Theresa and I went up to the Lake District earlier this week, to enjoy the spectacular spring weather – beautiful springs seem to be developing into a pattern here in the UK, this is the third year in a row where we’ve had these conditions. After stopping off in Grasmere so Theresa could visit the art shop at the Heaton Cooper Gallery, we walked round Rydal Water. I was struck by this composition as Theresa wandered ahead -

And as we wandered round the lake, I couldn’t resist a Wordsworth Image -

At the beginning of Feb I needed to be in the Lakes for an afternoon appointment. As the conditions looked good for photography, I arranged to travel up the day before and stay overnight. My timing was off and I arrived after sunset, but there was strong moonlight, and as I drove down the side of Derwent Water I pulled in to a car park where I knew I could get right down to the waterside. First shot is looking north to a snow capped Skiddaw, the moon is lighting the snow on the upper slopes and the light pollution from Keswick is lighting the lower slopes – hence the orange cast. The constellation of the Big Dipper is visible top right -

Second shot is west across Derwent Water to Cat Bells and Maiden Moor, again the snow on the tops is picked out by the moonlight.

The first image was taken on a return to the Longdendale valley after a light dusting of snow, the weather front had passed and conditions were cold, calm and clear.

We walked round Valehouse reservoir and then decided on a change of scene, so drove over the Snake Pass. On the descent from Snake summit, just before the Snake Inn, there was wonderful sunlit mist amongst the fir trees.

Yesterday I went for a walk round the lower 2 reservoirs in the Longdendale Valley, which leads up to the Woodhead Pass in Derbyshire. It’s about a 6 mile circuit, starting and finishing in Tintwistle. Oddly enough, although the route is very close on the northern leg to the main A628 truck road, by some pleasant quirk of acoustics there is little traffic noise.  I walked out (east) on the north side of the reservoirs and returned (west) on the south side. The forecast had been indifferent with bands of rain forecast, which duly arrived on the “out” leg, except it fell as hail (not unusual in the peak district in January!).

I was hoping for transient light as the rain bands arrived and departed, and this duly arrived, giving me this shot of Deepclough Farm and Nell’s Pike -

On the return leg the route is away from the waters edge for a mile or so, but drops down to the waterside along Bottoms reservoir. By this time bands of sunshine were sweeping the landscape, but with large clouds still very much on the scene, giving dramatic skies. The rain and hail had removed any haze from the air, and there was a wonderful clarity to the distant landscape. As I neared the western end of Bottoms reservoir the water close to the shore became more still, and I was unable to resist one of my favourite “reflections” shots -

Third day of a spell of fine weather, the plus side of winter is that you don’t have to get up quite so early to photograph the dawn (only 6:30, a considerable improvement on 4AM!). However the downside is that it’s absolutely freezing!

This was an ad-hoc shoot for the National Trust (I’m a volunteer photographer for the Dark Peak area), the light was fabulous but the mist in the valley wasn’t quite as pronounced as I’d hoped – more of a light haze…however still pleased with the images, here are a couple -

This is one of my favourite Lakes locations, with a lovely path running alongside the River Brathay from the village and down to Elterwater itself. A very popular viewpoint, but still enjoyable.

I’d been here before in Nov 2010, but decided to return on the second day of a cold clear spell.

This is the view from Elterwater back towards Langdale Pikes. I’d taken this in November, that one had more clouds in the sky and the sun was lower, this one has sunlit areas, less clouds and a “cleaner” feel.

The downside of living where I do – on the eastern side of Manchester / western edge of the Peak District – is that we get higher than average cloud and rainfall (and Manchester gets its fair share anyway).

The plus side is that I’m within walking distance of fabulous country and there are few hills lying to the west, to obstruct the setting sun.

On the first day of a long-overdue spell of fine weather, I left the house at 3PM with a plan to photograph Lower Swineshaw Reservoir at sunset.

The sunset itself was an anticlimax, the angles weren’t quite right at this time of year, and the wind was a bit too strong, ruffling the water – my planned location was near the hilltops. So I strolled down the valley, enjoying the tranquil evening. As far better photographers than I have observed, “don’t pack up straight away after the sun has set…”

As I reached the lowest reservoir in the chain of 4 (Walkerwood), fully half an hour after the sun had dropped below the horizon, the most fantastic dusk light started to paint the sky. I rushed down to the reservoir edge, at the lower altitude the water was much more tranquil giving cleaner reflections, and spent a very happy 30 minutes -