CUMBRIAN photographer Steve Brannon may regard his efforts as 'amateur' but there's little evidence of it in this stunning shot capturing the panoramic majesty of the Lake District.

Steve, 41, shot it 20 metres from the summit of Dodd near Keswick in the Northern Fells, looking south west over flooded fields near Bassenthwaite Lake.

Steve was on a family walk on a rare day without rain when he got the shot on a Nikon D60 Digital SLR - showing Derwentwater in the distance.

The dad-of-two, from Frizington, said: "I’ve always loved taking a photo but started taking more when I got my first digital camera in 2006. It was just a point and shoot compact but it allowed me to just keep on shooting."

Of the picture, he explained: "Grisedale Pike is on the far right of shot, with the familiar shape of Derwentwater on the left. Conditions were much better than it has been!

"The broken cloud helped to create some strong contrasts between lit and unlit ground, with it being particularly bright on the standing water."

"The person in the shot is wife Rhona who went to the edge look down over the flooded fields at the view. I just happened to be in a line with her and the reflected sunlight which created a great silhouette of her.

"She was just stood looking and I just took the shot. It was pretty much took on auto. I had the camera set all day on shutter priority at 1/80 second. I just checked to see that the shot was exposed for the fields and not for the foreground - which would have ruined the effect."

He added: "Not all shots ‘work’ but this seems to. It was a great family walk and it’s a great photo to remember it. If I had really thought on I would have taken the shot in landscape format.

"On the day, I used the camera on its side in portrait format and cropped it to a landscape format. If I was using a wide angle lens so it would have been awesome."