How Did I Take That? Number 2 In Series.

Little Langdale Tarn

This photograph is totally a reactive one. No planning went into this shot at all.

Little Langdale Tarn is near the foot of Wrynose pass in Cumbria, within the English Lake District National Park.

I was in that part of the world photographing The Great Lakeland Challenge Event organised by The Wooden Spoon Charity www.spoonchallenges.com 

Teams of three or a relay team of nine paddle the 10.5 mile length of Lake Windermere in a three man canoe, cycle 26 miles up 1:3 gradients of Wrynose and Hardnott passes and then navigate on foot the 3,208 feet of Scafell Pike all in less than 12 hours!!! 

I on the other hand used a speed boat and a car!!

So after being on Lake Windemere at 6am it was 9.50am and I was making my way towards the top of Wrynose  pass to get some shots of the cyclists struggling! The weather was awful, very dark and heavy rain.

Now I have passed this site before and the obvious photo to take here would be one of the tarn with hill and trees behind reflecting in the still water just left of where this picture was taken. I've yet to be there when the waters are still!!

Just as I drove past the tarn I stopped the car and parked for a moment as the sun was trying to break through the heavy dark clouds. I picked my camera up and put my 70 - 200m F2.8 lens on and waited till the sun broke through, about twenty seconds. 

The shot composed itself really with the sun shining on the vegetation on the slopes with the darkness as the backdrop and lake in the foreground I had stumbled across a lovely scene which now hangs on the living room wall.

I used the telephoto lens at its 70 mm end just to flatten the perspective a touch. Using Aperture priority on my camera I set the aperture to f 7.1 at ISO 400 which gave me a shutter speed of 1/500 second which was quick enough to keep everything sharp with no camera shake as I was hand holding the camera.

Goes to show that sometimes the obvious picture is not the best picture, always have your camera ready  and a lot of the time photography is all about being at the right place at the right time. Either by careful planning or just simple good fortune!!

Mick Ryan   February 2013