Quiet Light: landscape photography by Julian Barkway

Image 'Tsanfleuron' added to gallery 'New Work'

This area of limestone pavement at the top of the Col du Sanetsch is called Tsanfleuron and leads to the Tsanfleuron glacier, visible in the top right of this image.

Image 'Below the summit' added to gallery 'New Work'

This was a difficult exposure to pull off and I'm not sure I have nailed it but I like the composition and I will be back for another 'shot' at it.

Image 'Tind, Lofoten, Norway' added to gallery 'New Work'

Tind is the penultimate settlement along the road that links the islands in the Lofoten archipelago. Since it was also a short walk from our base in the tersely-named village of Ã…, I decided to slip out one evening for a little photography.

Taken at roughly 11pm.

Image 'Washed-up kelp' added to gallery 'New Work'

Kelp, half-buried in the sandy beach at Flakstad in Norway's Lofoten Islands.

Image 'Rock spire' added to gallery 'New Work'

Crossing to the other side of the beach, I found this sea-stack with its little eroded 'window'.

Image 'River DrÃ´me near Chabrillan' added to gallery 'New Work'

Part of the DrÃ´me river, close to the hotel in which we were staying.

Image 'Flysch Cliffs' added to gallery 'New Work'

This was shot very close to the location of the Pink Strata image. I had to wait while several people wandered around the headlynd to my left, leaving unwanted footprints in the wet sand. My solution: wait for the backwash from a powerful wave to cover the signs of a popular beach.

Image 'Young Larch and Rockfall' added to gallery 'New Work'

I was here once before, back in 2017 I think, but then the intention was to hike a lot further down the valley. This time around, I decided to go to the rockfall and take my time and came away with four images in total (no mean feat when shooting with the large-format film camera!) of which two are shown here.

Image 'Autumn Pastoral with Cows' added to gallery 'New Work'

I keep meaning to photograph locations closer to home but often find the many intrusions of modern agriculture to be jarring and a little too ordinary to make for a strong image. On this occasion, I was lucky to catch some low strafing sunlight which, when combined with autumn colours and a small herd of cows quietly ruminating in the shade of a tree, made for a timelessly pastoral scene.

Image 'Rockpool Study 1' added to gallery 'New Work'

The rock formations in and around Lavertezzo in the Verzasca Valley is another place I keep returning to; indeed my first visit must have been in about 2002 and I have returned regularly ever since.

This small part of the larger formation is a spot that I have photographed before and, as ever, the challenge is always to see what new compositions can be wrung out of a familiar location. I was unlucky with the weather, however and the blue sky and full sun I was faced with frustrated me initially. But then I looked closer and saw how the low sun reflected off the pale rock, highlighting texture and form. I made a couple of images in quick succession.

Image 'Nestling' added to gallery 'New Work'

With the formation at Lavertezzo in full sunlight for a couple of hours, I moved a short distance upstream to where a bend in the river meant the sun was obscured by the steep mountains on either side of the valley. After a quick scout using the camera in my phone to play with possible compositions, I returned to the car and brought the large format camera to bear on this scene.

I was attracted by the colours and how the smaller rock was nestling in the seemingly tender embrace of the larger boulders. Sometimes it's hard not to anthropomorphize even when you know you shouldn't.

Image 'Verzasca Flow' added to gallery 'New Work'

One problem with focussing on the smaller details is that you can lose the sense of place in a landscape image. I was therefore keen to get more of a sense of the raw energy of the river into this scene.

Image 'Rockpool Study 2' added to gallery 'New Work'

To quote a popular US TV series from the '80s, 'I love it when a plan comes together!'

This is the same rockpool as in the earlier image and I was keen to return to it when the sun had transitted the valley, hoping that the near mountainside would be lit up while the rock at my feet was in shade. From the earlier image, I had concluded that the most important thing here was to have the reflection of the mountainside coinciding with the small neck of rock separating the smaller pool from the larger one. This both keeps the line of the mountain as unbroken as possible and forms a sort of compositional nexus point, connecting the two main pictorial elements.

Image 'Waterfall' added to gallery 'New Work'

It's funny how you can return to a location many times yet miss some really interesting compositions each time.

While exploring a part of the main formation I hadn't previously considered visiting, I came across this modest waterfall connecting two pools at different levels. With the way the surrounding rock curls around the falls and a useful reflection as well, I saw the potential for a most satisfying image.

Image 'Rockpool Study 3' added to gallery 'New Work'

Looking in the other direction from the previous image, I saw this sort of mini slot-canyon. Here the colours and markings in the gneiss are at their most exquisite but, rather than make a detail image, I decided to show the wider context.

All in all, a productive and extremely satisfying few hours spent in a comparatively small area.

