South Lakeland
South Lakeland is a picturesque district located in North West England, known for its stunning natural beauty and charming towns. The area is home to some of the most breathtaking landscapes in the country, including the Lake District National Park, which is a popular destination for photographers. With its rolling hills, tranquil lakes, and rugged mountains, South Lakeland offers a wealth of opportunities for capturing stunning images. Some of the most popular photography locations in the area include Lake Windermere, Coniston Water, and the Langdale Pikes.
sunrise ish.........
Slater's Bridge which crosses the River Brathay Little Langdale Lake District
A great mornings shoot in the Lakes with Brad Eide and Terry Roberts BingleymanPhotos , the conditions the previous night had looked good for fog so we decided to head to a much lesser known riverside location to see what could be had.
The conditions were pretty much full on fog / mist when we got there which I love shooting in, just waiting for breaks in it to reveal a bit more of the area bit by bit, lots of potentially different images but at the same location.
As the sun came up the light was having a real hard time breaking through the dense fog in places in the opposite direction to this image, while we were shooting I keeping checking back on the fells behind, for a very short time the tops of Park Fell cleared and took on a really great red glow reflected into the still waters below, this really didn't last for very long at all and it was a case of working quickly, you could do with a 360 degree revolving head like an owl on mornings like this !!
More images from this mornings shoot can be found on my website - updated with new images and blog section www.flickr.com/photos/pete37038/47950133736/in/dateposted/
Tucked away in the grounds of Rydal Hall and it's huge gardens, right at the bottom is this great little waterfall and viewing building, it's no secret where it is but it does feel like a secret area by the time you've walked through all the sections of the gardens to get to this spot, a nice dry cool morning was the ideal time to visit on this Autumn day and there was hardly anybody about.
I've posted an image from here already stood right below in the water with a really low perspective, I couldn't decide which one I liked better so I thought I'd share this one too taken from a lot higher up on the bridge which runs over the beck.
Bit of waiting involved with this one as I wanted water movement but didn't want the trees blurring through the exposure so I just had to wait for breaks in the breeze, hardly a problem as just sat here on the bridge waiting with this scene in front of me was hardly making me want to rush anything, a truly beautiful place made even more so by the warm Autumn colours.
Another day off, another completely dry day, it's been a while....! spent a few hours along the shore of Coniston, not many people about today at all allowing for some good time spent relaxing and shooting without disturbance, just a gentle breeze about today with generally good conditions. The lack of service boats at this time of year is another bonus if you are out shooting, the steamer passed once which was great to watch and comes nowhere near the jetty.
View my most interesting shots on Flickriver here: www.flickriver.com/photos/pete37038/popular-interesting/.
My website: Deep Mono Photography
As all visitors to the Lake District know, Blea Tarn is a magical, tranquil place to sit and enjoy the scenery in an almost total silence.
early morning reflections on a very still Blea Tarn.
The lonesome pine tree at Kelly Hall Tarn in the Lake District
A perfect still early morning at Blea Tarn, the warm sunlight just filtering over the top of Lingmoor Fell and down onto the completely motionless Tarn, Side Pike can be seen illuminated directly ahead, with the Langdale Pikes behind.
You can view my most interesting shots on Flickriver here: www.flickriver.com/photos/pete37038/popular-interesting/
For the second image now in a row there no sky included in the frame at all, which for me is pretty unusual, this place had been on my list to do for ages and with the rain coming down outside it meant it was the perfect time to head underground...
Cathedral Quarry in the Langdales was a mining place for Slate, in particular Green Slate, in the main area of the quarry I couldn't really see any vivible vivid green type of slate (beautiful as it is) I had a good while shooting in there and got some results which I'll post up at some point. It was only on my way out that I inspected this entrance tunnel (that I had earlier walked through a bit hastily) a bit more with the flashlight and with the moisture on the walls there were some really interesting colours to be seen so I decided to shoot inside here for a while with the extreme wide angle to see what could be had.
The exposure inside here was pretty tricky with the light coming in from behind and also the light at the end with the extreme dark bits in the middle, I've used the flashlight on the central areas of the tunnel during the exposure to try and really bring out the detail and colours of the rocks, a smattering of Autumn leaves and the reflections into the still water adding a bit of something else to it as well.
