Butteremere at Dawn – Photographs That Were Five Years in the Planning
Posted on 1st March 2019 at 14:54
3:00am alarm calls are horrible for the majority of normal people. We would rather slide further down under the duvet. For a photographer with a passion for landscapes and a desire to photograph the Lake District, it’s a chance to make some gold.
These images of Buttermere in The Lake District weren’t commissioned by any national newspaper or tourism outlet. There was no client waiting to see the results or pay an invoice. For Charlotte, they were done for the love of photography.
That dark 3:00am alarm call was needed to undertake the two hour drive from South Yorkshire to Buttermere. Charlotte knows the area well and had been thinking of these images for some time.
It takes timing, planning and being able to predict the local weather. Ask anyone with a passion for capturing that perfect dawn or evening light and they will tell you, many times you set out in the pre-dawn darkness only to return home empty handed.
However, sometimes you get to take home something a little special.
The Guardian Newspaper didn’t need to be asked twice when offered the use of images and actually ran one of them across the double pages of the broadsheet newspaper under their ‘eyewitness’ section.
If you loved the images, you now have the chance to buy The Guardian image as a fine art print and display it in your favourite place. Charlotte’s new online shop is now live and you can buy a Buttermere print online for delivery to most destinations globally.
If you loved these images and you’re inspired to visit The Lake District yourself, here’s a few photographer’s notes from Charlotte that will take you to the right place:
Buttermere is a lake in the English Lake District in North West England. The adjacent village of Buttermere takes its name from the lake. Historically in Cumberland, the lake is now within the county of Cumbria. It is owned by the National Trust, forming part of its Buttermere and Ennerdale property.
The lake is 1.25 miles (2,010 m) long by 0.25 miles (400 m) wide, and is 75 feet (23 m) deep.[1] It has an elevation above sea level of 329 feet (100 m). It is situated towards the head of the valley of the River Cocker and is surrounded by fells, notably the High Stile range to the south west, Robinson to the north-east, Fleetwith Pike and Haystacks to the south-east and Grasmoor to the north-west.
The village of Buttermere stands at the north-western end of the lake, and beyond this is Crummock Water. There is a path around the lake which is about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) long, and at one point runs through a rock tunnel beneath the locality of Hassness. Access is by road, from Cockermouth in the north-west; from Borrowdale via the Honister Pass; or from Braithwaite and the Newlands Valley via Newlands Hause.
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