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Ok I know 2016 has been here for a few weeks - I can't believe its nearly February already.

The last few months of 2015 we're a tad driven by the weather (which was mild and rained a lot) and by work (which was busy and drained a lot). Both were bad for taking photos.

Few frosts, little snow, work deadlines and a very mild Xmas break meant that I had little opportunity or enthusiasm for heading out into the Peak District to take damp versions of the nicer photo that I had already taken.

Looking back on my previous winter photos I see frost in trees, ice in streams, icicles on buildings, snowy hillsides, chestnuts roasting on a open fire - you get the picture. Now I see that shorts are still in fashion for some hardy types despite it being mid January. Come to think of it, I don't actually remember wearing any shorts even in the summer. Just the fresh breeze wafting around my .. oh no, hang on, I do recall wearing jeans. Its all a blur, officer.

So with 2016 underway I've got a couple of photo trips planned so that is something to aim for. Hopefully work won't continue it's evil attempt to shorten my life by several years and I'll be able to make the most of opportunities that come along. I might even get my shorts out.

If you'd care to venture out to WH Smith (other paper shops are available) and peruse the October edition of Lonely Planet Traveller Magazine you'll find my photo of the Church of the Assumption on Lake Bled featured in the Postcard section.

I took the photo on a great autumnal workshop in 2013 I think. It's a place that I'd always wanted to visit having been inspired by several great photographs of the Lake.

So have a look, pretend you're buying it, and check out my mugshot in print for all to see.

I've been busy taking photos. But not my photos as such.

I've spent the last week on site around the east of England taking work photos which has given me 770 photos which are useful for me, but alas, non that I can claim are beautiful sunsets or rolling vistas. More like rolling stock as they have been mainly railway based.

Hard work and long days. The good news is I've only got another 2 weeks to go.

The better news is that the 2 weeks is rudely interrupted by my forthcoming photo workshop in Brittany (en France) which will be a welcome break.

Hopefully more photographs of a interesting nature will result so watch this space.

So here's a footpath from last week - I especially enjoyed being out in the monsoon rain which makes August such a wonderful time for a UK holiday. No wonder people go abroad. I assume you have to be a trained climber to get over the 8ft high, hedge covered wall that the finger-post points you over. Welcome to my world.

Lists - good lists and bad list.

Good lists might be a Xmas list (these days mine doesn't extend much further than socks) or a holiday list (a list of things to take on holiday not a list of holidays to go on, although I guess that counts).

Bad lists - these include my list of things that could go wrong on a photo trip.

For me, this list includes such greats as 'falling over and breaking a leg', 'getting lost at night with no torch batteries', 'being mugged for my camera gear' and the old favourite 'getting locked in a car park at night'.

Well now I can scratch the last one off the list - for the first time I was actually locked into a car park when out and about photographing the Humber Bridge. Imagine my surprise when I backtracked my way out of the car park only to find the road blocked by some lovely gates.

Things I have now discovered in the 10 minutes I had to consider the situation.

The lack of a warning sign saying such useful things as 'Attention gates will be locked at 9pm' does not necessary mean that a gate won't have appeared from nowhere on your return.

Locked mean locked - funnily enough padlocks work quite well.

There are no real options at 9.30pm when you're car is locked in - if I'd made it home I'd still have to return to fetch the car.

The back seat is not as big as it looks when faced with a nights sleep in the car.

Mobile phones and 3G/4G is great if you have a signal.

So faced with all this the only option I had was to follow my tracks and investigate the other corners of the car park I'd previously not given any thought to. Having discovered I'd probably gone the wrong way (no surprise to anyone who knows me) I discovered on open gate. Hallelujah - I was saved. Like the Millennium Falcon leaving a doomed Death Star I raced for the safety of the open road. 'Don't get cocky kid' I thought but the way was clear.

Moral of the story - not sure really. Don't get locked in car parks seems a safe bet.

I've been using Photoshop CS5 for a few years and decided a few months back to upgrade to Creative Cloud which has Lightroom CC 2015 and Photoshop CC 2105.

