When I'm off walking in the Lakes I'm often in a bit of a quandary as to what kit to take - do I travel light and have the ability to cover the ground quickly, or do I pack in the tripod, lenses, filters etc at the risk of being somewhat slower across the fells.
With the somewhat dubious forecast I decided to opt for the latter approach. If we were likely to be taking shots of waterfalls, rather than wide-angle scenics from high up on the mountains, then the tripod would be a necessity and the filters would probably come in handy to hold back a overcast but bright sky.
Leaving Grasmere by Easdale Road, and then picking up the path that tracks up to Easdale Tarn, it is only a couple of miles before you reach Sourmilk Gill and the main section of waterfalls. I don't think I've been up this route since I was about 10 years old and it's certainly the first time I've been since taking photography more seriously. To be honest we could easily have spent the whole day exploring just this small section of the walk, but we had a route we wanted to get around and we knew the winter day would be short.
This image was taken of the main section of the falls, which is easily accessible from the adjacent footpath. For a first proper visit to this location I'm pretty pleased, but it's definitely somewhere to come back to. My tripod was balanced precariously amongst some boulders and a 2-stop graduated filter was used over the top portion of the image to hold back the sky, eventually giving a 1/2 sec exposure at ISO50. This image is actually cropped a little from the original RAW, which has more of the sky - but there was little interest in it, so I've excluded as much I felt I could without cramping the falls themselves.
This is a zoomed composition of the same areas of the falls. I think it's too abstract to work as an image on its own, but makes a nice pairing with the first shot.
Moving onwards up the gill the river then became a series of short falls, but still with plenty of interest. A gnarled tree stood out alongside the gill and looked like a great subject for photographs. Again it would be good to return on another day and explore this tree further, but I still like the image below. My tripod was this time slowly sinking amongst the moss and waterlogged ground, but it was just about stable enough to still record a sharp image.
Leaving the gill behind we then made our way up to Easdale Tarn, past a large group of Scouts, and then round on a short detour to Codale Tarn. This small tarn again offers great photographic potential, although the light by this time was incredibly flat, and the fells above the tarn were quickly lost in the low cloud. I experimented for while with different shutter speeds across the tarn, obtaining mixed results in the occasional buffeting winds. Perhaps one thing I've learnt from the trip is that I need to be prepared to carry a somewhat heavier tripod for longer exposures in poor weather! The image below was a 15sec exposure and is acceptably sharp at 100% viewing even if it doesn't quite do justice to the sensor on the 5D MkII. This image really needs some more interesting light but I think it's always good to take photos even if the conditions aren't perfect.
Not long after leaving the tarn we soon entered cloud, and made our way up towards High Raise. After wandering around in the mist for a while (i.e. temporarily getting lost!) we eventually got to the trig point on High Raise and then set off northwards to pick up the path leading backdown towards Grasmere via Moor Moss and Far Easdale Gill.
The camera stayed in the pack for most of the way down, and although I took some further shots of some small waterfalls they weren't that successful and will remain hidden away on my hard-drive! Back down in Grasmere we treated ourselves to the obligatory cup of tea and cake, in the excellent Baldry's Tea Room, before purchasing some famous Grasmere Gingerbread and making our way back to the car.
Overall it was a good days walk, totalling around 10 miles and 3000ft of ascent. From a photographic perspective it's an area I really want to go back to, with time to explore and look for some new compositions. It was also a good reminder to shoot images that match the conditions, rather than going for a walk with a pre-conceived idea of your ideal shots. There are always subjects to be found and the landscape will always be there to return to another day. My friend Mike was shooting on 35mm film for the day, and it was interesting to compare his results with my own. I'm sure he won't mind me saving that the 5D MkII wins on the detail count, but looking at his results there's still a pleasing tonality to film that is hard to match in digital.
I hope you've enjoyed this post, the images within aren't on my website yet and I'm yet to decide if they will be or not, but if you're interested in seeing some more of my work then follow the link: Andrew Stannard Photography
Andrew.