Image 'Leaf and Reflections' added to gallery 'New Work'

I particularly enjoy photographing reflections and it was the single trapped leaf and the brownish reflection of the mountainside on the other side of the valley that caught my eye.

Then I spotted the shape of the reflection in the water...

Image 'Gorges du Doubs' added to gallery 'New Work'

I have visited and revisited most parts of the Gorges du Doubs during my time living in Switzerland and have an enduring love of this unspoilt location.

Image 'Spring in Prague' added to gallery 'New Work'

Just a quiet corner of Prague, photographed from the famous Charles Bridge.

Image 'Dancing House' added to gallery 'New Work'

Frank Gehry desgned this remarkable building along with Czech architect Vlado Milunić. Containing offices, a hotel and has a rooftop restaurant, it was inspired by the dancing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Image 'Chapel of St. Barbara' added to gallery 'New Work'

If you find yourself in Prague, do make a side-trip to the small town of Kutna Hora where this remarkable chapel can be found. The interior is just as quirky and spectacular as the exterior.

Image 'Milky Reflection' added to gallery 'New Work'

I was walking in an area of the Col du Sanetsch I haven't visited before when I saw this milky stream with its reflection of building cloud.

Image 'Praia do Carvalhal' added to gallery 'New Work'

A lovely outcropping of rock iwith a little river running through it towards the sea.

Image 'Rock Strata' added to gallery 'New Work'

Some lovely strata here with a nice transition between igneous and sedimentary rock and quartzite intrusions contrasting with the dark rock.

Image 'Rockpool' added to gallery 'New Work'

Just an attractively shaped rockpool.

Image 'Rock and feather' added to gallery 'New Work'

The feather and the rock were exactly as I found it. I liked how the tones of the rock echoed those of the feather.

Image 'Ray of light' added to gallery 'New Work'

It was a sunny day with barely a cloud in the sky but, luckily, the sun was in just the right position to cause the light to be diffracted by the foliage at the top of the cliff, causing the visible rays to appear.

Image 'Colourful Strata' added to gallery 'New Work'

A lovely contrast between warm and cool tones was what drew me to this intimate composition.

Image 'Praia do Cordoama' added to gallery 'New Work'

I composed the shot then waited for the couple to walk to exactly the right position before pressing the shutter.

Image 'Woman with Red Umbrella' added to gallery 'New Work'

I was walking down the street when I saw this woman with a red umbrella that was making a great contrast with the blue streamers stretched across the street. I only had my smartphone to hand but it was enough to capture the moment.

Image 'Creux du Van' added to gallery 'New Work'

The day dawned dull and grey over Neuchâtel where I was staying but then I remembered that autumn is the season of temperature-inversions. So I headed up to around 1000m and there was this lovely sea of cloud with a famous local landmark standing above it all - and a bit of early autumn colour as well.

Image 'River Reuss' added to gallery 'New Work'

I moved out of the city of ZÃ¼rich at the beginning of the year in search of somewhere less hectic to call home. I was lucky enough to find somewhere very close to the thickly wooded banks of the river Reuss. I often wander along the path here and, this time, I decided to bring along the large format camera.

Image 'Autumn Leaves' added to gallery 'New Work'

I used to live at the edge of the city of ZÃ¼rich and I was always bemoaning the lack of anything photogenic nearby. So I was immensely pleased to find that my new location had no such problems.

For this image, I deliberately chose to work with a narrow depth of focus to create a dreamy, abstract effect.

Image 'Rocky Outcrop near Pujaut' added to gallery 'New Work'

The village of Pujaut sits atop this limestone escarpment which we drove past on our first day in the area. At 6pm on a bright summer's day, it didn't look like much but I did a swift calculation of the sun's probable position at dawn and realised the chances of it being lit by warm early light were high. When I slipped out of the hotel room at dawn the next day to make this image, I was not disappointed.

Image 'Abisko Canyon' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

As we headed towards the Lofoten Islands, we decided to make an overnight stop at Narvik. Narvik itself is a working town with little of interest to anyone other than those enthusiastic about the WW2 battle that took place here. Narvik also happens to be the closest town to Sweden's Abisko National Park and so we drove over to find the whole valley covered in a thick layer of late-eason snow..

Image 'Looking across Haukland Bay' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

Looking across Haukland Bay in Norway's Lofoten archipelago.

Image 'Ice melt' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

My partner decided to make an early night of it, so I ventured out to enjoy the long arctic twilight.

Image 'Standing proud' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

As soon as I spotted this young larch and its smaller companion, I saw the potential of the scene. But how to compose an image? Luckily, close to where I had set up the camera was a rocky ledge, covered in attractive lichens. I moved the tripod, re-composed and ended up making my favourite image of the year. As I was setting up, it started snowing. Not one to let a bit of bad weather spoil a good composition, I carried on working regardless...