I usually hate the rain, but today it made me come here, and as it was still raining when I was coming to leave it made me stop and take more of a look around me than perhaps I would have otherwise, something I'll try and do a lot more often from now on.
First shot of the recent trip to the Lakes, before meeting with the others I decided to climb up Birk Knott and chance a shot toward the Langdales over Blea Tarn.
There was rain showers on and off here so just got suited up and decided to wait it out in the hope of a decent break and some good sky, what I hadn't factored in however was just was windy it was going to be up here!! After setting up I covered the lens and filter holder with a spare hat on the tripod and settled in. within 2 minutes while I was looking in my bag the whole lot had blown over... 14-24 lens, and filter holder face down by some rocks, I could hardly bring myself to look... somehow amazingly there didn't seem to be anything wrong with at all! maybe the hat on the front helped.. couple of little blemishes but nothing more, it was literally about 5cm from a pile of rocks that would have been game over.
After waiting for the rain to subside, it was still seriously windy with some gusts almost blowing you off your feet, some light did appear and I did managed a few shots, this being my favourite, this time with the camera bag firmly weighted onto the tripod underneath! 'limited' to a 30 second exposure with this as I'd stupidly left my cable release at home (always something!), but didn't matter here with the wind being so strong you didn't need any longer to get good cloud movement across the scene, thankfully managed to get down again without further incident.
A vlog by Mike of our trip can be found here- really worth a watch -
Although not technically the hardest place to get to, this was probably one of the hardest shoots I've had this year by far.
It had taken a while to scramble down the extremely steep and slippy bank here, but amazingly I managed that without incident, anyone who knows me knows that things like that don't usualy go to plan.... I'd taken a while looking around and then setting up until I was happy to start shooting.
All was going well until this point, the shots I was getting all had some sort of what looked like an over exposed area at the top of the frame, no matter what I did it kept happening, it had to be condensation I guessed, I'd taken the filters off I was using and cleaned those, cleaned the lens, put it all back together (really not easy while stood in the middle of a river) and went again... same again!! grrrrr. Dismantle everything again, same again!! and this went on for about an hour in which time I'd dropped my polariser into the river along with all my lens cloths, I'd even ended up sat in the river while bending down to see through the camera.
I've never had this problem ever before and the temperature difference wasn't that great from my camera bag to the outside so no idea what was causing it, really really frustrating, I swapped camera bodies as a last resort thinking it may have been in the camera body itself and that did improve it but not totally, swapped lenses, and even filter systems to a smaller one, I just had to keep going, and keep cleaning until I got what I wanted, I got 2 shots over what I reckon was around 2 hours here, this was the first I was happy with, bit of a nightmare really but if it had taken all day then so be it, not being beaten by a bit of lens fogging, (although I very nearly did give up). It was really nice walking away from the place wet, but knowing I'd got something after all the hassle.
One of my favourite locations in the Lake District for Autumn, there are some fantastic trees around this area which have brilliant vividly coloured leaves that coat the rocks below and add another dimenion to this already beautiful scene.
Getting to this spot isn't the easiest thing in the world to do as it's a choice between wading through some deep moving water or down an extremely steep and potentially dangerous bank, amazingly (for me) I came down the bank without incident and out via the water which for a change didn't come over the top of my wellies which I consider a massive result !
The location didn't dissapoint again this year although I really had to work hard for images due to the lens and filters fogging really badly. I didn't think I'd managed to get much from this composition until I checked back over the days shoot this morning and found this which was hiding away inbetween some shot's i'll end up canning.
As I was leaving here there was a foreign couple on the waters edge that had been leaning arund the little grotto building trying to get pics of the waterfall behind it on their phones, they were trying allsorts and one was close to falling in hanging onto the building... when I got out of the water I said to them you do know you can go in there? he looked a bit blank so I opened up the unlocked door for him, she burst out lauighing and he seemed a bit embarassed but they both thanked me and seemed over the moon they could now get their shots.. you must wonder what the couple were thinking, "why has someone plonked a big stone building RIGHT in front of this beautiful waterfall blocking the view" ?. The mind boggles.
