Buttermere Lake is a famous location in the Lake District of Northern England. Surrounded by scenic mountains and remote enough (one needs to drive some time to get there), it is certainly a location on top of the bucket list for landscape photographers—so it was on mine when we first visited the Lake District.

The shot was planned using local photography guidebooks and the Photographers Ephemeris App to predict good light conditions for an early morning shot. From our holiday home, the driving time was estimated at around two hours - so I got up at 3 am and arrived early enough to explore a little bit prior to preparing for the shot. The lake was pretty deserted and very, very still - no sound to hear, just the light slowly illuminating the scenery. The water surface was a perfect mirror, and I was lucky enough to find this one dead branch (probably deserted by a dog), perfectly located to give some interesting foreground.

During development, I felt that the black-and-white interpretation best conveyed the very silent and tranquil moodiness of that scenery. Though the sky was nicely illuminated with colours, the monochromatic version just felt right.