Taking the “heavier” camera had seemed like a lot of weight to carry up the mountain at first, especially after the previous day’s much lighter load of just 450D and 20mm lens. But the conditions (and activity) couldn’t be more different.

On the Saturday, as the last remaining patches of snow on the rock to the left of the 4th belay on Nethermost Gully, went drip, drip, drip, I contemplated the forecast that predicted sunny blue skies for the afternoon. That wasn’t to be – dull grey cloud, clag that threatened to descend into the route, and that really cold-feeling temperature just above freezing was the order of the day. And that meant soft conditions underfoot and under axe. Fortunately the hardest move of the route – a short steep section over an underlying band of rock – was in the best condition of anything on the route – solid and providing good placements for both ice axe and crampons. We’d been warned of soft snow by others in our group who’d been out on the hills on Friday, and taking this route – an easy winter climb near to Striding Edge – we also encountered plenty of it, and rather scarily signs of some old avalanche debris. But perhaps the upside of that was that we had the entire corrie to ourselves, while Striding Edge above looked fairly busy!

Quite apart from the conditions, I was a little apprehensive about the route at the start – I still had a completely irrational fear that the ice axe wouldn’t be any help in stopping me if I fell. So the first order of the day was to do a few ice axe arrests. Despite the softness of the snow I didn’t move more than a couple of inches on any attempt, and that’s put a positive thought in my head to counter the illogical fears. (I had a bit of an epic last summer, but that was on an unexpected steep snow/ice slope without ice axe and crampons – quite different, but the head wasn’t willing to accept the logic over its fear without further proof). So reaching the summit was a real confidence booster, despite the weather. We looked at descending Striding Edge for the route back, but now unroped, the confidence was less sure in such soft conditions at the start of the steep descent, and instead opted for Swirrel Edge.

It was only later in the day, back in the George Starkey Hut, that we heard from one of our party that they’d seen someone (not in our group) falling on the descent. Not Striding Edge, which we’d backed off, but on Swirrell. Fortunately it sounds like they probably weren’t badly hurt (our party was too far away to really know) and only went a fairly short distance, although the distance quoted was beginning to bear resemblance to fishing tales, increasing with every telling!

On the Sunday, the promised cold snap with blue skies and sunshine finally arrived. The soft snow of Saturday was nowhere to be seen, replaced with that lovely crisp crunching sound underfoot, and occasional clear patches of sheet ice – always fun to romp over in spikey cramponed feet!

Even the potentially long slog up the hillside at the start of St Sunday Crag had amazing views of Ullswater, which was almost looking like a millpond, with only the steamer causing a tide of ripples as it arrived at the jetty. Rising further up the views opened out to give some fantastic panoramas across to Hellvelyn and Nethermost Cove on the right, down to Grizedale Tarn ahead, and eventually out over Deepdale and Dove Crag to the left.

“Dawdling” wasn’t a fair word in such amazing conditions, but I will admit to being slow – there were just too many awesome images for the taking. And it proves that dawn and dusk aren’t always needed for stunning landscape photography. Sometimes in the mountains, especially in winter when the sun doesn’t get too high in the sky at any point, the middle of the day gives a more even light without the harsh blocky shadows that earlier and later times can bring.

We eventually summited Fairfield, and continued via Hart Crag, where the long lens finally got to try and play with a few camera-shy choughs before descending via Hartsop above How. We’d originally only planned to have a short day out over St Sunday Crag and down via Grizedale Tarn, but conditions like that are rare enough that they couldn’t be cut short. My trip to Antarctica and New Zealand (while being fantastic) was perhaps unfortunately timed, given the fantastic winter conditions the UK has had this year, but yesterday was a very welcome catch-up on these cracking winter conditions in the UK.

Blackpool in a soft haze caused by golden sunlight struggling through winter sea fog

I’ve just given a talk entitled “A Photographer’s Journey” to a couple of image clubs in Derbyshire. (These differ from the more commonly found camera clubs as their main purpose is not to compete (either individually or against other clubs), but instead the main ethos of the club is to discuss and learn from images, especially those produced by their members.)

Although the two audiences were very different (one was very easy to engage within the talk, while the other enjoyed the talk very quietly, although talking to individuals afterwards, it seems with at least as much interest) it was an exciting experience, and builds upon a few talks I’ve given to camera clubs and other organisations in Derbyshire over the last couple of years.

The talk works on two levels, it’s primarily about travel photography of the landscape and wildlife variety, and it also relates the journey I’ve made myself as a professional photographer over the past few years.

The talk starts with a few of my early images, such as this image of Blackpool (left) which is one of the earliest I took where I knew for certain that the image would work before I pressed the shutter button. Contrary to the opinions of one long-ago camera-club judge – who shall be nameless to protect the guilty(!) – it’s not a photoshop creation – it was winter sunlight through a thin fogbank that gave such an amazing colour to the image! But it’s still one of my best sellers to date.

