The frosty October day had started with an early morning alarm call that allowed time for the cross-country drive to Buttermere (a lake in the north west of the Lake District in the UK) before the sun had time to rise and many others with similar photographic thoughts would arrive.
The lake and its surroundings which have several outstanding viewpoints, were first made popular in Victorian times and was a location that my dear grandmother would speak fondly of having visited when she was a ladies’ maid at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire in the early 1900s.
This trip was intended to provide inspiration for an annual calendar that my wife and I produce for family and friends.
One of the challenges is to have 13 quality images that support a single theme. The hope was that The Lake District would provide the material to meet our needs, after all there is certainly enough photogenic scenery, but would the conditions be kind to us?
The single slender birch tree sitting at the water’s edge amongst the frost covered grasses with the rugged hills of The Lake District in the background somehow manages to survive. It is enhanced in this image by the beautiful light resulting in mesmerising colours in the low mist and provided a sight beyond any that I had experienced during my 50 plus years of taking photographs.
The image captures for me a very magical moment in time and speaks to the calm and beauty of Buttermere and as I soaked up the atmosphere I drew parallels with my grandmother, who back in the day was a beautiful young women whose gentleness and calmness would have been so critical to those she tended as she went about her business as a Red Cross nurse during WWI.
Several years ago, I had moved to the Fujifilm X Series to reduce the weight of my camera bag. It would take a while for me to accept that a crop sensor could compete with the full frame Nikons I had been using.
Initially I had purchased the Fujifilm X100F as I wanted to try street photography which was inspired by a fellow Nikon user who uses a Leica. I immediately fell in love with the camera as its top plate rotating controls for ISO/ASA and shutter speed reminded me of the black Pentax MX which I had used during the ‘70s and 80s to capture most of the images of my growing family.
The bonus with Fujifilm was the colour renditions of the various film simulations provided without the need to change ‘the roll of film’. For the lone tree I had two options before the sun would burn off the mist. A Fujifilm X-Pro2 on a trusty tripod with a 10-24mm wide angle lens or the X100F 23mm fixed lens camera that I always carry, not so much as a back-up, but for those ‘moment in time shots’ where the time in setting up a tripod could well mean an opportunity missed. In the end I took several photographs with both cameras, but the clear winner was the portrait image taken handheld with the X100F (I used the Velvia film simulation).
What do you think are the TWO most impactful features that make your image a good photograph? Don’t be shy!
1) a feeling of surrealism and isolation due to the atmospheric conditions
2) the simplicity of the composition with the point of focus (tree) placed centrally in the image rather than using the rule of thirds.
If you would be able to make this photo once again, what would be the ONE thing you would like to do better or different?
I will never be lucky enough to experience the atmospheric conditions again as the location is too far from home. That said, the rock to the left of the tree is a distraction leaving the image imperfect but true to life. I do have a landscape image with two ducks in the background and the rock leads the eye to them but that is another story.
David Pottinger shared his photograph in the FRAMES Facebook Group.
Photographer
David Pottinger, UK
Equipment and Settings
Fujifilm X100F
1/60 sec., f/4, ISO 800
I use Capture One to process the raw files and catalogue my photographs after being disappointed by Adobe Lightroom artifacts and the loss of Fuji colours. I still use Nik Software for converting images to black and white.
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Marjorie Cross
October 8, 2022 at 13:00
A beautiful image which reminded me of a mountain lake in Nepal.