What Goes Around, Comes Around.

Cagoules and canvas back-packs are back in; I'll bet that not many of them get worn whilst ice-climbing Ben Nevis these days, though.  This short film was produced for National Geographic by Yvon Chouinard (he of Patagonia fame) back in 1976, featuring famed Scottish climber John Cunningham.  Take 8 minutes sat in front of your screen and, whilst you probably won't end up wishing that you were John wearing a small avalanche on your head half way up a frozen gulley, you'll certainly wish you were outside getting some cold air in your lungs.

Transylvanian Tales

The weekend of All Hallows' Eve seems like the appropriate time to share some photographs from a trip that I took to Transylvania over the summer.  Scroll down for all manner of spooky scenery, snarling animals, scythes and castles, but don't be totally fooled; Transylvania in summer is a wonderful destination for hiking and for every day of mist and rain that we endured we also enjoyed two of summer sunshine strolling in high alpine meadows.  Despite failing my usual primary criteria by not being next to the ocean, I can attest that it's well worth a visit.  

The cross on the mountain top above the town of Busteni is enormous, although it doesn't look it in the top left of this image.

Is Vlad a pig?

Sodden sheep dogs doing their best impressions of hell hounds.

Bram Castle: home of Vlad the Impaler and the inspiration for Dracula's Castle.

The Carpathian Mountains offer some stunning scenery.

Yup, scythes.  Less Grim Reaper and more hay harvest in this case.

Bram Castle.

Carpathian Bears.

Shifting sheep, come rain or shine.

Brasov.  They put a big sign on top of the hill overlooking the town in case you forget.

Transylvanian tracks and trails.

Monochromatic Mountains

In Winter the colours of nature are often desaturated.  The light can be flat and dull, as though your whole world has been placed inside a giant tupperware box.  To me, mountains are a wintery landscape with a colour palette limited to the white of snow and ice over the black of rock.  If the sky is not bright blue but neutral grey instead, then the whole scene appears to our eyes in black and white.  There aren't many occasions as a photographer when you get to compose an image on monochromatic film seeing it  through the viewfinder more or less as you will see it once the film is developed.  Sometimes it's nice to look at the natural world devoid of the distractions of colour and to simply absorb the beauty of tone and texture that become so obvious when we look at things in black, white and shades of grey.

Images from top to bottom:

• Towards Mount Adam
• Avalanche Valley, where I spent a week stranded waiting for the road to be declared safe to pass.
• The Tree Line
• The Southern Alps, South Island, New Zealand