A subset of these photographs were recently exhibited as part of the Look2011 International Photography Festival hosted in Liverpool.

Some of the fells we climbed this time around included:

• Skiddaw 931 metres (3,054 ft) – after several failed attempts due to bad weather on our previous visit, we finally managed to reach the summit.  Perhaps, it was because it was the first big walk we did on the trip, but it felt like the toughest.  Incredibly windy on top!
• Catbells 451 metres (1,480 ft) – my most climbed fell and I never get bored of the view from this relatively low climb.  It’s from here I was able to capture some sunrise time lapse sequences.
• Barrow 455 m (1,494 ft) – one of Catbells’ neighbours.  Not a difficult walk, but still a very rewarding view from the summit.
• Binsey 447 m (1,467 ft) – another relatively low fell, but with an amazing 360-degree view.  It’s such a shame I took a camera without any memory cards and didn’t get a chance to revisit!
• Helvellyn 950 metres (3,117 ft) along Striding Edge – Our most exciting walk to date was on England’s third highest peak.  Fantastic views and an exhilarating climb from the Striding Edge to the summit via the loose, rocky face.

Here’s a couple of photos from the trip and a few more over on Flickr.

All in all, it was a fantastic photo break, but I think I could do with a better way of carrying photography equipment especially when primarily shooting with a combination of a Nikon D700 and 14-24mm f/2.8 lens.  That’s a couple of kilos of mass which I need to be able to stow away securely and easily whilst still having it at hand without too much stoppage time.  My trekking rucksack and Lowepro Toploader worked out a little cumbersome at times, but on the whole did the trick.

If you’d like a few suggestions for places to dine whilst in the Lake District, I highly recommend the following:

• Middle Ruddings in Braithwaite
• Horse & Farrier Inn in Threlkeld
• Fish Hotel in Buttermere

Amongst our plans was a trek to the Skiddaw summit and another to Helvellyn, but on each occasion the weather stopped us short.  Fortunately, we did have one day that was clear enough for us to talk up Catbells.  The views from up there are amongst my favourite in the Lakes and this visit made it even more so.

I’m looking forward to going back!

Snowy Catbells from William Lee on Vimeo.

In preparation for some more heavy duty walking action, we invested in a bunch of new kit including:

• walking boots
• walking socks
• waterproof coats
• waterproof over-trousers
• a well-ventilated rucksack
• waterproof OS maps
• compasses
• emergency whistles
• gloves
• neckwarmers
• thermal base layers
• hats
• hiking poles
• wind-up torch

Phew!  It looks like a lot, but it was all pretty much essential kit.  If we were going to be stuck up a mountain in freezing temperatures, we wanted to be sure we were prepared!

We were, in fact, incredibly lucky with the weather as only the week before, Keswick got into the news headlines when freak storms stranded participants of the Original Mountain Marathon.

The temperature at ground level was about 3-degrees Centigrade during the days which meant that we could expect it to hit freezing a few hundred metres up.  The sky was clear most of time apart from some isolated clouds.  Due to the mild autumn we’d had so far, there were plenty of golden leaves still on the trees.

We booked ourselves into a nice little B&B in the village of Thornthwaite which was just a few miles outside of Keswick.  The accommodation was perfectly nice and the owners were friendly enough, but we didn’t really spend much time there as our intention was to be out and about as much as possible.

Day 1

On our first morning there, we woke up before sunrise and headed off to Cat Bells.  As the sky was starting to show some light and we could reasonably see what we were walking on, we ascended about half-way up and took some photos.

This panoramic of Skiddaw is made up of a few stitched exposures:

If you click on the image, you can see the bigger versions of Flickr and really see the fantastic colours of the trees as well as Skiddaw with it’s frosty top coating.

I was trying to get a good sunrise shot, but we just weren’t high enough to see over the surrounding hills.  So, I took a few more shots before we headed back to the B&B for breakfast.  After breakfast, we went back to Cat Bells and scaled to the top.  This time, it was starting to get quite busy rather than just the solitary runner we’d seen earlier.

That evening, we had an absolutely amazing dinner at Middle Ruddings.  The older gents provided great service, but the young girls acted like they couldn’t give a shit.  Fortunately, everything else more than made up for it.  I had the most fantastically cooked scallops that just melted in my mouth followed by a mouth-watering steak and ale pie with perfectly cooked vegetables (and chips!)  The pastry was nice and flaky and the pieces of beef were cooked better than most steaks I’ve had.

A great, warm atmosphere along with their own hand-pumped beer and cider made for one of the best meals out I’ve had in a long time.  The next time I’m near Keswick I’ll be sure to pay another visit!