I haven't used Lightroom since version 2 and so I've been thinking that CC was similar to camera raw adjustments in Photoshop which I'm used to.

However, I picked up a couple of big glossy magazines from WH Smiths, and 'Teach Your Lightroom' has lots of tips that I hadn't discovered yet in my workflow. Seems well worth buying so far and rather than just another one of my 'stays unopened on the coffee table' purchases I'm actually using this one.

I decided this week that I was in need of a tablet device. I've been using my phone, a long in the tooth Galaxy S3, more and more for browsing the tinterweb from the comfort of my sofa, so why not do it from a larger screen.

On that basis I decided to get a Samsung tablet, a Tab S 10.5, for a couple of reasons. 1) the excellent reviews about the quality of the screen and (2) it ought to be easy to switch from Samsung phone to tablet.

On point (1) I'm very pleased with the screen but on point (2) I'm less impressed.

Lots a niggling little differences between the phone and tablet. Maybe it's progress but the phone has never given me problems and so far after 3 days of tablet experimentations I'm 50/50 about this. I can see the benefits (literally as the screen is bigger) but I'm finding the setup and Internet browser type stuff is less than intuitive.

I shall continue and see what happens.

1 week update - like mould its growing on me slowly.

Update 7th August - still waiting for my cashback offer to materialise. 'Offer will be available from 6th August' says the Samsung website. It isn't.

Having um and ah'd for ages about whether it was worth spending £300, £350, £500 on a tablet and carefully considering the cost/benefit ratio before committing my hard earned cash, I had to take my car to the garage today. That'll be £350 please - your water pump is broken. Just like that. Why do the things we have to buy always outweigh the things we'd like to buy.

I headed up to North Yorkshire for a one day round trip in the company of my mate, Antony. Optimistically, I'd planned 10 locations to visit. We managed three I think but at least they will be there for another time. Another visit that is, not another time - like medieval England or Jurassic Yorkshire. That type of technology isn't available yet, despite the over-elaborate promises of Doc Brown in Back to The Future. I often feel like I've time travelled to a world I no longer understand when I watch TV intended for the U25's or encounter youngsters generally.

The forecast was supposed to be dull for the morning and brighter later so the order of the day was waterfalls in the dull weather and maybe landscapes later when the sun came out. As it happened, it was a pleasant summer day and I was able to make a reccy of Castle Hill near Huddlesfield as it was on the way up to North Yorkshire.

I've splashed out on an IR filter as I thought the bright summer days with the trees in full bloom (with leaves on, you know what I mean) might make a good IR subject. This turned out to be a tad more complicated than I'd anticipated as my Canon 6D has produced a lovely set of bright red images with the IR filter attached. I'd anticipated that it would be easy(ish) to process the images but I think I need to read more and have some more practice. I'm not actually sure whether my 6D is to 'good' to actually take IR. Anyway, it was fun practising.

Having lost 30 minutes to the good folk repairing the roads in Bradford this didn't quite help the agenda. Temporary traffic lights. One side (my side) had 300 cars in the queue and the other side had 30 cars. We both had the same amount of green light time. Thanks 'badly planned traffic guys'.

Neverlessless, West Burton Falls made a good location and Aysgarth Falls was nearby so I finished up there for some tricky shots as the sun was out in force by this time. Water and sunlight make tricky bedfellows for long exposure shots.

So with more things left on the agenda another trip is on the cards and maybe this will involve autumnal leaves.

I must have been carrying over some good vibes from my Brecon Beacons trip as I was in a spontaneous mood last week. I decided on the spur of the moment (otherwise known as Wednesday) to take advantage of a 'not having much to do at work' type thing and headed off to North Wales for a short weekend break.

I found that Bangor University near Anglesey rented out student halls of residence rooms for a very good rate when they are empty over the summer holidays. I decided that 2 nights for £62 was a great bargain and I must say it was nice to be back at a Uni type environment. When I left University the internet hadn't been invented (music was better though) but things didn't seem to have changed too much. Still a bed, table and shelf as standard but it was nice to have an en-suite shower and toilet. All in all, pretty good.