Image 'Frosted undergrowth' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

Bad weather, which cleared during the preceding night, left me cursing the blue sky and wondering how I could make such harsh light work photographically. Luckily, the sun had not yet risen high enough to melt the delicate frost on the undergrowth at this location. But I had to work fast...

Image 'Badlands' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

Such outcroppings of clay-based rock are often referred to as 'badlands' in the USA - places where travel is difficult, even on foot, and in which no crops can grow. An unusual and unexpected sight in Europe.

Image 'A street in Mirmande' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

One of the quiet streets in the pretty hillside village of Mirmande.

Image 'Maison Suspendue' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

Pont-en-Royans is noted for its 'maisons suspendues' - houses that are built into the cliffs of the Gorge du Bourne - and this is a detail of one such building.

Image 'Slot Canyon' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

Generally, slot canyons (narrow, straight-sided clefts in rocky outcrops) are associated with the desert southwest region of the USA so it was quite surprising to find a particularly impressive example in Europe (although limestone isn't quite as instantly attractive as the multi-hued sandstone of Arizona and Utah's 'red-rock country').

Image 'Striped forest' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

I was driving over the Julierpass when I had the urge to pee. Needs must, so I turned down a convenient side-road in order to do the necessary - and to take a few photographs.

Image 'Early-season snow' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

I was hiking along the well-trodden path towards the Morteratsch Glacier when I decided, on a whim, to head 'off-piste'. After wading through deep snow wearing standard hiking boots on what turned out to be a snowshoe trail for what seemed like ages, I suddenly saw this scene with yellow larches gently melting into copper-coloured beeches by the Morteratsch river.

Image 'Snow-pillows' added to gallery 'Pick of the year - 2023'

They say that the best camera is the one you have with you and, in this case, that turned out to be my smartphone.

I had come to this location not to take photographs but to go Nordic skiing and to enjoy the fresh snow. However, when the opportunity to make a compelling image presents itself, you have to use whatever is to hand...

Image 'Autumn at La Goule' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

A favourite place of mine, in the shadow of the hydro-electric plant at La Goule. This is the smallest of the three to be found in the Doubs gorge system.

Image 'Autumn at La Goule' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

A day of intermittent light rain provided the perfect conditions for this dramatic image of the gorge below the dam at La Goule.

Image 'Autumn at La Goule' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

At La Goule, the river has been dammed to provide electricity and the resulting reservoir provides a stretch of quiet water, in stark contrast to the wilder parts of the gorge further upstream.

Image 'Spring greens' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

It was the sole flowering tree which drew me to this scene. After that, it was just a matter of arranging the shapes, colours and general chaos of nature into an interesting composition.

Image 'Les Ã‰chelles du Mort' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

I got here just as the golden morning light was turning to the harsh light of midday and I was lucky to capture this while the light was still good.

Image 'Les Ã‰chelles du Mort' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

The name of this section of the gorge means 'ladders of death' and refers to the via ferrata which allows suitably equipped climbers to negotiate the sheer cliffs by means of ladders and steel cables attached to the rock. Not being a climber, my interests lay with the river and the fine display of Autumn colours around it.

Image 'Les Ã‰chelles du Mort' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

I am hoping to visit this location again later in the year. It is a section of the gorge that I have so far not explored, due in no small part to the difficulty of access. However, there is much to see and photograph in this wilder and more rugged part of the river.

Image 'Les Ã‰chelles du Mort' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

My previous images from this exceptionally beautiful gorge concentrated on the areas where dams hold back the torrent to create placid lakes. At this point, downstream of the dam at Biaufond, the river is in its natural state - raw and powerful.

Image 'Snow Boat' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

The tiny hamlet of Biaufond sits right on the frontier between France and Switzerland. Consisting of not much more than a handful of houses and a small restaurant catering to fishermen and other visitors, it is serviced by a narrow road running along the side of this reservoir and on up to the Swiss rim of the gorge. The elegant steel bridge depicted here is actually the frontier crossing, marked by the border post just visible on the Swiss side (to the left). Switzerland recently signed up to be a part of the Schengen open-borders zone and the frontier is now little more than a mere geo-political convenience.

I arrived in conditions of intermittent snowfall and immediately felt this quiet scene, with its brooding sky and light covering of snow, had a melancholy aspect that I was keen to capture - despite the light, which was far from having that special quality for which landscape photographers fervently hope.

Image 'La Ronde' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

Near Biaufond can be found this algae and weed infested backwater, the confluence of the La Ronde river and the Doubs. However, the Ronde only gets as far as the Doubs during times when the water-table is exceptionally high. At other times, it simply ends in a small lake where it disappears into the porous rock.

