The familiar shot of Skiddaw and Blencathra (locally known as Saddleback) across Derwentwater from Catbells is one of the classic views of the English Lake District. It is an image repeated over and over again and, indeed, I had taken and published several similar images of my own some years before. However, I wanted to produce something different and, at the time of publication, no panoramic images from this location seemed to be available.
Being a frequent visitor to the area, I had chosen my location very carefully and specifically many months in advance of the shoot. Higher up the Catbells ridge the vast expanse of Derwentwater becomes far too dominant in this format, lower down there is not enough water. On this particular shoulder of the ridge, however, I felt that Skiddaw and Saddleback held the viewer's attention, but the balance of the overall image was just right.
I had anticipated taking a shot of autumnal colours, but as chance would have it, a weak cold front passed over the Lakeland peaks the night before the shoot and left behind the mountains covered in the first light snow of winter. I shot the image at 0915, just as there was enough light to cover the forest in middle distance - otherwise this area would have ended up far too dark on the final image. It was a tight run thing, within 30 minutes, the cirrus cloud in picture had developed considerably and the view was gone!
I returned to this very same spot two weeks later to capture the image that I had originally intended, but on reflection, there is no doubt that this gave the better result, benefitting from the lift given to it by the light fall of snow.
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