I get the Perfect Autumn Photography Conditions! (Photographing England Ep.9)

A big thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. As I leave Yorkshire and what an amazing county that is past Ribblehead Vioaduct, which is also super incredible. Got a few photos there with this amazing rainbow. But I'm heading to Cumbria, one of my favorite counties in England. Right. Well, we're now in Cumbria. I've just camped over there. Many man um caravan and camping place. It's really good. I love it here and I'm just take chill just taking it all in by D and water and um yeah, I'm going to just have a wonder down there. I've not really walked down there very much, but I feel like there's a few trees that might, you know, just look really nice. What I'm looking for is not just some woodland shots, but I'm trying to incorporate the mountains as well. There's not a lot of light at the moment, and we really need some light. I'm hoping the next few days it's going to be bit stormy, bit sunny. Yeah. So, the colors um are just really nice. They're quite muted, but um the silver birch and the the sort of autuminal colors in the background just look fantastic. Just a few people walking in the background behind me here as you can see in this image. But um I think this is a really nice shot. I love it here so much. It's such a beautiful, beautiful area. If you ever come to the Lake District, visit the northern shores of Derwent Water. Um in fact, all the shores of Derwent Water are incredible, but the northern shore I really like. Stunning. This evening I'm probably not going to get a huge amount. It's quite flat light, quite a high cloud, a little bit of a break there, but obviously the sun's setting in about 50 minutes. But I just want to reflect on, you know, almost seven weeks of being on the road, taking the counties so far, probably twothirds of the way through, and it's been incredible. I mean, just I couldn't have imagined what it was like. It's been difficult. definitely hasn't has been photographically rewarding probably as something like Luskantire, but where it has been rewarding is just how I've had to challenge myself and I've got some really good things out of what I probably usually perceive as conditions I wouldn't go out in. And that's taught me a lesson in a lot of cases. Um but more importantly, I've just realized just how beautiful England is. It is just such a stunning country. And I'm sure there's many countries similar, but I live here and I love it. I'm just looking now at the um texture of the water just rippling and you know in the wind and I feel like it's probably a really nice abstract shot. You can maybe just set something up. Um but it looks beautiful. So peaceful here. Wow. Right. So, it's the next day and it's one of those windy, low cloud, rainy, sunny days, which is absolutely perfect for what I want to try and get here. So, I'm going coming to a place near what's called the Bow Stone. Um, and it's just this really nice collection of silver birch here. You can park really close in this National Trust car park. And um, yeah, I'm just going to sort of explore this is I want to get my Lake District shots. landscapes really rather than woodlands, but I feel like the woodlands form part of the landscapes here. So, that's quite important to me. So, I'm just going to wander around this area here. Probably go a little bit higher so I can shoot in that direction cuz there's a really nice scene in that direction. and then just hope some good light.

The light's changing so quickly at the moment, so I'm having to react really quickly and do a lot of handhold stuff, but I've just been shooting this scene here as the light was coming through. It looks so amazing. So, um I wanted to get that stone in the middle, this little tree on the left hand side. Um, it's so difficult though in conditions like this because you're sort of, you know, really reacting to everything. But doesn't get better than this. I'm freezing, wet, and rushing. But this is where you get the best photos. So, I found a little scene here. I'm just next to this massive rock. Um, and just through here, you can see that there's some really nice grasses in the foreground here. this tree sort of leaning in and then in the gap there's like um a river coming through. So, it's just a case of just waiting for the light. And now there's some good light. So, I'm just going to quickly take this and I want to get it in sort of different lights. Now, I'm shooting at um 500 of a second cuz I want to stop the um trees moving. Oh, that's beautiful. That is so good. Yeah, that's pretty nice. There's something about Boredale that just delivers every time in the autumn. It is spectacular. The changing light means you can get all sorts of different conditions. And as the light came over and changed the foreground, the background, I managed to capture so many images that I really, really liked. I really love it here. Oh my word. Look at this now. It's so good. The light's coming here. Just coming over here. It's going to catch this tree over here. So, I just need to get into a spot where I can get that tree and this tree. So, I'm going to go over that way. So, the wind is just absolutely ferocious. Hopefully, you can see by these clips. So, what I'm trying to do is get a little bit higher up. So, I want to shoot back into this valley towards the sun and where the weather's coming from. Um, this is as best as I've seen the conditions here. Um, there's still some leaves on the trees. There's still some color even on the silver birches. some of the silver birches. There's still some leaves. I'm so excited. Um I I've been to this place hundreds of times, but every time I come, I just I just it draws me back every time because it's just one of the most beautiful places. Just look at it to take a shot. I mean, that tree over there just looks insane. Right, quickly get a shot of that tree over there. Oh my word, that's so good. Right, I'm in the right spot here. And as you can see, I've just got to wait for the light to come and hit this tree. So, I'm just waiting now I've got like three trees. Got a little row in and two silver birches. Oh my word. This looks so good. Oh gosh. Oh, here we go. Right, I've just got to stop the flare. Oh, got it. I got it, I think. Well, you'll see whether I got it or not. I'll show you whether it worked or not. This is hectic. This is so hectic. — It's a hard thing to know. Okay, so I'm just looking at some of these photos. I'm so pleased with them. You'll have just seen them. I'm just looking at them now. I think they've turned out so well. So, I'm on my way to Waswwater, which is so stunning, as you'll see shortly. Before I get there, and I just wanted to say thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this week's episode. Squarespace are an absolutely fantastic platform if you're looking to set up your own website, share your own photos, sell your own prints or workshops, or just write a blog. Then, they just make it super easy without any technical skills. and I've been using them for years and years and I just absolutely love them. They've been sponsoring my channel for a long time for a reason. It's because I love the product so much. So, if you're looking

