Slater’s Bridge in Little Langdale is an ancient handmade stone bridge that has probably got its name from generations past where Miners would cross the river to work in the nearby slate mines such as Cathedral Quarry.
I’ve been here a couple of times before. Only once with my camera however. I’ve been looking to visit here on a morning with the light illuminating the bridge from what I consider the best composition of the bridge which is slightly downstream of the bridge as seen below.
I use an app on my iPhone called the Photographers Ephemeris (TPE) which advises you on the position of the sun on any given day, time and location. It’s a must for any Landscape Photographer.
As you can see on the image below taken from the App. The wide yellow line indicates sunset and the thinner yellow line the position of the sun at the time suggested in the box below. You drag the box and the lines move. In relation to the Suns position. Also extremely useful is the angle of the sun too. I consider 20 degrees to be the start of the best light of the day. It just gets better as it lowers after that. Using the information below I could see the sun should illuminate Lingmoor Fell over Little Langdale Tarn from the side until sunset. There is a feature in the App where you can specify shadows from nearby objects such as tall buildings and mountains and at what time you’d lose the sun. I haven’t figured out how to do this just yet but knew if I were in position from 16:24 as the sun hits 20 degrees I should be best placed to see he best of the light as the sunsets.
That’s the theory. Here’s how it turned out. I made this short video to compliment the photos here
Walking down the lane towards the Bridge.
The Three Shires Inn, Little Langdale.
We’re heading in that direction. Weatherlam is the largest fell in the distance.
Turn left at this row of Lakeland Cottages…
Past the red garage…
I could live there.
Blackberry season.
This lane eventually leads to a Ford so its advisable to walk it.
Blink and you’ll miss the sign for Slater’s Bridge.
Heading through the gate and up the field following this decent path.
The tracks lead all the way to the Bridge.
Looks like there is enough time to capture the last of the light. Just.
The remains of the local quarries.
Forst sighting of Slaters Bridge.
Here we are.
This is the composition I like. Now let’s see what happens as the sun sets.
Lingmoor Fell over Slaters Bridge.
A long exposure shot looking upstream.
I didn’t manage to capture the scene I had in my mind with the last of the light skimming to top of Lingmoor. However the light in general was beautiful and Im pleased with how these images have turned out.
On the short walk back to the car I was surprised to see this beautiful large Super Moon. See the house lower right for scale.
A close up.
Back to the Three Shires Inn and home.
You can see more of my Lake District Landscape Prints from Little Langdale here.
