By Mark Gilligan
I very rarely know what I am going to have presented to me when I go out to photograph a landscape. I know what I would like but we don’t always get what we want. Not only are we dealing with nature’s finest creations, we are trying to balance it with whatever the ‘greatest lighting man’ throws at us. This can often please or displease in equal measures.
Of course you can guess as much as you like but the light varies so quickly on the Fells (mountain range in the English Lake District) that to plan can often lead to disappointment. I rarely go out with a fixed plan because of this. Yes I know where I am going to go and the probable location. However, on days when it just doesn’t cut it for me, I either make mental notes or take a snap to mark that place out as one for the future. Rather than simply waiting for the event, I look at those changes and aim to capture its different ‘moods.’
Once you find somewhere you like photographing you will naturally be drawn back to it and that becomes a good way of documenting those changes. Just like ‘us’, the landscape will show itself in different ways, just as we show ourselves to others.
A Different View of the Same Location
I fell in love with Wast Water in days when I had hair and I could stand there on a grey, rain soaked day and still see the beauty it exudes. Like all good relationships, we take the good with the bad so I am happy to take my kit there no matter what the weather or season.
There is one particular place on the shoreline that I like and find myself drawn to. Nature has decided to ‘dump’ a group of rocks there that please my eye and they create a good foreground for me to work with.
Wast Water was voted ‘Britain’s Favourite View’ and when you arrive there you can see why. The triumvirate of Yewbarrow, Great Gable and Lingmell, create an image that has become the logo of the National park. Of course, that’s when the cloud hasn’t decided to descend and cover them! When people first arrive they normally go down to the shoreline and this is what they will see.
The following images are all taken on either the FUJIFILM X-Pro1 or FUJIFILM X-Pro2 with XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS
1. Classic View – f11@1/125 ISO 200, 0.3 Soft Grad
This was taken in a dry spell as you can still walk out to the island. This is just a simple and straightforward shot of a pleasing view one October afternoon. Notice the clouds casting a shadow, shrouding the Screes on the right hand side. That is contradicted by the sunlit majesty of Yewbarrow to the left of image. Like us it has a light and dark side to its personality even on this lovely day.
2. Early Autumn on Wast Water – f11@1/30 ISO 200, 0.6 Soft Grad
As we move towards dusk the light shift swings around, illuminating The Screes and giving a complete contrast to the previous shot. Sometimes this glows a radiant orange and pink on The Screes but I don’t mind seeing it in its normal everyday ‘clothes’. As the light has now faded on Yewbarrow and Great Gable, it signals the end of the day and dusk sets in.
The winter months produce crisp air with clear light and are probably my favourite time of the year. Although you will hear me say that for the other three seasons! The autumn does produce images that are adorned with their special colours but the sunsets here do deliver vibrancy all year round. Well most of the time, so don’t shout at me if you arrive and it doesn’t come out to play ha ha. It happens.
3. Last Light On An October Evening – f13@12 secs ISO 200, 0.6 Soft Grad
Whilst it is spectacular when all The Screes are lit up, I particularly enjoy it when light ‘letterboxes’ across the fells. Just at the final throes, as the sun descends, fading light hits the top of Yewbarrow, cuts across Great Gable and Lingmell, before illuminating The Screes. The foreground will always be in shadow but that band of light in the background lifts the image. Not to mention the spirits when you witness it. I guarantee the hairs will stand on up on your head. (Or in my case the neck!)
4. As Dusk Descends In Autumn – f13@125 secs ISO 200, Big Stopper
The following two shots were taken on the same day but only a short time between capture.
5. Cold – f16@4secs ISO200, Six Stop Little Stopper
However, wait a while longer and the blue hour kicks in. This is the period of twilight early in the dawn each morning and late in the dusk each evening, when the Sun is at a significant depth below the horizon and when the residual, indirect sunlight takes on a predominantly blue shade.
6. Blue Hour On Wast Water – f16@5secs ISO200, 0.6 Soft Grad, Little Stopper
Patience. A virtue of the landscape photographer. The winter months requires less effort on my part to get out of bed for sunrise shots. I also get more sleep than I do in summer. Bonus! When I do venture out, I approach my work in the same way. Namely to shoot as much as possible in camera and whilst I do use grads of varying degrees, I am also a fan of the stoppers. They enhance specific style of images. Sunrises rarely disappoint unless the clag really comes down. You have to be prepared though as any light shows we are presented with seem to vanish as quickly as they arrive.
Whilst they use the phrase ‘The Golden Hour’ it is more like a twenty-minute window to capture the best of the changes. First light is always special. Being there as the light creeps over the land with its coat of many colours is always a sight worth getting out of bed for. Capturing it is even more special.
One of the fabled mountains or fells in this region is Great Gable. It is the one in the middle of the ‘logo’. I know where the sunrises here and whilst I never plan as such, it was my aim to get the first light kissing its slopes one day. I managed it. Winter was always going to be a better time as I knew it would light up the snowy outline more effectively.
7. Gables First light In Winter’ f16@30secs ISO200,0.6 Soft Grad, Little Stopper
8. Ice at Sunrise – f14@3secs ISO 200
It wasn’t.
Remember what I said at the beginning of this piece? Undaunted, I set about photographing what I saw. Just as the light made its final drop, I knew that there wasn’t going to be a good show, so when it is like this I normally think ‘black and white’. People on my workshops hear me refer to a ‘black and white’ day when it is like this. Going flat but still worth the effort. A long exposure and a ‘stiffish’ wind ensured that I captured enough light to create a nice late evening moody shot.
9 & 10. Last Light At Dusk On Wast Water – f14@976secs ISO100, 0.6 Med Grad, Super Stopper
The following images show more variations that I’ve shot of this beautifully captivating location.
11. Sunrise – f22 @6.5secs ISO 200
12. An Ordinary Winter’s Day – f9@1/125secs ISO200
13. Threat – f11@1/125secs ISO200
14. Stillness at Dusk – f16@25secs ISO200
As the year and the seasons progress, I find myself drawn back to this location.
I always will.
Here’s to the next time…
More from Mark Gilligan
Website: http://www.wastwaterphotography.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GilliganPhotography/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wastwater1
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More about FUJIFILM X-Pro2
The FUJIFILM X-Pro2 boasts a Hybrid Viewfinder capable of instantly switching between optical and electronic finders, plus an updated image sensor and processor, which dramatically improve image quality. By combining these features with the ultra-high image quality of FUJINON X-Mount lenses and the color reproduction technology accumulated through more than 80 years as a photographic film manufacturer, the FUJIFILM X-Pro2 delivers the best ever results from an X-series camera.
I absolutely love these views! It really adds to the majestic feel of the location to see it at so many different points in time. Would love to visit some day!
4, 6 and 10
Unbelievable! This is an amazing place! Look at those colors!
The pictures say it all. Marvellous sequence!
Beautiful images and shows the quality of the Fuji ‘standard kit zoom lens’. stunning!
Nice location. I now the area from travels there some years ago. What makes the Fuji Photos so harsh, overly sharp and sterile? I took a series of photos there on slides and black and white and they have a much warmer, inviting atmosphere. I use the digital cameras (Fuji x-pro1) for internet or for black and white or as light-meters/ polaroid substitutes but give up on digital “photography”.
Always good light:-)
Jens
Just wonderful
what can be achieved with one lens and body (well pro1 is significantly different from pro2!!)
a great example of place and time and patience
I wish you well
Stephen
http://www.blackpearlphoto.co.uk