for a website, then go and check out squarespace. com/nigel or use offer code Nigel to get 10% off. It massively helps the channel as well. Okay, on my way to was water now. Right, the wind's not as bad today. Um, which is good news because yesterday I crashed my drone into a tree. Um, I crashed it for years, but I managed to get it back um after getting a long stick as you can see here. But anyway, I'm going to fly my Mini uh my Mavic uh my Mini 5 Pro because my Mavic 4 Pro has now got a bus gimbal. I think it didn't break when it crashed, but when I got it out of the tree, it fell and then it landed on its gimbal and broke the gimbal, which is a shame, but um you know, I fly it every day and I'm super careful with it. But yeah, I crashed it. Never mind. Right. So yeah, so we're off to Was Water today. It's a long drive, probably an hour's drive. Don't go there very often cuz it's quite out of the way, but the route over there is good. And then the route back into the central lakelands is good as well. So, I'm hoping on the drive I'm going to be able to do a few walks and get some pretty epic conditions. I really want to get some of the Lake District vistas and the lakes and really try and get some of the atmosphere because I want to put probably about four photos in the book from the Lake District. In getting my drone down, I also completely bust my back. Not in a in the way that it's usually bust in a sort of more muscular way. Usually it's just a nerve, but um this is not as painful, but I can't really move very well. Great. So, I just parked my car somewhere over there and um I've got this amazing scene. This is like um Pod Knock Pass and it's so cool here. So, I'm just shooting this waterfall. I've got my 24 to 200 on and I'm just using it. I'm sort of getting it to sweep around like this. It looks so good. So, this is Was Water and I think I'm just going to park here. And it's pretty cool. So, I'm going to try and get a shot here, I think. Um, let me just um grab you and I'll show you. Look at this. This is so cool. I think I can probably just get some handheld shots just from here. I really like this tree that just goes into the I quite like the clouds as well. Yeah. So, I've just got sort of this scene here with just the island on and that tree is just really nicely lit up with the dark clouds in the background. I think that looks really good. I think I'm going to stay here till sunset, which is in a couple of hours. Um, so I'm just sort of scoping it out at the moment. Sometimes just like handholding and, you know, not having to think, you know, you have that freedom. You whatever you say when you have a tripod, you do leave your camera on the tripod. Um, but there's there just down here there's some water that I feel like might just be a little bit more reflective. So, I'm just going to see what I can get. It's so beautiful here. Really is. Look at this. So good. There you go. Okay, probably can't see me very well, but I'm here by the river. Brasse, I was going to go high, but I decided I've got my drone. I can fly high as I need to. I thought it would be better. There's a

