Pontoon

Here are a few more shots of the marine lake after dark, these were long exposures to smooth out the ripples in the surface of the lake. It also brought out the detail in the sky and reflections that otherwise would have been missed.

Across The Lake

 As I write this I am supposed to be in the New Forest, one of my absolute favourite places, for a well earned week away enjoying lots of walks and lots of photo opportunities. However, thanks to the Liverpool region going into Tier 3 lockdown I had to shelve my plans and find some other way to amuse myself.

Yesterday evening I went for a short walk along the waterfront at West Kirby and since there wasn't even the slightest breeze the surface of the marine lake was mirror calm. I didn't have my camera with me at the time so I determined that if the weather held I would pop back this evening to try some long exposure shots. Although there was a slight breeze creating the slightest movement in the water it was still nice and calm so I managed to get some pretty good images.

Here are a couple of shots looking across the lake to Hilbre Island.

In the first image I have used the small buoy to create a little foreground interest and I have adjusted the contrast to bring out the detail in the sky.

The next two images are the same shot but with different treatment. I do think it works well as a black and white image but I think I prefer the pastel tones in the colour image.

Tranquil

I have visited this spot at Glenridding on Ullswater a few times. Last year I visited early morning when it was -6 C there was a thick fog and the edge of the lake was frozen. These boats were barely visible.

On my most recent visit there was a light breeze and the surface of the lake was  covered with small, even ripples. The light was not very good because of the low cloud but I had came here with a particular image in mind. I wanted to get  a nice even image with a degree of symmetry and I knew that I needed a good reflection. I used a 2 second exposure and I layered two ND filters to flatten out the ripples and create a smooth surface for the reflection and then in Lightroom I have adjusted the contrast to bring out the detail in the sky.

Overall I am really happy with this image and it is pretty close to what I had set out to achieve when I set out at the start of the day. I also got to try out a technique for long exposure that I hadn't really tried before so I would say it was a successful day out.