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A had a last minute weekend trip to the Lake District which I didn't necessarily appreciate coincided with the kids being off on holiday as well.

An interesting weekend and here are my top thoughts.

1. Don't get a hotel room with the fire door and fire escape route right through the middle of your room (thank you Queens Hotel, Keswick). This makes for very a interesting experience at 2am when the fire alarm goes off.

2. The morning sun lights up the trees at Buttermere at 7am this time of year - don't arrive at 4.45am.

3. Don't ever, ever drive up and down Hardknott pass. Worst 'road' ever. Bank holiday traffic makes it twice the fun*

*I believe this road was actually formed by the Devil himself farting a thin strip of tarmac from his rear end and declaring 'There Mortals! I have created a road which I condemn you to use - behold my Wrath and suffer my Hell on Earth!'

4. Don't expect to park anywhere in the Lakes on Bank Holiday weekend. Except maybe in the Lake.

5. Don't expect the God of Sunrises to appear just because you took the trouble to get up early. This Gods activities are spectacular but sadly, a rare thing. Like a Sheffield United home win.

Post Blog Update: The Fire Brigade inspected the Queens Hotel and advised them it was inappropriate to combine the fire escape with a bedroom (you don't say) and the room is no longer in use.

My favourite web site, Flickr, has undergone a revamp which I'm not sure about.

However, one of the feedback comments was that the black backgrounds which they introduced weren't easy on the eye for some people.

I guess you don't see many art galleries with black walls so I've had a think and changed my page colours.

I'll see how it feels - if anyone's got any thoughts, please drop me a line Contact

A had some time after work and the local weather forecast wasn't great so I headed off to New Brighton on the Wirral, Merseyside to have a look again at Perch Rock lighthouse. The tide tables said it would be low tide which reveals some rock and sand formations which can be used as foreground interest.

When I arrived there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the haze meant the sky wasn't even a deep blue colour. Thanks to my lack of interest in all things TV related these days (I'm a Celebrity Cooking on Ice - no thanks) I decided to hang around to see if anything developed.

Glad I did because the setting sun lit up the sky and I had a mad dash along the beach as the colours changed from blues, to oranges, to reds/lilac and finally deep blue after dark.



Located in Photographs of the Coast

I thought it might be interesting to show the affect of time after sunset on lighting, colours, exposure etc. Sunset here was around 2015hrs and I love taking shots round this time. There is a lot of natural colours (the so called 'blue hour') and a lot of scope for creativity with the long exposures. The challenge is not over exposing the brighter lights against the darker backgrounds.

Top Left: 2005hrs (10 minutes before sunset)
Top Right: 2050hrs
Bottom Left: 2105hrs
Bottom Right: 2115hrs (one hour after sunset).

I've ordered a new panoramic head to add to my kit bag.

Its a Benro PCO Panoramic Head from www.wex.co.uk who provide a good range of camera equipment.

I'm hoping the head will prove less time consuming to set up as I won't have to laboriously level the tripod itself using the legs, which can prove hard work on steep slopes. There should also be less 'distortion' of the overlapping set of images which get stitched together in post processing, so hopefully I'll capture all of the scene and not cut off any of the important foreground elements.

We'll see how it performs when it arrives and I get a chance to field test it.

I've swopped by About page photograph for one my Dad took a few weeks ago on Carhead Rocks in the Peak District with his Nikon D3100.



See my About page for larger version

Update: New photo taken in Slovenia October 2013 - many thanks to Keith, who was on the same workshop.

I'm researching photographic locations at the moment for a week in Devon.

Its the early stages of planning so I've got 'Dartmoor', 'Exmoor' and 'The Coast' on my at the moment.

I can't help but think that I ought to narrow the field down at bit.

Still, the break will be a very welcome one.

Post holiday update - the unseasonable cold snap at the end of March gave me very grey skies for the whole week which meant they were very few photo opportunities :-(

Since a very productive period in early January the winter weather has been very varies and hasn't played its part in landscape photography.

I've been struck that, apart from periods of heavy snow, the weather has been very mild.

I would have expected cold, white, frosty mornings with ice for some great landscape interest but my weekends have been somewhat damp and dull for a few weeks.

To change the subject to shoot the weather, I've been out to photograph after sunset, when the dullness and clouds of the day can actually help with the 'blue hour' compositions after dark.

This is the period of twilight just before dawn and after sunset where the light has a very special quality and looks very photogenic.

Timing is important as the is only a relativity small time period where the artificial lighting is balanced by the ambient natural light which brings out all the details in all areas. Leave it to late and the long exposure 'burns' out all the highlights and sky becomes to dark to retain any interesting cloud features and colouring.

