Hi John,
Thanks for the wonderful rundown of photo activities among the Lakes. I was
fortunate enough to visit there once about 25 years ago. Hiked north
through the west midlands, hosteling with a girlfriend, and hitched past
Coke (yikes!) and then arrived on a bank holiday -- with no reservations,
of course. I was carrying a borrowed Nicca rangefinder (a Japanese brand
I'd never heard of before or since -- I told people it was an ancient
Nikon). I learned to "meter" from the little yellow Kodak box (not very
well).
We hiked to the top of Helvelyn and across the Striding Edge where I got
some poor but now richly nostalgic photographs on KR. I was carrying all
my worldly goods of the moment in a US Army surplus backpack, which
included an umbrella (later lost in a Paris taxi, along with plenty cash,
since he didn't have a proper meter either). Since it was a bank holiday,
there were many folk making their way to the Striding Edge, including women
in stockings and pumps carrying little dogs. Almost to a person they said
things like, "Imagine, seeing a 'brelly way up here." While the pups went
"Yap, yap."
What I want to know is where do you park an RV in the Lake District? Next
time I'll be taking better cameras. And a dog.
Joel
At 03:36 PM 5/20/1998 +0100, you wrote:
>Fellow Zuiks,
>
>I enjoy reading what others get up to with their OMs, well done Ulf with
>
>the wedding, so here's what I did last weekend.
>
>I have just purchased a motor home (RV) for a price which would have
>paid for dozen OM3Ti, with matching 35-80 f/2.8 zooms, 24mm shifts and
>one or two 250mm f/2s to go with them. Its cured my Zuiko habit for a
>while no matter how much of a bargain I see :(
>
>I decided to take the RV up into the Lake District for the weekend to
>try it out (David Brown's neck of the woods) and we were blessed with
>scorching weather to boot. I decided to travel light in terms of gear
>and took with me
>OM4Ti (with MD2)
>OM2N
>35mm f/2
>35mm f/2.8 shift
>24mm f/2.8
>28mm f/2.8
>50mm f/3.5 macro
>90mm f/2 macro
>135mm f/2.8
>180mm f/2.8
>plus a Hasselblad ELM with 50, 80 and 150 lenses. All supported on a
>Benbo tripod (not at the same time).
>
>After an overnight stop en route we got to the Lakes early on Sunday
>morning and managed to park up in a small wood in the Langdale valley,
>right next to Blea Tarn (a tarn is a small lake). Langdale is very
>picturesque with jagged mountains rising from the head of the valley -
>the Langdale Pikes - but the road is *very* narrow and I was fortunate
>not to meet anything coming the other way while in the RV.
>
>We had a walk down to the lake where I used the 4Ti loaded with velvia (
>
>is there any other film for landscapes?) and a 24mm lens to photograph
>the lake with the mountains behind. A low view point with large boulders
>
>in the foreground made for a pleasant shot and using the lens
>hyperfocally focused at f/16 ensured plenty of DOF. Did the same shot
>with the OM2N loaded with Iford PanF 50asa B&W and a deep red filter.
>Spent most of the morning in this area doing variations on this scene,
>then after lunch, we walked back up the road to the head of the valley.
>
>The hot day created a great deal of water vapour in the air and along
>with the contrasty light of mid-day, I decided to stick with B&W and the
>
>red filter and leave the velvia till late afternoon. I hiked up one of
>the hillsides to get some good panoramas of the valley, again with a
>24mm.
>
>Back at the lake I spent the afternoon shooting flowers, mainly
>butterwort (an insect eating plant) using 35mm f/2 and 90mm macro. The
>35mm
>is ideal for getting the whole of the plant in with a big background
>vista too. There were quite few sundew plants (also insectivorous) just
>
>starting to come through, but they were too small to do really. They'll
>be a lot better by mid-June (get yourself up there David).
>
>By late afternoon, the light had gone completely wrong for me and was
>almost coming back down the valley towards me, so I never got the late
>afternoon shots I'd hoped for with nice long shadows. However, there was
>
>a nice orangey sky to finish the day with and I made the most of this
>using the 90mm macro to compress the scene. Through the viewfinder the
>mountains looked impressive with lots of recession. A gentle mist added
>to the atmosphere and I beefed the sky up by using a tobacco grad and an
>
>81B warm up filter - an often used combo for me on evening skies (see
>standing stones picture on the gallery for example).
>
>The following morning's first light was superb and I was at the lake and
>
>at the ready. The water was flat calm and the mountains were reflected
>perfectly. Again 24mm and 4Ti and velvia were used, along with an
>Olympus (none CIR) polariser and an 81A to just knock out the blueish
>cast caused by the POL. Again did the scene using a variety of lenses,
>including 90mm macro to compress the scene of a lone Scot's pine on the
>lake shore against the distant hills, and 50mm macro for some
>not-so-wide shots.
>
>>From here we went further north into the area around Keswick (where DB
>actually lives) and visited the stone circle at Castlerigg. These 4,000
>year old stones are impressive and it was the first time I'd visited.
>They are built on a flatish plateau with a spectacular mountain vista
>behind them. However, as we didn't get there till almost mid-day, I
>again used B&W and a red filter. Despite there being quite a few
>tourists I managed to get plenty of shots without folks in them. Lenses
>here were nearly all 28mm and 24mm. A good sky had developed by this
>time with lots of fluffy white cumulus clouds so things were ideal for
>the B&W film.
>
>In two weeks time we are heading to the very far north of Scotland and
>out onto the Orkney Islands where I hope to photograph the Ring of
>Broadie standing stones as well as landscape and natural history.
>
>Just wish I had a scanner to show some of the results :(
>
>John.
>
>
>
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