Birdwatching at Gibraltar Point
My brother James Roddie is down from Scotland for a few days, so we paid a visit with our dad to the local nature reserve of Gibraltar Point for an afternoon of birdwatching. You may know James as a talented nature and landscape photographer from the Black Isle near Inverness.
Ordnance Survey print-on-demand mapping: first look
Inspired by Gilad Nachmani’s recent article on home-printing your own OS maps, I decided to give it a go. I think it’s a viable and affordable option, with a few caveats. Until recently, there were only two mainstream ways of getting maps for the outdoors: buy a purpose-made
How to photograph the moon
Have you ever tried to take pictures of the moon with a smartphone or compact camera and got disappointing results? Here’s how to take crisp, detailed shots of the moon. There are three reasons why smartphones and small compact cameras aren’t very good at taking moon shots. 1.
Twitter journalism and mountain tragedy
When people die in the mountains, some journalists are more interested in soundbites than in facts – and so they turn to Twitter for their sources. Today has not been a good day in the Scottish hills. From the outdoor news sources I follow, it would appear that three distinct incidents
Spring arrives
After a stormy but mild winter, spring is returning to the Lincolnshire Wolds. Today I went for a walk through Gunby Park and saw a robin hunting for its next meal. I hadn’t been looking to do any wildlife photography. My attention was on the snowdrops bursting through the
Sidetracked Volume Six is here
Sidetracked Volume Six Shipping Now My copies of Sidetracked Volume Six just landed on my desk, and I think the cover is one of the most striking we’ve produced. Copies are shipping now. It’s a must-read if you’re into exploration, mountaineering, or adventure travel. In the unknown
Going paperless in the hills – how feasible is it?
In 2016, is it yet feasible to leave the paper maps at home when you go into the mountains? After a recent hardware failure, I don’t think we’re quite there yet. Paperless. It’s been the dream for decades, hasn’t it? At home, and in the office,
Thoughts on #RIPTwitter
Twitter should stop throwing stuff at the wall to see if anything sticks, and instead focus on its true identity – and its core users. I’ve been a member of Twitter (@alex_roddie) since 2009. I didn’t really get it until at least 2012, but my following slowly grew.
A few photos from the Ben Alder area
My trip to the Ben Alder area this week was a success! There was plenty of snow when I left Corrour Station on Wednesday morning, but the weather was pretty good and I succeeded in climbing the Munros Carn Dearg and Sgor Gaibhre before spending the night at Ben Alder
Sidetracked Volume Six is available to pre-order
We have finished work on the sixth printed volume of Sidetracked, the adventure-travel magazine, and it’s now available for pre-order. I think it’s one of the best we’ve produced yet. In the unknown we find the essence of fear. In the darkness of what we can’t