The talk covers many locations I’ve been fortunate to visit, fairly briefly in the first half, before concentrating in more depth on an epic journey across the Top End (North) and Far Side (West) of Australia over 3 months in 2008 and the Spanish Sierra Nevada which I “discovered” as an awesome location for tuition last year in the second half. By popular request, I’ve also managed to squeeze in a few icy landscapes, and scarily cute penguins from my very latest trip to Antarctica.

I’m very happy to come and give my talk elsewhere – please contact me to discuss it further (I’m pretty reasonable with costs, especially in the Derbyshire area or if its an area that I’d be visiting anyhow at that time)

I’ve been very fortunate to get out to Madeira twice in the last couple of years to photograph it’s first two walking festivals, and although I’d visited this wonderful island before, it was another reminder of how wonderful the scenery is. Which of course, isn’t just about walks on levadas as many people imagine, there are also some amazing mountain ridgeline walks and coastal scenery as well.

But I’ve just heard some good news from the main hotel that I’ve stayed in while on Madeira. Despite being located perilously close to one of the three main rivers that burst their banks in Funchal, André Barreto, the General Manager of the Estalagem Quintinha de São João, reports that although it’s obviously been a scary event for them, they have escaped “relatively unscathed” and that there is a positive side to the aftermath. He says that the Madeiran islanders have gained real pride in their community and nation, especially in the way the whole community is really pulling together to repair the damage done. And although:

Funchal 3 days after the storms and mudslides - recovering in the sun

Walking through the streets on Sunday was like walking through a war zone – today it is a completely different story.  Bit by bit, our precious Funchal is emerging like a Phoenix out of the ashes.  People are moving in unison, youngsters are striving to clear the debris from the streets, businesses are opening and the sun is shining.  Even the excursions, jeep safaris and levada walks are up and running again so we have hope. (André Barreto, Estalagem Quintinha de São João)

It’s really good to hear from people after such an event, to hear that the community is really pulling together to repair the physical damage, and at the same time fostering an even greater sense of community spirit than was already one of the good things about Madeira.

Although obviously there will be some disruption in places for some time to come (for example while repairs to footpaths are carried out and the need to boil water before drinking while water mains are repaired) it sounds like the whole community has pulled together remarkable well to get the major infrastructure back up and running, including public transport in Funchal, electricity and water supply to the whole island, and road repairs, and I wish them all the best in getting back on their feet.

The best thing that can be done for Madeira now is to visit and see how well things have recovered, as the most important thing now for most of the people and businesses that have been struck by the floods and put themselves back together again, is to be able to earn their living again after such a natural disaster.

The Madeira Islands Tourism website is the place to go to find out which footpaths are affected – as of 23rd Feb, only 7 out of 19 were badly affected, with two of the most popular walks – the Levada25 Fontes and Vereda do Areeiro being listed as in good condition.

And to that end, if you are interested in a photographic trip to Madeira visiting some of Madeira’s secret landscapes over the late summer/early autumn, please do get in touch and I’ll endeavour to arrange a small group week trip out there.

I’ve recently joined a few direct protests on unfair use of images by organisations and corporations. This isn’t normally something that I’ve got too involved in, but perhaps coming back from somewhere as wonderful as Antarctica has thrown things into perspective a bit. This isn’t a bandwagon, it’s my livelihood at stake!

But I’ve just heard that Great British Life (published by Archant Magazines) have listened to us professional photographers and done the right thing. They recently sent out a request for photographers to “share their best photos”, which had some unfriendly rights-grabbing T&Cs attached. I’ve now heard via Chris Barton, owner of Photographers Direct (one of the agencies I market my images through) that they have listened to us (many British professional photographers with support from The British Institute of Professional Photography, Copyright Action and Pro Imaging’s Bill of Rights) and changed their T&Cs.

Now I’m no lawyer, but the new set seem to be very reasonable now, with the rights gained on any image submitted for a competition seeming to be limited to use in connection with the just the competition. Specifically they say

You will retain copyright and if we wish to use your photograph for any other purpose Archant will ask your permission and obtain your consent before doing so. Any commercial opportunities that arise following the publication of the submitted photograph will be notified to You, and You will be free to negotiate terms independently.

This is great news, and it’s also really great to hear of a company (which provides so many opportunities for professional photographers to make a living through its publishing business) not just listening to us, but also acting on our concerns with alacrity. Well done Archant and Great British Life!

But we’re fighting back – check Great British Life out to see how Photographers Direct (a fair-trade image library for photographers that I’m a contributor to) is tackling the latest – the Great British Life website that gives Archant magazines a free source of images!

