30 November - Walking near The Old Man

I felt like an old man as we set off to ascend The Coniston Old Man. At the summit of Brown Pike we abandoned our attempt as it was so windy that my wife was blown over.

Water gushes down to Coniston Water

29 November - Cumbrian rain

Not surprisingly it is raining and has been all day. No photos today so far, however I am going to have to learn to chill out.

It did clear by the evening and we did get out along the eastern shore of Coniston Water.

28 November - Arrival in Coniston

A week in The Lakes, leaving the kids with their grandparents.

One cannot avoid taking one of the endless jetties projecting into the lakes. This one is near the public launch site in Coniston itself. It was taken with a 7D and converted to B&W in Photoshop. The moon is almost full.

More images on the mainprize.net website.

28 november - new pricing and more photos

I have added a new pricing structure to the website. There are also loads more photos from 2009 added to the existing galleries. This is due to requests to add more of my colour photos.


Check it out here.

27 November - Flooding

We are off for the next week to practice swimming with a week in Cumbria. The flooding may hinder us and will certainly limit the walking, however the landscape changes regularly and produces new challenges and variations to record.

22 November - Flamborough

A trip pre-dawn to Flamborough to eye up some shots of the old lighthouse. This is actually an old Beacon light tower, dating from circa 1674, and it is the only known example in England. Doubt has been cast as to whether there was ever a fire lit at the top.

21 November - Filey Coble Landing

Down to the shore for dawn. It is remarkably calming to listen to the sea and the haunting call of flying curlews, whilst watching someone else strip off and go swimming in the North Sea.
I got a couple of shots of the Coble Landing at Filey at high tide - exactly what I wanted.

However the clear star revealing sky was soon consumed by a bank of fog that slowly moved north from Flamborough. This yielded fantastic light off shore, but only fleetingly before it was all dull and miserable.

The first 2 photos are taken with a 5Dii and 17-40 lens. The last is with a 7D and 70-200.

14 November - Take a View

I have been studying the book from the competition Take A View Landscape Photographer of the Year. As in previous years there are some spectacular shots. Many I wish I had taken. However there are some photos that have generated a lot of discussion. There seems to be an increase in HDR's influence and some clear Photoshop manipulations delivering images that would have been impossible otherwise.

07 November 2009 - Cayton Bay

3 shots taken in Cayton Bay this am. High tide and pre-sunrise. Used a Canon 5D mark 2 however this registered an error 30 when 3 shots old. What with the 1D3 fiasco Canon certainly seem to have a quality control issue. I am now thinking of switching systems entirely.

31 October - Fireworks at Filey

The family and I went to the Filey Lions Firework and halloween Party. Lots of fireworks and a huge bonfire were joined by loads of people:

All images are handheld and taken with a Canon 500D and 24-105LIS lens with exposure upto half a second. Due to the crowds and looking after the children I could not use a tripod.