Any photographer knows that light is everything, and that the best light is often found at the beginning or end of the day. Sometimes you can plan to be in the right place at the right time, but sometimes it just happens.
All of our previous visits to Kielder Water had been day trips from Newcastle; thus we had only ever been here during the middle part of the day. But on this occasion we had stayed overnight, to visit the observatory. As we left the village the next morning and started to skirt the lake, I spotted that the early morning mist was still drifting among the hills on the far side and the water itself gleamed silver. Luckily I also remembered that we were just coming up to one of the waterside parking areas; I quickly alerted Chris who was driving, and he turned off into the car park at Matthew’s Linn. We grabbed our cameras and hurried down to the jetty.
Truly a serendipitous moment! The light was perfect, we were on the spot, and what is not always the case, had been able to pull over in the car and capture it.
The moment didn’t last very long. The mist started to rise and dissipate, and all too soon we were looking at a pretty, but unexceptional, lake. But just for a while, it had been perfect.
Of course I took far too many photos and had to do a serious weed later. But the joy of digital photography is that we can all afford to do that. And the joy of photography itself is being, from time to time, in just the right place at just the right moment.
Posted in response to Terri’s call for photos of fog and clouds in this week’s Sunday Stills challenge.
34 Comments
Kritika Panase
Lovely! The mist shrouding the entire landscape gives it such a dreamy, magical look – like something that’s just appeared out of the mist, and will disappear again in a second. You’ve shown that effect beautifully with your fade-out pictures. Yes, the lake is not exceptional. It could be a pretty scene in the light of the day but the early morning mist does romanticize it a great deal. It’s the way of looking at it, I guess!
Kritika Panase
Beautiful captures! I adore mist covered mornings! Must have been such a serene stroll for you.
Monica Singh
Beautifully captured. The misty ambience, be it on lush mountains or clear lakes is utterly soothing to view. I could spend a lot of time here doing nothing at all.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much Monica – I’m so pleased you felt the atmosphere here from my images 🙂
wetanddustyroads
Oh, I love photo’s of morning mist over a lake … during winter time we have these moments often (and it’s just a few kilometres from our house).
Well, I’ll wait for our winter to start (somewhere in July) to practice a few shots, but your’s are really great 👍🏻
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you 🙂 Interesting that you only see this sort of effect in the winter – these photos were taken in our summer, mid August in fact 🌞
restlessjo
Kielder at its best! Thanks for sharing these beauties, Sarah 🙂 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Jo 🙂 I gather you know Kielder?
restlessjo
We have friends with a caravan at Bellingham, so yes, a little bit. 🙂 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
How lovely – that’s a beautiful part of the country 🙂
restlessjo
😊💕
Suzanne
It’s wonderful when your eye captures that perfect moment and the camera does the rest. Far more interesting with fog 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Isn’t it just?! And yes, the mist just made these shots – they’d be nothing without it 🙂
Denyse Whelan Blogs
Oh I so love seeing the changes like this in clouds and fog and then trying to capture it. I live on the Central Coast of NSW and I love it when the lake is glassy and the clouds are seen in the lake. Visiting from #sundaystills Denyse
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you for visiting, Denyse. Sounds like you must get some wonderful reflection photos where you live!
kirstin troyer
So pretty!!!! Loving this challenge
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Kirstin – you’re right, it’s a great theme!
VO
The bridge photo (last one but two) is really my favourite. It could be one of these massive posters you find at Ikea which makes you think “ouuh I wish I had a big white empty wall to put that”. Stunning.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Vero, that’s a wonderful compliment! The bridge is actually a jetty for the sailing club that’s based here 🙂
VO
One more word to add to my English vocab 😉 Thank you.
Sarah Wilkie
Your English is so good that I forget that it isn’t your first language!
VO
Oh thank you but there’s still a massive empty space in my vocabulary which needs to be filled with a variety of words!
Easymalc
Large expanses of water definitely need that extra ingredient, and you’ve got some stunners here Sarah.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Malcolm 🙂
margaret21
A lovely series of moments. My most abiding memory of Kielder comes not from me but from my daughter. Camping there, quite a lot of years ago, she and her friends all had to buy those mesh bag things to wear on their heads against mozzies. I think they didn’t take them off all week.
Sarah Wilkie
Ha yes, the mozzies can be a problem I gather, although we’ve not had any issues. But then we’ve never camped there!
margaret21
Very wise.
Terri Webster Schrandt
I love when timing is serendipitous, Sarah. Gorgeous shots of the misty lake, and you’re right, the moments don’t last long. By the way, I love your logo. Did you create it yourself?
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Terri 🙂 Yes, I created the logo myself using Canva (https://www.canva.com/en_gb/) – they have lots of great templates and fully customisable. I played around for hours and created about 10 different versions, but this was my favourite. I’m so pleased you noticed and liked it 😀
Terri Webster Schrandt
Thanks for that info, Sarah. I’ve had a picmonkey premium account for years and love my signatures.
Sarah Wilkie
Is that how you did your watermark? It’s very elegant
Terri Webster Schrandt
The watermark was created by photologo, which I paid for. All my others are made by Picmonkey.
Suzanne@PictureRetirement
Beautiful photos of mist on the lake. Don’t you just love it when a moment comes together perfectly?
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Suzanne 🙂 Yes, absolutely – this was a perfect example of exactly that!