Underskiddaw

Latrigg Fell, looking over Keswick and Derwentwater at the point of sunset on the fells.

I couldn't decide wether or not to leave the bench in or out of the shot but seeing at thisa time of year it's pointing out towards exactly where the sun will set it would seem rude to no to include it as part of the overall story.

I'd previously posted an image up with myself on the bench just after the sun had dipped below the fells, but I don't know which one I prefer. I wanted to get the sunstar as big as possible over the mountains as it the sun dipped between the higher peaks so I'd opted for an an unsually high aperture of f/22, I shot the frame again with f/11 just incase I wasn't happy with the difraction prone f/22 version on the big screen, but to my eye it seems fine and I didn't end up using the the larger aperture version. I know everyone harps on about never shooting over f/16 but although it's something I hardly ever do, I don't see why we should be afraid of using it sparingly now and again if it serves a direct purpose.

This is definitely a location I'll come back to at sunrise if there is a bit of fog and mist about and try and shoot a bit tighter in onto the lake and fells, can see it being very atmospheric at dawn.

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This was a very impromptu thing, I'd been dithering about where to go for sunset and I'd thought about Castlerigg, I visited a few hours before to try and plan what I'd do but I just cannot for the life of me create something there that I'm happy with so I wanted another location, not on the lake as I'd done that the night before and was happy with the shot.....

So let's go up a bit, Latrigg is a great hill overlooking Keswick in the shadow of Skiddaw to the rear, a good walk up to it with hardly a soul around apart from a few fellrunners you get a great view down over Kewsick, the Lake, and the Mountain range.

The light when I got up here was best described as bloody awful, hazy, no contrast, no detail below it was just grim, I decided to commit though and see what happened, either way it was a nice walk and a good place to chill out for an hour or so, if I didn't get anything then so what, beats being stuck indoors....

The light did come good in the end and it was a great sunset, got a few shots with a really nice sunburst as the sun set inbetween a 'v' shape in the fells - one for another day, the only foreground here to speak of is the bench, which I had been using, the only thing missing from it was someone sat on it.... and with nobody else to ask it was me or nobody... I'll let you decide wether I actually add to or detract from the image, this was my last shot from the day before walking back down, and it was great to sit there and take it all in, and hearing the shutter fire behind me, hoping I'd get something like this, it was a good few minutes before I went back to the camera to look, too often with shooting these scenes you fail to soak it up as you are committed to capturing the image.

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Latrigg is one of the lowest fells in the Lake District, but is a popular climb due to its convenient location overlooking the town of Keswick and...