2008 - a dull start....

Well a new year and a new grey sky to look at. It seems to be sod's law that we get nice days midweek when I'm stuck behind a desk at work, then at the weekend it's just dark and horrible. Well at least it is today anyway.

And yesterday!

The last 2 weekends have been so-so around Leeds, pretty sunny last weekend, but I've always wanted a classy shoot around Swaledale. It's one of the more northern of the Yorkshire dales, Teesdale is the next up and I think most of that's in Durham, so swale may we ll be the most northern. All that means is that it takes longer to get to and costs more in juice!

Last week I got to Richmmond, all very nice. then I drove up towards Muker and Reeth and saw the light fail, the warmth abandon me and the rain start to fall. Now as a photographer, I really should have turned back and went with the light, but I had a mental picture of what I was after - I'd been on multimap looking at roads and things for decent viewing points, so went on.

Annoyingly it rained harder and harder, the roads I found had fantastice views as planned, only of cluds rather than the barns that adorn this magnificent valley.

Ah well, there was light in the next valley - wensleydale.


A more famous valley, what with the cheese, Hawes, Hardraw Force and Aysgarth Falls. But my light wasn't to be seen, when I got to the top of a cold lonely pass, I could see sheets of rain filling the rivers and streams. There was a little light over in the next valley, Wharfdale, but to get to that would have taken too long and sunset would have come and gone. So I just drove slowly and took photos out of my car window - getting out would mean wet lenses and a drenched me!

After a while and rejoining the main leyburn-hawes road at Bainbridge, I was resigned to going ho9me having blown another £25 on diesel for nothing when I saw a sign saying "semerwater 2 1/2 miles".

I'll have driven past that sign 10 times in the last 3 years and never thought anything of it, but at a loss, I thought there was nothing to loose.


Over a steep hill and there it was, Yorkshire's biggest natural lake sat glimmering in the dusk light. it's nothing like a lake district lake, it's more the size of Blea Tarn than Coniston, and the surrounding hills are gentle rather than the screes of Wastwater.

At the top of the hill was a good shot looking over the whole of the valley, but when you get to the bottom there's a little more to play with. First there's the bridge, a humped backed little stone affair, it reflects well in the slow outlet water.

Then there's lot of bushes and trees reflecting in the still waters.

A little further there's 2 stones in the water, boulders 1/2 submerged.

Near those is a landing platform for boats, this was hauled ashore for the winter, so made quite an interesting diversion. And a little further still, there was a fence wandering into the water and a part sumberged gate.

Quite a bit really, and a lot of it is within my style of landscaping, using perspective and reflections along with colour so set a scene.

That kept me occupied for a good hour till it was almost pitch black, then I headed home.

So a lost day was recovered in the end, I think most days can be rescued if you're willing to stay out, try something new, discover places and just be persistant. For me, the only thing that stops me doing that is a hangover, you've got to have perfect conditions to operate effectively and enthusiastically with one of those!!

Lets hope for some better conditions soon eh?