Image 'Ice and tree branch' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

This shallow backwater of the river Doubs, near Biaufond, is a place to which I keep returning. It is a fascinating stretch of water which offers subjects in all seasons. I was previously there in Autumn when the trees put on a rich display of colour. In Winter, the shades are more muted but no less appealing.

I was attracted by the way the ice had formed around this low-hanging branch and felt the larger area of ice covering the pond might make for an intriguing background.

Image 'Maison Monsieur' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

I previously photographed this delightful little summer house in the depths of Winter, when the gorge shows a different face. For this image, I walked a little further along the river and found a composition that nicely shows off the building and its spectacular setting.

Doubtless I shall be returning again...

Image 'Summer House' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

I return often to this little summer house at Maison Monsieur in the Gorges du Doubs, its elegant and symmetrical shape is irresistible.

Image 'Autumn foliage' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

Autumn colour lights up the Gorges du Doubs.

Image 'Winter in the gorge' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

One of the things that keeps bringing me back to this location on the Franco-Swiss border, apart from its obvious beauty, is the sense of timelessness here. A short hike from the busy border-crossing at Biaufond and all you hear is birdsong. Apart from the occasional ruined building hinting at the gorge's working past, there is no indication that you are barely a couple of kilometres from civilisation.

In this image, and the one which precedes it, I wanted to evoke the profound sense of serenity in this part of the gorge.

Image 'Winter in the gorge' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

One of the things that keeps bringing me back to this location on the Franco-Swiss border, apart from its obvious beauty, is the sense of timelessness here. A short hike from the busy border-crossing at Biaufond and all you hear is birdsong. Apart from the occasional ruined building hinting at the gorge's working past, there is no indication that you are barely a couple of kilometres from civilisation.

In this image, and the one which follows, I wanted to evoke the profound sense of serenity in this part of the gorge.

Image 'Spring at Les Graviers' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

The view downstream with Switzerland on the right and France on the left.

Image 'Beech saplings' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

I really enjoy discovering patterns in the essential randomness of nature and so it was with these beech seedlings. What intrigued me was the juxtaposition of old and young leaves.

Image 'Forges du Pissoux' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

This part of the gorge is quite difficult to reach, involving a hike from the rim down a steep path, a wade across the river and then negotiating a dense boulder-field of slippery rocks. It was worth it, though.

Image 'Descent into chaos' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

Smooth, glassy water suddenly becomes a foaming mass of white water at these rapids, formed partly from the ruins of one of the many forges and mills which dotted the gorge between the sixteenth century and the coming of steam in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Image 'Fragile' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

I wanted to show the fragility of life in this environment so I was pleased to find these flowers growing on a boulder in the shadow of an undercut cliff. The composition was chosen deliberately to emphasise the oppressive presence of the cliff-face.

Image 'Above the river' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

One of the paths down into the Gorges du Doubs takes you past this little store of firewood and the house to which it belongs. As I walked by, the owner was busily collecting water from a nearby spring - presumably a house with no vehicle access also has none of the modern facilities we take for granted. The man appeared too busy to chat and, besides, my French wasn't really up to the task so I said a cheery "bonjour!" and walked on...

Image 'Le ChÃ¢telot' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

Photographing this marvellous river gorge is starting to become an obsession yet I keep on being drawn back, finding new locations each time.

This image was made towards the end of a day when 30Â° temperatures and an all-over blue sky made for horrendous conditions - for photography! I knew a front was moving in and was lucky that the cloud-cover softened the harsh sunlight enough to make for some flattering light.

Thunder was rumbling around the sky as I took this so my final idea for an image that day had to remain unrealised. Having neglected to carry any rainwear down into the gorge, I marched up the steep path to the car-park as fast as my legs - and the heavy load on my back - would allow. Safely back in the car, the heavens opened.

Image 'Le ChÃ¢telot' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

Below the impressive concrete dam which holds back the waters of the Lac de Moron lies a very wild stretch of the river Doubs. The evidence of the long, hard Winter of 2010 is obvious here and I was keen to capture the rawness of nature before the warmth of Spring brought out the gorge's softer side.

Image 'Limestone' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

Surprisingly, this is the first time I have made an image from this spot, despite using this slightly alarming crossing point for hikers traversing the Gorges du Doubs many times.

The path runs over stepping stones and along the top of an old masonry dam, downstream of the concrete monstrosity that holds back the Lac du Moron.

Image 'Blazing foliage' added to gallery 'Gorges du Doubs'

I spotted these trees whilst driving down to the car-park at the rim of the gorge at Le ChÃ¢telot, which provides access to the large concrete dam and the artificial Lac de Moron, and just had to stop and make a photograph...

Image 'Old barn' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

While expoloring the village of Mogrovejo, our last stop of the trip, I found this attractive barn with its picturesque vines. The backdrop of the Picos proved irresistible.

