I enjoyed my first 121 with Chris so much, I looked to book him for another Dawn session. I chose the Monday of our second week albeit the weather forecast wasn’t looking promising but we all know that weather forecasts are just that.
One thing I’ve learnt more about in booking these things is to practice looking at various sources to judge how suitable the weather is likely to be. When I say “suitable”, for a sunrise I mean clear sky or little cloud, and ideally sunny. I’ve heard a few photographers on YouTube refer to various weather apps. I’ll post a separate blog about which apps I now use.
At my first 121, Chris had helped me improve my focusing technique and I realised I’d stopped zooming in to check focus and manually adjust if needed. I had been relying too much on focus peaking and it was apparent when checking, that despite strong focus peaking highlights on the review screen, peaking isn’t perfect, it’s just the camera’s best interpretation. Why am I surprised when we’re talking about relying on a camera’s electronics to judge something visual? Chris also talked me through hyperfocal distance, something which has caused me a brain block and it’s never really sunk in. I understand it better now and with apps such as PhotoPills, I can use that to tell me my HFD and use the AR (augmented reality) feature to show my the focusing point. What a superb app PhotoPills is and certainly something I’ll be using more regularly. What I observed is that, in general, and especially with a scene with foreground interest and a wide angle lens, I am focusing very close to get everything sharp.
As we got closer to the second booking, weather apps were reporting a worse forecast each time I checked and I had a sinking feeling we were going to have to cancel. Sure enough, Chris got in touch to say weather wasn’t looking favourable and suggested a later start at 11:00 when the forecast looked OK. My problem was that the prospect of bright mid-morning light, and I’d be back at our cottage later and eating into other holiday plans, it felt not viable. Reluctantly, I replied to Chris to say I think we will have to cancel.
On chatting to my wife Kathryn, we had pencilled in Haystacks for the Wednesday which was the best day weather-wise. However, our recent trip to Catbells led us to the conclusion that easier fells were more achievable and enjoyable plus we could start out later, and neither of us would be disappointed to give Haystacks a miss this time round. In planning this trip, we had ambitions to climb Scafell Pike and maybe even Helvellyn but reading up about these a little more, we soon realised these are challenging walks, not impossible but ones that require more energy and stamina than our holiday modes at this moment in time felt like doing. With this reflection, I suggested I try and re-book Chris for the Wednesday, and I could be back in plenty of time for us to go out later in the day.
With my second 121 with Chris now back on, we agreed to keep to the original plan of Loughrigg Fell which would require meeting up at 05:30 which meant peeling myself out of bed at about 04:15 (ouch!).
I met Chris but this time with the head torch I’d forgotten before and we began our climb up, making it to the top ahead of time and with the sky starting to light up. It was quite blustery at first with swathes of that misty rain which has a good go at soaking you. Since waterproof clothes are the standard uniform of the landscape photographer, we didn’t really care about it, so long as the weather calms down and doesn’t soak our gear. When the weather calmed, we were treated to a fantastic view overlooking Loughrigg and a bonus was a rainbow!
Having been embarrassed on the first 121 by my puny tripod and Chris generously lending me his, the same scenario was needed here. In fact, in this shot Chris took of me, just like last time, I am using his tripod. It was genuinely amusing to hear Chris refer to my tripod as ‘The blancmange”.
With guidance from Chris, I composed some shots and we had a great time enjoying the landscape, chatting away and shooting. Below is the best shot from the session.
We left this spot and stopped at a couple of other places on the way down, mainly overlooking Grasmere. I spotted some interesting light and ran back a few yards to grab the shot below. I like it a lot but if I did it again I’d probably not rush it and move a little left to separate the tree from the island on the lake a little more but nevertheless I still like it.
We got back to our cars and I thanked Chris for another fabulous meet up. My ambition for this holiday was to book one session with a pro and I got two sessions, learnt a lot, had fun, got some good shots. Oh, and the blancmange was going to be replaced, I just didn’t have time to sort it out before the holiday.