I've been posting some very colourful photos, a number of which I took during a sunny Autumn week in the English Lake District. However, it wasn't always about colour. On my last day there, it was very grey, wet and miserable, and my photos of the Coniston jetty were nothing like I had hoped. So just for the sake of some colour, I added my umbrella!
3 stitched together by my fair hands.......ok Lightroom... The Lake District, waiting for sunrise, that never really happened.....bit of a reoccurring theme when I scrape my backside out of bed at silly o'clock............ Still it was worth it to listen to the 'expert' telling his mate/student on the perfect composition.....for 30 bloody minutes......do us a favour mate, stand out of hearing distance next time, me and the cows were not interested!
Kelly Hall Tarn, Lake District
It was a very overcast day this one, so I'd planned to visit to Cathedral Cave in the Langdales to try and get an even exposure from inside with the light not being too bright outside, on the way there the sun was breaking in part through the cloud every now and again so I decided to set up at Slaters Bridge to see if I could catch some of the light.
It took a good wait to get anything here and I was joined by another photographer (good to meet you), I reckon it was over half an hour and hardly any light in the right place, a family came over the hill on the right and started walking towards the bridge... you know what's coming next surely... yes just as they got to the bridge and stood on it taking selfies the sun broke right through, you honestly couldn't make it up!
They realised after a minute or so and moved off to the left, closely followed by the sun of course, I actually laughed and told them when they came over what had just happened, not their fault at all, just uncanny timing!
Thankfully it broke through again about ten minutes later this time with nobody in the shot, allowing some nice contrast with the dark clouds and sunlight, with the bridge refelcted in the still beck.
Being able to shoot with filters at 14mm has made a massive difference to me with the 16-35 hardly getting used at all now, you'd think 2mm isn't much in the grand scheme of things but it really has made a big difference, but the one thing it doesn't help with is making people dissapear!
Lake District
Explore #3 - 03/11/17
I can never resist a visit to this location, although I hadn't planned to shoot it today I couldn't just pass by while the light was nice and the lake was still, I'd never really managed to get a full reflection of the tree in the frame on a still lake, it's harder than it sounds as you need the right conditions, the right angle, and ideally the right time of year where the tree has leaves to make it stand out from the background (or ideally a really misty morning).
There was a little mist about this morning which always helps, but to a full misty morning would have put pay to the Autumn reflections behind the tree, there always seems to be a sacrifice somewhere! There was one other photographer down here this morning, a Scottish guy, who I was talking to who like me had returned here numerous times in search of something special - (I'd like to see your stuff if you end up reading this), I'll continue to do the same as well, I just really really enjoy seeing the scene unfold through the different seasons, even if you come away empty handed, there's a lot worse places to be standing around at the beginning of a day it's that stunning a place.
Another new image and a quite unplanned one, we had decided to go up to the Lakes despite the weather forecast being less than ideal with some heavy rain rolling in, but the one thing heavy rain brings is great clouds, so the idea was to look for breaks in the weather and worst case scenario was drive around and just have a beer somewhere and some lunch...
It was only a last minute decision to drive via the Langdales, purely as I hadn't been for ages, Blea Tarn (this location) is absolutely shot to death, you can see why as it's beautiful but it really does need still water and some real drama to bring it to life, trying to avoid shooting this popular shot too much we call it 'going into Bleahab' :-) but, passing here the sky looked great at the back over the Langdales so we decided to stop, I was going to fly the drone and get some still / video.
Once at the shoreline the scene wasn't really that good with rippled water, and flat light, so I just composed a shot and left the camera there on the tripod literally just incase a break came while I was flying the drone.
A while afterwards and after I'd pretty much exhausted one drone battery, the Langdale Pikes to rear just started to light up against the black sky so it was back to the set up camera and sure enough a few moments later they were fully illuminated, if I wasn't already set up I'd definitely have missed it... the light then faded away and it was back to full gloom once again.
100% worth stopping after all, just the little moments you want to capture that happen so fleetingly against the far larger proportion of lacklustre showings.