Bangor turned out to be a good base for a North Wales trip with some big supermarkets and a town centre to look round (rather than the one-horse town B&B's I've stayed in). It was also well placed time wise to reach some of the areas more photogenic places.

I headed up hill and down dale for Friday afternoon and Saturday (early) morning before forgetting (yet again) that the rest of the world would also like to be out and about on a sunny, summer afternoon. So, with no parking spaces left in Snowdonia and with some new aches and stains calling for a rest I headed back to base for a well-earned glass (ok, bottle) of red wine and a DVD before heading back to Sheffield on Sunday morning.

I shall defiantly pencil in another trip and it looks promising to head there in the winter for some frost and ice - a 5am start and then a drive before sunrise seems achievable.


Penmon Lighthouse

I've had a very busy and tiring 6 weeks or so at work which has drained the old batteries but this was offset by a week in the Brecon Beacons.

Which was also tiring. But in a good way.

We were based in Llangorse in the north of the Brecon Beacons National Park and because it was summer we looked forward to blue skies, fluffy clouds and long hot summer days. As it was UK summer we got drizzle, grey skies and cold days for half the time.

This was perfect though for photographing the many splendid waterfalls of the Brecon Beacons which we knew were part of the 'must do' agenda for a photo trip to this area. The rain certainly added to the volume of water and on occasions there was to much of a good thing and the spray made life very tricky. Wiper blades needed in the new Canon lenses.

Late to bed and early to rise was the order of the day, even on dull days. Our insurance policy to arrive at the waterfalls before the rest of the madding crowds but to be honest, it was all very peaceful with very few fellow adventurers out and about.

The tricky part of the summer days tends to be mid-afternoon with the light conditions. Therefore, we spent a couple of enjoyable sessions at the Gigrin Farm Red Kite centre. I have mastered the art of photographing blurds in flight, now I just need to make them birds in flight.

Another good break with plenty of varied landscape, macro, waterfalls opportunities and some new ideas to keep me going.

Waterfall photos are in this gallery

Or rather, the wind has got me.

I'm sure most Peak District photographers have come to expect that the wind will whip up and over most of the gritstone edges that we tend to position ourselves next to.

Just recently though, British Springtime being what it is, I seem to have been out in some of the most biting and viscously windy conditions that I can remember for some time.

I've therefore decided to add an odd piece of kit to my camera bag - an hand held anemometer or wind gauge. A spur of the moment idea perhaps but it might be interesting to see how fast these tornados actually are. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

In the meantime May is here so I'll continue to wear woolly hats, gloves, hoodies and Gore-Tex to keep warm. Who knows, in the Summer I might be able to cut back and just wear one woolly hat. And a vest.

Gordon, General Kala? whats going on? Why is it dark!

Seemingly there is no reason for these extraordinary intergalactical upsets - There's got to be, what about the sun?
This mornings unprecedented solar eclipse is no cause for alarm - You're kidding, we're in trouble now!
Only Doctor Hans Zarkhov, formerly at NASA, has provided any explanation - Zarkhov, thank goodness, what's happened?

I bought a Flash this week.

It arrived within 14 hours.

Gordon was alive and the Earth was saved.

I've been out and about recently and haven't been able to add any new photos.

I enjoyed a snowboard trip a few weeks ago to the French Alps over a long week after a 17 year layoff - still got it (never really had it, just didn't forget whatever it was). It was long weekend in Serre Chevalier - I located my lift pass from 1994 which showed both my glasses and my hairstyle was bigger in those days. Hair, here today, gone tomorrow - repeated over 6 years doesn't leave a lot these days. Lift passes are now swipe cards, as I found out, which isn't as good as a souvenir. We drew some admiring glances from the young trendy types with our rad outfits. John's snowboard jumper came out of retirement from its current role as a gardening outfit and my jacket was retrieved from the attic. It was still massively over-sized and I must have gained 2 stone in the last 15 years. We looked the bees knees. No injuries to report but one definite retirement. Here's to the Ski 2033 reunion.

