Field Notes
Borrowdale is well placed for access to both Derwent Water and Buttermere. However, it is its self a beautiful location and I was determined to capture it from at least one of the many viewpoints that the surrounding hills offer. This view is from below Watendlath Tarn and makes use of my favourite type of light for a landscape; strong, directional side lighting. Of course, this alone is no guarantee of a great shot but when you use it and combine it with a good view, good sky and pleasing composition it works very well. The Lakes can be a frustrating place to photograph; days of heavy rain can destroy any chances of good light. However, with wind and rain I always feel there is the chance something may come together and when I spotted that snow had capped the peaks overnight I was determined to try this shot. I've stitched three landscape format shots together and used my Lee two stop ND grad to retain detail in the sky. For a higher resolution image, one can shoot in the portrait format but the EOS 5D MKII & MKIII both have very high res sensors and, as the light was coming in very short lived bursts, I opted for speed over perfect resolution. That said, the file is still around 70 megabytes!