Day 2

After breakfast, we headed into Keswick town and I got myself a pair of Lowe Alpine convertible mittens.  These were ideal for photo-trekking as they were warm, had a grippy palm for holding onto hiking poles and had exposable fingers and thumbs.  These were a big improvement over the fingerless gloves I’d used the day before as my fingers didn’t go numb with the cold!

After Keswick, we headed to Buttermere.  I wanted to return to the spot where I’d taken this,

to try to get a shot in the same direction, but from higher up.  Unfortunately, the light wasn’t helping and the sun spent most of the time sitting beneath the level of the mountains on the right of this photo.  Still, I did get a few nice shots which I’ll upload at some point.

We missed lunch, but made up for it by having another great dinner this time at the Keswick Lodge.  After dinner, we finished the evening with a fireworks display at the local rugby club.  Again, more photos to come.

Day 3

Having been a bit disappointed with Buttermere the day before, we took advice from our Thornthwaite host and after a sunrise breakfast headed back to Buttermere to climb Haystacks.  This was to be our biggest trek yet.  Bearing in mind that we are newbies to hill walking, Haystacks was promising to be quite an adventure.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but just to give you an idea of what was involved, Haystacks reaches 597m from sea level.  This makes it:

• 6-times as tall as Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral,
• almost 4-times as tall as Blackpool Tower,
• almost twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower in Paris,
• 1.33 times the height of the Empire State Building spire

Click on the image above and see the embedded notes for a better idea of the scale of Haystacks!

We started our ascent about 9am and finally reached the summit around midday after making many stops for photos along the way. We bumped into a few people along the way and one thing that never ceases to amaze me on our walks is just how friendly other walkers are to complete strangers.  90% of the people you walk past will smile and say hello.  How nice is that?!

Reaching the summit of Haystacks was a big accomplishment for us and a wonderful experience.  The views from the top were stunning to say the least.  Not only could you see for miles, but you also got to see the (partially frozen) tarns at the top of Haystacks which aren’t visible from the ground.

We completed our tour of Haystacks after about 7-hours, taking a circular route from and to the local car park.

Haystacks proved to be a high point of our weekend, but also a low as I had a little incident with my camera.  Let’s just say that I’m glad I changed memory card during the climb and that my equipment was insured!

Another lesson I learned on the trip was that using a polarising filter together with an ultra-wide angle lens isn’t always such a good idea as the polarisation of the sky can vary greatly across the frame making it look a bit odd.

All in all, it was a fantastic long weekend and I’ve still got a ton of photos left to process and stitch.

There wasn’t as much activity on the lake as I’d seen on previous visits, but the conditions made it ideal for capturing some waterscapes with this being my favourite:

This image is actually a composite of 3 separate long exposures blended together using HDR techniques.  Personally, I think this composite represents what I saw more accurately than any of the single exposures.

There was another shots I was trying to get and it involved this boat:

As soon as I saw the light from the setting sun hitting the boat, I made a run towards it in my brand new pair of walking boots only to discover the sand was not quite as solid as I thought it was…

Oh well, at least I got to test them out properly.  Though, next time, I’ll take wellies too.

If you’re in the Wirral area and the weather’s looking photogenic then I’d strongly recommend a visit to the marine lake because there’s just so much to take photos of there.

As the lake is less than an hour’s drive away from me, before setting off, I check on the very handy West Kirby marine lake web cam to see what the sky is like and whether there’s any activity on the lake.

If you’re wondering exactly where it is, then here’s a useful map:

View Larger Map

What’s a good walkabout lens for my xxxD?

Rather than it being a reference to lenses with legs, a walkabout lens is one with which you might take out on a day of walking whether it be to a park, to the shops or to your friends barbeque. The requirement being that because you don’t know what type of subject you’re going to come across you take a lens that can cover most general situations rather than lugging about a heavy bag filled with lenses. Prime lenses don’t fall into this category very well unless you’re deliberately wanting to restrict yourself to a single focal length. As such, zoom lenses – particularly those around the ‘standard’ lengths – are favoured for this role. In particular, zoom lenses that start at a wider (<= 35mm) focal length and reach up to short telephoto (=> 50mm). These ranges often provide a good balance between focal length range, image quality, cost and weight. As I shoot with a 40D, my own choice of a walkabout lens has to take into account the ‘multiplication factor’ due to the cropped sensor. Initially, the Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM zoom was my choice of lens. After deciding that I wanted a standard zoom which offered a faster aperture, I bought a Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM zoom lens despite reports about problems with dust. After my initial encounter with dust inside the lens, I’m glad to say that I’ve not had any more such issues and that the lens has performed brilliantly for me.

If I could only take one lens out with me, perhaps if I was traveling and wanted to keep weight to a minimum, my choice of walkabout lens would be the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM. It’s certainly not the cheapest lens in this category, but it’s by far one of the best for a cropped sensor Canon DSLR in terms of features and performance.