Loughrigg, Grasmere and Twistleton, England.As planet Earth rotates around the sun each year, so the seasons come and go as the days grow longer and shorter. For a few months each year the time between sunrise and sunset becomes a matter of a few hours during winter. But before that, we have that magical time we call ‘Autumn’.
Ten hours or so of daylight, frequent sunny days, and the change from greens to a multitude of shades of golden brown. Autumn is the busiest time in my photography world, and I can squeeze in both sunrise and sunset photography on the same day without having to get up at silly o’clock. And so today the forecast was for long sunny intervals, the leaves were changing colours, it had been raining the last few days, so I planned to watch the sun rise and set with camera in hand. Due to the heavy rain for the last few days and a drop in temperature as a high-pressure system passed over the UK, mist and fog was a strong possibility. I was on it. My first destination for the day was to be Loughrigg Fell and involved an ascent in the dark to a height of a little over 1,100 feet from the Rydal Water side of the fell. Previously, in 2019, I visited Loughrigg Fell, choosing to climb from the Ambleside route in search of a photogenic wooden stile and dry-stone wall I had seen in a guide book. I wandered up and down the fell for a good hour checking and cross checking my map but could not seem to find any wooden stile. After a few more checks, including looking up the guidebook on my phone, I realised I was too late. The wooden step stile had been upgraded to two simple stone steps. Not quite as pretty, but I had come this far, and that tree down on the shores of Windermere was catching the light nicely.
The missing stile
I climbed over the stile and headed up higher to get a panorama shot of the lake and the shore. The solo tree down at Clappersgate was getting my attention once again so I waited for the sun to break through.
Windermere from Loughrigg Fell
Back to 2022 and just a few weeks earlier I had visited Loughrigg Fell once again and climbed to the summit having parked at the White Moss car park near Rydal Water this time. It was a typical Lake District day of sunshine and frequent blustery showers. I had my waterproofs on from the moment I left the van. As I was climbing up from Loughrigg Terrace, showers were blowing through creating magical rainbows. This was what I had come for, so after grabbing a quick phone shot, I headed up the steep path to the top.
First rainbows of the day over Grasmere
It was very busy at the summit and very windy. Even Max was being blown around and getting wet. It rained solid for most of the time I was there so whilst I did attempt some photography, conditions were difficult and output not so good.
Max’s wind flapometer
All I was doing was getting very wet, whilst trying to keep my camera dry. On this day I had only brought my Nikon Z50 cropped frame camera, and this is not fully weather sealed, so I made the decision to turn back and descend to a spot where I had seen a solo tree jutting out from the side of the hillside. I think Max was quite pleased as driving wind in his eyes and ears is not much fun and he looked quite glum. I moved left and right, and up and down until I was happy with how this tree lined up with Grasmere and the island in the middle.
Getting the composition right
The wind and rain was relentless Max and I hunkered down on the hillside trying to avoid the worst of the rain and stay dry. When I say dry, I mean myself of course as Max did not have his jacket on. It was in my pack, but by the time I remembered he should be wearing it, he was already soaked, so in the pack it stayed. Bad Dad! The heavy shower began to move away towards Helvellyn and I could see over my left shoulder the sun was starting to break through. You can almost guarantee a rainbow any minute, so I grabbed the camera out of my bag and got myself primed. I was rewarded for my patience.
Grasmere rainbow
Those few minutes in-between showers were amazing as the warmth of the sun came through bouncing off the wet bracken. I stuck it out for a few more showers but was not rewarded with any more rainbows. So given Max was by now looking pretty hacked off sitting on a steep hill sheltering from the rain in the bracken, I decided it was time to begin our descent back down to Rydal Water and home.
Not the happiest pooch
I stopped off halfway down on Loughrigg Terrace as some pretty heavy squalls came through but there were no following breaks in the clouds for the sun to paint the amazing rainbows. I did have to resort to using my shower cap though.
The rain had set in for the day now so we retreated to the van and Max got dried off and into his drying jacket before falling asleep in the van on the way back home. I had found a great spot and super composition, so I decided I would be back soon when the weather improved.
Two weeks later
Today’s trip was promising no rain, and plenty of sunshine, so at 4.30am I headed out in the van up the M6 to Cumbria. Max was staying home today as I intended walking through a lot of bracken and right now the ticks were out in force, not to mention his nasty habit of eating acorns making him quite unwell. By the time I had crossed the river joining Grasmere with Rydal Water and ascended to Loughrigg Terrace, the blue hour was upon me and I could see a distant orange glow already. It was still dark enough to need my head torch though as I turned a sharp left at the end of the terrace and began the steep lung busting climb up towards the summit. I had driven through the odd foggy patch on the way through Windermere, and I could make out what looked like mist at the opposite end of Grasmere, so fingers crossed. I climbed a little higher on this visit putting a little more distance between the one tree and the island in the lake revealing more of the shoreline that was in the mist. I should probably say “in the middle of the mere” but that just sounds a bit weird. Apparently, a Lake is a deep body of water, whereas a Mere is shallow. That right?