Have a great weekend all.
4 shot pano
Took a short trip down to the Lake District on Saturday, this is Blea Tarn, our first stop. We spent a lot of time here as there was shots to be had all over the place, such was the beauty of the place.
Autumn colours this year will be reduced as the larch trees have been felled to prevent the spread of a larch fungus disease.
A Happy New Year to all my Flickr contacts / followers, hopefully you had a good 2017 and we both have a great 2018.
This is the last one from this shoot I promise! I've just found this one I did at the time but wanted to leave a sufficient gap from the others, it also struck me I hadn't posted up any portrait format images for over 6 months so here you have one.
Wellies time again (love my wellies) and a different viewpoint of the hidden away little gem of a building in the gardens of Rydal Hall. A lament of the Autumnal season now well in the past with fond memories as the Winter is now in full swing with all the stormy weather it brings with it...., as I type this the postbox on my house is banging away in the wind (must fix that), I have just seen a big wheely bin blowing around on the road outside, plus the 70ft tall metal mast across the street is being blown side to side like it is polystyrene!
Time to turn the heating up, enjoy a bit of editing and planning, and of course Flickr, again thanks for all the support in 2017, and all the best for 2018, see you out there.
I think next year I need to visit the Lakes more often......
A fantastic morning on the River Brathay towards Elterwater, the forecast looked good for misty conditions the previous evening so Myself, Brad Eide, and Terry Roberts decided to meet here for sunrise.
The misty conditions were great and the water really still apart from a couple of ducks swimming about feeding, the light really didn't last long at all, as soon as it had got good it chnaged and dissapeared very quickly, just a case of working quickly while you had it there and also checking both directions to see what was happening behind you too.
Definitely worth getting up early, really pleased with some of the results from this morning.
At last a day off, and another very early morning trip to the Lake District. A very misty / foggy day today, the sunrise didn't happen, well it did but you wouldn't have known it apart from the dwindling exposure times.... after shooting dawn at Rydal I headed off towards Elterwater, on the way I saw this out of the corner of my eye and it played on my mind as I went along.....so I turned back for a second look, glad I did as this turned out well, little bit of morning mist, no wind, and with the lovely Autumnal colours really coming through now made for a really pleasant place to spend 30 minutes or so, this being my favourite image from the visit.
View my most interesting shots on Flickriver here: www.flickriver.com/photos/pete37038/popular-interesting/.
An image from last month where I'd decided on the spare of the moment to drive up to Ambleside and climb up Loughrigg Fell in the dark to shoot sunrise over Windermere, as you do....
I'd got to the start of the walk a lot earlier than I thought in pitch black, which was just as well as I took a wrong turning on the climb up and had to backtrack for a while, still, I had plenty of time to get up to where I wanted to be so it wasn't a big issue.
Any one familiar with this spot will notice there is something that appears to have gone completely missing from this scene....
The mist I wanted was actually very feint and didn't hang around for long in the valley below but I still got some decent sky colour for a short amount of time so I opted for a long exposure to create some interesting cloud movement over the lake.
Not exactly the image I was after but I still like it and a great morning spent up in the hills watching the sun come up.
Nikon D850 Nikon 16-35 f/4 ISO 64 145 seconds
NiSi V6 System NiSi 100mm 6 stop ND NiSi 100mm 4 stop medium GND Fotopro T-74C Tripod Fotopro T-9R Ballhead
One from the back end of last year, another sunrise trip to the Lakes, 0730 in the morning (far better than current sunrise time...) sunrise as such didn't happen but this location was just about perfect weather wise, glow of the first light illuminating the dense fog/mist and seperating the lone tree from its background in the still lake, this was about the last of the Autumn colours. I was there again last week and the tree is looking pretty gnarly and sparse...
You can view my most interesting shots on Flickriver here: www.flickriver.com/photos/pete37038/popular-interesting/
My website: Deep Mono Photography
Couldn't resist taking the classic shot at Blea Tarn.
