The Cape Wrath Trail in winter: seeking silence in the Scottish Highlands
Time to announce my big winter project for early 2019. More: * Gear list on Lighterpack * Why go offline – and how? * Resupply plan It’s time to talk about a project I’ve been planning for a while. You may have seen hints on social media or in my newsletter about
What I’ve been reading this week, 7 December 2018
Discovering the natural world, 35 years in mountain rescue, and hiking the PCT… Outdoors and photography Discovering the natural world – to infinity and beyond! – “A few years ago I’d never have spent a whole morning watching geese. It just wouldn’t have occurred to me to do so, and
What I’ve been reading this week, 30 November 2018
Christmas gifts for hikers, a too-perfect picture, why we need local adventures, and the best sleeping bag for winter backpacking… Books I have finished Ubik by Philip K. Dick (what a book) and have started You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier. Outdoors and photography 50 Crappy but practical
Autumnal dreamscapes with the Pentax Super-Takumar 55mm f/2
A classic vintage prime lens with a distinctive aesthetic A few weeks ago, Mum found yet another bag full of my dad’s camera gear in a wardrobe. As I wrote in my eulogy, Ian Roddie liked photography and had many cameras, but we thought we’d already sorted through
What I’ve been reading this week, 24 November 2018
This is really what I’ve been reading over the last couple of weeks, as I was in Kendal last weekend so didn’t get the chance to post. Some interesting links for you this week. Books I am currently reading Ubik by Philip K. Dick – incredibly, my first by
The solastalgia of mountaineering
I’d last been up there ten years before. The landscape looked very different then, the snowfields more extensive, the light a purer white. I returned a decade wiser, weighed down with knowledge of what humanity was doing to these mountains that I loved, and so my sunset from the
The Poet, embracing infinity
Yesterday, I succeeded in creating an image I’ve been visualising for several years. Since 2014, I’ve been fascinated by a local landmark that makes an excellent photographic subject. It’s a magnificent dead tree, a skeleton monument isolated in the middle of the Gunby parkland. Over the years
Introducing the Travel Writer’s Field Guide
The world is full of stories. Write them. Available to pre-order now. The Travel Writer’s Field Guide is an inspirational reference book – a guide to best practice in travel writing, how to write well, how to get published, with tips and advice from magazine editors, bloggers, award-winning journalists and
What I’ve been reading this week, 10 November 2018
British Wildlife Photography Awards, hill tracks, working with brands, and the peace of paper… Outdoors and photography British Wildlife Photography Awards 2018, the winners – in pictures – I attended the awards event and book launch in London this week to celebrate James’s win in the Wild Woods category. The exhibition
New Sidetracked digital feature: No Borders
My latest digital feature for Sidetracked magazine is special – an essay on life and death, mountains and war, lightning and ethereal beauty. I believe it’s some of the best writing I’ve created in 2018, and you can read it now at sidetracked.com/mercantour-traverse/. All mountains have something