Ever since I purchased my Cambo Actus XCD I’ve been itching to get out with it in the Lake District. The last week I’ve been on various shoots along the Sefton Coast, a wonderful Summer evening at Crosby Beach, A frustrating evening on Ainsdale Dunes and a Superb Sunset Shoot in Southport. Tonight though I craved the Lakeland Fells and following on from my previous shoot up Holme Fell I was in search of another inspiring scene to make for an enjoyable evening of Landscape Photography here in the Lake District.
There was no plan for tonight other than to see how far I can get up Side Pike. Checking the weather it looked as though tonight would be the last dry night in a while and given I’m out of vlogs I wanted to get back out and make a new one for this weekend. Check out my vlogs on YouTube here.
For as long as I can remember I’ve missed the Heather Season in the Lake District. While I don’t chase it, like I don’t chase bluebells in the spring they do make for a colourful addition to the glorious greens of summer. The Langdale Valley is one of my regular locations for Landscape Photography here in the Lake District, it’s also an area I’ve had a lot of success in the past, probably due to the shear number of trips I’ve made here over the years.
Now that I have my Cambo Acttus XCD and my new lens to go with it, the Hasselblad CFE IF V mount lens I really can’t get away with my Peak Design Sling much longer. It’s full to the brim and too heavy to carry comfortably. For this evening I’ve decided to go back to my F-Stop Loka lightweight, only problem, it’s not so lightweight. I’ve also included a Hasselblad 80mm and 150mm V lens too incase any longer scenes jump out, in hindsight I should have left them in the Van to keep my pack weight down.
I struggled a bit with the walk, it’s fairly steep heading up Side Pike from the Cattlegrid at the top of the valley and the extra weight really caught me out, something to work on building up my strength and stamina for the future.
As I climbed up Side Pike it became apparent that the weather just wasn’t going to break, I was hoping for a shaft of light through the clouds or at least something to break up the flatness. It also looked like imminent rain too, I really didn’t fancy a soaking.
I made a vlog of tonights shoot which you can see below, I’ve also included some of my favourite images from the evening below too. All in all I was delighted with my Landscape Photography efforts from tonight on Side Pike. While the conditions weren’t as “Epic” as most landscape photographers crave, I was happy to be out, to be somewhere where I had to really work to find a composition and then to capture it the best I could. While the images I made may not win me any recognition they sow the seeds of a future image. I believe the composition is strong, the addition of some interesting light will really bring this scene to life. I’ll be back for this shot and hopefully it’ll be one of many I can make over the coming weeks as we transition from Summer to Autumn here in the Lake District.
The image below was made after I wrapped up the vlog.
Stay tuned for more content coming soon and feel free to check out my current range of Landscape Photography prints from the Langdale Valley here in my gallery.
