As I write this blog, I have come to relies that for the past 6 or 7 weekends I have not been out with the camera anywhere near has often as I would have liked, autumn is my second favorite season, but the downside of working Monday to Friday is that you have to manage the family commitments and weather conditions each weekend. It is only when I looked back, I realised how bad the weather has been recently, I have only managed two previous days out in the last 5 weeks.
I was planning to get out yesterday but again the weather was rubbish, so it was on domestic duties and a bit of retail therapy. However, today’s forecast was reasonable the alarm was set and off I set towards Keswick at 6.30 am planning to get there in plenty of time for sunrise. I had a shot of Derwent Island in mind where I wanted to get high up in Crow Park and frame the island around Catbells in the background, I was hoping that there would be a nice selection of autumnal colours on the trees on Derwent Island. I found my spot and the plan I had in my head seemed to work, so I set up and waited for some decent light, the sunrise was a non-event, and it soon became apparent that there would be no direct sunlight on the scene as there was a huge bank of cloud on the eastern horizon. I took a selection of photos form here then set of for a wander around the lake towards Isthmus Bay, along the way I grabbed a couple more images of Derwent Island from different perspectives.
From here I ended up at the old Isthmus Bay jetty, which was just protruding above the Lakes surface, so I tried to get a different photo from here, I ended up using portrait orientation looking directly along the jetty to the Cumbrian Mountains and using the autumnal trees on the far shore of the lake as added interest.
I took took a bit of a woodland walk, this is far from my normal genre of photography, but my idea was to spend some time in the woods and work at picking out images from the confusion around me, again I struggled to do this.
From here I retraced my route back towards the launch landings and found a little unique block of slate from the Honister Slate mine on the lake shore. Who would have carried this here and why, regardless I decided to work with the item to create what would be a cheesy, or unique photo depending on your interpretation of the scene?
Has I walked up the incline towards the gate to exit crow Park, I noticed the differing layers of hills and trees has you looked over toward Grisedale Pike, I thought that this warranted a photograph so set up and worked the scene.
I then headed along the path towards Friars Crag in the hope of finding some compositions that would capture the lovely autumnal colours that were populating the trees around the lake shore. Nothing really grabbed my attention, so I ended up photographing some Silver Birch trees that were contrasted against the dark background, and a snap of a path sign that was shrouded in autumnal foliage.
All in all, the 3 hours that I was strolling about was very enjoyable and relaxing, I really enjoy being out in the landscape without a care in the world, at peace with yourself enjoying the experience.
Hopefully the weather gods will allow a more regular occurrence of this going forwards as winter approaches.
Until next time stay safe and look after one another.
