Rydal Water Autumn Reflections oct 29th 2012

A glorious sunny morning was forecast, with light cloud in the afternoon, so with the autumn colours really good now another trip up to the lakes seemed like a good idea.    the waterfalls at Stock Ghyll near Ambleside are one of my favourites so hopefully i could shoot them first thing then go off somewhere else.
leaving early i have missed the worst of the m6 traffic and arrived in the lakes . it is about 9 o'clock and windermere is like a mirror with mist hanging low above the water. i think since the conditions are perfect for reflection images i will leave the waterfalls until this afternoon and will take a look at Rydal and Grasmere first to see if i can get the colourful trees reflected in the flat calm water, hopefully:)
i have parked the car at Pelter bridge at the end of Rydal water, mist is hanging over the fields behind me and the sun is breaking through nicely :)   crossing the bridge i start walking up the road towards the lake, hoping that it is not rippled . i get my first glimpse of the lake and it is looking perfect, the colours are wonderful.  i set up my first image from the roadside, putting up the tripod on the stone wall . the view is superb and this is probably the best image of the day, but will let you all decide on that!

this is looking like its going to be a really good day :D , the light is wonderful for a few minutes, here is a slightly different view taken from a little further along the road, the famous "Rydal oak" reflected in the water looks superb this morning. it has been a few years since i have seen it with its golden leaves still on, i always miss them!

as i continue down the road towards the boathouse where i can get down near the water the reflections are looking great . i usually walk over the top of Loughrigg fell opposite  but wont get any reflections from that side as the road runs all the way along the lake.

i have made my way down onto the fields that run along the waters edge.  the ground is very wet underfoot around the overgrown boathouse, and i have just soaked my foot!   Arghhhh      Loughrigg fell looks great in the early morning sun ,it would have been a good walk up there today with superb views over Elterwater and beyond :)    but i have these awsome reflections to shoot.

turning towards Pelter bridge the mist is hanging over the fells , with the sun in the wrong place it was hard to get a decent image but this one is not too bad. there is a Heron on the small island fishing

moving along the small field section i can now use my 70-300mm lens to get these reflection images, including a couple of panoramas .  this is amazing to see, the lakes at its best :)

                                                              view Panorama Large  HERE

     a full wide view , pity the sun was behind a cloud and not lighting up the trees as in above image!

 another panorama image, slightly different composition to the previous one, i cant believe no other photographers are here  , it will not stay flat like this for very long! and i have just spotted there is another Heron on the far bank, must be plenty of small fish for them as have seen quite a few today.

As the sun is getting higher it is now not hitting the far side , but the bank further down where i have just walked past is now in the sun and as i can see the cloud building i need to be quick to get a last few shots before the light goes.  walking towards the boathouse , i take a low level shot with the grasses in the foreground.

             using the long lens to show the colours, this shows the beauty of the autumn in the lakes

the last remnants of the mist are now just disappearing , but the sun is now lighting up some of the trees and the fell side whereas the far side is now in the shade.

                          zooming into the distance the cloud is breaking up around the trees:)

                    the last glimpse of the sun in this image, soon to be obscured by cloud:(

the sun has now been hidden by all the encroaching cloud, what a shame but the colours still look good as i walk back towards the car park.

    i will now go back to Ambleside and head up to Stock ghyll falls for the afternoon, this morning has been wonderful walking in the early morning sun with amazing views :D

Great Gable Remembrance 11 th november 2012

I had heard a lot about the Remembrance service on the summit of Great Gable , it seemed a good time to spend a day up in the mountains with friends and remember those fallen in the Savior of our country.
Through twitter a few of us arranged to meet up and join hundreds of other people to climb up to the summit for 11 o'clock two minute silence.  i got up ridiculously early to drive up the m6 to cumbria to be picked up at Ings by Paul and Sian , Jimmy was also getting a lift up to Honister as we thought parking might be a problem.  we where going to meet Gary and Tanya with Tilly the black Labrador at Honister at about 8.10 am.
When we arrived at the Honister mine NT car park it was almost full!   i guess the Seathwait car parking would be similar as quite a few cars in front of us on the way up took that turn off.

The car park was alive with people, loads could be seen already making their way up the steep paths up towards Grey knot and the way we where going to go up to Drum house and then along towards Green Gable.

the weather was looking great for once, but the Gable always seems to hold the cloud so I'm not expecting many views :)     we are making our way up towards Drum House first, i have never seen so many people on the fells at one time, can see a minimum of 30-40 whichever direction we look!

           heading past Drum house the mist is coming down  and giving very atmospheric conditions.

as we pass around Grey knotts  the mist clears for a bit and we get lovely views down Ennerdale  valley.

