My son-in-Law Matt is senior staff writer for “Digital Photography” magazine at Imagine Publishing and needed some fresh material for a huge article in an upcoming issue…. what better way to get some new images than to plan a big day out! So we did…. we left home early and drove over to the next county, with a breakfast stop on the way. I had previously been to Brentour ( A 12th century church 350 metres up on top of a hill) but Matt hadn’t and always wanted to have an opportunity to photograph it. We needed images from the middle part of the day and also towards dusk and we both easily filled in the rest of the time working our way over some of the narrow winding roads of Dartmoor. We spent a couple of hours down in a valley along the Dart River and also spent some time up on the Tors, wild ponies and all…. Here is a small selection of images taken on this day…. The Panorama is actually a 360 degree view at Brentour.

Spent about six days in and around northern Wales in early June, which included Snowdonia National Park and the Island of Anglesea. Beautiful part of the UK and had some luck with the weather, because although it was cloudy each day in parts, we did see the sun too and it only rained for one morning, just a soft drizzle for a few hours. I have posted a small selection of images I took during this time here.

A six page article on the magnificent Lord Howe Island has just been published and I have uploaded it into my Articles section (in Print) of the diary too. I have visited the Island twice now and it should be on all serious outdoor photographer’s lists! Future workshops will include  bird Photography and my good friend David Burran will most likely lead workshops to this spectacular destination. Details are in the Article.

Although I have visited this wonderful historic Mansion and gardens before, The late spring blooms, pasture and flowers in the warm weather was an irresistible pull to re-visit. England on a warm sunny spring day is a great experience, the light is fine, no contrast for photography… and it conjures up thoughts from childhood stories our parents read to us at bedtime.

I was asked to provide a small insert to go into the UK Digital Photographer Magazine May 2014. I am often asked to supply Images for the magazine and look our for Issue 150. It will be an extra special Magazine because of the number, and I have been interviewed for an article for this particular issue!

Just wanted to share a particular walk that I did the other day…. Set off with my wife’s cousin Lee on a spectacular 11 km hike up  in the Peak District of Staffordshire. We knew that some rain was forecast, but what eventually happened was totally awesome. Our hike started in the beech forest along the banks of the Dane River and we slowly climbed up through the forest canopy through to the amazing Lud’s church. This is actually a canyon, totally natural, where Christian secret meetings were held in the 16th century when the “new” faiths were spreading….legend has it King Charles the 1st hid here at one point too…. dark and foreboding, it started to rain!! Up we climbed to the to the top of the hills… to an area that is known as Roaches Ridge, a magnificent part of the Peak district with Tors jutting out into the void, with the greenest valley’s and farmland below. What made this walk so good, was the weather! We experienced 3 thunderstorm cells in the space of 40 minutes… unbelievable, with Thunder and lightning as we sheltered under a Tor and then continued on watching the next front whirl its way towards us.

England is just so amazing in the late spring… I posted a photo I took a few weeks back on facebook, taken near Piddletrenthide, and have now posted it here…. lovely afternoon light in Dorset….it doesn’t get much better than this… I could spend a year here in this country and only scratch the surface!!