It’s been a long time, been a long time…

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It’s been too long since last I wrote down my thoughts here, but as I have an article in Trail Magazine’s December issue (in the shops now)which directs folk to this blog I thought I’d better put fingers to plastic as not to disappoint anyone who happens to follow the link.

So, what to write about?

As the leaves are falling in earnest now and the colours of Autumn are starting to lose their lustre I suppose I’d better muse on this most fleeting but beautiful of seasons.

It certainly has been a wonderful 6 weeks or so in Snowdonia where we have enjoyed a fantastic spell of weather after an indifferent Summer. Just the other morning I climbed Glyder Fach, starting at 5am and wearing on my top half nothing but a base layer until I reached the summit, not bad for November!

Each Autumn I promise myself I will prowl around the valleys and sit by rivers and lakes capturing the resplendent colours of the season as almost every landscape photograph will be doing but every year it’s the same and I find myself back on the mountains which are my year-round haunt. I suppose, broadly speaking I am a landscape photographer but I find no satisfaction in photographing anything but the mountains from on high; that’s where my passion lies.

Occasionally I will find my camera pointing toward a lake, river or valley scene but feel no frisson of excitement, unlike when I have toiled and sweated up a hill, never quite knowing of there will be a photographic payoff at the end of it.

Of course, that is not the point of the exercise, that being to climb those hills and rejoice in the high places, thanking my lucky stars that fate led me to this beautiful life here in Snowdonia.

Now, the weather gods are frowning down on us and recalling the debt for all those precious days we have enjoyed. Once more, great light is at a premium and the waiting game begins. However, if I can’t be with the light I love for a while then maybe I should learn to love the light I’m with…

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