High Brandelhow

I'd never shot from this location before as the weather never really leant itself towards it but today with heavy overcast skies and the sun breaking through in parts I thought I'd give it a go in the late afternoon with the hope of getting the background fells illuminated if I could get a break in the cloud cover.

It was about a 30-40 minute wait to get this one and about 5 attempts as the clouds weren't playing ball, also a family arrived on the shore line followed by about 30 ducks who wanted feeding and decided to climb all over the jetty...

Eventually they moved on and the sun started to break through in bigger patches moving left to right across the fells with the cloud allowing me to get a decent part of the background bathed in sunlight against the dark clouds above.

It's a beautiful part of the lake and it wasn't a chore at all to just stand and wait here, excellent for a really good chill out spot, might start bringing bread and a fishing catapult to get rid of ducks though, they can spot potential food from miles away, and certainly aren't camera shy....

Again I was trying out the new Nisi filters, there is absolutely no colour correction needed on them at all, no colour cast and no dip in image quality, this was with a polariser, 10 stop filter and a 3 stop grad for the sky, absolutely superb, can't recommend them enough.

Visit my Website

A few weeks ago I took a few days off to visit the lake district (Cumbria, UK) by myself, with a vague plan to take in some of the stunning scenery and hopefully capture some memories whilst I was there.

Having never been to the lakes before and not usually one to do meticulous research before I go, I decided to have a very impromptu assault on the area.

The weather conditions were mixed as I arrived at my accomodation at the edge of Derwentwater, with bright sunshine to the west, a heavy rainshower to the east and a sprinkling of snow still atop the higher peaks. Things looked all set for a great week ahead.

Photography has been on the back-burner for me for the last few months, as I've struggled through a period of depression to try and find the motivation to do ANYTHING that wasn't completely necessary. Antidepressants help stave off negative thoughts, but also leave me feeling constantly drained of energy, foggy-headed, clumsy and forgetful.

In terms of photography, I think it helps enormously to see new, unfamiliar scenery to rekindle that inspiration and desire to seek out new images, hence this trip.

I enjoyed my time in the lakes, but in terms of capturing images I'm still not in the right mind-set for that. I took this image on the first (and only) night shoot, in dead-calm conditions. I've always wanted to capture startrail refections in water and this seemed the perfect opportunity for that.

My first few shots were taken from roughly the same spot, with a much lower viewpoint, but I didn't like the way that the jetty obscured much of the reflection of the mountains. Picnic table to the rescue! It added just enough height to my tripod to separate the jetty from the mountains. Being a good boy scout, I dragged it back to where I'd found it ;o)

The rest of my week was more dedicated to tramping up a few hills (most notably Scafell Pike) and just relaxing at the accommodation.

Hopefully my passion for photography will be re-ignited sooner rather than later. In the meantime, the sunrises will have to start without me.

F/8 ISO 400 480 Seconds

Another capture from my time spent at Derwentwater with two clients of mine on Wednesday. I had not realised just how many great opportunities I took...