Langdale Pikes wrapped in clouds before sunrise reflected in a smooth Blea Tarn below
I'd almost forgotten about this and a couple of other images from this day, it's all too easy to move onto the next trip and the next, and all of a sudden things get left behind, sorting out a few files I came across them again.
I'd came here this morning to shoot the sunrise over Rydal water but on the way up it was pretty clear that the fog was pretty heavy and seemingly in to stay.
When I got to the spot it was still really dark but the moon was unusually really really bright so it was rendering things quite visible even in the dark and the fog so with the aid of the moon I decided to set up and go about framing the tree and see what kind of exposure would be needed to render the scene.
Around 10 seconds gave a great result with the bright moon causing the sky around it to show as blue fading into the dense fog below it, yet allowing the tree and forground to be clear giving a really unusual and somewhat haunting image, I'd never shot just using moonlight before, and luckily the conditions for it and the moons phase was perfect, I always look for opportunity to do it now to try and get something a little different to the norm, setting up in the dark and getting something ike this on the back of your camera is really quite bizarre and well worth the stupidly early start.
An idyllic still morning on Rydal Water in Springtime.
The sunrise colours were very muted this morning but stil really pleasant, they really didn't last long at all, I've shot this location a good few times now and you can see the sky changing very clearly to your left as you face this way down the lake, might be something, might be nothing, you never know what you are going to get... one thing that doesn't change though is being stood in the lake with your wellies on at dawn as the sun comes up is always magical regardless of what image you get, (or don't).
The water was perfectly still this morning so I had to be the same stood in the water so as not to cause any ripples on the surface, falling in never helps either, I've got form for such things....thankfully that didn't happen on this trip...
An image from a fantastic morning near to Elterwater, the sun had broken over the horizon and the mist was now beggining to be evaporated in its powerful glow.
This misty scene was changing very quickly with the low lying mist drifting quite fast to the left of the frame and now also being disrupted by the first sunlight of the day, the water still remaining perfectly calm this made for fantastic shooting conditions.
I was determined this year to make sure I get a good few days up in the Lake District during Autumn as it just didn't work out last year for one reason and another, so it was great to get a few days away here, as usual the weather wasn't the best I could have hoped for but to be honest these days I kind of expect that, and anything else it just a bonus...
This location wasn't really on my to do list on this day I'd planned to shoot the boathouse at Rydal but fot the second day running I found myself in a car park with not enough change for the extortionate ticket machine, knowing how long I take shooting a location and not fancying getting my car clamped or towed off I decided to change location and came here instead.
There are quite a few options for shooting here in terms of where to position yourself, this one seemed appealing and was definitely getting done after I spent a few minutes tumbling down a rather steep, slippy, muddy bank to get to it, grabbing onto a few trees and plants on the way down to stop myself going for an unwanted swim...
Had a good hour or so shooting along this bit of river, which turned out to be really productive. On the way back I decided to wade through the river instead of going back up the bank from hell again, even with wellies on got soaked feet as the water poured over the top in one unseen deep part, I'd like to think it was worth it though, if I don't come home soaked or covered in mud I probably haven't got anything on the camera worth keeping!
Ahhh this tree, I hate this tree. Or rather I did hate this tree.. purely becuase it's such a great subject and I've found it so difficult to shoot on so many occassions and I have never got any images of it I've liked, until this one.
It sits leaning wildly and is balanced precariously on a steep slope in a slate quarry (Hodge Close) in the Lake District, as soon as I saw it many trips ago it just cried out to be shot but getting an image of it I've found to be a total nightmare, it either blends into the background too much, isn't lit right, or it cuts into the skyline over the mountains, or depending which way you shoot it you end up with distracting white buildings in the scene which take away from the subject, I've shot it with about 4 different lenses and still nothing made me happy.
This day got here and I'd pretty much given up on getting anything with it, I'd tried again with the wide lens as there was some nice light but yet again it seemed to be sticking 2 fingers up at me so I got some shots at other locations nearby, as I was walking back to the car I was quite a way from it, I stopped and looked at it as it was being lit beautifully with the low sun head on, the day had been really moody and the sun had just broken through the heavy clouds picking out all the detail on my nemesis tree.
