The Bushcraft Days 2018 Calendar Shots

“dedicated to my wife Alison”

For the last few years my wife Alison has compiled a calendar from my photography to give out as presents to our close family. Alison is both a Publisher and an author and she inspires me each year to get out there and photograph life around me – so this blog post is dedicated to my wife Alison .

Looking at the pictures in the calendar they have brought back some great memories of the last year.

January 18

We spent a day visiting our friend Molly from the Field Farm Project earlier this year where I spotted Henrietta the Hen (no idea if this is her name) wandering amongst the Daffodils.

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January 18 – Henrietta the Hen

February 18

Anther trip was to Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove (went twice in 2017). As the sea was so calm on the first trip I had to get really down low to get any sort of wave action in Lulworth Cove.

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February 18 – Lulworth Cove High Seas

March 18

I took lots of wild flower pictures this year however I decided to see what the underside of a Snowdrop looked like – I was pleasantly surprised at the green stripes and the shear number of petals.

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March 18 – Snowdrop in the Hand

April 18

On a trip to Chesil Beach to meet my friends Fraser (Coastal Survival) and Dougie (an ex army buddy of mine) we spent time as a family building a Beach Henge. We came across one of these structures years ago on Chesil so decided to build our own.

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April 18 – Beach Henge

May 18

This year I got myself a new phone – a Samsung S7 and I decided to test out its zoom abilities. The Stitchwort flower below was probably only a centimetre in diameter so you could say I was happy with the phone.

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May 18 – Stitchwort in Profile

June 18

Throughout the year we take time to head out into the woods as a family. This shot was in our local woods at Pamber Forest – I must admit to emphasising the blues a bit but I did like the effect this had on the trees.

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June 18 – Family Bimbles

July 18

July found me in Ashdown Forest with the Sea Cadets. In between classes I found time to stalk a herd of wild ponies, Using my phone I managed to get this cracker of a skyline as the sun was setting.

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July 18 – Ashdown Ponies

August 18

August was holiday time and every couple of years we spend time in Brittany with our friend Rick. There are great beaches on the Breton coastline however we did find time to do a bit scrambling at Pénestin.

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August 18 – Brittany Beaches

September 18

September is a busy time for me with the Cadets and although this picture was not taken in that month it does epitomise to me the adventures we have. I was working as a Mountain Leader Safety Officer with the Royal Marines Cadets on  the Brecon Beacons earlier in the year doing a mountain night nav when I managed to snap this shot as the sun was setting. It was a long night on the mountains but everyone came off safely and had a great time.

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September 18 – Marines on the Moor

October 18

My son Finlay is 9 years old now and had expressed interest in getting out into the hills a bit more. In October I took him along with me on a Gold DofE Expedition in the Peak District. Needless to say Finlay showed no fear of heights while exploring Kinder Scout.

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October 18 – Father and Son time

November 18

My daughter Catherine has not expressed that same wish for roaming the hills however she is extremely happy roaming the woods. I loved the colours of this winter shot in our local woods near The Vyne National Trust property.

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November 18 – Golden Girl

December is winter time and although I was wishing for snow in Southern England there was not much to be had. This shot was taken earlier in the year on the side of Pen Y Fan in the Brecon Beacons. We were there to celebrate the Dining Out Weekend for our friends Perry and Graham.

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December 18 – Brecon with the Boys

Cover Picture

This was a tough one for me but Alison decided on this shot of a Swan taking off from the River Thames. I was delivering a course at my friend John Kelly’s Sea Cadet Unit – TS Black Swan and decided to spend a half hour seeing what life was going on on the Thames – a good half hour I think.

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Cover Picture – A Thames Evening

Thanks Alison for taking the time to putting this Calendar together – without you I know it would never happen.

Cheers

George

 

Memorable Moments 2015 – Winter

I tend to put what I think are interesting photographs I have taken up on my Instagram account and as I was looking through it tonight certain ones caught my eye and brought back some good memories.

Memorable Moments will be a short series of themed posts of pictures that I enjoy looking at time and again.

Starting with last winter I was strolling along a path in North Wales and was struck by the simple beauty of this footpath marker – reminded me of a sugared bun.

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Marking the way

While walking with a group of Sea Cadet friends below the summit of Snowdon a shepherd appeared out of the mist and stood by us. He did not look at us or speak to us. He just stopped, surveyed the land around him, spotted his sheep and was then off – quite a surreal moment where I instantly was reminded that one persons playground is another persons workplace.

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Work and play

Late January brought the Snowdrops out and as I was practising my macro photography I was soon out and about looking at these beautiful flowers.

I somehow managed to catch this one in the right light and our local magazine thought it good enough to make the cover page in last February’s issue.

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Simple beauty

I love taking my kids out into the woods to explore and we have some great adventures. My son Finlay though was stopped in his tracks by a simple feather that was caught up on a branch.

I came along to see what he had found and snapped this little pic of him admiring some simple beauty in nature.

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An eye on nature

My final picture in this winter theme is staged I am afraid. I was walking along in the woods looking for an interesting shot when I spotted this rather skeletal leaf on the ground.

I was so taken with it that I picked it up for a closer look and inadvertantly looked at it with the sun in the background – so in no time it was hanging off a branch for what I think is a pretty good pic.

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Winter skeletons

Thats it for the Winter Memorable Moments however there will be a few more soon.

Cheers

George