The weekend has been and gone. The issue with balancing a full-time job with being a photographer is finding the time to get out. It sometimes feels that there is no balance at all, the full-time job consumes the majority of time............ Needless to say, it does pay the bills at the moment.

Any way, having watched all the daylight pass throughout the week from my office at home, the weekend was upon us. The forecast was for heavy snow as is always the case this time of year. To my dismay it doesn't always happen. There had been a few flurries during the days and nights before the weekend but, mainly confined to the mid to high areas of the fells with a small sprinkling at low level in some places.

A couple of weekends ago I had decided to change the Mercedes to something a little more conducive to the weather and road conditions here in the Lakes and felt that a Range Rover Vogue was just the ticket. This weekend seemed a good time to challenge it's 4x4 capability by driving around the National Park and especially up a closed Kirkstone Pass, the national Parks highest Pass. It has to be said, the Range Rover laughed in the face of the snow and ice and it was a breeze and joy to drive. As I was taking this journey up the pass travelling from the Patterdale end. I was constantly looking in my mirrors at the view down the pass over Brothers Water, and then I spotted Place Fell in the distance with the sunlight gleaming off the snow. I had to do a quick three point turn and race back down in to Red Pit carpark. Whilst watching other cars sliding around I casually drove over the ice, parked up, set up in the blistering cold and managed take this shot

Looking down on Brothers Water, Lake District - 14:13 9th December 2017

I couldn't believe how lucky I was and all by chance. Also, to top this off, the image made Flickr Explore that evening and now has some 7800 views. This can be seen here

Flickr Explore:

A Recipe for Success? Users who aspire to the ultimate level of recognition within the Flickr community will certainly become aware of something called Explore. Explore is a daily stream (viewed by thousands of people) of the top 500 photos as selected by Flickr's “interestingness” algorithm.

After the success of Saturday, I ventured back out again on Sunday. The Langdale valley was my target location this time round. So, I set off, and after an hour or so I arrived at the site of the Langdale Boulders. The Langdale Boulders are situated at Copt Howe, Chapel Stile. They have recently been designated by the English Heritage as an ancient monument of national importance, following the discovery of prehistoric 'cup and ring' marks.

There are several of these boulders, some large, some very large and some smaller, all with a variety of different compositions available. Having parked my car in the smallest of areas so not to annoy the residents. I wrapped up as it was literally freeeeeeeezing, grabbed my gear and set off walking the five metres to the boulders, sat my bag and tripod down, took on some much needed water from the walk and started surveying the area. This turned out to be a lot more trickier than I had hoped as this field was full of frozen live stock foot prints and deep puddles that could not be seen due to ice and snow and I found a few deep wet ones.

Most of the compositions involving the larger boulders seemed very busy and messy so I took myself over a wall and settled for some of the smaller boulders with the Langdale Pikes making a lovely snowy backdrop to this wintery composition.

Langdale Boulders to the Langdale Pikes, Lake District - 13:58 10th December 2017

That was it for my photography exploits this weekend and unfortunately or fortunately, depending how you look at it, I am now back in my office today doing the day job that pays most of the bills desperately wishing the days past for next weekend.

Thanks for reading, feel free to share and comment, all my images can be purchased via my gallery pages

Take care in the snow and ice if you are out and about.