Sooooooooo, the wife has had endless trouble with her big toe nails as a result of walking with her socks pulled up too tight. This has been a constant excuse for her not to go out walking. This had to change....... We got her into the Podiatrist last Thursday and finally had the left one removed. This was somewhat counterproductive given my desire to get her out and about as she is now off her feet for 6 - 10 weeks, I've told her its six tops! This has also back fired on me somewhat as I have now found myself responsible for the housework, a chore I am all to happy to do but avoid if I can.

Late Saturday morning and with the housework chore hanging over me, I thought to myself what else could I do on a Saturday morning. Suddenly, a plethora of things entered my head........ Go swimming (can't swim) play golf (sold golf equipment) play bridge (no idea what it is) DO THE HOUSEWORK! that was it, thats what I'll do to fill my time. Off I went to find Henry, and together we trundled around the house Henry and I, both making noises, Henry sucking and me puffing, constantly sounding like I had a puncture, getting on with the task ahead. I then dusted with Henry, utilising the brush thingy attachment on the end, sucking up the dust, then the mop came out, mistake since the majority of our ground floor is either floor boards or tiles. That was it, house work completed........ I have no idea why the wife makes it look so complicated and often makes more noise than Henry. I have to say that Percy pup was looking rather perplexed throughout as he really couldn't comprehend why Dad had the scary noisy thing.

Anyway............ Now what to do, the morning had gone and most of the afternoon had gone. I needed to get out before more chores came my way. I grabbed my camera gear and headed down to Brothers Water, a lovely body of water between Ullswater and the Kirkstone Pass. It was originally called Broad Water but, was changed in the 19th Century to Brothers Waters as a result of two brothers drowning there. It's not ranked as one of the most popular of waters in the Lake District but it does offer some lovely scenery.

Unfortunately it seemed to take forever to drive south along the A592 beside Ullswater as a lot of drivers seem to have an issue with driving above 30mph on what is a 60mph road, this does become a little frustrating when you know where you want to be and you are now somewhat chasing the light a little. I do need to remind myself that I used to be a tourist before I moved to the Lakes, I will add though, I did utilise the handy lay-bys to allow people to pass me when I am taking in the scenery whilst watching the road of course.

I arrived at the parking after about 45 minutes of driving (normally 25) parked up, threw my gear on my back and trotted off to the Lake shoreline. I did have a composition in my head so I quickly set up, changed lenses and took a few images to check the composition, light and settings. I was happy with the information I had gathered. I added my Nisi Polariser, three Stop ND filter and I had to double stack my three and four stop Nisi ND Graduated filters to hold back the bright sky in order to not completely blow out the highlights. Surprisingly, this wasn't enough so I Exposure Bracketed 5 shots (2 under, 1 correct, 2 over exposed) in order to merge these later in Adobe Lightroom to get the right exposure for the entire scene. I was really pleased with the outcome seen below.

Brothers Water, Lake District - 16:46 23rd September 2017

And to top it all off, I had this image Tweeted by BBC Springwatch.

I guess all in all it wasn't a bad day and it just goes to show what you can achieve when you get off your butt and get out there with your camera. It is however one of the hardest things to to do, motivate yourself, especially with Sunrises. The lesson here for me though and hopefully you is that you only need to get out for a couple of hours for someone to appreciate your work.

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

Oh......... the wife is recovering well and I'm still doing the housework.