Most of the images in my North Downs Landscapes book were taken whilst rambling through the hills. I would decide on an area I wanted to cover, draft a walking route, then travel to the start by train or car sometimes staying overnight in a pub. The weather is always a limiting factor, so you can’t plan too far ahead: I learned that on a planned trip to Maidstone on what turned out to be a soggy, grey day, when I had to give up and go
Read more →2015 has not been an easy year for landscape photography: we have had a lot of cloud and wind and changeable weather, where the forecast changes all the time, often spoiling plans. East Yorkshire is not known for good weather and the combination has made getting good photographs of the area quite challenging. Hoping for some lovely spring sunshine, Lindsey and I booked a four-day break which would be both holiday and work (taking photographs isn’t work, is it??? Read on.). We arrived at the Fauconberg Arms
Read more →The cover image is really, really important: a lesson that I’ve learned the hard way having had mixed success with them. I think that the Norfolk Landscapes cover really works, but getting that pic. was a bit of a mission…. Back at the start in 2011, when I was putting together a BonusPrint book of Chiltern scenery for my own amusement (www.bonusprint.co.uk) I used the poppy field image right from the outset. This was fine when the book was only for my amusement, but as the
Read more →What does it take to take a pic? Well, not just any pic, but one that is good enough to publish in a book of landscape photography, where the subject is right, the light is interesting and the setting is appealing. If you are photographing your neck of the woods this is relatively straightforward, as locations are close enough to visit on impulse, or when conditions are right, or simply by going for a walk (or run). This is how it was for my first two books, Chiltern
Read more →Our local council, AVDC, is under siege from property developers and house builders and, with the councils strapped for cash and shedding staff, the planning officers have their work cut out. In addition, the Council’s ecologists have been cut back from three plus a manager to one, and he has been moved to planning. In the context of the current attack on the Green Belt it seems that, as far as government is concerned at national and local level, the environment and our landscape are to be
Read more →As part of the Save The River Thame campaign I am looking into setting up a walking route on footpaths from Aylesbury to the Thames at Dorchester that traces the river is much as possible and visits as many wildlife habitats as can be managed along with points of interest on the way. I have been asking how this is best done and Bucks County Council have told me that a Thame Valley route already exists, but is no longer in active use. There were pamphlets
Read more →July River Thame Update – see under Environment>Save The River Thame
Read more →As springtime arrives, we hope to see increasing wildlife along the River Thame, especially as the river continues its recovery from the 2013 pollution. Over the past year, I have seen kingfishers, banded demoiselles, various types of duck, Canada and Greylag geese, a grebe, swans, lapwings and woodcock in the stretch between Eythrope and Notley. I have seen very few fish – some small fry once under a bridge – but I understand that the river has been restocked, and the anglers tell me that the
Read more →Nature is blooming: the trees are covered in blossom and the verges and meadows bright with buttercups and cow parsley. May began windy and quite wet and it has remained cool after a cool dry April and it seems to me that the spring is taking its time this year. The farmers must be delighted as their crops are growing brilliantly and the startling yellow of rape is everywhere. In the woods, the bluebells are out and looking glorious under the lovely pale green Beech tree
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