This morning I decided to visit an old location that I have not been to for around a year or so, I arrived at Isthmus Bay around 6.40 am in plenty of time before the sun was to rise in the blue hour
I was surprised at how high the water level in the lake was, it just shows how much rain has fallen recently.
There was no wind, with lovely reflections in the waters surface, but worrying there was a lack of cloud cover, again.
I set up and waited for the light to arrive, taking shots as time went by both short and long exposure to get a different aspect to the images.
The Cumbrian Mountains in the distance were the first to be light by the morning sun has it rose over the horizon, during this time I decided to take a 7 shot panoramic of the vista in front of me.
After a hour or so at the jetty, I had a wonder around the headland to see if I could get a decent image of Derwent Island with its autumnal plumage of leaves on the trees. The dynamic range of the scene was very large, due to the sun being above the horizon so I took a couple of bracket images to work with in post editing, sadly when I got these images into the computer I found that I had made the most basic mistake, I had not focused the scene incorrectly which resulted in the island detail being quite soft. These images were swiftly removed form my library.
As I walked around to Crow park, there were quite a few photographers busy taking shots across the lake and up towards Borrowdale, I continued on my way, heading for Strandshag Bay and then on to Calfclose Bay to grab some images of the centenary stones.
As I arrived at Strandshag Bay there appeared to be a photographic workshop in progress, three photographers improving their skills and techniques!
Whilst in Strandshag Bay, there was some low mist close to the waters surface, so I quickly set up, using a stream as a leading line and shooting over Derwent Water towards Catbells, however when I reviewed these images on the computer I discarded them as they were nothing special.
I then proceeded to Calfclose Bay where I got several shots of the Centenary Stones looking across the lake towards Catbells and Maiden Moor. I post processed two of these with the stones as prominent foreground interest and the fells in the background, one being a short exposure which captured the movement in the water, and one being a long exposure which flattened out the movement in the waters surface and added a little motion in to the clouds in the sky, I will post these in the future as a comparison to see what peoples preferences are.
I then re-traced my route back to the car for a warm cup of coffee and a sandwich, from here I headed for the old watermill and Comb Gill right at the end of Borrowdale. I had to park the car some distance away form the footpath, and as I arrived at the gate to follow the footpath up to the Mill, I met two photographers who were returning from the Mill, I enquired on the water levels which they confirmed were at a decent level.
When I arrived there was a photographer taking photos of the scene, so whilst i waited I began to compose the images that I wanted in my head. The rocks in the stream had a substantial amount of green moss on them, with he leaves on the trees beginning to change colour. After a short while the bloke left his position to move further up the stream, so I practiced some low down shots, high level shots, and practiced with a series of shutter speeds to ensure I would capture the ideal motion in the water as it cascaded down the beck. I had to be careful with composition as it was very easy to include the numerous branches in the edges of the scene which would distract from the image.
I was at the Mill for 50 minutes or so, and had got some decent images to work with.
I then returned to the car and set off home, in total I had been out for just under 6 hours and walked 6.5 miles or so, not a bad mornings adventures.
Until next time, stay safe , and good buy.
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