English Lake District stock photos…
The Lake District is 885 square miles of loveliness. A glorious National Park area in the North of the England which contains some of the UK’s largest mountains, deepest lakes and most gorgeous scenery.
Yes, this opener sounds like an ad for ‘Visit The Lake District’. And for good reason. The Lake District is one of the most photographed places in the UK and that means if you’re going to make a trip to The Lakes purely for the purpose of taking stock photos you need to remember a few important things. First: You don’t live there and some of your competition does. They can walk out of the door at sunrise 365 days per year and get the perfect shot over and over and over again across all the different seasons. You cannot. Secondly: They know the fells like the back of their hands. As kids they were dragged kicking and screaming up Cat Bells, Binsey, Helm Crag, Red Pike, Causey Pike and Haystacks while you were still exploring the local park. That means by the time they were teenagers they’d tackled all of the fells, knew every off-the-beaten track and could name every viewpoint within a 20 mile radius of their house. And as adults they just expanded this knowledge to include stock shots taken from every conceivable fell from every conceivable angle. So, unless you live in The Lake District or are fit enough to do 10 major peaks in 10 days, prepare to be disappointed with your stock photo haul. The other reason you WILL be disappointed is that the weather is notoriously unpredictable. Radio Cumbria is dedicated, it seems to me, to two subjects. Sheep and the weather – and the weather is more important. It can be bright sunshine in Keswick and peeing it down with low cloud half way down Borrowdale. This is a fact of life and no amount of wishing or hoping is going to make a blind bit of difference.
Skiddaw, The Lake District, England, UK
I’ve been reasonably lucky with the Lake District but only because my wife’s parents lived there. That means I’ve been going three or more times a year for many years. But I still haven’t scratched the surface – there are many places I’ve not visited with a camera – so there are lots of shots I’ve not taken. But one of the best decisions I made early on was that I was not going to try and compete with some of the locally based stock photo guys – or specialist mountain photographers – who drag themselves over the fells to take stunning shots looking down from the peaks. I have no patience. I find it traumatic enough waiting 10 minutes for the right light in a city – I’m not going to cart myself up 2500 feet and discover it’s covered in cloud so all I can see is three feet of path in front of me. I’m happy to look out for a good shot on the ground while spending time being reminded just how beautiful the Lake District really is.
See a link to some of our best selling Lake District stock photos here: English Lake District Stock Photos Lightbox
