OUT AND ABOUT IN THE NATIONAL PARK

It's a beautiful part of the world, you'll love it. Holker Hall, Cartmel, Haverthwaite Steam Railway (really good cafe too), Ulverston, especially Lighthouse. Great carboot sale in Flookburgh on a Sunday morning tooBuddhist monastery just outside Ulverston too to Grizedale forest they have trails suitable for all (and another good cafe :) , can you tell I like my food?) Old hall farm at bouth historic working farm is worth a look round as for eating out there is lots of good places like the royal ole at Lindale the pheasant inn allithwaite an the wild boar at crook if you like a good old steak hope it helps you out. Car museum with good cafe by the riverside at Backbarrow. Grange with prom and good cafes. Ulverston has lots of character too Car boot once a month rose and crown and engine at cark in Cartmel good food plus food at all pubs Cartmel good as well Architectural antiques barn at newton has a great cafe. Go to Tarn Hows ...... if you go to the tourist office and ask them for the phone number to order a buggy , they will bring you one to Tarn Hows so that you can ride round it ...well worth it Nat Trust...south lakes zoo ......

HERE ARE SOME OF THE BEST VIEW POINTS TO TAKE PHOTOS OF THE LAKES

• Stuart Holmes is the author of Photographing the Lake District (Fotovue, £25) a large-format guidebook to 70 of the most beautiful locations in the Lake District, with hundreds of viewpoints and advice on getting the best from your camera. To buy a copy for £20 with free UK p&p, go to guardianbookshop.co.uk

These are my current top 10 photo locations in the Lakes, but ask me next week and the list may well have changed. This is because, first, we are spoiled around here for amazing views, and second – and more importantly – it’s not necessarily the killer views that make the best photographs, but the quality of the light.

Castlerigg Stone Circle is rightly one of the most photographed places in the Lakes. The druids of old certainly knew a thing or two about siting their monuments. Go there to catch the sunrise on a frosty autumn morning when the Thirlmere lake mist is blanketing the Naddle Valley bottom and you’ll probably be rewarded with a religious experience.

It’s all about the light, and the more you get out and photograph, the more you will notice of the weather conditions and how crucial they are to amazing photographs.

1. Wasdale Head from the lower slopes of Great Gable

Wasdale is out of the way but this stunning valley and lake are worth the drive. This photograph involves a short walk up the slopes of Great Gable at the head of the valley. As you gain height the perspective changes, allowing you to look down on the flat fields and wall patterns of Wasdale Head with Wast Water behind, all beautifully framed between Lingmell and the Wasdale Screes on the left, and Yewbarrow on the right. Go in autumn when the bracken has turned brown.

2. Loughrigg Fell

2. Loughrigg Fell

This is a middling-sized fell next to the small town of Ambleside, offering a grandstand view in most directions. In the north from Loughrigg Terrace you overlook Grasmere, to the south you look down to the waters of Windermere and Loughrigg Tarn, and west are the craggy peaks of the Langdales. Consult a sun position compass and choose your approach: there’s something to shoot in any direction.

3. Buttermere

Buttermere Valley is one of those places where if you accidentally dropped your camera and the shutter went off you would get a great photo. A walk around the lake will give you some stunning opportunities in any weather. The line of pines at the upper end of the lake are classic, as is the lonely spindly birch tree at the village end of the lake.

4. Loweswater

Quieter Loweswater is on the edge of the mountains but offers beautiful compositions looking back in to the dramatic hills. There is a “Hansel and Gretel” bothy in the woods with its own small beach, offering a perfectly framed scene across the water to the mountains of Grassmoor and Mellbreak. Holme Force waterfall in the woods behind the lake is a short stroll away and worth seeking out

5. Whitbarrow

Whitbarrow

Whitbarrow means “white hill”, a reference to the distinctive nature of the limestone in the cliffs, screes and pavements of the southern Lakes. This outlying ridge offers distant views of the Lakes and the Kent river as it flows towards the sandy expanse of Morecambe bay. These views, however, require good visibility or a dramatic sky. Highlights are the limestone pavement with its clints and grikes offering built-in leading lines, and the wind-bent silver birches along the front edge of the cliff top. Get low to the ground to frame the trees against a dramatic cloudscape. It’s best late in the afternoon with the sun behind you.

6. Keswick Boat landings and Friars Crag

Friars Crag and Derwentwater

You may think both these subjects have been photographed a gazillion times and they are now somewhat cliched. But every time you visit it’s going to be different. Think early morning reflections, sunset shots or when autumn lake mist is being burned off revealing the hills and islands across the smoking lake. That’s a recipe for pure magic.

7. Aira Force

 What? Raining again? In the Lake District? Great, take your umbrella and wellies and go and photograph a waterfall. You can’t go wrong at Aira Force above Ullswater, a 20-metre cascade pouring through a narrow gorge below a stone arch bridge. Around midday, if the sun does make an appearance and there is enough spray, you get the Aira rainbow. Along with High Force further upstream, a woodland walk and access to Gowbarrow Fell offering great views down over Ullswater, there is no shortage of material to photograph.

8. Side Pike, Langdale

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Side Pike, Langdales

There are lots of good distant views of the distinctive Langdale Pikes – from, for example, Elterwater or Loughrigg Tarn, but the best compositions in my opinion fill the frame with the rocky, knobbly and bracken-covered slopes. Above Side Pike there is a long sinuous dry stone wall offering the perfect leading line directing your eye into the frame, with the lofty Pikes above. The low angle of the afternoon sun in late autumn and winter gives a side light that highlights the wall and accentuates the knobbliness.



9. Ullswater at Pooley Bridge

Pooley Bridge

The Duke of Portland Boathouse is one of the most photographed buildings in the Lakes. Access couldn’t be easier: park, cross the road and shoot. Go in the early morning in autumn and winter for some mist on the water. Just beyond the ferry terminal is a small walled viewpoint giving great vistas past the jetty, down the length of the lake towards the Helvellyn range. Along the lakeshore footpath from Pooley Bridge there are some skeletal trees – some part-submerged – that make interesting foreground for views down the lake. This works especially well for a calm sunrise or sunset.

10. Coniston East Shore

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Coniston Jetty

There isn’t one specific location to point you to here; the road along the east shore of Coniston has many places where you can park and explore. Try classic wooden jetty shots at Rigg Wood jetty into the setting sun (in winter). The headlands of Low Peel Near and High Peel Near offer good foreground to views across the lake towards Coniston Old Man. Then find the Antony Gormley statue near High Nibthwaite