Sometimes the more simple a photograph is, the more powerful it is. This is difficult to accomplish because the subject matter has to be particularly inspiring. I’ve wandered the vantage point where I took this numerous times and this occasion was one of the best. One day when I was walking here a man inquired what I was doing and said “so you’re not taking pictures of anything moving?” by which I think he meant himself. You occasionally hear pheasants in this area and apparently there are poachers here too.

 

Tree And Grass Tapestry: Chorlton Meadows

Tuesday February 5, 2013

 
British Hill Power: Mountain Video

This is a fun video. After I made it however I pondered it’s style, and reflected on the excess of such material and what we might think about it. When I studied video at university, one of my tutors made a comment about the running scene in the film Chariots Of Fire. He praised it and thought it was one of the best examples for the use of music. I remember thinking at the time,…


 
Wild Camp Walking: Wales

After walking in Wales quite extensively for about six years I’m still evaluating, comparing, and coming to terms with the place. I don’t feel familiar with Wales as I do with the Lake District, which is partly based on experience of the towns and guest houses where I stayed before I started camping. I got to know a few people, especially in the Eskdale valley where I stayed at a farm house, the daughter worked…


 
Mountain Morning

EXTRACTS FROM A PUBLICATION My Dad tried to wake me with cries about the rising sun and a comet – Kohoutek – and how splendid it was shooting through the skies. He’d enjoyed the astronomical news and was having fun. I had a medical appointment once and he drove me to the hospital for eight thirty, delaying his working day. I think I got the bus home but the outgoing journey was problematic. It was an…


 
The Red Dust Of Lies: Why Nature Heals

Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the authority of legislation, are by many regarded as grounds of exemption from the examination of this tribunal. But, if they are exempted, they become the subjects of just suspicion, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood the test of a free and public examination – Emmanuel Kant,…


 
Lake District Walking At Buttermere (2)

I got so much great footage walking across Red Pike, High Stile and high Crag – then further to Haystacks and Fleetwith Pike – there was sufficient material for another video. That’s what you see here. I don’t talk and narrate so much in this video but the talking I do is only here (not in the other video) and towards the end of the day at Fleetwith Pike. If you liked the first video you will…


 
Why I Walk And Escape

The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori EXTRACTS FROM A PUBLICATION Technology is often an extension of human faculties. A microscope, telescope and camera extend our vision. The telephone extends our ability to talk. A computer extends our nervous system, thinking, and emotions. A bicycle and car extend our capacity to walk. However technology doesn’t always work. One of the most frustrating experiences I know is working with a slow computer… Technology deadens us and so…


 
Lake District Walking At Buttermere

Red Pike, High Stile and High Crag are the three peaks on the ridge walk above Buttermere. I think it’s one of the very best Lake District walks with spectacular views. On one side you see Grasmoor, Dale Head and distant Skiddaw and Blencathra; on the other side you enjoy Great Gable, the Scafells and Pillar. This is hill walking at its best. When I set off on this walk I wasn’t sure if I’d continue…


 
Lake District Attractions: Castlerigg Stone Circle

I have fond memories of this place – Castlerigg stone circle, in the hills above Keswick in the northern Lake District. In warm summer time I have undertaken long walks, and short rest walks, then come up here in the evening to round off the day. I had some food with me once but it’s a bracing place, very exposed, not really suitable for a peaceful rest. I prefer to have food down by the…


 
Peak District Walk: Clough House And Cumberland Brook

From Manchester and other areas too what’s remarkable about the Peak District is how easily you get to it. As such, there are plenty of attractive day walks like this one, starting at a place called Clough House then climbing up beside Cumberland Brook to finish, if you wish, with refreshments at the Cat And Fiddle pub. I decided not to visit the pub actually, because I wanted the outdoors not rip-off UK prices. As…


 
Peak District Anniversary And Political Reflections

The Peak District National Park became the United Kingdom’s first national park on 17 April 1951. Statistically, the area is enormously popular sitting as it does between Manchester and Sheffield west and east, and north of Nottingham and Derby. It’s accessed quite easily from Manchester, indeed you can reach its edges in around thirty five minutes. This reason alone is why I’ve become increasingly fond of the place and I think this is more than…