george fisher Walking with my camera by Carmen Norman

I am a huge outdoor enthusiast, fell running, walking, hiking, cycling; all things I do nearly everyday. I am so lucky that my job as a photographer also takes me outdoors. I can’t take the big camera running, but I do take it walking in the fells, even when I go up high. I offer photography workshops with a difference, and one of those workshops is a photo walk. A photo walk takes you on a walk in the Lake District, pointing out the key places for photographs and fits in well with my role as a George Fisher ambassador.

The photo walks can take you around a lake or up a mountain and I want to talk about my Castle Crag walk here. If you stand at Friars Crag in Keswick and look south to the jaws of Borrowdale Castle Crag takes centre stage. One of the iconic Wainwrights, the lowest Wainwright at just under 300m, but it offers tremendous views of Borrowdale and Derwentwater.

The Castle Crag photo walk is a morning walk of around 3.5 miles. But takes 4-5 hours to complete as there are so many fantastic view points on the way.

We meet at Grange. And from there we walk along Holmcrag wood to Gowder Dub, where we stop for our first photograph. Here the river bends around the crag and often you herons in this location. The morning start means there is beautiful light in this location and lovely reflections on the River Derwent, meaning that there are lots of photographs to be captured.

We continue on to the quarry and caves. The cave at Castle Crag was made famous by Millican Dalton who lived in the caves during summer for nearly 50 years. There are plenty of photo opportunities in these two interconnecting caves.

Once we leave the caves we walk through High How Woods, more photos there. Then the climb towards the summit of Castle Crag. At the top of the path we take a small diversion to a crag that offers us wonderful photographs of Castle Crag and in the other direction of Rothswaite and the River Derwent. We leave the crag and then head to the summit.

The last push to the summit is amazing; zig zagging through the slate piles you find small formations of slate that visitors have put together. Every visit there finds more slate groups and obviously lots of photos. We leave the slate piles to get to the summit which opens up like a small oasis at the top. The slate is left behind to trees and greenery. From the summit you have incredible views over Derwentwater towards Keswick and Skiddaw and over Borrowdale. Of course lots more photos.

From the summit we follow the route of Broadslack Gill, if there has been rain there is a waterfall along this route. We follow the path back to Grange and stop at the little café for refreshments.

I run photowalks all year. Visit www.carmennorman.co.uk for more information.

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