Planned Photo-shoot for Portfolio

(Above, some example photographes from member of the Light & Land organisation)

Location              Lake District, Cumbria

Equipment           Panasonic Lumix G1, 14-45mm and 45-200mm lenses, tripod and Cokin Filters

We had planned a weekend break in the Lake District to get some pictures to add to my portfolio, after checking the weather forcast, which was clear skies and sunny, we set off early on Saturday morning in the hope that we would arrive about 7.30ish to take advantage of the morning light.

We have visited the Lakes on many occasions and had planned our first walk around Grasmere and Rydal Water and had our ordinance survey maps with us together with our walking gear, boots, suitable clothing and refreshments, so that we could stay out most of the day.

We arrived about 8am and walked to Grasmere, the sky was clear and the air still, the water was flat with good reflections from the hillside which I was eager to capture, as shown in the first picture above.  I used a tripod and polarising filter with my standard lens and remembered Steve's advise about getting down low to the subject and getting lots of foreground interest.  

I am pleased with the result, the patch of clear water near the foreground balances the sky, which was a bit flat, with the bank of grass, tall stems and overhanging branches framing the main subject, the hillside and reflection.  Ideally I would have liked the line of boulders and stones leading vertically up into the reflection, to lead the eye into the landscape, instead of horizontal but I could not position myself any better on the bank because of the undergrowth.

The next shot is taken further up the hillside looking south, with Rydal Water below, there were some interesting rock formations and I wanted to get these in the forground with hills in the distance.  The conditions were quite bright by now with sun overhead, I used a polarising filter to try to get some definition in the sky which was very hazy.  I took several shots in an around these rocks with a couple of possibles for my portfolio.  I think they are successful but would have preferred clearer conditions for more definition in the distant hills.

This shot was taken in the late afternoon, I was interested in the colour and texture of the moss, with contrasting dry crinckly leaf litter around trees.  It hasn't transferred well to my blog, the raw file on pc looks much better with improved colours and detail in the moss.  It was bright even though we were under tree cover and I did not use a tripod.  On reflection I could have gotten down much closer to the moss to pick out more detail.

This one was taken next morning about one hour after sunrise, I was hoping for a brighter morning with light reflected on to the hillside but as you can see it was a very grey morning with lots of low cloud which changed to rain later in the morning.  This has given me an atmospheric shot with distant hills disappearing into cloud.  The bank fell away steeply so I was quite low to the ground and boulders lining the shorline break up this uninteresting area.  Reeds in the middle ground add a different texture with distant shore lined with shrubbery and trees defining this area.  I used a tripod for this shot since a slower shutter speed was needed because of the dim light, however since the ducks appeared swimming across the scene I quickly increased iso so I could increase shutter speed a little so they were not blurred.  I think they are still slightly blurred on the raw image but I took lots of shots as the light changed and will use one in my portfolio.

I had also visited this spot at sunset on the previous evening with the sun setting behind the hills, however the colour was not great but I do have a refection on the water which improves the shot.

I had decided I wanted to get some shots of flowing water and when the weather improved later the same day we drove up the the Langdales with the intention of climbing up to Dudgeon Gill which is a very impressive force high in hills.  However, we got about three quarters of the way up and decided to turn back since the weather closed in and became very wet and windy.  The path was made up of rock which became quite slippy and we were carrying alot of equipment.

Part way down I found this small waterfall and rested my camera on a rock.  I had a slow shutter speed anyway because of the grey conditions and I think this has improved the look of the water.  I took lots of shots from different angles and used my polarsing filter on some to cut out any reflection, which has given me a good view of rock detail under the water in a pool beneath the fall.

This picture is taken looking over Loughrigg Tarn in the evening of the same day.  We got a glimmer of sunshine which lit up the opposite fell and gave some shaddow detail.  I would have liked to get closer to the tarn since it was very still by now which gave good reflection on the water but the nearside of the tarn is on private land with no public access.  I took this using my tripod and standard lens with no filters and wanted to capture the bright green of the grass echoed in the opposite hillside with the bracken on the hillside above.  I avoided including sky since this was a uniform grey colour after the rain.

I have added more photos on my picasa site, click here to view.  None of my photos used have had any post production editing.