Great Mell Fell

I was out of the house at 7:30 this morning and heading up the M6 towards Great Mell Fell. This is one of the smaller hills that Alfred Wainwright deigned to include in his pictorial guides and it falls short compared to some of its bigger neighbours in the adventure stakes, but it's much more accessible and is home to many characterful windswept trees, which make for great photography subjects. It also affords good views over Blencathra, Clough Head and into Patterdale.

I'd planned to walk through the woods that cover the eastern slopes of the fell, so for probably the first time in my personal fellwalking history I went to the trouble of carrying a tripod up a Lakeland fell. Unheard of, but I'm glad it was one of the lower fells. However, with the overcast skies this got a lot of use, so it wasn't wasted effort and practically everything was shot on it.

I did get somewhat carried away and although the walk was only 2.5 miles I managed to spend nearly five hours on the little fell, mostly photographing trees, but also grabbing a few shots of the surrounding mountains. To be honest I could have stayed there all day and I feel like I've really only scratched the surface of the photographic opportunities up there.

All images were taken on the Fujifilm GFX100S with either the 35-70 or 100-200. Processed from single raw files in Capture One Pro 23.

1. Attack of The Zombie Tree

To me at least, it looks like the zombie tree on the left is attacking the Scot's Pine on the right, which is recoiling away.

2. Dead as a Doorpost

But still standing.

3. Scot's Pine

4. Framed Fells

I messed up a little here. I could really have done with a wider shot containing more of the branches above the frame. There was a bit more, but not enough to include without making it look messy, so I've cropped it out. I'm not entirely sure why I framed it like that. The important things I was looking at here was the framing of the mountains beneath the lower branch and the positioning of the trees on the left which seem to be leaning back.

5. Very Mell Fell

I think this image captures the feel of Great Mell Fell and is probably my current favourite from the day. There's one aspect that irritates me though. The tree with the red leaves on the right. Why didn't I include more of it? I could have gone wider on the lens and I think it would have balanced the image nicely. It was also a really nice looking tree as the following shot shows, so I don't know what I was thinking here. Probably just over excited to be out in The Lakes and surrounded by too many potential images.

6. More Mell Fell

This is taken from the same spot as the previous image, but includes the complete tree with the red leaves. It's supposed to be counterbalanced by the distant mountains, but it doesn't quite work. It's still a nice image though, so I'm not complaining too much at my own shoddy work.

7. Walkers

8. Obligatory Mountain Pic

Well, it would be rude not to include a shot of the mountains. This is looking more or less due South from Great Mell Fell. The big lump on the left is Place Fell and the distant one poking into the clouds is Red Screes.

I've taken some shots of pens, pencils and other stuff I keep on my desk (for a weekly flickr theme). Sounds boring? Well, it was quite a bit of fun actually...

Totally agree on a choice of a captur. Excellent.

The second one is a really strong shot.

No, our flight was seemingly unaffected and it was difficult to change.

Yes, this does reward deeper investigation.

Ha! You should take more water with it. I actually get what you mean.
Some of those trees have real presence.

Well, it was difficult when in a moving car but just didn't feel right anyway.

These are all great portraits of the pines, rather reminiscent of the ones I posted earlier from Glen Affric. I think the second is my favourite. I learned that these dead pines can stand for decades, supporting all manner of beasties, and are called 'snags'. I will have to make a point of visiting Great Mell Fell.

This one looks like the nib is blowing bubbles 😃

I think this would be interesting turned on its side.

Ironically, that's how it started. Sigh.

I think your macro work is superb. Not something I've ever been into trying myself but I enjoy your work.

A Passing Shower

More from Glen Affric

Hope you did not get too wet.

Monochrome without PP, I like the way you have done these.

This composition gives the optical illusion of movement. Or it is just my eyes?

Wow, so atmospheric! This is my pick.