COVER SHOT - BUSHCRAFT & SURVIVAL SKILLS MAGAZINE

I captured this image a few weeks ago when I was working at the Bushcraft Show. The magazine ran a reader's competition to be on the front cover of the July/August issue and I had the pleasure of capturing the cover shot of the father and son who won it. Even though the sun was out (but not for long!) I used a fill flash to avoid shadow across their faces and left some lush green dead space above them for the magazine masthead. The magazine is in the shops today.

COVER SHOT - IMPROVE YOUR COARSE FISHING

ANGEL OF THE NORTH

EAST COAST

I am working on a project with a client in Alnwick, Northumberland. Being so close to the coast and having not visited the East coast of England for a long while I decided to visit Alnmouth. The weather has been beautiful lately and it was a nice evening. I shot a few snaps and headed back to the hotel ready to start work tomorrow. I plan on visiting the Angel of the North on the way back home, I am intrigued to see how big it is up close. 

A STEP CLOSER

Over the last 2 weeks we have made great progress in organising and planning the trip to Japan. We now have our exchange orders for the train passes when we arrive. This is a very exciting prospect as it has been a long term dream to travel on the ultra modern, efficient and amazingly fast bullet trains of Japan & experience travelling at 200mph as the landscapes pass by. 

GOOD LUCK

The young blue tit babies have been chirping away for a while now whilst the parents frantically work to feed them on demand. The old bird box is situated just outside the front door and this morning we watched a couple of chicks leave the nest for the first time. Let's wish them a safe start to which is no doubt the most dangerous and vulnerable time of there lives. 

THE BUSHCRAFT SHOW 2014

It was an exciting time at the Bushcraft Show 2014. The weather was mainly poor and the ground conditions were very muddy as a result of this. Weather aside I did managed to capture a great series of photography for the magazine and I am in the process of editing the official show film.

LAND OF THE RISING SUN

For the next big trip we will visit Japan. A 3 week trip discovering the far North of Japan around Hokkaido and a journey across the country via bullet train to visit Tokyo and Kyoto. An exciting opportunity to capture this incredibly diverse landscape and rich culture of this amazing country.

PLANTED TANK - UPDATE

After testing the waters a few months ago with a basic aquascaping tank and growing a few plants I decided to invest in a decent setup. I am pleased with the results and the scape is growing strong and looks great. I am at a stage now where the tank pretty much takes care of itself with a weekly water change and trim. I was surprised at the amount of knowledge required to keep a successful and healthy tank, but I found that putting the effort in to learn about these miniature eco systems in the beginning has resulted in a low maintenance tank that is a joy to watch and not so time consuming to keep!

HAMPSHIRE & SCOTLAND

I have just spent a week starting down south in Hampshire and then travelling North to Scotland within the Cairngorms National Park on a work film project. It was a busy week, a great experience and we captured some great footage within beautiful surroundings. I will post the consumer results of the filming once they have gone live. 

A DAY WITH JACK

I recently spent the day with my Godson Jack. At just a few months old he is a real bundle of joy, he has a great personality and is a pleasure to be around! I enjoyed the challenge of some good photography with him and looking forward to capturing shots of his progression as he grows.

A TRIP TO CUMBRIA

A recent visit to Cumbria and the Lake District resulted in some pretty wild wild weather! We did manage to see a glimpse of sunshine and its hard to say a bad word about this area of the UK in any weather, it's just stunning! 

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THE PLANTED TANK

I recently discovered the art of aquascaping. This is basically a tank in which to keep aquatic plants and fish. Unlike general fish keeping having a plastic toy diver or dinosaur is a big no no! Aquascaping is a mixture of art and science, the idea is to create a beautiful and natural environment using natural hardscape and growing species of plants into an underwater world, it's very creative and the final results can be incredible. On the other side is the science, to establish an amazing scape involves the ability to grow strong healthy plants and this involves the balance of life within the tank. I won't go into details but the idea is to balance water parameters, light, C02, heat and fertilisation. If you can hit the correct balance then you can create your art. Aquascaping is serious business and competitions are held throughout the world each year to see who can create the best underwater worlds. Before I invest too heavily I have decided to take a small tank and see how well I can grow several species of plants, if all goes well I hope to upgrade in the future. Below are some starter pics and a short video. I will do a before and after comparison in a later post.

Video: copy & paste the link below -

https://vimeo.com/85567183

This is called pearling, a good sign of the plant getting the conditions it needs and releasing oxygen.

NORTHERN LIGHTS (FAIL)

It was announced that a large coronal mass ejection from the sun could create the possibility of viewing the Northern lights across the UK as far south as the Cotswolds. With this being too good an opportunity to miss I ventured into the Peak's and searched around to find a good spot. I decided on the area at the top of Winnats Pass overlooking Mam Tor. It was a beautiful evening with mostly clear skies and amazing views of the stars, but with the moon being in its first quarter this did add to some unwanted light. I waited patiently (along with many others! I have never seen so many people around at 1.30am in the Peak District) but according to the space weather reports, the solar storm was not as strong as expected and the solar winds were not blowing in a favourable direction. Although disappointing that they never showed up it was satisfying to know that if they did, I was waiting to capture them with my camera. Some reports state they may be visible tonight but I wont hold my breath, even though I do hope they will. Fingers crossed.