I’ve been meaning to shoot Hodge Close in Autumn of many years, I tried last year but was too late for the best of the Autumn colours in the Lake District that suit Landscape Photography best. Last year when I visited I had a plan for a particular style of image I wanted to create. I took various shots of this composition last year, however with the colours not how I’d like, I had a year long wait to try again. Here is the result of that imagination and year long wait. You can see last years efforts here.
Certainly a lot of colour around. What appeals to me about this location is the contrast between the Autumn Colours and the blue/green of the slate that is in abundance here.
This is the shot I wanted. The white of the Silver Birch against the rich blue of the Quarry walls behind. The yellows of the foliage really make this scene. It was raining when i took these shots, I was sheltering under a tree. I made several images an experimented with composition in the following series of images.
The long exposure shows the movement of the branches. It was quite windy at the time. These trees from on the edge of a very steep drop into the Quarry. I wanted to include the large shelf or ledge in the scene as it added further texture to the background.
The trees on the edge.
The Panoramic crop of this scene really appeals to me and I was immensely proud of these images.
I’ve not seen images like this before from the Lake District making them pretty unique for now. It’s taken me 2 years to publish this idea and these images, hopefully they will stay unique for a while longer. The key to good photography in my opinion is finding a unique viewpoint or composition and working with that. Anyone can copy a composition but can you find your own, visualise it and wait a whole year to realise it after countless visits? That is the true reward for Landscape Photography.
There is good image to be made of this tree on the edge of this shattered slate mountain. As you maybe able to tell from the movement in the branches it was extremely windy today. Certainly a location for future reference. Here’s a video of the conditions.
You can see my current collection of Lake District Landscape Photography Prints from Hodge Close and Coniston here.
