After the four hectic days of Focus, waking up in the Lake District the following morning was the most perfect antidote. Silence, at least until the first tractor rumbled past or the dogs starting barking. No NEC car parks, just hills. And no psyching yourself up to give a presentation or to figure out what direction the next question would come from (and hope it wasn't about Elements). Just get your boots on and head out.

That first day I headed straight up Castle Crag. It overlooks the village and simply demands to be ticked off each time I'm there, and that morning the contrast with the crowded Focus show couldn't be more stark - there wasn't a single photographer anywhere. In fact, unusually for any Wainwright walk, I didn't see anyone, camera-encumbered or not, either on the way up or coming down. Heavenly though that can be, there was a reason - the weather was pretty dreary.

It wasn't that I wanted endless sun and blue skies - in which case the northern and western parts of the British Isles at the end of February would have been somewhat counter-factual. It's the changing light that makes the area so wonderful for photographers, but the weather's got to want to change, and for a week it very stubbornly didn't.

When it did, though, it snowed overnight and then was sunny the following morning - perfect. This is part of the old quarry at Rigg Head, about 1500 ft above the village, though sadly the sheep and their footprints had been there before me. Although I was playing - rather unenthusiastically - with HDR throughout the trip, this is actually a single exposure (that's the D700's dynamic range for you) with fill light from a single off-camera flash.