Derwentwater Launches, these travel in a clockwise and anticlockwise direction visiting the seven landing jetties scattered around the lake.

I had a short chat with Mark Hetherington about our plans for the morning and the conditions, as us photographers do!

Mark is a very good photographer who has an excellent back catalogue of images on his Instagram page (Instagram).

Despite not taking many images, it was good to be out in the fresh air and to be able to have a pleasant walk about without the maddening crowds of later in the day.

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One of the Keswick Launch’s tied up at the jetty
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A Lone Hawthorn on the shore of Derwentwater
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The curved seat at Calf Close Bay
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The Centenary Stones  

Harrington Red Squirrels

A return to the wood to photograph the Red Squirrels, to horn my photo skills and to witness these stunning little creatures again.

We had to wait a while until they made an appearance, but the wait was worth it.

I managed to get some better photographs of the squirrels this time, and cant wait to get back to photo them again.

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Posing
Cumbria, red-squirrel, tony-tomlinson-photography, Wildlife, winter
Climbing
Cumbria, red-squirrel, tony-tomlinson-photography, Wildlife, winter
Found Them Nuts!

Crummock Water

I had a photograph in my head that I have been trying to capture at Crummock Water for some time, so with the weather gods looking promising I set off to the northern end of the lake.

What a pleasant morning it was, cold, crisp, and clear with a slight dusting of snow on the higher fells. The water was flowing over the weir but not has high as I thought it would be considering the amount of rainfall we have had recently.

 

crummock-water, Cumbria, lake-district, Landscape, long-exposure, snow, sunrise, tony-tomlinson-photography, winter
The weir at Crummock Water looking towards Mellbreak, Red Pike and High Stile.

United Utilities want to drastically change Crummock Water by removing the weir and lowering the level of the water by 1.3 meters, I have covered this in a previous news post, this can be found here.

After taking a short walk around the southern and northern shore of Crummock Water, I decided to head to the southern end of the lake, a area that I had not visited for several years.

It is a lovely walk around the southern shore of Crummock Water, I was hoping that the old rowing boat would be there, this has made many photos in the past.

As I headed around the rocky headland where there are three rocks that jut out into the lake, I could not resist stopping to get an image, the light was not the best, but it wasn’t too shabby a shot.

crummock-water, Cumbria, lake-district, Landscape, Rocks, snow, sunrise, tony-tomlinson-photography, winter
Headland

As I was walking along the lake shore, I noticed three black horses and a whit horse in a field which were being back-light by the mornings sun, the white horse made a really nice composition.

Cumbria, lake-district, Landscape, long-exposure, snow, sunrise, tony-tomlinson-photography, White-horse, winter
Silhouetted White Horse

Sadly when I reached the meadows which sit between Crummock Water and Buttermere and where the rowing boat use to live, the area was totally waterlogged, far too much flowing water flowing through the reeds to move around, but I did manage to reach the little bay where the rowing boat is normally located, this was missing, so getting wet legs and feet was not worth the end result lol.

Unfortunately, this sums up my photography exploits for February, but all being well with Carole, I have a week’s photography to look forward too on the Isle of Harris and Lewis in March.

Thank you for finding the time to read this news blog, until the next one, stay healthy and safe.

Tony.