Image 'Autumn Pastoral with Hut' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

The hut is quite close to the tree in the previous image and it is attractive enough to serve as a strong focal point in the image.

Image 'Two sheds' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

These two sheds were just by the side of the one narrow road that winds its way through this side valley of the RhÃ´ne valley. Luckily there was a parking place where I could set up my tripod and capture this quiet vista.

Image 'A favourite shed' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

I seem to have developed a continuing fondness for this little hut, built in typical Valais style with a roof composed of flat stone. On this particular visit I had to contend with a light drizzle and low cloud which threatened to mask this scene completely. Luckily it held off and the inclement weather adds its own atmosphere to this timeless scene.

Image 'Ochre mine' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

Provence is justifiably famous for its deposits of ochre - the multi-hued sandstone prized as a pigment by artists. The colours in the rock and presence of harder 'capstones' do bring the grand sandstone desert vistas of Utah and Arizona to mind although on a much smaller scale and with many more visitors.

Image 'Lavender' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

If there is one single thing that shouts 'Provence', it's fields of lavender. When I first visited the area at Easter in 2006 I was way too early to see it in bloom and this time I feared I was past the peak. How wrong I was!

Image 'Forclaz' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

A favourite location to which I often return. This time I had the opportunity to catch the scene in the post-sunset glow.

Image 'Silver Birches Above the Quarry' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

Dalt Quarry is a location I have visited on a couple of previous occasions. It's a popular spot and rightly so as there is always something to photograph here.

Image 'Abbazia di Sant'Antimo (exterior)' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

Part of the southern Tuscany 'tourist trail', certainly, but deservedly so. This simple abbey has a pared-down beauty with its austere Romanesque architecture and this means it is another well-photographed location. I wanted to make a slightly unusual image which combines the abbey, the large cypress growing beside it and the surrounding countryside with its vineyards. Not an easy task, by any means.

Image 'Trees in the Mist with Windmill' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

This was found a short walk from the converted farmhouse in which we were staying. A rare dawn outing for me.

Image 'Overgrown Almond Grove' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

I loved this overgrown almond grove, with its gnarled trees in regimented rows like an army of old soldiers.

Image 'Sentinel' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

A lone cypress stands on a ridge near San Quirico d'Orcia, Tuscany.

Image 'Sentinels' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

At the top of a ridge across the main road from Sienna to Rome from 'The Clump', can be found this collection of cypresses and stone pines. The make distinctive silhouettes against the skyline.

Image 'Farmer's Hut' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

I have photographed this lovely little hut on a couple of previous occasions but removal of some farming debris opened up a new viewpoint on this particular visit. It would have been rude not to take advantage...

Image 'Val d'HÃ©rens' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

Looking along the Val d'HÃ©rens towards Sion.

Image 'Bus Stop' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

At first sight a rather prosaic subject for a landscape photograph, this bus stop is where the Swiss Postbus calls. A national institution, the Postbus links remote communities and the characteristic bright yellow buses are often seen expertly navigating the most frightening of narrow mountain roads. This may turn out to be the first in a series of images.

Image 'Barrage d'Emosson' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

Switzerland satisfies around half of its energy requirements from hydro-electric installations such as this. Whilst some may think such developments disfigure the pristine alpine landscape, hydro power is one of the few genuinely viable sources of renewable energy and should not be viewed too harshly.

Besides, the winter sports industry causes far more widespread damage for rather less overall benefit.

Image 'Woodpiles' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

I first saw these piles of coppiced timber on my visit in early Spring when I made one rather lacklustre image which ended up in the round filing-cabinet on the floor. This time I feel I have got closer to doing this fascinating woodland justice.

I deliberately picked a wet day and, for my pains, had to wait out frequent downpours until the weather cleared sufficiently to set up the camera.

Image 'Château-Chalon from Névy-sur-Seille' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

A beautiful spot in the French Jura caught in the low evening sun, shortly before sunset.

Image 'St. Michaels Mount' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

A watery dawn over St. Michael's Mount provides a warm, soft lighting for this famous landmark.

Image 'Dawn at Lac d'Ilay' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

I discovered this little boat on a recce the previous afternoon and felt it would make a good subject but the harsh afternoon light was doing it no favours. Returning before dawn presented me with much more interesting light...

Image 'Wasdale Head' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

Climbing a Lakeland fell with a small day-pack is a strenuous, yet enjoyable, activity. Climbing one of the steepest and most unrelenting Lake District paths, that up Kirk Fell, with 14kg of camera equipment was akin to strenuous torture! However, the view from the crag where I decided to terminate my ascent more than made up for all the sweat and toil.

