Waylandscape. Fine Art Landscape Photography by Gary Waidson. Grasmere 2007

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Grasmere, Cumbria. Landscape photography by Gary Waidson.

Grasmere. Cumbria.

4th November 2007

Landscape photography is a pursuit full of wonderful opportunities and littered with the images that might have been.

All too often the best subjects are not met with the best lighting or when the light and land do come together in perfection, then a swarm of fluorescent clad hikers are enjoying their lunch right in the middle of it.

This I feel is an occasion when the light did not quite come up to the mark

We’d come for Autumn colour and and timed it just right for the Lake district which often has it’s own set of rules.

The forecast was good but the faintest veil of cloud diffused the light and a slight atmospheric haze sapped the rest of the contrast from the day.

It’s not that there is any kind of light that is wrong for landscape photography. It’s just that some types of light are great for some kinds of subject and the strong sunlight I usually dislike would have brought this picture of the island on Grasmere to life.

The soft lighting we had however did suit more detailed shots so I started to look around the woods at Baneriggs instead.

Now I love birch trees, many people consider them the weeds of the arboreal world but as a bushcrafter I know how useful these trees can be and how important they are to the environment too.

As a photographer I have photographed them a few times but rarely caught their character and charm.

I think the problem is their very nature which is to sprout up in marginal places and set the foundations that other trees can build upon.

Birch trees often form short untidy thickets that start to thin out as more massive trees crowd them out.

Here a few birch trees had hung on to land that was too thin for their bigger cousins.

The height of the surrounding trees had forced them to push upwards to find light and they stood with the flame haired, slender grace of pre-Raphaelite beauties.