Leaving Edinburgh we travelled south through the Scottish border area, a beautiful region of rolling hills and Castles, with Salmon rivers and woodland. I haven’t worked on any images from this region yet and we travelled further south into the border with England and a quick look at Hadrian’s wall. We spent a few days in the wonderful Yorkshire Dales and although the weather was fairly inclement I was still able to get a few quite nice images from the beautiful scenery here in this district. Some outstanding areas include Brinham Rocks and Fountain Abbey, set in a park-like setting and dating back to the eleventh century. Dry-Stone walls abound and sheep graze everywhere.
From the Lake District we have now travelled up into Scotland. Places visited include the Mull of Kintryre to see where my mother spent some time as a teenager, especially in the small village of Ardrishaig, where the boats still have to be lowered from the Drinan Canal into Lake Fyne. Spent a night in the town of Oban and then worked our way up into the Rannoch Mor area including Glencoe Pass. weather was mixed but around Glen Etive, it was sunny and clear and the scenery spectacular. This area is still wonderful in the wet and mist, and Scotland has a light I have nor experienced elsewhere.
From Bath we now have travelled up to the North West of England into the Lake District in the Cumbrian Mountains. A most beautiful area and although considered to be the wettest part of England for the amount of rain they get here, we were able to dodge the showers quite well. Light here is amazing when it peeps from behind the clouds, but even on the cloudiest of days the light is soft and the hills and lakes have that lovely softness of pastels and shades that is so unique to this area. One morning out of five the light burst out above the hill line just after daybreak and I was prepared! Standing on the far bank of Rydal Water (A favourite place of the poet Wordsworth) after a fairly long sprint from the where I had parked the car I then ran from pre-arranged spot to pre-arranged spot to capture the light. It was all over in about ten minutes but it was magnificent while it lasted!
Our Journey continues through to Bath in north East Somerset, a magnificent spa town made famous by the Roman Baths. The buildings here are wonderful, built centuries ago for the upper class as a holiday
retreat, with the warm Bath Stone clad on all buildings its a bit overwhelming. some of the villages in this area are a treat and tried to visit early in the day to avoid the crowds. Of note: Castle Combe and Lacock. There are some images here included of the roof of the Bath Abbey, the royal Crescent in Bath, The ancient Roman Baths, Lacock Abbey and Village, Hungerford Canal and the cute village of Castle Combe, irrisistable to most photographers!
My trip to Britain this time started in London. We are here for just over a month and will work our way west to Bath, then up to the Lake District and on to the West coast of Scotland.
London was mostly sunny with scattered cloud the four days we were here. It tried to rain a couple of times but seemed to miss the city itself. As I have photographed many parts of London before I tried to do things a little differently this time.
I tried to photograph some famous icons with Sunstars and was lucky enough to catch quite a few. Its hard to stay in position for long with people bumping past you but fun trying anyway!
some of the images below with Sunstars include Big Ben at Westminster, Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, Wellington’s Arch and the Tower Bridge.
I have also worked some Panorama images of the city itself from the River Thames, From the top of St Paul’s Cathedral and from around the Tower of London.
We now head of towards the West through to Bath, so my next images on this blog will include images from this amazing historical town and surrounding area.
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