shot I want to get by up over there by Elterwood and if to keep perfectly conditioned, you can just see somebody in the midst over there. So, I'm super excited and scared. — You probably can't see me. But oh wow, this is really spectacular. I've just come to the edge of the river here and the mist is just rising and there's sort of three trees over here that I wanted to get with mist behind them for ages. So I'm going to try and get that shot first. I'm going to keep walking down to alter water. This is my favorite place maybe on planet Earth. Right. So I'm in my favorite spot. This is the river broth. And I'm sort of going back a little bit actually to 2017 when I first started YouTube. And um I came here when I come back from America and I got a shot very similar to this. So I'm trying to recreate that image. I don't think I will cuz some birds flew through and it was pretty spectacular. But I'm going to take this shot and probably a few more around here and then hopefully Elter Water there. Um Harrison Stickle or whatever will show it show its face and get some light on it. Um I am just using my 24 to 200 mm lens and yeah probably just some wide some zoomed in. It's spectacular over on the um it's called Harren Stickle over there el water. is showing now, but I feel like I'm better sticking with this because I want a bit of color behind here. So, I'm not going to jump around. I'm just going to stay here. Concentrate on here. At the moment, what I've got is this sort of wider shot where I've got a little bit of grass coming in from the side here. These two little bits of grass here. And um I think it looks so good. Oh, come on. This is amazing. I think I'll probably fly my drone in a second as well because it's starting to get sunny. So, I'm going to take that up around sunrise, I think. Right, I've just flown my drone just to get above the clouds and it is so spectacular. I'll show you the video now, but wow, it looks so spectacular. And basically, I can just wait here until the light gets about right and then keep swapping between my drone and my main shot. Right, I'm I've just moved over to these grasses here, which I think will look really nice. There are actually some liies just over here. Um, I'll show a photo I took a while back um with some liies, but I really don't want The problem is as the sun comes up, it warms the air a little bit and the mist goes a little bit higher, but the clouds above at the moment are just catching the light and they look fantastic. So, I've got like a portrait orientation just to try and catch a bit of those clouds. So, this is It doesn't get better than this. Look at this. It's amazing. Right. So, I I've got a little bit closer now. um that I'm going to have to focus at this, but these two liies just create a really nice diagonal that go in. Um and then we've just got this sort of headland here and then the trees in the background. I always like it when there's three distinct layers in a shot. And this works really well. Um I may be just a little bit low. Um but I can't actually get any higher with my tripod. I'm actually in the water at the moment, so can't if I can show you or not, but yeah, there we go. So glad I put my wellies on. Good move, Nigel. And um yeah, I didn't quite get the red in the sky, but I've got it with my drone, so that's fine. It's so nice this. Did I say it didn't get better than this? So, I've um just um moved into the water a little bit further to the left now. And there's these liies here, which I really like.

So, I've put my polarizer on and it means that you can just see under the water and I think it looks really good. Um again, I could just do to be a little bit higher just because of this gap here, but it look still looks beautiful. warm morning. And we got some stripey cows. They're cute. So, I've come up a little bit higher. Um, I've always wanted to get a shot of this tree here and the Langdale Pikes behind. So, I'm think I'm going to shoot that. But also in this direction, it looks pretty good as well. So, I'll just show you. Um, you can see. So, that's sort of the shot that I think might be quite good sort of here. But then in this direction, if I move around, I quite like this. I'm not sure about the path to be honest, but I quite like this shot here. So, I'm going to take both of those. It's very flat light, but So, it's all about shapes. I think shapes are really important. Oh, it's so good everywhere, though. Right. So, uh, I've come to shoot Harrison Sickle here. The mist has just lifted now and it looks really good. We could just do with a little bit of light, but I think from flying my drone that the sun is just going to come across above the cloud a little bit in a minute. And there's two swans going across now. This looks so good. Well, it doesn't get better than this, does it? So, I'm just shooting this now and I have a visitor. They're very tame, these cow cows, and very cute. And I'm shooting this, which looks pretty spectacular. And the layers in this here are what I really like. I've swans just gone past which look pretty good. But I really like these layers up here. I think they look great. I just wish we had some sun on the peaks. That would really add to it. Just make cherry on top. But it's still good. I shouldn't complain too much. So, I'm just um trying to find a composition with these grasses here. And I'll just show you how I sort of go about this because I've just done this and so here I've got like this sort of bit messy area here. But if I come over here, I can use all the grasses to go in the same direction. Um, so I think that's quite good. And then it's a question of just getting the right angle on it. So maybe here. And then just maybe a little bit wider down like that. And I think that looks pretty good. What a morning. It's been so nice and I still think there's a chance of the sun coming out. Um I'm just waiting for just over there the pikes just to um the peaks. It's Harrison. Is it Harrison Pike? No, the peaks. The peaks just to come out. Um and there's sort of three trolls trees on a mound which look really good. But if we had some light, that'd be just cherry on top. God, I love this place so much.

Okay, the sun's come out a little bit now and where it's catching the trees, it looks really, really spectacular. So, I've got a scene here. It's sort of quite complicated and I'm a bit worried about this bit here, but I think I might just sort of try and work around it a little bit. And as the sun comes out now, it looks really, really good. So, what an amazing morning to finish off the Lake District. Thanks ever so much for watching. I did take a few more photos and I'll leave you with those.