365 to 42

Peace and quiet, that’s what this picture means to me. I known that it won’t be the first thing that spring to mind with most people, but for me it’s a reminder of the day I took it. For years we have been going to the Lake District but in all that time I have never walked on my own up there. Then midway though the holiday the chance came along, all the other wanted to go site seeing and I got the chance to go it alone. My target for the day was to photograph some of the jets that use the valleys as training runs, I had already got a spot in mind and after only ¼ hour after leaving the car was sat all alone over looking Thirlmere. The view was stunning, the day was sunny and warm, I had my camera, coffee, chocolate and a good book, and for around 3 hours nothing at all to do but sit back and enjoy myself. I cannot start to describe the sense of peace that sitting up there gave me, for a short time all the day to day things just melted away. Towards the end of my time up there the first...

All sorts of thing have come about because of this blog and one of the latest was an email offering a chance to try out a web site selling T shirts, all I had to do was order a T shirt and write a review afterwards. Now the first thing that struck me was that any company that was prepared to ask for reviews in this way must have a lot of confidence in their product and service, Iffyton T Shirt , did not disappoint at all. The first thing is the layout of the site, it’s just like walking down a street with shops, and each shop is a macro site selling different T shirts, a great idea and easy to use. The major hurdle was choosing a T shirt, this was the hardest part as there are so many and none I had seen before. Then came the problem, at my end not theirs, I ordered twice by mistake, now I’m sure a lot of companies would have just sent 2, but not them, they sent a quick mail checking (in the nicest way) that I knew what I was doing. Having quickly confirmed my error they dispatched the...

Monday again and this is one of those really bad Mondays, the first one after a week on holiday, yes I’ve been away again and of course it was back to the Lake district. The first thing I need to do is apologise about the last photo, I got the place wrong and it was only as I was looking for a shot from the pictures taken last week that I spotted my error, the picture was taken on the shore of Derwent water just outside of Keswick and is not of Wast water at all, sorry. Today’s picture is of the same view taken the Saturday before last, the first day of the holiday and shows Castle crag right in the centre of the shot. We nearly always start our holiday with a visit down to the lake, after hours spent on the motorway it’s the best way to wind down, but the really good news was the stormy scene was to be the worst weather we would see all week. For the rest of the week the weather was as good as you could expect in the mountains in March, we never got rained on, nearly got sunburned and...

The hardest part for me about taking photos is finding the time, given unlimited time I could do wonders, but even in the most wonderful places I still find I’m rushing to get the shot and move on to the next one, sometimes missing out on the thing I’m there for, a bit of peace and quiet. This photo was one of those rare times when I had time to admire the view and take in the atmosphere of the place and what atmosphere it had. The place is Wast Water in the English Lake District, recently voted the sight of Britain favourite view, and it is an unworldly place of towering mountains and deep water. Even on a dull day the mix of mountains and water give you the opportunity to take moody shots and on this day it was so still the loudest noise was the sound of water lapping on the shore. ---------------- Now playing: Marillion - Lavender via FoxyTunes

Of all the holidays that I’ve had over the years, 2 stand out head and shoulders above the rest. One was the most expensive holiday I’d ever had, the other one of the cheapest, but both were on boats. The most expensive was a Nile cruse and for me one of the best 2 weeks of my life, if you are in any doubt give it a go. The other holiday was 4 days on a boat on the Norfolk broads, which was a cheap deal out of a national news paper and well worth every penny. We were sharing the boat with 2 friends and had little clue about what we were doing. The boat owner gave us a quick run through in sailing the cruiser and a little line drawn map of the broads, then sent us on our way. Sailing in a straight line was easy but parking for the first time proved more difficult as we had no breaks and I came into the bank with enough force to bounce us back into the middle of the stream. With the help of more experienced sailors we eventual parked, or moored as we started to say after being afloat for...

A very quick post as i have just found the link to my news paper article. ---------------- Now playing: Placebo - Post Blue via FoxyTunes

Fame at last, today I have nearly a full page dedicated to me in our town’s local paper. The article started with an enquiry from them about my Leek daily photo blog and has grown to cover my other blogs and even included stuff that I had not mentioned during the interview about past photographic achievements. The story was well written and factual (tabloids take note) if I had to write it myself I could not have done a better job. The down side was that they sent out a photographer, who was very good, but I hate having my photo taken and like even less seeing it in print, oh the price of fame! Just published the next part of the photo course , I’m now getting away from the technical parts of the camera and into the fun side, taking photos. The general feed back has been very positive, but if there is anything that you would like to see covered just let me known. The difficulty for me is knowing what people find hard as most of what I do, after 20+ years, comes automatically to me. P...

I’m not a big fan of the Israeli government, due to their occupation of the Palestinian homelands, as readers of this blog will know and having studied the history of English involvement in Ireland, not a subject covered in schools here at all; I have sympathies with some of the aims of the republican movement, for exactly the same reasons. But over the last 12 years I have seen a stunning change in the situation in Northern Ireland, mostly down to the fact that the major warring parties on both sides have had the courage to step back from the gun and start to work together for the better of the people, Israel /Palestinians take note. So to wake up to the news that 2 British soldiers have been murdered just days before leaving for the front line in Afghanistan came as a dreadful shock. These murders have given the people of Northern Ireland a great chance, they can either; treat the gunmen as freedom fighters and protect their identities (a decision that could turn the clock back 30 ye...

What a day! First the clutch has gone on my car, coupled with the impending MOT, means that its 14 years has finally come to an end. Then I arrive home to find large parts of the garage roof lying on the patio, so 1 ½ hours then spent battling the rain and wind to try to plug the hole. This morning the plan was a quick call to my insurers to get the roof fix and then start pricing up cars. Then like the garage roof this started to fall apart. The insurers were fine, up to the point where they denied all knowledge of a storm, and without a storm you cannot have storm damage. Well, I was not happy and got onto the net to prove that the howling gale of last night existed. Luckily for me I found a local weather station that confirm the wind speeds and after ¾ of an hour on the phone managed to start the claims process. More bad news greeted me last night as we had a texts off Polergirl saying that she was back in hospital, puts my problems into perspective. On a more positive note I had a ...

Well what a busy weekend, spent Saturday with friends and Sunday morning out walking, so far so good, but then spent Sunday afternoon clearing out a blocked drain, not the best of jobs. Also on Saturday I posted the next part of the photography course along with an image that I promised to go into greater detail about here, so are we sitting comfortably? Many years ago while working at our local theme park I was approached by a band, made up from some of the professional musician that worked there, to photograph their first gig. Being quite young and new to photography, I was only in my second year at night school, I said yes, without really knowing what I had let myself in for. My only mistake was that I under estimated the amount of light I would have to play with, but seeing that you need light to take pictures this was one hell of a problem. I had been to gigs before and had always thought that there was lots of light, but as soon as the band came on stage I knew I was in trouble,...