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Derwent Water – After The Thunder was a pivotal point in my photography. Although I had been using digital post processing for a while, it was the first digital photograph that I was truly happy with.

It was taken late on a mid September afternoon, I had been walking on Skiddaw that morning and the cloud was building fast and thunder could be heard nearby. Descending through cloud I could feel the static charge in the air, I even witnessed a mini twister scoot across the fell side. I knew we were in for a storm so descended quickly to the car and headed for shelter.

I was staying nearby at the Camping Club site at Keswick. My tent was pitched on the edge of Derwent Water, as the rain fell in sheets and rumbles of thunder could be heard and felt overhead. I sat and watched the scene unfold through an opening in the flysheet. Canoes, sail boats and walkers raced for cover. As fast as the rain came it stopped. I had never seen conditions like this before in the Lake District. The storm clouds travelled deeper into the Borrowdale valley, leaving behind a silence and dead calm. It was still hot and very humid, mist rose from the woodland. A single sailboat becalmed on the lake was being slowly rowed back to shore.

I mounted the camera on a Unilock Tripod with a ball and socket head, I zoomed in on the boat, composed, and took a few photographs, bracketing to make sure I had captured the landscape and atmosphere before me.

2 weeks later the film was scanned into my PC using a canoscan 2700. I was disappointed. The original photograph looked dull and grey, the only colour was the red sail on the boat. Technically there was nothing wrong exposure, sharpness and focus were good, the composition worked. It failed on a deeper level, it had not captured what I had felt or seen. I did not reveal the subtle colour changes the sky had gone through, the mist was lost in the grey background, the sail on the boat was too bright, it did not portray the stillness on the lake. But all the elements were still there.

I used Photoshop 4. I selected the best image from the bracketed shots I had taken (partly decided by the fact the oars are clear of the water in this photograph). The image was converted to grayscale. I created about eight layers to isolate elements within the frame, the boat, water, sky, islands, woodland, and fell side. I was then able to adjust the exposure, and contrast of each of these. I found I was able to enhance the feeling of recession and bring out the mist.

 The photograph still did not fully convey the warm browns and yellows in the sky left by the thunder. I converted the image to a quad tone and adjusted the curves of all four inks to achieve the finished picture. The final act was to add a spot of colour to the sailboat.

 Why is this image so significant?

Well, it captures the feeling and the atmosphere. It reproduces not only the scene and what I has envisaged in my minds eye, but recreates the mood, the stillness of the water the, the absence of wind seen through the boat, strange colours in the sky and humidity, with mist rising from the woodland. And it was the first digital landscape photography that I had managed to do this with.

Technical Details:
Camera:               Nikon F90x
Lens:                              Sigma 75-300APO
Film:                     Fuji Sensia 100
Other:                   Unilock trip

This year my main “out of area” photography trip has seen a return to my favourite National Park – the Lake District. The 2 weeks provided a range of opportunities, the best came on the first day of the visit. These two images of Buttermere were taken within an hour of each other The misty conditions allowing for many creative experiments, to try and capture the mood.

In some respects it was a little disappointing to find such fantastic conditions on the first day; it made the rest of the trip a little underwhelming. The conditions were never quiet the same again. This is one of the attractions of photographing the  lake district, the permutations and unpredictability in weather and lighting lead to some stunning images, even if capturing them can be  frustrating.

The two weeks continued to provide fresh opportunities and I am still working on the post processing before uploading them to the gallery. I made a promise to myself this year to capture some great images of the Castlerigg Stonecircle. I ended up paying 3 visits to the site – twice early morning and once in the early evening. Early morning proved to be the better choice;  it was devoid of the casual tourist climbing over the stones. The early morning was restricted to the more determined photographers amongst us.  I still did not manage to get what I wanted but the images do justice to the site and my efforts to be there. Guess I will have to try again another year.

I have more images from the trip to work and will post updates as they are added to the gallery.

All of these images and more can viewed and purchased through my online gallery at:
www.bn-images.com/gallery/gallery/album/index.html

I have thought about this for a long time. Should I, or should I not write a blog? I still don’t have an answer. Often you just get to a point where no amount of contemplation finds a solution. So with nothing to lose, and if nothing else some extra visitors to my site, I decided…

JUST DO IT!

You are reading it now; therefor it is already a success.I should tell you what it is about. I already have a website where I share my photographs. But the Blog is here as a behind the scenes look. I will try to inspire and interest you with stories about the photographs; where, when and how they were taken. And as all good artists should, talk not only about the finished image, but create some narrative to explain why I was moved to spend hours sitting in a cold ditch waiting for a cloud to move an inch to the left.

This is a developing story about my photography. It’s not restricted to the images but also encompasses the equipment I use, the locations I enjoy, my success and failiures in competitions and exhibtions. So I will post information and reviews about books and equipment, walks that I take with my camera, competitions I entered – won and lost, exhibition acceptances recieved.

So no more for now; it’s time to play around a bit and make this blog look the way I want it. But see the image on this page. It is called Derwentwater After The Thunder. It was a pivotal point in my photography and pointed me down the road towards specialising in landscapes. It will be the first to feature in my “Stories about photos” posts so come back soon and read all about it.