Image 'Forclaz' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

This was my second visit to this attractive location in southern Switzerland. The Swiss photographer, Paul Schilliger, calls it, 'one of the most poetic places I know' and I can fully understand why. These little barns dot a dramatic working landscape which owes nothing to the mass-tourism which blights other parts of Switzerland. You get a strong feeling that this scene has changed little in many decades.

I shot this in intermittent rain, using the longer reach afforded by the 300mm lens on my DSLR to isolate the little barn. The same focal length on my large format camera would have been far too wide.

Image 'Autumn Shades' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

The Turtmanntal is a small valley tucked away on the south side of the Rhone Valley in Southern Switzerland. It's a pleasantly unspoilt, although largely unremarkable, area of small dairy farms but in the Autumn the trees put on an amazing display of pastel shades, here picked out by the low October sun.

Image 'Swaledale Abstract' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

One of the advantages of the large-format view camera is that the image appears to the photographer upside-down and laterally reversed, making for a view which is already abstracted from the scene before the lens. Seeing Swaledale in this way, I immediately began thinking in terms of shape and line, rather than meadows and farm-buildings. Using monochrome film served to emphasise the stark lines, forming a very graphic composition - the closest I have come to using elements of the landscape in the same way that a painter might.

Image 'Traditional Valais Barn' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

I often find inspiration for locations from the work of other photographers, although my intention is never to duplicate their work.

This small barn appears in several wonderful images by the Swiss photographer, Paul Schilliger, whose work has been a particular inspiration to me. Although I arrived at this location in the hope of capturing an original image, it soon became apparent that modern incursions (it is, after all, part of a working farm and not a museum) greatly restrict the number of viewpoints where one may make a pleasing photograph. Try as I might, I could not find an original viewpoint which worked but it's such an attractive and timeless scene I felt I had to make my own image anyway.

Image 'Beached Wreck' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

The remains of 'Eddie's Boat', a trawler which became beached on the Donegal coast.

Image 'Saltwick Bay' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

The famous wreck of the Admiral von Tromp at Saltwick Bay, guarded by the 'hunched figure' of Black Nab.

Image 'West pier at dawn' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

Whitby's West Pier during a rather cloudy dawn.

Image 'Port Light' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

A navigation light on the outer wall of Newlyn harbour, shortly before dawn.

Image 'No parking in Mousehole' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

..and it's not difficult to see why, given this impressive stack of crab pots outside a fisherman's cottage.

Image 'Granite basin, Revöira' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

Revöira is a remote mountain community in the Verzasca Valley in southern Switzerland. It is now mostly abandoned, however some of the dwellings are still occupied and others have been renovated as holiday homes for hikers or those who just want to get away from it all.

Revöira itself can only be reached by an arduous footpath, which climbs through woods of oak and chestnut but it is chiefly known for its lack of natural water sources. This problem is solved by basins like this, laboriously cut from solid granite boulders, which, via wooden guttering, collect rainwater runoff from the roofs of the huts.

Image 'Stone huts, Revöira' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

Another of the impressive stone basins in the small mountain community of Revöira. This picture also shows two of the huts and looks towards the mountains on the other side of the Verzasca Valley.

Image 'Open door, Revöira' added to gallery 'Man and Nature'

Finally, a detail from one of the abandoned huts in Revöira.

Image 'Boulders in the river Bavona' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Just some gneiss boulders in the river Bavona...

Image 'Standing proud' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Image 'Frosted undergrowth' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Image 'Nestling in a crevice' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

I enjoy karstic landscapes largely because the forms taken by the water-eroded limestone make them a photographer's dream. The Col du Sanetsch boasts an extensive area of limestone pavement, full of eroded fissures like this. The plucky little plant which appears to be thriving in the shelter of one such crevice drew me to this scene.

Image 'Tiny ferns' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

I'm not sure what this little plant is called but I enkoyed the patter made by its leaflets.

Image 'Pebbly nook' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

An irresistible little nook full of smooth pebbles, tucked away in a corner of this amazing beach in northwestern Spain.

Image 'Reeds, Pfynwald' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

I had to sit out a heavy downpour in my car before venturing out into the damp forest and finding this little pond that I had photographed some years ago from a different angle. After scouting for a composition involving the water and drawing a blank on anything workable, I settled for a study of these gently drooping reeds.

Image 'Blausee Reflections' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

The Blausee (or 'Blue Lake') is something of a popular tourist destination so it is disappointingly developed.

On a bright autumn day, in a superb year for colour in the trees, the reflections were mesmerising.

Image 'Natural Zen Garden' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

A small beach of river silt at FerpÃªcle that put me in mind of a Japanese Zen rock garden.

Image 'Pink Sandstone and Shingle' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

This unspoilt beach on the Cumbrian Coast of northwest England is only accessible by foot so I had the place pretty much to myself on this surprisingly clear day. I spent a good two hours photographing this beautiful little wave-cut platform before the rising tide caused me to head back.

