Memorable Moments
Well it's that time of year - a time for tedious round ups and look backs over the last 12 months! I'm normally a little disdainful of that sort of activity, preferring to live, as I always do, in the moment and looking forward to what might come to excite in the future. However when I sat to write a new post my mind kept pulling me back into the the last 12 months, reminding me that there really have been some big personal milestones and that maybe they ought to be highlighted ... so here goes
Blue is the Colour
I've been a Spire-ite all my life and so absolutely have to start with an homage to the mighty blues of Chesterfield FC and our remarkable promotion back to the Football League in April 2024.
One thing I really miss by living over in the USA is my home town and its professional footballI team. The anticipation of a match, the opportunity to meet a few mates in the pub before the game, the thrill of seeing the floodlights as you walk to the ground, the noise and excitement of the crowd as you patiently wait for the game to start - The whole experience of a match day in years past has always been about the build up to a game, but for 10 glorious months it also became about the game itself as the Blues both dominated and romped away with the league... heady stuff!!
So to celebrate I thought a few "blue" photographs would be appropriate!
After a glorious sunrise the humidity in the atmosphere creates perfect conditions for some early morning haze
It turns out that I really like a silhouette to go with my subtle blue layers!! These images were all taken during my travels in 2024. Castles on the English coast, Catskill mountain layers and ethereal New Hampshire reflections.
The blues of twilight provide the best opportunities to render the landscape into its most basic form and I really relish the opportunity to get to a location as early as possible. All of these photos except one were taken during the twilight hour - can you spot the one that wasn't, and any guess as to what part of day it was taken? (leave me a comment to let me know)
Chasing dreams in the night
I’m not a massively enthusiastic night-time photographer and although I have photographed comets, stars, the Milky Way, I normally prefer a bit of light to work by. 2024 was a bit different though, first off there was the eclipse, and whilst I didn't head north to be in totality I did spend a real nice day up on Alander mountain in 95% totality. I wrote a blog post about that so if you fancy a read I put a convenient link below this paragraph. Then there was that night in Acadia when I actually managed to get Nate to come out with me so he could stand around in the dark getting bored whilst I attempted the perfect semi cloudy, coastal night photograph. Then there was night hiking in the Catskills and a peculiar post sunset glow in the clouds on Acra Point. Finally there was the Aurora - and wow what an experience that was!!
The Pull of Home
Where exactly is home... you know, that place, deep in your soul where you belong. Is it where you were born, or grew up, or where you pay your taxes, or went to university, or is it time spent with family, or something else entirely? If you were to ask me I don't think I could give a definitive answer. Yes, for sure my soul is English and I long for the familiarity that I feel when I am at that home - those hills, those views, all that history, driving on the left, cars with a manual gearbox, petrol not gas, Saturday football, bustling town centres and now I've spelt centre don't get me started on proper English spelling!!! But home?? I've lived in the USA now for over 15 years and love Nate, my house, my village, my business, my gallery. It's a different sort of home to that over the Pond, but nevertheless it is home and tbh life couldn't be any better right now. So here's a few images that I've pulled together from my nostalgic trip home to England back in April.
There is always an Adventure waiting in the woods
Something I've been absorbed with for a couple of years now has been an ongoing exploration in the Catskill Mountains and 2024 will stay in my memory as a pivotal year because of a couple of notable developments - I've conquered vertigo when climbing fire towers and I've discovered the magical warmth from using a multitude of toe warmers when Winter camping in sub zero temperatures!! What a year to be alive!! 😀
I'll be honest when I started the project I thought the photography would be routine and easy, but I couldn’t have been more wrong!! The Catskills have developed my photography, refined the way I look at light, the way I think about composition, they’ve taught me to read the weather a little better and they've taught me how to work quickly in the cold at the top of a fire tower!!!. It’s become quite the adventure
And Finally
There's been a lot of moments this year which really took my breath away - if you were with me as I jumped up and down then I'm really sorry!!! If I was on my own then what happened between me and my camera stays with me and my camera.......
This is Rands View on the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut. It's somewhere that I've long wanted to see, but for some reason, until October I've always chosen somewhere else to hike. It was one of those unseasonably warm days that we've had so many of this year and as I descended down from what had been a nice but limited view at the top of Prospect Mountain I didn't really know what to expect. That's the thing about walking in the woods though, there's no sense of the topography until, blam, it opens out into this huge, magnificent meadow and a vista that is seemingly endless. I don't know who Rand was and I don't know who maintains the view, but it is maintained and they surely deserve a medal. If it was in England there would be a stately home somewhere laying claim to the manicured landscape, instead as I sat and ate my lunch all I could see was a farm off in the distance and a lone bear enjoying the sunshine thankfully at the lower end of the field from me. Now I've dug the photos out and reminded myself of this magnificence I really need to get back there to practice more photography!!!
This was taken not long after sunrise one morning last January. It's the view looking down Platte Clove towards the Hudson Valley and it was simply stunning that morning. I was on my way to a hike at Windham Mountain but as I drove I knew that I just had to stop somewhere to record what I was seeing, because it was so breathtakingly beautiful. Down in the valley there was no snow, admittedly I'd been driving in the dark but I swear there was absolutely nothing. Sunrise came as I got closer to the mountains and I could see that there was an abrupt snowline somewhere around an elevation of 2000 feet. Route 23a from Palenville up to Tannersville is a beautiful drive at any time of year but wow that morning when I hit that elevation it was something else, like stepping into the wardrobe and on into Narnia with the lion and the witch!!
As a footnote the hike up Windham was pretty epic too, but with low clouds obscuring the views from the summit that's something that I have on my list for 2025, so you'll just have to watch this space for them!
In the last few years I've spent many sunrises up on Cat Rock high above Pawling. However I don't think it will matter if I never make it up there again, as the conditions that morning were bucket list material. First of all I love a good inversion and when I checked the forecast the night before I was hopeful for a bit of mist in the valley along with a notable amount of cloud to make for an interesting sunrise. As I locked the car and crossed the road to the trail I could see that there was a bit of moisture in the air and hoped that the forecast would prove to be accurate. Half an hour later and nearing the ledges twilight was giving way to golden hour I knew I'd made a good decision. When I got to the view what I saw took my breath away, the valley was completely socked in but the undercast was moving and swirling, creating interesting shapes and making islands of trees on the adjacent hillside. I knew that once the sun came up and spread its light on the surface of the mist the results could be epic. The spectacle lasted almost 2 hours that morning and I took an awful lot of photographs (Some have already been shared in a previous blog post if you want to see more) the one I've shared above was taken towards the end of my morning up there and what I really like is the old grain silo which I've place just off the centre of a vertical, portrait format image
So there you have it, my tedious look back at a memorable 12 months - if you've read this far thank you for sticking with with me and supporting my efforts this year
All that remains is for me to wish you and yours all the very best for 2025 and a hope for peace, prosperity and happiness
Finally perhaps you’d like to help me in my quest to bring you interesting landscape photography? I regularly hike and backpack in the dark in order to get to or from a location. To keep me caffeinated and awake please consider buying me coffee…. Thank you