What to expect on a Photography Workshop Walk

Yesterday I held the first of what I hope will be many Workshop walks. The weather has been truly awful and we had to change the venue at the last minute as Keswick was no longer accessible. Not everybody managed to arrive due to floods throughout the county of Cumbria and the two who did had horrendous journeys from Newcastle via Scotch Corner. I would like to thank them for their efforts and we had a memorable day with reasonable conditions for photography up at Tewet Tarn.

On arrival we donned warm clothing and Wellies before a short walk to the tarn where the group proceeded to set up for a sunrise that never materialised. We discussed camera settings such as Apperture Priority, ISO, White Balance and the importance of shooting in RAW. I then demonstrated setting up the camera and tripod along with basic filter alignment for the group with the shot below.

We had a good explore around the Tarn looking at different options for shots before proceeding up to a lovely lone tree with a commanding view of Blencathra and Skiddaw. Here we were able to shelter from the remaining brief showers where I demonstrated and discussed long exposure techniques with the group using a Lee Little Stopper which was subsequently loaned out for group use.

It was surprising how quick the time had flown and at this point we decided to return to the vehicles for lunch and a well earned brew. As we were descending towards the tarn the best light of day so far appeared. We made the decision to delay lunch and detoured to some rocks with views over the fells and valley below. Here we explored setting the camera up to shoot in manual with the intention of shooting a panoramic image encompassing both of the magnificent fells. Again I demonstrated before the group proceeded to capture the same, my version can be seen below.

Now we were ready for our lunch and a brew, we discussed the mornings achievements as well as having a laugh and getting to know each other better. Afterwards we decided to have a change of scenery with a short drive to Castlerigg Stone Circle which was eerily quiet and I presume that the floods had taken their toll and kept people away. Castlerigg is a great place but isn't the easiest to shoot depending on the conditions. We looked at different options instead of shooting all the stones and tried to use the conditions to assist us. Although Alan has a phobia regarding puddles we used these to eliminate the expanse of grass in the foreground and we decided that this worked. Alas here we had a major hiccup in that Jeanette's one and only battery gave up the ghost and curtailed her shooting for the day (she now has 3 more on order). We also had a bit of fun and created a group shot here, both the shots can be seen below.

Jeanette, Alan and Phil

Last port of call was back to Tewet Tarn where we hoped for a sunset but were disappointed as it didn't happen. We did manage to look at bulb mode here where we took the 61 second shot that's below.

All in all I had a thouroughly enjoyable day with good company and we all had a good laugh together as well as learn more about landscape photography. Due to yesterdays success I have now added two more workshop walk dates on 10/01/2016 & 31/01/2016 if you would like to book use the contact page here