The changing landscape

Landscapes might be static scenes, but that doesn't mean they don't change. Carmen Norman explains why you should revisit the same locations time and time again to capture something different...

- Carmen Norman

There are hundreds of images of any iconic location, and many offer similar compositions: different light, different seasons of course, but essentially the images are the same. I have been to the same locations a number of times, at different times of day or in different seasons, shooting images with similar compositions, trying to create my favourite variation.

But what if the view has changed? What if something dramatic has happened in the scene? There are so many influences that can change the landscape around us, and we have no choice but to include these changes in our photography.

Living in the Lake District, I see change a lot - either a sudden change because of a natural event such as floods or landslides, or man-made changes due to forest management or the creation of new pathways.

Here I'm going to take you to five locations that I've regularly revisited and rephotographed, and show how you can look at landscapes with fresh eyes every time you go out.

Scale Force

Nature's impact on a fallen tree has made a big difference to how this classic scene is photographed

At 170 feet, Scale Force at Crummock Water is the Lake District's highest single-drop waterfall. It's at the end of a moss-filled chasm, and there are two other small drops, each of about 20ft. Hidden away, in a deep tree-lined gorge on the way to Red Pike, Scale Force was described by William Wordsworth as "a fine chasm, with a lofty, though but slender, fall of water".