Deepdale, Lake District, Autumn
Grisdale keeps evading us.
Grisedale keeps evading us.
After meticulously scanning the weather forecasts and satellite radars, Dad and I embarked initially on a lovely hike up one of my favourite valleys: Grisedale.
Last time rain fended us off. This time, a running/trials event blocked all the car parks in Patterdale and Glenridding. No matter, that’s why you should have a back up plan! Instead, we drove back towards Brothers Water and pulled up in a little-used layby. This was the start of the hike into Deepdale.
Although no less splendorous compared to Grisedale—featuring as it does the magnificent fell of Greenhow End at its head—it’s certainly not as good to walk. Large patches of Deepdale are often submerged in water and super boggy to boot. This means lots of bog-hopping.
Nevertheless, a crisp yet blowy autumnal day greeted us and Dad and I were treated to delicious light and wonderful colours.
All photos taken on my Fujifilm X-T2 using my three prime lenses: a Fujinon 23mm f/2.0, a Laowa 9mm f/2.8, and an adapted Pentax SMC 55mm f/2.0. Developed in Lightroom using my own Classic Chrome-based preset, finished in Affinity Photo.
An autumnal Arnison Crag (433 m/1,421 ft) above Greenbank Farm. And some actual blue skies!
Closer to the farm, my beloved Herdwick sheep come into view and the sun illuminates the scene.
Passing through the farm, we followed the track towards the valley. As the wind was blowing a hooley, the clouds above passed intermittently across the sun, allowing beautiful spotlighting of light.
As we pass Deepdale Hall, Latterhaw Crag below and the back of St. Sunday Crag (841 m/2,759 ft) come into view, drenched in golden autumnal light.
It’s always important to remember: don’t forget to look behind you. Otherwise I would’ve missed this lovely composition.
Aureate light highlights the boulders that line the cascades of Coldcove Gill.
Rowan berries provide a nice colour contrast against the icy cold waters of Coldcove Gill.
Behind us, the tops of Angletarn Pikes (567 m/1,860 ft) and Place Fell (657 m/2,156 ft) are treated to similarly gorgeous light.
Finally, the crown jewel of Deepdale comes into view: Greenhow End. A magnificent fist of a fell, here being treated to some delicious side lighting.
A clump of boulders blocking the trail provided a lovely scene with Greenhow End in the distance.
We’ve reached that stage of autumn all the bracken and fern turns a beautiful rusty shade.
My Dad, doing what he does best: awkwardly posing (love ya, really).
At various points, the “trail” gets close enough to Deepdale Beck, allowing for compositions such as this.
Dad and I spotted this boulder, and immediately made out the face-like structure in its forms. So, I lined up this composition involving Angletarn Pikes.
Dad, enjoying the light play above us.
I spotted a cluster of boulders and glacial erratics, so I whipped out my ultra-wide lens to nab some more unusual and striking compositions.
I got real close to the glacial erratic, noting its wonderful lines, textures, and colours. I elected for a near-far ultra-wide composition, showcasing the strata in the boulder and Greenhow End above.
One of my favourite compositions from the whole hike. Just a perfect balance of light, contour, simplicity, and colour.
The head of Deepdale gets considerably boggier and impassable. That’s the point I usually turn back. Thankfully the views on the way back are no less splendid.
Place Fell providing the ultimate subject as the farm track makes a lovely leading line.
Sunlight bathes this field in warm light, leaving the fell in relative darkness. A circumstance of light and lines that I couldn’t ignore.
The farm track back to the main road. Almost impossibly idyllic.
Hunger was setting in. Time to grab some lunch.
After he was quite done grimacing at my camera, I managed to snap a nice warm candid photo of me Dad.
A lovely lunch was had at one of the Lake District’s most famous pubs: the Kirkstone Pass Inn, which has been in operation at the top of Kirkstone Pass (454 m/1,489 ft) since 1496 CE. What a lovely day out with Dad.
Deepdale, Lake District, Winter
Winter has arrived.
Winter has arrived.
We’ve been watching as temperatures in Cumbria have steadily dropped from the tens to near freezing point.
By around the 3rd December snow started to fall across the high fells of the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, followed by some ground level snow on the 4th.
Lisabet and I ventured straight into the Lakes on the Saturday to see if we could get some snowy mountain action whilst the snow was still around.
A lot of it had melted in the dale bottoms, resulting in some delightful cascades and waterfalls, but we were happy to see a fair bit of snow still clinging to the higher peaks of the Lake District.
We hiked into Deepdale, a small tributary valley off Patterdale, just north of Kirkstone Pass. The nice thing about Deepdale is you’ll rarely find a lot of people there. The not-so-nice thing is that the hiking can be laborious, as there’s not much of a path through the valley and there’s a fair bit of bog to navigate.
But what awaits you at the head of Deepdale is the magnificent hulking form of Greenhow End, a beautiful fell.
All photos taken on my Fujifilm X-T2 using both my Samyang 35mm f/1.2 and Laowa 9mm f/2.8 lenses. Photos shot using a customised Pro Negative Standard film profile.
Booting up. Love that anticipation and excitement when you’re getting ready for a hike, thinking about what scenes and light awaits you.
There were plenty of Herdwicks around the valley bottoms, fattening up for the winter. Probably all now pregnant, too.
Deepdale is quite a desolate and featureless valley, save for the wonderful crags at its head. There are a few glacial erratics lying about, though, that you can play with compositionally. I found this large boulder with a clear crack running through it, which I used in this focus-stacked photo to point towards Greenhow End.
Another group of rocks and boulders housed this little pool that I framed in another composition towards Greenhow End. A single frame shot at f/22 with my ultra-wide 9mm Laowa lens.
A tighter composition of the magnificent Greenhow End, with some gorgeous late-afternoon winter sun light.
I found another large boulder with some interesting moss, lichen, and trackline markings.
Another boulder I found had this very interesting crack running right through that, from certain angles, sort of reminded me of PacMan…
Heading back out of the valley I found more interesting arrangements of boulders to utilise compositionally, also positioning Deepdale Beck as a leading line towards Angletarn Pikes.
A tighter 35mm composition of Angletarn Pikes allows me to also features some of the old barns and farm houses of Wall End.
My lovely Lisabet, capturing a composition of one of her favourite stone bridges.
Herdwicks have such characterful faces.