In the meantime I've been upgrading my PC which hasn't helped with the photo activity.

My old machine was getting far to slow and I've promised myself that I would upgrade my Photoshop from CS5. So after some (lots) of pontificating I have finally downloaded the trial of Photoshop CC 2014 which I'm using at the moment - 28 days to go. Not sure if I'm keen on the £8.57/month model Adobe have been using but we'll see.

Bit of one step forward/one step sideways at the moment with CC2014. I'd forgotten that I'd set up personal preferences, actions etc - all of which have vanished. I need to search around in the lower reaches of the help files, amongst the dust and fluff, to find out how to get them to work again. My first impressions are that nothing has changed - I need to search through Adobe literature for 'what's new' (other than 'Great news! - the interface is a black background with white letters!).

Seems like I'll also get Lightroom if I sign on. Again, slightly sceptical I need this but we'll see.

On a more positive front, now that my PC is running smoother and quicker I have been looking forward to getting Nik Software purchased and installed. I've heard good things about their black and white package which could be useful. I might also be tempted to dip into some HDR which I haven’t done for years and I've heard there are some useful Colour and B&W effects as well.

Hopefully the status quo will return soon and now Spring is here, there should be some more photo opportunities on the way.

France 2015
Left to right: John, Dave, Shaun and me.


Left to right: John, Dave and me

A day to lift the spirits today, in praise of good in society for a change.

A happy tale of lost and found that ended well and left me very grateful to a certain Kim Bowen https://www.facebook.com/kim.bowen.399.

I do on occasion, as I'm sure we all do, misplace various items of photographic kit when I'm out and about. A few weeks ago I lost some memory cards on my Twistleton star trails trip. I thought that was the end of things as usual

I please say that it turns out they were found by Kim (needle in a haystack for a start) who checked the photo metadata to see that they were listed as belonging to one steve price. Not content with this she spread the word on Facebook to see if anybody knew a Steve Price and today, Ray Rickaby http://www.ephotozine.com/user/lufc62-131615, who'd seen the post and my photos on ephotozine, emailed me to ask if I'd lost some memory cards. Ray also got in touch with Kim who then sent me an email, and unbelievably I'm reunited with my cards.

Honestly, I'm amazed by the outcome and indebted to Kim's good will and dedication.

Many thanks one and all.

I headed out to Twistleton in the Yorkshire Dales with the aim of taking some star trails. I realised my meager collection of star shots after dark amounts to a grand total of two photos and I really ought to make the effort to try to take some more photos.

The Yorkshire Dales looked like a good location for star trails are the light pollution levels are very low compared with the Peak District so I headed off for the 2 hour drive.

There a decent amount of snow still showing in the landscape and so I thought things were looking promising, even if it was going to be on the cold side.

I hadn't banked on the almost full moon though which showed itself as darkness fell. I was surprised just how bright it was being a city boy used to those pesky street lights. As darkness fell, the shadow cast by my tripod (and me) in the glow of the moonlight threatened to creep into the photo. It was apparent that I didn't even need a torch to read the time on my watch. Book reading by moonlight would also have been possible had (1) I remembered to bring a book and (2) it been 20 degrees rather than a finger freezing -1 degrees.

So I persevered anyway for the practice and because it seemed daft not to try having made the effort anyway.

So things I've discovered are:

1. An f4 lens isn't quite as useful as an f2.8 lens - I could have done with the extra amount of light for a 30 second exposure.

2. You really need the combination of a clear sky and a new moon - I wonder how often that's going to happen.

3. I really ought to take my Self Heating Hand Warming Packs if I venture out in winter.

4. Jam sandwiches and crisps don't really make the best crush resistant snack when wedged at the bottom of a camera bag. It appears as though the jam and bread will compress to about 3mm - who says I don't carry out practical field experimentation on behalf of sandwich eaters everywhere.

Pet Hates. I have a few. Strangely, we don't seem to talk about Pet Loves. That's either the 'mans best friend' type love, or something else complete different. Don't Google it on the internet is all I'm saying.