In their words the program “supports the healing process with high quality art,which helps to create a therapeutic environment and a place in which patients, visitors and staff can engage positively with their surroundings”

My work was selected for the September 2009 – March 2010 exhibition, and comes down on 4th March.  So if you haven’t seen it on the 4th Level near the renal care unit, then this is your last chance. It features some of my best landscape images from Derbyshire.

Sounds far fetched? If we were talking about cars I’m sure it would be. There would have been far more hue and cry about it. But this is exactly what is happening to professional photographers in the UK. The Government is introducing a Digital Economy Bill which is racing through the Lords and is likely to be passed before the next General Election. And that ain’t so far away.

This Bill has already generated some hue and cry for being badly drafted in other areas – for example Stephen Fry and TalkTalks campaign against the Digital Economy Bill’’s proposal to make the owner of an internet connection liable for any “freeloading” (ie “borrowing” of their connection, often via wifi and without their knowledge) that downloads illegal software or music. But what seems to have got swept under the carpet so far is that this Bill effectively destroys the business of all professional photographers. That’s those folks who create wonderful landscape images, those folks who illustrate magazines and coffee table books with images you like to see, people who illustrate walks for magazines – people similar to me in fact – and if you need further inducement, it also includes those folks who photograph the sporting action to appear in your daily newspaper!

How? Read on here…

So what can be done to help?

Four things above all:

• Sign a No10 petition specifically about the issue of lack of penalty in the Bill for “Orphaning” copyright images to cause them to become “Orphan Works”.
• Write to your MP – a useful template letter is here: http://copyrightaction.com/digital-economy-bill-mp-letter-template
  This sums up the arguments very well, although MPs will nearly always take far more notice if you personalise it, explain how your business will be hit, and so on. If you don’t know how to contact your MP, look at http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/ – just enter your postcode.

• Get everyone you know talking about the problem of Orphan Works and the Digital Economy Bill, and how it affects them.

• Always watermark any images placed on the internet in such a way that it cannot be removed by thieves.

Oh and in case you were thinking it only is an issue for pro photographers, actually it hits all amateurs as well. Amateurs are least likely to have the copyright information embedded in metadata and a strong visible watermark embedded across their image. And amateurs are more likely to post their images to photosharing sites and social networking sites on the web. What better place for that organisation that doesn’t want to pay for their images to go hunting?

For more info you could do worse than look up the Creative Rights Alliance

Quite simply a creative work which has lost the information that would tell a viewer who created it.

Why are Orphan Works a problem for Photographers?

Because in the case of digital photographs, the information on who created (and owns the Copyright in) the image is scarily easy to remove. Some software does it automatically, without any knowledge of the user. Some less scrupulous operators remove it deliberately for their own purposes. However it happens, once that information on who the copyright holder is has gone, the image is an Orphan Work. And that puts it squarely in the sights of the the Digital Economy Bill, which the Government wants to enact. Which allows thieves to use that image with impunity.

Once an image becomes an Orphan Work, then it’s effectively free for the Government to licence at whatever rate they determine (which is very unlikely to take into account the true cost of producing that image by the creator), and hold the money in the (unlikely) event that the original creator discovers the use of their work. (Creator, as it’s not just photographers this affects, though it affects us the most). Meaning that unscrupulous operators can easily remove the identifying information then use the image without paying the creator the money that funds their business in creating such images.

And that can also be for uses that were never intended, and would never be licensed by the original creator. For example an image that was taken for use in a magazine to illustrate a specific point, with a great deal of context around it. That image once “Orphaned”, may then be licensed by the Government, with effective impunity, for advertising eg the BNP or a religious cult, or an embarrassing medical product or a campaign against AIDS to think of a few things that most folks may not want their image being used to advertise!

In a nutshell, it makes a complete mockery of any business that creates and licences images – and photographers and image libraries have every reason to be very worried by this Bill. After all, in an article to the British Journal of Photography, Paul Brown, BAPLA’s chairman puts it very succinctly “Imagine a photographer losing control of every image they shoot. Imagine not being able to instruct anyone how you want your work marketed or respected. Imagine not being paid directly for an image usage, but having to claim for a random share of an unknown pot of money. This is completely untenable and unacceptable.”

Why was the government wanting to introduce legislation over Orphan Works?

You may wonder why the Government would be trying to introduce such a thieves charter. Well, there is a real problem that currently museums and art galleries can’t show some old works of art to the public, for fear of being sued for copyright as they no longer have any way of discovering who the original creator was. However, these are very much the minority and very few people would argue that there shouldn’t be some kind of exception to allow such cultural use. But to extend it to wholesale sale of all images for commercial use by any business is just wrong. And that’s what the Government seems to have expanded an originally noble idea to encompass in their Digital Economy Bill. It’s not the only problem that exists with this Bill, but it is a very critical problem for all photographers – professional and amateur alike – who place their creative works anywhere where a thief can acquire them (especially, but not exclusively, the internet).