Image 'Organic Contours' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Image 'Grass patterns' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Patterns in grass seen on the hike to the Lakes of Lovrenc.

Image 'Dwarf pine' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

The high moorland plateau containing the Lakes of Lovrenc (more ponds, really) is heavily populated with these intriguing dwarf pine trees.

Image 'Sandstone and bracken' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

A bracken plant clings to life on a lichen covered rock at The Roaches in north Staffordshire.

Image 'Leaves and Boulder' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Leaves arranged (by nature, not me) on a boulder in the Ravin du Puits Noir.

Image 'Marmite' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

No, not the divisive brown goo that some love on their toast but a 'marmite' in the French sense of a type of pot or, in this case, a pothole cut in the limestone bed of a small stream.

Image 'Impressionistic pond' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

A small weed-choked pond, otherwise unremarkable, provides a rich show of impressionistic textures and reflections in the right light.

Image 'Broken' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Whilst on a one-day workshop with Spanish photographer Rafael Rojas I found this fallen tree in the Bois du SÃ©pey near Cossonay. I spent a while exploring it with my large format camera and made three exposures, of which this is easily my favourite.

Image 'Lady's Cloak' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Frost-rimed foliage and grasses line up perfectly to create a portrait of this attractive alpine shrub.

Image 'Vosges Stream' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Normally I don't much care for very long exposures of flowing water as the overall effect can end up looking very artificial. However here it simplifies an otherwise very chaotic scene.

Image 'Pebbles' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

The ebb and flow of the tide re-arranges the beach at Nanven on a daily basis so each visit yields something new to photograph.

Image 'Sea-smoothed granite' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

A sea-rounded boulder of pale granite deposited on darker-coloured pebbles by the tide.

Image 'Granite Boulder' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

A sea-smoothed granite boulder with a 'tail' of darker pebbles at Nanven Beach.

Image 'Serpentine reflections' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Reflections in the attractively veined serpentine rock at Cadgwith Cove.

Image 'Ice boulders' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Quite a hazardous spot but ultimately worth taking the chance. A sobering reminder of the dangers came as I was packing up to go: a scurrying sound alerted me to a minor rockfall behind me - exactly where I was walking less than an hour previously.

Image 'Dandelion' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

I had a tough time finding anything to photograph at this spot. The first light was supposed to strike Pyramid Mountain and make it light up. Howevr, a thin layer of cloud was enough to prevent this from happening and the dawn was somewhat of a disappointment.

Rather than giving up, I searched for a subject that might work in the flat light and was lucky to find this perfect dandelion seedhead...

Image 'Logjam' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

There is a jumble of fallen tree-trunks at the exit of Moraine Lake and in the cool, post-dawn light the bleached trunks reflect the blue of the sky.

I tried out a number of different compositions here of which this is the most successful.

Image 'Granite egg' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

One of the joys of making images in a location such as this is that no two visits yield quite the same patterns of rock and sand. Each day, the power of the sea shifts heavy boulders with ease and rearranges the beach totally randomly.

Image 'Flow' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

A small stream flows through the boulder-field that forms the beach at Porth Nanven and on my previous visit in 2007, I made a rather unsuccessful attempt at recording it. This time I was determined to do better and spent a long time looking for just the right arrangement of rocks and water.

Image 'Reflected branches' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

This part of the French Jura is known as 'Les Quatre Lacs' because here, in an area of only a handful of square kilometres, can be found the Lac de Narlay, Lac d'Ilay, Lac de Petit Maclu and Lac de Grand Maclu.

I found this intriguing little scene at the northern end of the Grand Maclu lake and I was fascinated by the way the gentle ripples interfered with the reflected shapes of the branches.

Image 'Kimmeridge shale' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Several small streams run off the Purbeck Hills into Kimmeridge Bay. Further west, one runs over flat rock before dissipating into the pebbles whereas the one on the east side of the bay forms a dramatic waterfall. However, it was this one, in the middle, which most interested me. The geometric patterns it has cut in the cross-bedded shale just cried out to be photographed. By the time I returned to this spot after exploring further along the cliffs, the sun had fully set and the consequent exposure of some 14 seconds caused the chaotic flow of the stream to be simplified into smoky wisps.

Image 'Slate quarry detail' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

The abandoned slate quarry near Grange offers some attractive details within its mineral-stained walls. At the far end of the quarry stands a lone birch tree, set off quite spectacularly by some vivid yellow stains in the surrounding dark slate.

Image 'Shoots and leaves' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Floating leaves decorate the surface of this slow-moving part of the river above the tufa waterfall at Les Planches in the French Jura.