So pet hates and photography. I decided after a frustrating trip to a neighboring Yorkshire city to photograph water features there are a few things that niggle me.

After yesterday lets start with:

1) buildings covered in white plastic sheeting when you want to photograph them. There really can't be anything more distracting and hideous, architecturally, as the side of a lovely old building draped in a plastic sheet.

Then we have:

2) Ducks - natures own surface torpedoes whose only role is to ruin those perfect mirror like reflections.

3) Footprints - in snow (or sand) mainly. Carefully creeping around the side of a perfect snow scene to find a lone cow or size 10 boot has stomped across there first. Or some hiker has thoughtfully decided to test the weight bearing capacity of the frozen puddle which just happens to have the areas most interesting ice patterns. The same applies with sand although its generally warmer and has less cows (and ice).

4) The 'standing in your shot' photographer. I was once photographing the Another Place installation of 100 life size cast iron figures on Crosby beach. All by myself at sunset. Perfect. Expect for the one other photographer who turned up late to stand between me and the one figure I was already photographing so he could take the same photo. There was literally 99 other figures to choose from. I was speechless.

5) Weather forecasts - or more properly, wrong weather forecast. Nothing more frustrating that going to bed with a great forecast (I think she said that was her name), waking up in the dark at 4am when you can't see the likely weather, driving 2 hours only to find the forecast has miraculously changed for the worse during the previous 5 hour sleep. Great.

6) That stupid band of cloud that always hugs the horizon to stop any chance of a decent sunset.

7) Why do some cycles insist on wearing cycle gear so dark that even a trained ninja would say 'who know what, I just don't need to be that hard to see'. God forbid wearing anything as uncool as a reflective jacket. What's wrong with cycle lights. Do we look at a forecast and see fog or rain or maybe the trip will end after dark and think 'I'd better save weight and leave my lights at home.' What's all that about.

I'm sure I can think of more.

Just because I don't have enough to carry already, I've added a new macro lens to my kit list.

I decided to go for the Sigma 105mm f2.8, having heard some positive peer reviews on quality of the lens.

Having used it once now I can see both the benefits and the challenges that macro photography will bring, but I think its worth the effort and it seems to open up some new photographic subjects which haven't really been on my radar before.

My first thoughts are that its probably going to be quite a challenge composing shots as the subjects, certainly in the woods, are tucked away in hard to reach places. I can see straight away why a longer lens, say 180mm, would help with setting up shots by allowing the camera to be further away in clear space.

It also seems like a few new accessories might be of benefit, perhaps like a smaller tripod or a beanbag to help support the lens. The depth of field is so shallow that even a very small movement throws the shot out of focus. More practice will help me as well.

So for now, here's my first go and we'll see how things progress. These 2 were about the same size as a £1 coin.

My full kit list is here

After lamenting the lack of snow so far in winter 2014, we had some on Boxing Day.

As fate would have it, I was away for the holidays in sunnier climes down in Exeter.

Sheffield, as usual, ground to a halt when the first 1.1mm on snow landed and settled. If ever there is a Zombie Apocalypse which coincides with the first snowfall of the year, then the good people of Sheffield are doomed. No-one is leaving town.

Note to head zombie (presumably biding time on the Tory back benches) - postpone the summer invasion plans.

Anyway, I survived both the snowfall and any zombie related incidents (although I haven't seen my neighbour recently) and made it back from Exeter in time for a trip out to the Peak District.

For once the sunrise coincided with some nice light at sunset and I chose to head out to photograph the Salt Cellar rock formation, which sits above Derwent Reservoir in the Derbyshire Peak District. The white, cold snow scene was a joy to photograph against the warm tones of the orange sunset and blue, cloudy skies.

Despite my whole body feeling like it had been rolled down a hill in a tumble drier by the time I returned, it was a wintry trip worth making.

If there are any zombies out there and if any of them have spare body parts, then I wouldn't mind using them. My legs don't seem to be quite as good as they once were.

Photo of the winter Salt Cellar is in this gallery

So, as we head towards mid-December, I recall childhood winter antics such as 'who can sledge down the hill and end up closest to the brook without falling in'.

