THE HILLS ARE ALIVE
This gallery is, I suppose, a retrospect of the many fantastic years of hillwalking that I once was able to enjoy. Here you will see some of my past comrades in action, along with a few images of myself. Although no longer active on the hills due to illness, injury and lack of fitness, I can still enjoy re-living the experience with the aid of my pictures, guide books, Ordnance Survey maps, a cosy armchair and, last but not least, a generous glass of single malt (usually of west coast origin)!
It may seem strange to start my Gallery Section with a retrospect but, for me, this is also where it all began. As a teenager I tinkered with photography but it wasn't until I started hillwalking in my twenties that I became consumed with a burning passion for capturing the landscapes through which I walked on film, in the best possible light.
Initially, my mountain photography was opportunist, taking any nice scene that I happened to chance upon in my travels. Indeed, I went through a period of ambitious peak bagging when carrying a camera was almost incidental. During this time I completed all 408 summits of 2000 feet or higher in England and Wales, as listed by George Bridge. I became quite fanatical and my own research, using more up to date OS maps that were not available to Bridge, revealed a number of summits that were absent from his list. These trips were often undertaken at weekends, with longer holidays reserved for Munro bagging north of the border. I completed just over half of these before a succession of knee injuries intervened.
Recognising that I needed to moderate my hillwalking, my attention returned to concentrating on the views rather than the tick-lists. Indeed, many of my subsequent forays to the hills were planned specifically around being at a particularly photogenic location at the right time, often necessitating a high level camp to be there for sunset or sunrise.
By then I had come full circle; with the peak bagging obsession exorcised from my system I was able to concentrate on what had initially attracted me to the mountains, the views.
That philosophy has stayed with me despite no longer being able to venture far into the hills. Nowadays I have the same passion for capturing more humble locations in extraordinary light, often right on my doorstep in my native Essex.