Whilst working on a week-long project in the Lake District back in 2017, Storm Doris was forecast to pass over the UK. The final day of the project the storm passed over through the night. We started shooting later that day so I took the opportunity to get out onto the hills for sunrise. Photographing after a storm can be particularly magical due to all the moisture in the air catching light from the low sun, moody clouds and lots of contrast.
I went out that morning to see the hills surrounding the town of Keswick capped off in a fresh layer of snow. Always a beautiful sight in the Lakes, giving it a gorgeous alpine feel.
My location of choice this morning was the summit of Cat Bells. Usually a super popular walk in the area, but as I was up well before sunrise, I didn’t encounter a single other person.
I came away with 3 shots that include some of my favourite from all my trips to the area. In particular a couple of mountain portraits with beautiful light and moody clouds. You can see my images from the outing below.
I caught this shot on my way up to the summit before the sun had risen. Dark moody clouds contrasted the fresh white snow along the ridges of the surrounding hills.
This was the only shot I had pre-visualised before I went up there. It’s a popular composition and for good reason. The view is outstanding. I love how you can see almost the full route I walked to get to this spot. Unfortunately some of the peaks of the Skiddaw massif were obscured by clouds but the sun breaking through to the right and sweeping across what was visible made up for it. It was a windy morning as you can see from the movement on Derwentwater. I will definitely try to work on getting improved conditions for this composition again at some point in the future.
As the sun rose, beautiful orange light swept across a neighbouring peak - Hindscarth. The contrast between the complimentary orange and blue really sets this off. For scale, a sheep can be seen as a tiny white dot to the middle left of the foreground.
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