Runner up this time.

  Dead chuffed again. This time following a photo competition run by Fix the Fells, the organisation which repairs some of the bady eroded footpaths in the Lake District. I opted to enter a photo which I hoped had elements which would be appreciated by the judging panel as having a connection with the cause.

Evening Ridge Walking.

This shot was taken on the Hopegill Head, Whiteside Ridge and thankfully the judges deemed it good enough to be a runner up in the competition, the winner being a superb shot of Haystacks and Buttermere by Keith Knight. The reason I was so chuffed was the fact that this photograph was purely fluke and features Esther walking with Zoe and Zeta on a glorious Spring evening.

 Fix the Fells have produced a nice little hard-back book which features some of the competition entries which will be on sale in the new year to raise money for the work on the footpaths.

I will post details when I have more information about the availability of the book.

Got it Covered.

  Not for the first time this year I was asked if one of my photographs could be used for a magazine. This time it was for the Winter Issue of the Wainwright Societies Quarterly Magazine "Footsteps". Of course I was more than happy to oblige, I'm a keen supporter of the Society not only for its promotion of the work of Wainwright but also of the great work that the group does in raising money for good causes.

Thornthwaite Beacon

Followers of the Blog may recall that earlier this year I mentioned the Wainwright Society Calendar 2012 which I am now pleased to say has completely sold out and has raised a substantial amount of money for the Calvert Trust.

For more information on the Wainwright Society follow this link: www.wainwright.org.uk



A sense of Christmas.

  Adjacent to the gallery here in Barnard Castle is the parish church of St Mary's and every other year they hold a Christmas Tree Festival. This involves local groups and businesses sponsoring and decorating about 50 trees within the church. It really is a spectacular sight and gives a real feel to the Christmas celebrations.

St Mary's Church.

I took the opportunity to have a look in to the church and try a couple of shots to capture the scene.

It wasnt easy to shoot the interior and show the trees off to their best. There were also a fair  number of visitors so long exposures were called for. They may not be perfect but I am pretty happy with the results.

The run up to Christmas.

  Its nearly always the case that the last few weeks before Christmas bring a rush of orders for cards and prints and this year is no different. It does mean that my days out on the hills are somewhat curtailed but I live in hope that the New Year will bring some super winter walking conditions and that I will not have missed the best of the winter weather.
  Part of the time limitation is due to the fact that I am the one who mounts and frames the prints for the gallery as well as packaging and dispatching any internet orders.

Framing in  the studio.

Of course I could sub-contract these tasks out to other people but I would probably spend quite a bit of time checking out the quality of that work and there is something about doing the job in full myself.

  In the next week or two I am looking to add new work to the range of photographs and to re-work sections of the website so keep an eye out for these updates.

Snow at last.

 By this time last year we were knee deep in the white stuff, this year- nothing, well that was until yesterday. Overnight and throughout Monday we had a decent covering of snow around the Bowes area and the fells across the dale looked like they had even more. So off I went today for a early drive up to Teesdale in the hope of capturing the scene.

Sunrise over Romaldkirk Moor

Middle Side and Teesdale.

New House Farm.

I was able to take the dogs on a couple of short walks and still come back with a small selection of decent shots, well worth the effort of heading up the dale.