Today I planned to create a multi-image stitched panoramic image using just my prime 35mm f/1.8 lens. Why do this rather than just throw a wide-angle lens on and grab it all in one shot? Two reasons:
Let me talk you through the concepts of this technique. By turning the camera into the portrait (vertical) position you can take a series of multiple images across your view as shown below. This can be done handheld, but it is highly recommended you do it on a tripod so it can be absolutely level. This way you avoid losing large portions of your image when stitching them together and it is repeatable with the same results each time.
Unstitched portrait images
First of all, make sure you tripod head is absolutely level using the spirit level indicators if you have them. I also recommend attaching your camera using an L-bracket rather than tilting the tripod head from horizontal to vertical. This way the sensor in the camera will pivot over the centre of the tripod rather than swing around in an arc as would be the case when just tilting the tripod head. You need as little distortion or change in your sequence of images to enable them to be stitched, and a camera swinging through an arc will create minor differences in angle and make stitching difficult or even fail. The same goes for the lens. Wide-to-zoom lenses tend to have quite a bit of edge distortion as they battle to be a lens for every occasion. This is even more exaggerated with a pure wide-angle lens but when taking a single shot does not became apparent unless you are in the city where you will see straight lines curve towards the edge of your frame. To keep distortion down I always try to use a prime lens such as 35mm or 50mm lenses. These tend to be faster lenses so great when it’s dark and have next to no distortion around the edge of the frame. What this means is as you rotate your camera and take each of the images the edges of each successive image line up with next to no distortion. Your software will love this and make for cleaner stitching of the images. Once you are set up, you can rotate your camera from left or right (I always go left to right from habit) and take a series of images.
Some top tips:
I use Lightroom to stitch my pano’s but there are many other applications out there that can do this for you.
Stitched panoramic image of 18510 x 7389 pixels and 84.7Mb in size
The number of pixels captured means you can zoom in and crop to create many images out of one. Here is a square crop of the island.
The final crop - Grasmere in the mist
I love this image, and it was exactly what I had in mind as I drove up the M6 towards Cumbria that morning. The mist would form and disappear like magic, rolling across the mere and into the trees. I had looked at PhotoPills the night before and could see that the rising sun would flood across Rydal Water and up the valley below me well before it reached me on the north side of the fell. This has given some great warm morning light on the trees in Baneriggs, super enhanced by the mist.
PhotoPills planner
A great result and a great morning climbing this popular location. I couldn’t have asked for anything better to be quite honest. Time to pack up the camera and head back down off the fell and on to the next location. I accidentally fired off a frame as I was taking the camera off the tripod. I quite like it, maybe it will win the Turner prize? Maybe I could start a new photographic genre called ‘Accidental Intentional Camera Movement’ or AICM?
AICM Premier
It was just after 9am when I got back down to the shores of Grasmere and whilst I contemplated my next move, the local wildlife obliged with a few poses for me.
Whilst having breakfast on the shoreline and watching the comings and goings of this Heron, I decided I would move on to Twistleton Scar in North Yorkshire. I had been there a few years previous in some pretty dire weather so not ventured far. Last month, whilst on a family camping trip, we walked around Ingleton Waterfalls stopping for the obligatory ice cream just above the main waterfall. The ice cream van parks right below Twistleton Scar and I said to Donna, it was definitely time I went back. It's quite difficult manoeuvring across the limestone rocks, so not a place to take Max, so given he was at home with Donna, and we were in for a great sunset, Twistleton Scar it was and off I set. Twistleton is a long series of limestone scars lying along the flank of Whernside above Chapel-le-Dale. There are many weather-beaten and twisted trees growing out of the gaps in the limestone along with interesting pot holes and shakeholes galore. I’ve always said you could blindfold me and drop me in North Yorkshire and I would know where I was purely by the limestone rocks and scars you find all along the hills surrounding Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-ghent. And if those 3 mountains sound familiar, well they are as they make up the three destinations in the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge. A 24 mile (12 hour) route with 5200 feet of ascent. Never mind that, what are shakeholes? I hear you ask. They are one of the reasons you avoid taking your dog up on the scar. Think of holes in the ground that lead to dark unexplored caverns. I wouldn’t go caving if you paid me a large sum of money, and just looking at sink holes that disappear into the abyss gives me the heebie-jeebies The most common around Twistleton and Ingleborough are subsidence dolines known locally as Shakeholes. That said, above Twistleton scar lies a mighty fine solution doline known as Fluted Hole. According to the Yorkshire Dales National Park website: “The Fluted Hole on Scales Moor has beautiful symmetrical plates of fissured limestone surrounding the central hole like petrified flower petals – while others see it as a group of stone doves drinking from a birdbath! Any large solution dolines must be very ancient as dissolution is a very slow process. Many of them pre-date the last glaciation and were over-ridden by ice during the Devensian.” Today, however was going to be a sunset shoot lower down at Twistleton Scar end. Exploring Scales Moor will be left for another ‘Max-free’ day. I parked the van at the top of Thornton Lane and walked past Thornton Force Waterfall towards the popular ice cream van that is always parked at the top of the Ingleton Fall trail. Just after the van you take a sharp left and a steep climb to the top of the scar where you will find these two prominent bent trees. These two lonely sisters can be seen from Thornton Lane so act as a good beacon to follow.