I expect this had probably been proceeded by the yearly 'Dad, can we have a sledge, can we, pleasssse' appeal which me and my sister made every winter. I gave up when I turned 25. Kids today don't know they're born. I expect they all have isleds or whatever modern 'tech' is cool these days.

So going on, I remember those winter days when football was cancelled at school due to the hard frosts - on those days we were forced to play rugby on what amounted to a field of frozen icy razer blades.

I remember having to use extra choke to start the car on those cold winter mornings (does anybody under 40 actually know what this is).

I remember a mere 2 years ago when I would venture out on a crisp winters morn, crunching my way through frost, ice and maybe snow to capture photos of my favourite Peak District scenes in their splendid palette of winter colours.

Given that I don't really like the cold or the snow I'm surprised by just how much I like to capture the different seasons, including winter. Along with autumn, winter should be a magical time to be out with camera.

So, when will the weather actually start being wintry. Not this 'cold, wet, foggy, dark and dull' wintry but proper 'chestnuts roasting on a open fire' wintry.

Answers on a post card please.

Well I'm back from a hectic 8 days Photo Workshop in Bulgaria and the memories are still with me. They were with me four times in the night yesterday - I can't recommend Bulgarian cuisine.

The trip was a lot of fun even if the weather didn't really play into our hands but we made the most of the days and put in the miles looking for subjects to photograph around the southern mountain region. Emil our Bulgarian guide and excellent bird photographer really went the extra mile for us.

In the 8 days we stayed in 5 different hotels, 2 of which opened up specially for us because of Emil's contacts. I honestly can't remember what the second hotel room looked like. It will have have had a wet room which all Bulgarian hotels seemed to provide. I assume they have a partnership with toilet paper manufactures as wet room showers seemed designed to avoid the human body and soak just about everything else inside the room. Top tip - move toilet paper to a safe distance (the dining room should be about the right place) if you intend using it after a shower. Some wet rooms were small enough have a shower whilst sitting on the toilet and cleaning your teeth. Interesting, but I didn't try it.

Its hard to describe Bulgaria without sounding like I didn't enjoy the trip but that's not the case. Bulgaria is certainly tired, shall we say, and very different to what I take to be the rest of Europe to be like. There is quite a bit of poverty around. Since the Soviets left, whole factories, buildings, train stations, gravel plants, farms, cars (you name it) are just lying abandoned and a lot of buildings are unfinished. It was hard to tell what building were occupied even if they looked totally run down. A lot of derelict buildings and even whole villages lie around the countryside. We went to one village with over 100 building where there were just 35 (mainly elderly) people left. Litter seems to be a big problem as well. I was amazed at the number of abandoned shoes lying around the countryside. No matter how remote - shoes, water bottles, paper tissues were always there.
At this time of year the major occupation seemed to be wood chopping for the winter fuel storage. We have it very cosy in the UK.

I think the best way to describe Bulgaria in my mind is 'joyless - without joy' which seems odd. There were certainly some hustle and bustle in the larger cities but on the whole people seemed only to be doing things they had to do. When I got back to Sheffield I saw people out jogging, riding bikes, expressing themselves with fashion. Things with no purpose other that we have the time, money and security to do what we want.

In some towns Emil told us a whole apartment in a towerblock could be bought for £500. My camera is worth more than that. Emil described the gypsies moving into a village and pretty much 10 years later everyone else will have moved out. Pretty sober stuff compared with grumbling that Morrison's have rearranged the shelving or there's nothing to watch on TV.

Having said all this I had a very good time, I have lots of photos to go through which will keep me busy for a while and another wish list of photography kit to save up for.

And I didn't get stopped by the Watchers. Oh, the Watchers.

Ellen from LongValleyBooks, who publish the Photographers Guide to the Peak District, has had an article published in the News section of the Sheffield Telegraph. Ellen had to scale down the size of the story to fit the allocated space and I'm pleased that she still chose my Salt Cellar image to illustrate the article.

Here's hoping that the damp weather isn't putting off anybody buying the books and venturing out.