Esther at Hope Valley Online has been kind enough to feature me for an interview on the Hope Valley web site - link below:

http://www.hopevalleyonline.co.uk/component/content/article/8-local/196-stephenprice

I've added hopevalleyonline.com to my links page, please feel free to drop by and check out their page.

I sold my first stock photographs yesterday, which I'm pleased about.

At this rate I shall be able to retire in 375 years. I wonder if we'll have hover cars by then.

I've added a new section Landscape Posters in the menu bar above to provide A2 landscape posters for sale.

I hope you'll like these and that they will prove a welcome addition to wall space in your home.

New Years Day 1st January 2013 and I made an early start to Boggle Hole, near Robins Hoods Bay on the Yorkshire coast. After a disappointing amount of dull weather over the Christmas break there was an opportunity to catch the sun rising over the coast.

I made a 5am start and after a trip on the almost empty motorway I was rewarded with an deserted beach and some very pleasant sunshine.

Latest Work

Now that I've been back from Northumberland for a few days I've been able to post some shots in Latest Work

An interesting and challenging workshop which took in some varied locations such as Hadrians Wall, Gateshead, Bamburgh Castle, Dunstanburgh Castle, Berwick and even a trip across the border to photograph Waxwings (which unobliging didn't put in an appearance).

It certainly showed me where I have some gaps in my equipment and pushed some parts to destruction - one boot, one wader, one remote release and, at one time, one camera body all fell victim to the punishing conditions. I'm glad to say that my camera recovered once the rain water had dried.

I picked up a lot and think I'll go back there in the future.

A wonderful part of the country and well worth a visit.

My trip to the Tatras Mountains in Slovakia with Adam Burton was greeted with an unseasonable cold snap and snow falls causing delays on the roads. I thought that just happened in Sheffield. The wintery conditions were a month early and the first snow fall in October for about 25 years. It was certainly chilly.

The holiday started off on the wrong foot as we'd been given the wrong booking reference by Tatra Photography. I did wonder whether I'd get on the flight. All was well after some discussion with the check-in clerk.

After landing a Cracow in Poland the Slovakian border was easy to spot as the Slovaks didn't grit the roads as they were in the National Park.

Day 1 was an early 0500 hrs start at minus 8 degrees for a trip to Strbske Pleso Lake. The fog prevented any sunlight but gave some superbly atmospheric conditions for the pines covered in snow and ice. We then changed locations, via a woodland walk, to another lake at Popradske Pleso. A brief burst of afternoon sunlight soon gave way to biting wind and colder temperatures. I did enjoy the snowy conditions but 3 pairs of socks would have gone down well instead of just two.

Day 2 started again at Popradske Pleso in similar conditions. Nature gave us an almost perfect monochromatic landscape - very interesting indeed. Finally, the sun came out back at Strbske Pleso Lake which added for some warmth to the snow and the mountains and some different conditions yet again.

After a hectic and tiring break I would recommend a workshop with Adam Burton and for mountain scenery, the Tatras region is definitely worth a visit.

I'm heading out soon to visit the Tatras Mountains in Slovakia.

According to Wikipedia 'The Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatra (Tatry either in Polish and in Slovak - plurale tantum, Tátra in Hungarian), are a mountain range which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland, and are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains'.

Sounds interesting and hopefully I can bring back a few photos or, at the least, a report of how the trip went.

Having grown tired and weary of the many pot holes and hills in Sheffield, I've finally traded in my old car and upgraded to a 2008 Toyota Rav4.

I'm hoping that I'll actually be able to venture out once the winter weather comes upon us, rather than just parking the car for weeks on end waiting for the snow to melt.

That's the theory, we'll see how it goes. So far, so good.

Update: all is well with the car and I'm very pleased with it. Very good for those trips down pot holed country lanes, a good level of power to climb the hills with a comfortable driving position and cruise control really takes the strain out of longer trips. I'm not great at reversing though and have parallel parked a grand total of twice in 6 months.

I had a weekend away in the Lake District with family, mainly to go walking and get away from from work. The early starts were very rewarding as I love the peace and tranquility found before the world rises.

My latest photo "Tide" from my trip to Spurn Head received both the Editors Highly Commended Award and the Guest Editors award on the online photo site, Ephotozine.

Peak District Information, the oldest established web guide for all things Peak District, have been good enough to add my site to their Photography Links section.

Please feel free to visit my Links section for their details and have a look through Peak District Information.

The hot start to September coupled with the cooler evenings has created some great conditions for ground mist in the Peak District.

These are very photogenic conditions but also challenging to capture as the mist can easily be the brightest part of the scene and prone to overexposing the highlights.

I always blend different exposures, if needed, to ensure that the full dynamic range of the scene is captured.