The twisted sisters
I intended to return to these ladies as the sun was setting so carried on further up the scar following the pathway towards Scales Moor. I wanted Ingleborough as my backdrop, so hunted around to find a suitable foreground of limestone pavement and a solo tree. Plenty examples up here so it wasn’t long until I found this spot. I set about the task of trying to find that right angle and composition. But there were so many!
My challenge was getting the three elements of my image to play ball. The great formation of the limestone pavement, the gnarly weather-beaten tree and Ingleborough in the distance. I needed to make sure the three elements worked together but didn’t interfere with each other if that makes sense. There was also another tree in the distance just the other side of a long dry-stone wall. A couple of photographers were at that tree moving in and out of my shot. I opted for my 14-30mm f/4 wide-angle lens to get everything in. For my first image I settled on having Ingleborough sheltering under the branches of the tree. The limestone pavement and clouds were both acting as leading lines towards the tree so I pushed it and Ingleborough over to the left of my composition.
Twistleton Scar and Ingleborough
This was probably going to work equally well as a portrait shot and was a good starting point. It was cold up on the exposed limestone pavement, but the sun was out and no shortage of seating up here. I spent a bit of time trying different angles, balancing precariously on the top of lumpy bits of rock or lying on the floor to get a close up. I decided to do a little black and white too and try that portrait angle.
Standing tall and strong
You have to admire how these trees have not only gotten a foothold in between the limestone rocks, but how they have withstood the weather up on the exposed slopes here. I can only imagine what it is like up here on a bleak winter’s day. Maybe a return visit soon will show me exactly what it is like. Sunset was a few hours off, so I settled down with my book and put my feet up.
I could have explored more, but I had been on the go since 4:30am and even managed a little snooze. I had a minor panic when the sun went in completely for a while, but the clouds cleared, and the warm rays of the setting sun began to creep across the limestone. It was looking great.
Sunset on Twistleton Scar
In my final image in this location, I separated the tree and Ingleborough to fill out the landscape orientation of the shot and brought in a grassy margin to the foreground. I was happy with this image and more determined to spend a full day here on the next trip and head up to Scales Moor and find more compositions. This is clearly a great sunset location and I want to get more of Ingleborough into my shot. So, moving on, and you will remember the twisted sisters from the first part of my walk up to the scar. Well now it was time to return for my final image of the day. The sunset was forming up nicely over Morecambe bay, with wispy ‘mare’s tails’ clouds and low sunlight catching the curves of the hills. I decided to point my camera right into the sunset and drop in a graduated filter to try and keep the details of the cloud whilst exposing for the limestone rocks and the trees. I scrambled up on to the limestone pavement and wobbled around as some of the large boulders do move as you step on them. I found a great spot with a few wild plants and flowers growing in the cracks of the rocks and settled down as the sun sank further. Shadows started to creep across the landscape in front of me and the harsh light of the sun bean to be filtered by the low cloud over the bay. I hit the shutter and checked the image on the back of the camera.
Morecambe bay sunset
I did take some more shots, but it was this first one that was the keeper. The curve of the hill at Raven Ray just above Thornton Force waterfall caught the light beautifully. In the bottom right corner of the mage is a single delicate purple flower. I always try to make my images tell the story of the trip, of the day, of the journey and this one image said everything about those last few rays of light and my journey. If you zoom in and look carefully under the arch of the tree branch, you will see the footpath in the distance leading to Thornton Lane, and there parked next to the gate is Mr T, my van.
Mr T waiting patiently in the distance
Image taken, it was time to pack up and start to make my way down off the scar and back to my waiting van. Dreams of an ice cream on the way back were dashed as he had already done a runner for the day. What a great day’s photography! A lung busting climb up Loughrigg in the dark to witness the sunrise over the mountains of Cumbria, watching mist forming over Grasmere, another climb up Twistleton for the most amazing sunset views out to sea from Yorkshire. I will be back very soon, heading straight up to Scales Moor as I’m sure there is much to be found up there.
Maybe I will find the Fluted Hole without falling in.
Keywords:
Cumbria,
Grasmere,
Ingleborough,
lake District,
lakes,
Landscape Photography,
Loughrigg Fell,
mountains.mist,
pavment",
sunrise,
sunset."Limestone,
Twistleton Scar,
Yorkshire
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