The Ian McChesney-designed Tree House, in south-east London, is featured in RIBA Journal's Products in Practice supplement. A couple of my photos are used, taken last October when the leafy neighbourhood still had its leaves on.
BAFTA Scotland win for Britain's Whale Hunters
'Britain's Whale Hunters: The Untold Story' won Best Factual Series at the BAFTA Scotland Awards last week. I'm chuffed to have my name on the award alongside the fantastic team I worked with on location in South Georgia and back in the UK.
This is us, up in the mountains behind Stromness whaling station, recreating the last miles of Shackleton, Worsley and Crean's epic trek across the island to salvation in 1916.
Left to right: Will Anderson, executive producer/sound recordist/serial BAFTA winner; Tom Beard, multi-talented director/producer/cameraman; Andy Black of the South Georgia Government, keeping us safe; Adam Nicolson, presenter/author/gentleman; and yours truly.
Turner Contemporary, Margate
I was in Margate earlier this week. As we drove into town in the late afternoon, the sky was a leaden grey and it was raining lightly. I walked along to the Turner Contemporary with my camera thinking that the light grey building against the dark grey sky and mid grey sea would be a rhapsody in grey-ness. But then the sun dipped below the clouds and set the sky on fire.
The Tree House, South East London
The Tree House is a 5 bedroom house clad in black glass, designed by Ian McChesney and completed this year. It's been written about this week in The Architect's Journal (£) and Dezeen.
It's in a leafy South-east London conservation area, and when I took some photos of it earlier this week, it was doing a beautiful job of reflecting the clear blue sky and autumn leaves surrounding it.
If you really really like it, you can snap it up for for £1.75million at The Modern House Ltd.
Hare tracks, Kamchatka.
Footprints before sunrise, Kamchatka
I've been organising old photo libraries and this is one that never saw the light of day before, but I like it. We were at the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula, trying to film eagles for Frozen Planet, which wasn't going very well - it's one of those filming trips that never made it to screen. It's one of the snowiest places on earth, and this early morning walk took me to a junction of overnight hares.
Up-close in our garden
All taken on Canon 5D mkIII + Canon 100mm 2.8 on an unsuitably gusty evening. All credit for the flowers goes to my green-fingered wife.
Thrift
Astrantia
Alstroemeria
The best view in Britain?
in Life, Photography, Mountains, Scotland
At Easter 2013, we climbed a mountain in Scotland that is reputed to have one of the best views in Britain. Although, most of the UK was covered in cloud that weekend, up in the far northwest of Scotland we had truly amazing weather. The view was indeed mind-boggling, taking in the Torridon Hills to the south, foreground lochs, the sea out to the west, and the islands of Raasay, Skye and Lewis. There were a lot of heather fires burning in this area at the time, and you can see one on the right of the picture.
We've just had the photo printed big for the living room wall, so I thought I'd write a bit about how we got there, just in case you fancy having a go yourself. Just be warned that it rains over 200 days a year here!
The view south from A'Mhaighdean. Canon 5D III, 17-40mm, handheld, 8 images stitched in Autopano Pro
Click here for a really big, zoomable version of this photo at Gigapan
The mountain in question is A'Mhaighdean. It's the 187th tallest mountain in Scotland, and from the east a very easy climb, but it's one of the hardest places in Britain to get to, as it is further from a public road than any other of the Munros. It's deep in the Fisherfield Forest, which despite it's name has very few trees, but is a remote and very amazing corner of the country.
We got to the summit of A'Mhaighdean over 2 days, coming in from the north with a night at Shenavall Bothy. We briefly considered doing the whole 'Fisherfield Six' - a ring of six mountains, five of which are Munros. But given the snow and ice we thought we'd take it more easy and cut out 4 of them: thankfully we weren't trying to tick Munros off a list.
The map below shows our route - from the road at Dundonnell House it took about 2.5 hours to walk to the bothy, laden with carrier bags of food and a 5 litre bag of red wine. The next day, we set off from the bothy about 7am, and were on the summit of A'Mhaighdean about midday. The view was so gob-smacking that even midday sun couldn't hurt it too much.
The walk back to the bothy (which isn't on the map), took in Ruadh Stac Mor with more epic views. The next day we climbed Beinn Dearg Mor - a beautiful mountain but just too small to be a Munro - and after refuelling ourselves in civilsation we climbed An Teallach a couple of days later. Some say An Teallach is the most beautiful mountain in Britain, and again, I whole-heartedly agreed. I might get around to a blog about that one too, eventually...
Shenavall Bothy. Facilities: roof, fireplace, spade, nearby stream. Location: priceless.
We bagsied a private room at the bothy. Overnight temperature was about 3°C
Setting off for A'Mhaighdean, crossing the river just south of the bothy. We were heading up the valley on the right.
Heading south up the valley, that's Beinn Tarsuinn in the distance, and A'Mhaigdean is behind the right-hand lump. For observant spatial-reasoning ninjas, yes I actually took this photo in the afternoon on the way home.
Looking east from the flanks of A'Mhaighdean, so I think this is (l to r) Sgurr Ban, Mullach Coire Mhic Fhearchair and Beinn Tarsuinn, 3 of the Fisherfield 6.
On the summit of A'Mhaighdean
The view west from Ruadh Stac Mor, which we took in on the way back to the bothy.
Whaling Station images on the Guardian website
The Guardian have published an online gallery of my pictures from South Georgia. They focus on the wildlife that now inhabits the abandoned whaling stations...
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2014/jun/10/britains-whale-hunters-in-pictures
