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November 2007
The sky had been a solid shade of mid-grey for a few days, leaving me feeling uninspired and a bit restless. However, when I woke to rain on my last day in the
Lake District, I was hopeful that I might finally be able to take a photograph. Not in the pouring rain, but rain always brings with it the promise of great
light and rainbows as (hopefully) it clears and the sun begins to poke its head round from behind the clouds. So I decided to have a leisurely breakfast and
watch the weather on the TV to find out if my hopes might turn into a reality. It looked promising. They said that by lunchtime, the rain should clear and
bring a cloudless and bright sky behind it. The “edge” of weather can be the most spectacular. As the rain peters out and the sun starts shining, you get
the possibility for wonderful dramatic skies. Sunlight streaming through rain, or a lit landscape with dark and moody clouds behind.
I was staying in Keswick, on the shore of Derwentwater and decided to take advantage of the changing weather by photographing the lake from the elevated
position of one of the surrounding hills. If I set off just before the weather was due to clear, then I could be on the summit right as the magic happened
and hopefully get some great photographs. Catbells has always been a favourite hill of mine, not only to look at with it’s wonderfully rounded knob of a summit,
but also as a quick and easy climb when you’ve got a heavy rucksack of camera equipment on your back. So I drove off in the downpour towards the car park at
the bottom of the hill.
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View from Catbells, Lake District. |
When I arrived, ten or so minutes later, the rain was still showing no signs of easing and I was finding it difficult to persuade myself out of the warm, dry
car to get soaking wet and cold outside. As I sat there contemplating my options, the rain began to ease up and I could see the clouds getting a bit brighter
as the sun was attempting to show itself, so I decided to go for it, got out of the car, put on my waterproofs and started heading up the path through the bracken.
As I set off walking up the hill I became increasingly aware of how windy it was. This wasn’t at all apparent in the shelter of the town, but on the exposed
path it was becoming more and more of an issue. I was finding myself having to hunch into the wind the make any headway on the more exposed parts of the path
and the wind literally blew my breath away a few times. I was also being driven off the path and onto the grass verge beside it by the force of the wind quite
frequently. Although I was less concerned with being blown off the side of the mountain and more worried about how my small and lightweight tripod would cope
with such a battering. Even if I stood between it and the oncoming wind, I wasn’t totally convinced that my photographs wouldn’t suffer from the vibrations and movement in the tripod. This was one time when my sturdier tripod would have been a better choice, but it was back in the boot of my car and I wasn’t going back
for it now.
After getting about two-thirds of the way to the top I decided that I would be a fool to continue further as it would only be even worse on the exposed
summit (despite numerous people pushing past me and gaining even higher ground on their way to the top). However, I didn’t want the trip to be a wasted effort
and the rain had now cleared away and the sun was lighting occasional patches of the landscape as it managed to find a gap between the clouds. So I took out my
camera and mounted it on my tripod. It felt so vulnerable and I was reluctant to stand more than an arms length away from it in case I had to make a quick catch
to stop it coming crashing down and breaking my lens. I took a couple of photographs but I wasn’t at all sure how well they would come out and continuing seemed
like a danger to my safety and also to the possibility that I may well just be wasting film. So I decided to pack up my tripod, I turned around and starting
heading back down to the car. But before I managed to get back to Keswick, the clouds had rolled in again and the skies were once again leaden. It seems like I
had been lucky to enjoy the only brief moment of sunshine during the whole weekend with my camera in my hand.
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