The long, often blue sky days of summer are a photographically challenging time but this year I wanted to make the most of them by doing something different and pushing my photography into an area not previously explored. After much deliberation two ideas remained. The use of colour, patterns, shapes and textures as a primary subject with images bias towards simplicity and the second idea was to photograph people rock climbing.

On my recent visit to the Lake District, one of the aims was to do a little mountain photography.  Unfortunately the cloudy weather put the stops on that, but the day I arrived the weather looked promising.  The plan was to arrive earlier in the day to leave more time for an evening outing, but thanks to hideous roadworks - Birmingham through to Manchester - the journey took much longer than it should have.

It's been a long, hot, dry and sunny summer in the UK; the best for many a year.  But long days filled with dust and haze make it my least favoured time of year for photography.   In fact, the camera stayed in its bag for the whole time!  With Autumn approaching and in September I returned to Dartmoor but it was a week of high winds and road-level clouds all thanks to the remnants of US hurricanes making it across the Atlantic.  Nothing came from that trip :-(

Back in 2006 I spent a few days in the English Lake District.  As I recall now, it wasn’t the most successful of trips as the weather didn’t generally play ball.  One rainy day the weather was forecast to break late in the afternoon so, to kill a few hours, I took a drive along the small mountain roads across the Hardknott and Rhinos passes to Wasdale on the Western side of the Lake District.  So it was that I found myself on the banks of Wastwater about an hour before sunset.

OK, so perhaps this is getting a little repetitive!  But Buttermere is a wonderfully photogenic location ;-)  The tree in this photograph is pretty famous now but I didn't know that at the time.  Its been a few years since the photograph was taken and, with the benefit on hindsight, I now realise the lake was very full making the tree look as if it was growing quite far out in the lake!

Like some unseen magnetic attraction I find myself drawn to Buttermere.  Due to the fine clear skies the light was very harsh at all times apart from the early morning and late evening. So it was that I found myself part way along the Northern edge of Buttermere just before sunset watching how the last rays of light lit the hills and the lake.  

I recall that it had been a long, hot August day with clear skies and bright sunlight, but as the sun set it just caught a few thin, high clouds which reflected in the calm of Derwent water.  What's more a full moon was rising from behind the distant line of hills and it was also casting a reflection.  Hence this short post is called 'Derwent water reflections'.

Buttermere in the English Lake District is another of my favourite places.  One November a while back, I spent a few days there and had some beautiful weather.  The photograph to the left was captured in the early morning as the sun rose.  It was one of those winter mornings where the air was absolutely still, clear and a light frost covered the ground.

Wastwater in Wasdale is one of my favourite English lakes. Catch it in the right light and it just looks fantastic. This photograph was made during November 2006 at the end of a long and cloudy day. I don't remember much about the day other than I certainly hadn't planned to end it at Wastwater as I was staying over the hills to the East at Langdale!