So what can I do to help against the photographers nightmare of Orphan Works?

Read here for more info.

Secret Garden B&B, Devonport

Having fallen on my feet with an I-site that’s helpful and knowledgeable in Devonport, I ended up at the one and only affordable B&B in Devonport – the Secret Garden on Eton Terrace. Run by the friendly and knowledgeable Xenia and Tony, it was really nice to have a proper double bed and homely bathroom after so many nights spent in either hostels or basic campsite cabins. Though I think I was quite lucky to get a bed at such short notice for two nights there – they’ve only two rooms and are now fully booked up til March 2010!

But staying in Devonport meant the next day I could visit one of the Huaraki Gulf Islands (the islands in Auckland’s Eastern Bay) – the volcanic island of Rangitoto in fact. Staying in Devonport was a very sneaky move for being close to Auckland City Centre (its only 10mins away by ferry, which runs frequently throughout the day and late into the night) yet being totally out of the city centre hubbub and party hostel scene.

Although there’s no reduction on the cost of the ticket ($NZ25) for the shorter journey, the ferry out to Rangitoto from Auckland stops off at Devonport on the way, making it far more convenient than having to find a day-long parking place in Auckland city centre that doesn’t require a mortgage to pay for it! The journey out to Rangitoto is short, roughly 20mins, but can be quite chilly – often quite a contrast to the heat of scoria-strewn Rangitoto.

Rangitoto is the newest island in the Auckland Bay area, being Auckland’s most recent volcano. Auckland lies on a volcanic hot-spot, part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, and the remnants of previous, but now dormant, volcanoes can be seen all around the city – such as One Tree Hill, Mt Eden, Auckland Domain, Mt Wellington and Northshore’s Mt Victoria. Rangitoto first started to appear roughly 600 years ago and it must have been quite a shock to the Maori inhabitants of the neighbouring Motutapu island to see a new island appearing with violent eruptions just offshore from their settlements.

Early colonising shrub growing on the lava of Rangitoto Island

The island itself, not surprisingly, is largely made up of lava (or the aa variety) and scoria – or volcanic cinder. Related to pumice and basalt, scoria is full of interconnected holes, formed where gas bubbles were trapped in the cooling rock. The inter-connectedness of the gas-bubble holes and the greater density of the rock means that unlike pumice, where the holes tend to trap pockets of air underwater, scoria does not float on water.

Cheeky little waxeye eyeing up some crumbs on the boardwalk

There are several walking tracks on the island, although the early time of the last ferry back (often 1530) and lack of any form of accommodation on the island (although neighbouring Motutapu has a DOC campsite several hours walk away), means that it is hard to do the further or longer walks round the northern or western part of the island. So most folks tend to do the summit track – roughly 1.5 to 2.5 hours return (depending how hot and humid the day is), followed by the crater rim (15-20 mins), a diversion to the lava caves and a couple of other diversions on the way there or back – Kidney Fern Glen, or the historic preserved bachs being some of the more popular side-tracks. The summit walkway gives an excellent view over Auckland on a clear day, and also is home to a whole tribe of cheeky little waxeyes waiting to steal any crumbs you drop!

It’s worth taking plenty of water, sunscreen, sunhat and windproofs. When the sun is out, it can be very hot and humid, and the scoria reflects the UV rays very effectively, making it very easy to get sunburnt here. But when the clouds roll in, and the wind picks up, or it starts to rain, it can feel quite chilly – truly one of those awkward weather destinations where taking all the clothes necessary for all the conditions that might be encountered can make the rucksac unpleasantly heavy! And while it is thought that there is a large lens of fresh ground-water underneath the island, there’s no fresh drinking water on the island at all – it’s too soon for streams to have formed.

Pohutukawa flower, Rangitoto Island

The vegetation is a botanists paradise. Being such a new island this is a fantastic place to see colonisation and evolution in action. There are many unusual varieties of plant already in existence on the island – from the Northern Rata/Pohutukawa tree hybrids to the alpine lichens growing near sea level, whose unique behaviour on Rangitoto is not known anywhere else. And DOC states that Rangitoto has already acquired the largest forest of the red-flowering pohutukawa trees in existence – making it quite a sanctuary for this beautiful but threatened iconic tree of New Zealand.

The island is also undergoing final pest eradication courtesy of DOC – the removal of rats, possums, wildcats and other exotic mammals is  allowing native NZ birds such as the kaka to find a pest-free sanctuary here, in a similar way to Tititiri Matangi island, further north in the Huaraki Gulf.