The conditions looked perfect to get separation in the shot so I got down low and used the 70-200 for this image, which I really like, at last.
Even in the processing stage it proved to be a complete pain in the backside as the Autumn colour in the background I found a little bit distracting so I've gone for black and white which I think suits it a lot better. For such a simple subject it's certainly made me work to get one image.
A great day out on the limestone pavement around Newbiggin Crags, with Mark Waidson Images from the Dark Side , Brad Eide , and Mike muddybootsuk despite some truly hideous weather.
We had walked to hear with overcast skies, (which isn't a bad thing for this area) but as we got near to the rock faces it started to blow a gale and poured down, managed to shelter for a while between some of the larger rocks until it had passed then got up onto the tops again.
I managed a few images from this location, a few of us had kind of ended up in the same area after spreading out and doing our own thing, this lone tree was a great point of interest and the colour of the springtime new tree just below it was irresistable to include in the frame.
The rain, although a nuisance had left a great wet coating on the rock which I love as it gives it loads more drama and texture.
Not long after thise was taken the weather closed in again and started pouring down with wind again so we all decided it just wasn't happening today as it was getting near on impossible to shoot in and walked back to the start point to dry off and get some food.
Although the poor weather eventually forced us back, the shots I did get were definitely all the better for it. Although I was working on a a tripod the ISO was pushed up a bit on this one as the wind was blowing hard, so I needed a much faster shutter to make sure the small tree and the tree in rear were both sharp and not moving. Worth viewing large and having a zoom around.
Another from my trip to the Lake District a few weeks back.
Ok so it's not a Cathedral.. rather a deep Cavern known as Cathedral Cave due to the big main window overlooking the very dark interior.
This was part of a large quarry system in the area which mine Slate, and Green Slate in particular - (that can be seen in more detail shot here at the cave entrance, that I took back in November) - www.flickr.com/photos/pete37038/26310247689/in/dateposted/
As you enter the main chamber it is pretty spectacular and the acoustics are superb, with every tiny (or loud) sound amplified many times, the other thing that strikes you about it is that it is a total nightmare to photograph if you want to include the 'window in the shot due to the extreme contrast in light, for example I had to use a headtorch to set this shot up as I couldn't see the camera manual lens settings or the tripod adjustment levers without feeling them.
The last time I was in here I had shot from the other way round with the window to my back so while long exposure times were still needed, and there was high lighting contrast, the window didn't pose a problem at the time, but what's a Cathedral without a window...?
After managing to light the tunnel shot last time I wanted to have a go at this one, showing the detail inside the cave with the light coming in from the window, a very overcast day was needed ideally to go some way to balancing out the light - forget it in bright conditions, thankfully overcast days in the Lakes are never too far away..
Needless to say it isn't one exposure, it's nigh on impossible to shoot this in one image, in fact I can't remember exactly how many it was or what I used in the end, I think I shot 9 that would have been in 1 stop increments, but I won't have used them all in the final image.
Definitely a spot to return to time and time again to get different compositions in different lighting. The large stone pillar appears to hold the ceiling up, thankfully it's doing a great job! - I'll post another image from here coming up showing the pillar more isolated from the background.
**Edited to say - For those who haven't visited there is a second opening (much bigger) just to the right of the window in view which serves to illuminate the roof area, you can see how the light falls in from an unknown source that you can't see.... just that one viewer (understandably as you can't see it) thought the roof was all done in post processing with no light source, which isn't how I like to work.
A peaceful evening as the sun sets over Lake Windermere in the Lake District of England
My website: Deep Mono Photography
The Howgill Fells are hills in Northern England between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, lying roughly in between the vertices of a triangle made by the towns of Sedbergh, Kirkby Stephen and Tebay. The name Howgill derives from the Old Norse word haugr meaning a hill or barrow, plus gil meaning a narrow valley. Wikipedia
A wonderful view of Grassmere from Loughrigg Terrace, with a carpet of red ferns and Lonscale Fell in the far distance.
Thanks to all Phoide contributors to South Lakeland!
Most notably Pete Rowbottom, Graham Morris, Richard Down, Adelheid Smitt, Dee Eff and Alan Taylor.