This is an iconic view from Venice. Early evening with the winter sun setting off to the left and a lone Gondolier plying his trade along the Grand Canal.
In February Venice is not as busy as during the summer months and on previous visits I have seen this stretch of the canal literally heaving with Gondolas weaving between the Vaporetto, pleasure boats and traders.
If you have followed my blog at all you will know that recently I have been on a fantastic roadtrip around much of Europe with my son and we had the most amazing time. I also took a huge number of photos some of which I have enjoyed sharing with you and many more that I will post in future. In recent days however I have mixed things up by posting pictures from a photo shoot on Skomer and others from a night shoot in the Lake District.
I didn't post anything last night because I was actually out again, spending another night up in the Lake District. I visited Aira Force, a spot I had never been to before and somewhere I will definitely return top. Given the prolonged dry spell the cascades and waterfall were somewhat depleted and I am told that after a good rainfall they are really impressive so while I will eventually get round to sharing some of the pictures I took I will also be back for what hopefully will be even more stunning images.
After my visit I headed off to Keswick for a spot of tea and driving along the A66 past Troutbeck I spotted this stunning view so I pulled over in a couple of spots to shoot what I think are iconic images of the West Lakeland Fells.
After eating my tea and having a wander along the shore of Derwent Water and up to Friars Crag I stopped off at another of my favourite spots, the stone circle at Castlerigg. I had expected it to be quiet there however with the Blood Moon and full Lunar eclipse the place was actually heaving with local families out to see this phenomenon. Unfortunately it was far too cloudy to get even the slightest glimpse of the moon however, the night delivered another spectacle in the form of a thunderstorm over towards Mungrisdale and this provided a fantastic light show lighting up the clouds with colourful flashes for at least an hour. There wasn't a drop of rain up at the circle so it was lovely to seat against one of the stones and take in the show. At one point a cloud passed above and as I always like to photograph hearts in nature I wasn't going to miss this shot.
I have seen lots of pictures taken from this spot before but had never realised where it was but now I know I will probably be back to take more pictures in future.
The thing with landscape shots is that no matter how many times a particular scene is snapped every picture will be different, whether it is because of the angle or the perspective chosen, the detail in the sky, whether there is snow or no snow, the position of the sun and so on.
I saw a picture posted by someone on instagram just the other day and it was very similar to the second of my shots today (although these were taken a few weeks ago) and the photographer had commented on the tripod marks in the ground indicating that this was a well photographed location and in particular this view. But there is nothing wrong with that, often landscape images can look like holiday snaps as a friend of mine will often tell me, but retaking a good scene to get a perfect image can be a worthwhile challenge.
I love this scene and I think it would look good with a clear blue sky or with fluffy white clouds reflected in the lake which is probably how it looked later in the day, but here with an overcast sky and the sun fighting to break through the muted colours make for a really atmospheric image.
