For some the onset of Winter will be a perfect excuse to hunker down beside a nice warm fire but to the landscape photographer, well, let's just say we are made of different stuff. Those long, boring blue sky days are gone, replaced with far more dramatic weather that can bring our photography to life. There is nothing like crashing seas, dark threatening clouds, snow or the dramatic lighting that comes from Wintery weather.

It has been a long time coming, but over the last few months Andy Gawthrope Photography has seen some significant changes.  The website is now more focused on the landscape genre and generally looks better – well I think so anyway :-).  There is now an ecommerce section aka a shop. 

Finding a suitable place to camp on the top of Glyder Fach was tricky as it's just one mass of shattered, weathered rocks each way too big to move.  But after some searching I found a spot just large enough for my little tent on the South-Western side beyond the the summit.  It was a reasonably sheltered spot and had a great view across the valley to the Snowdon massif.

Soon after returning from my previous trip  - see here - to Snowdonia I knew I'd be returning again.  Last time we were just coming to the end of winter but with Spring, perhaps even early summer now here, my thoughts returned to camping as it's just so much easier than a hotel.  There is no creeping quietly out trying not to let a door slam or bang a camera bag against a wall whilst everyone is asleep and importantly, there is also no need to align my plans with breakfast/dinner times - a real plus.  

Wind the clock back to December when this trip was conceived and it was to be a week in the Scottish Cairngorms surrounded by snow-covered mountains and fabulous light.  Well, that was the idea.  With hind-sight, perhaps the idea was a little optimistic but, at the time, sat in front of a warm fire with a glass of Jura anything seemed possible.  The closer the trip came, the less it looked like my fire-side dream would be realised.  The Cairngorms were devoid of snow.

The cloud was forecast to clear about an hour before sunset as a high pressure system rolled-in.  My hope was that it wouldn't completely clear leaving some nice thin clouds and making for a colourful sunset.  So, after arriving at my accommodation, I sat and considered a plan for the evening.  Should I try Feather Tor, Great Staple Tor or even Great Mis Tor?  They are all open to the West and low-angled evening light.  Was the cloud going to clear sufficiently to make a longer walk-in worthwhile?

By the last day of my recent trip to Dartmoor, the endless blue skies were starting to get tiresome.  O' for a few wisps of cloud and some drama!  Spring was definitely announcing its imminent arrival tho.  By day it was tee-shirt weather but once the sun set it was full-on winter duvet weather :-)  It felt somewhat silly leaving the truck in warm sunshine but packing boots and winter clothing!

As readers will know from the preceding post I've been exploring the Dartmoor National Park again ;-) There is an area to the South and West of Princetown bounded by Leedon Tor, Ingra Tor and King's Tor that contains the old railway and some quarries.  This area looked interesting on the map but I was hesitant as its higher than most of the surrounding moor and the tor's didn't, on the map, look especially interesting.

At the end of February a large high pressure system parked itself over the UK for a few days giving some stable, sunny weather.  Hopefully it was the first of many yet to come but since then its been wet and very, very windy - but it is winter.  Hopefully, the weather will break soon as I found one of my bins flying down the road the other day and tonight, I note, its gone completely - not a sign of it anywhere...

The Second Severn Crossing also known as the 'new' bridge was completed in 1996 and carries the M4 motorway between England and Wales over the river Severn.  Being close to home its something I've photographed several times but never during the winter.  It's a small project right now, as during the winter the sun sets to the South and under the arches thus I'm confident there is a good photograph waiting to be made!

Another break in the winter weather and another grabbed opportunity.  That seems to be how it is at the moment.  As I write this it’s almost Christmas, I’m sat in my comfy armchair near a log fire, the room is toasty warm and I can hear the sound of heavy rain pounding the glass conservatory roof again.  O’ for some better weather.  Positive news tho, the days are now getting longer :-)

Seizing an opportunity between the incessant wind and rain over the Christmas 2018 period, I headed down to the small village of Porlock Weir. It’s situated just under the Exmoor hills on the North coast of Somerset.  It’s not only a pretty little village with a nice harbour but it also has a couple of minor claims to fame.  It’s owners like to advertise it as a film location.

So, this post is a little different from my previous ones.  It's not strictly about photography but it is about something I'm willing to bet is core too most photographers and something often taken for granted.  Most of us have a workstation on which we run our digital darkroom, the Lightroom, Photoshop, Capture One etc apps and a lot of us will have a networked storage device on which we store photographs.

On my recent visit to the Lake District, one of the aims was to do a little mountain photography.  Unfortunately the cloudy weather put the stops on that, but the day I arrived the weather looked promising.  The plan was to arrive earlier in the day to leave more time for an evening outing, but thanks to hideous roadworks - Birmingham through to Manchester - the journey took much longer than it should have.

It's been a long, hot, dry and sunny summer in the UK; the best for many a year.  But long days filled with dust and haze make it my least favoured time of year for photography.   In fact, the camera stayed in its bag for the whole time!  With Autumn approaching and in September I returned to Dartmoor but it was a week of high winds and road-level clouds all thanks to the remnants of US hurricanes making it across the Atlantic.  Nothing came from that trip :-(

Back in 2006 I spent a few days in the English Lake District.  As I recall now, it wasn’t the most successful of trips as the weather didn’t generally play ball.  One rainy day the weather was forecast to break late in the afternoon so, to kill a few hours, I took a drive along the small mountain roads across the Hardknott and Rhinos passes to Wasdale on the Western side of the Lake District.  So it was that I found myself on the banks of Wastwater about an hour before sunset.

The first weekend in May is a three-day public holiday.  Mainland England and Wales were basking in strong sunshine under blue, cloudless skies – Not the sort of light that normally inspires me.  However, the coast in Pembrokeshire was forecast to have a few clouds.  That sounded more interesting and had the potential for some nice evening light. :-)

I'm writing this sat outside under the shade of a pear tree, its 26 degrees Celsius, cloudless and the hottest day so far this year.  What really makes it unusual is that it's a Bank Holiday Monday also known as a public holiday here in the UK.  Its tradition that Bank Holidays are always wet and windy.  Something is very wrong!