                                                                     Buttermere valley

We were in a line of people , maybe 40+ all making the way towards Green Gable  , the funny thing was, our group, headed by Tanya & Tilly were actually overtaking loads of people!   Tanya is renowned  as slowish walker but i think she is getting much faster in the last few months :)  we didn't even have any "Tanya stops"  so i was picking up the rear as i was stopping as usual to take loads of pictures!
                                                  

   nearing the lower slopes of Green Gable , while negotiating rough ground Tilly decided it was time to "kill me"  as tried previously by Holly (aka the beast) on a previous twitteratti walk Sharp Edge  , she walked under my feet tripping me up , i landed on the ground in a heap ,my left knee hitting a rock and my camera lens filter hitting another, here is the result!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  SMASH!!!

any how, one look into these forgiving eyes, i had to forgive her!   well maybe the thought of £28 for replacement delayed my forgiveness a little longer than it should , but could have been much,much worse!    :D                                 BUT LOOK AT THESE EYES!

she quickly received one of many dog treats that i gave her during the day :)    on we marched  reaching the summit of Green Gable and then going down into "windy gap"  which is a bottle neck where everyone arrives from different paths to climb up towards the Scramble section up the Gable.

                                                          down into "windy gap"

up the scramble section, its slow going with climbers of different abilities, many might not have been up this before.  i really enjoy climbing up here, camera safely in bag  lol   my knee is starting to hurt now!   Arghhhh

                             loads of people, an amazing site to see .  all with the same idea !

Having reached the summit of Great Gable at about 10.35 it was already packed with people , i have never seen anything like this before!  remembering it is a 2,949ft mountain after all  lol

there must have been hundreds of people already here and from each direction a steady stream of walkers making their way up towards the summit. we could even see a pink & yellow tent!!! Tanya even tweeted to the occupants to see if she could shelter  lol.    after a few Min's in the low cloud and mist, as usual!   Ray with "the beast" turned up along with Andy, both have been on previous twitteratti walks. both Tilly & Holy received more treats from Ray .

as 11am approached a short service was spoken by a member of the Rock & Fell walking club before we observed the two minute silence, which was very moving with the only sound a few whimpering dogs. afterwards everyone clapped, with most wearing gloves ,it sounded more like thunder rolling around the mountain!  Amazing!  then it was time for everyone to get off the mountain in their respective directions.   as we approached the scramble section people where already queueing to get down,its always harder going down these scramble sections. Sian was apprehensive about going down but she made it safely without much trouble.

at windy gap we paused to wait for Gary and i shot this image looking down to Styhead tarn with the mist clearing!

                                                              Tilly in Windy Gap

    we decided to go back over Green gable again then across to Brandreth and Grey knotts summits,

as we got nearer to Brandreth , Tilly spotted a small tarn and took off running, then "SPLASH"  haha
Tanya ran after her and i took these two images :)  you can see Tilly  coming out of the water in first image :D

Tilly now proceeded to dash around like a mad thing in circles trying to shake of some of the water which must have been freezing!   amazing how much energy she has after climbing all these mountains  lol
As we got to Brandreth summit ,the skies cleared and the views down Ennerdale & Buttermere valleys were amazing!    we took a few group photos with the superb background views :)

                                                          what a view!!!   see  LARGE

    
                                                                   Ennerdale valley

  
                                                                        Buttermere

                                                     Pillar , Scoat Fell and Red pike

                looking down from  Grey Knotts summit more views appeared through the mist

                                             Tilly wondering where the next treat is!

      a final shots from Grey Knotts looking down to Seathwait in lower right hand corner,  i think  lol

                                   
                                                 a last glimpse of  Crummock water

  By now my left knee is quite painful so will be glad to get back to the car park.  we make our way down to Honister from Grey knotts , it was very steep but not too bad until Tanya slipped while busy chatting with Gary i think it was, and ended up on the ground   Ooops!
only pride hurt & i didn't even get a pic  !    must try harder next time :D

          What a superb Memorable day -   Remembrance on Great Gable,   until next year .

                                                                      Lest We Forget

Autumn Reflections on Thirlmere 2012

After coming down off Helvelyn i decided to drive around the back road to see the amazing reflections in Thirlmere, it is looking the best i have ever seen it after allot of work felling trees around the lake opening up the views :)

     i just have to take this shot from near the bottom of the Helvelyn Gill path , glorious view :)

Driving towards the dam end of the lake i firstly i stop to take this image looking towards Raven crag with the colours looking great!

after crossing the dam i park up to shoot a series of images , the colours are spectacular this year,  a bad wet summer does have its benefits  haha          nothing to say ,just let the images tell the story.

 

               the end of another superb day in Cumbria . doesn't get much better than this :)