A Lovely Evening in Millom

Today I have spent the day in Snowdonia but the pictures I have chosen for my blog are from last weekends trip to Millom in Cumbria.  

We have some really fantastic countryside in the UK and I had one of the best nights ever last Friday camping at a new site on the North West coast between Millom and Haverigg. There were no other campers on the site so it was really perfect.  Over the next few days I will share some pictures from the trip, including my first attempt at shooting the night sky.

For today I have chosen some pictures of the sunset.  The first is looking across the fields to Millom with the Cumbrian Fells in the distance, you can see Scafell Pike and Coniston (if you know what you're looking for).

The second image I took along one of the lanes near to the campsite, I love the evening light as it breaks through the trees.  

The final picture was the view from my tent as the sun was setting, I don't think anyone can argue, that was a great view to end the day.  After that I got some fish n chips with a helping of battered haggis for my supper before settling down to watch the stars. Mmmmm what a brilliant night.

Elterwater at dawn

Yesterday I decided that I would get up early and head off to Delamere Forest to get some early morning pictures of the trees and the changing leaves.  One of the benefits this time of year is that dawn comes at a civilised hour.  Sunrise today was at 7.44 am and so I really didn't need top set the alarm of get up at stupid o'clock to get out for the first rays of sunshine.  So why did I wake up before 5.00 am?  I guess it was the prospect of getting out walking and taking pictures, I was excited and having woken at 5 I couldn't get back to sleep.  I arrived at my destination at around 7.20 and there was light enough to take a few pleasing shots.  For the first hour of my walk there was no one else around and even as time went on there were just a few dog walkers and cyclists so it was really pleasant.

Anyway I haven't had time to upload and sort through the photos I took this morning but I wanted to choose a picture of an early morning scene.  I have selected a view of Elterwater in the Lake District.  I was camping in Langdale and had got up at the crack of dawn, given that this was in June 2010 sunrise was around 4.30 am and so it was a seriously early start to walk from the campsite to Elterwater and this picture was taken at 5.37 am.  The sun was coming up behind me over Loughrigg and it really brings out the colours in the lake and the fells on the opposite side.  

Let me know if you think it was worth the effort of getting up so early for this shot.

Canon EOS 450D 18 - 55mm f3.5 @ 18mm and  f4  ISO 200 1/250s