Image 'Les Clées' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

I previously visited this location on a bright Summer's day and I quickly found that image-making would only be possible in a small shady corner. I resolved then to return in conditions of less contrast.

So I had high hopes when I returned on a cloudy Autumn day - to find that conditions were still tough. The contrast range between the bright water and dark, mossy rock was huge and challenged even the greater range afforded by colour negative film.

Image 'Limestone Pavement, above Malham Cove' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

A closer view of the limestone pavement to be found above Yorkshire's dramatic Malham Cove. It occurred to me that the ridges and gullies in the rock looked a little like a miniature mountain range, rising from the plains.

Image 'Tegna' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Near Tegna in Canton Ticino, Switzerland, the Maggia river makes a tight 90Â° bend, forming a placid pool as it does so. After the last ice-age, retreating glaciers deposited many boulders in this pool, giving the impression of icebergs floating in a frozen ocean.

I framed my photograph to emphasise the space between the boulders and to make the most of the reflections in the still, glassy water.

Image 'Sandstone erosion' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

...or a slot-canyon in the making. Part of the sandstone streambed of the Schwarzwasser canyon in central Switzerland has been worn into parallel slots by the force of this fast-flowing river.

Image 'Wave-cut platform' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

I switched to monochrome film to emphasise the shape and flow of this layer of rock and the water washing over it. I wanted to bring out the elemental aspects of a scene that has been played out across countless millennia.

Image 'Three rocks' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

These sandstone erratics were sitting on the rocky platform at Kimmeridge Bay, having been recently revealed by the ebbing tide. I saw them first when the setting sun was hidden by cloud and waited for the sun to reappear. When it did, it lit up the rocks with such intensity that they almost seem to be glowing from within.

Image 'Strata' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

An intimate view of the magnificently layered cliff at Sandymouth Bay. Here, differential rates of erosion have laid bare the structure of the rock in an intriguing way.

Image 'Pebbles' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Colourful pebbles on the rocky beach of Nanven in Cornwall.

This beach is the close neighbour of Porth Nanven which is also noted for its many striking rock formations.

Image 'Boulders on Whitby Beach' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

A great location for geologists - and photographers!

Sandstone always yields excellent patterns and patination - a boon for any photographer. I was particularly drawn to the large white boulder caught in a depression in the cliff-face and built my composition around that. It looks almost as if the cliff itself is spitting out the boulders and leaving them strewn on the beach...

Image 'May Beck' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

May Beck is a small stream not far from Whitby in Yorkshire. Its relatively shallow course takes it across dark ironstone and through an area of woodland. Here, fallen leaves contrast with the dark riverbed and soft reflections of foliage and the sky combine to create a quiet, introspective composition.

Image 'Upper Antelope Canyon 1' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

No visit to Page is complete without a trip to Antelope Canyon. Actually two canyons (upper and lower), Antelope is justly World-famous for the quality of light found there and the water-sculpted magnificence of its sandstone walls.

Rather than pointing my camera straight upward to capture the incredible play of light, I made this image looking forwards and only slightly upward. The colours here are more subtle but no less beautiful.

Image 'Upper Antelope Canyon 2' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

The Corkscrew, Upper Antelope Canyon

Image 'Cascade' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

A stiff hike up into the mountains to the north of Moraine Lake takes you to Larch Valley - and beyond.

A stream runs down the valley, fed by glacial meltwater and it's that stream you see here cascading over rocks and reflecting the clear blue sky commonly seen at altitude.

Image 'Dead leaf and pebbles' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

A dessicated leaf contrasts with these rounded pebbles in the Val Verzasca in southern Switzerland.

Image 'Rock and a hard place' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

At Lavertezzo the markings in the granite form attractive and contrasting patterns. A trapped pebble links the two larger pieces of rock.

Image 'Above the Cascade, Baumes les Messieurs' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Above the falls, there are a series of stepped cascades, created by the limestone-rich river depositing tiny amounts of calcium carbonate as it runs down the hillside.

This is the river Dard and it emerges from a cavern in the cliff above. Now a show cave, it has spawned some rather ugly supporting development. One day, I'm sure I will take the cave tour but with so much to see (and photograph) outside for free, there really is little incentive.

Image 'Wavecut Platform' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

Image 'Roots' added to gallery 'Small Worlds'

On my previous visit to the, now dry, Duck Pond, I was struck by the denuded tree-roots and I was keen to get a little closer. It was raining, the camera was as low as it could get but I remembered the plastic groundsheet I carry for just such situations and spread it out on the ground so I could be comfortable - and most importantly stay relatively dry!

Image 'Ice melt' added to gallery 'Water'

My partner decided to make an early night of it, so I ventured out to enjoy the long arctic twilight.

Image 'Waterfall in the Val Osura' added to gallery 'Water'

Walking through the Val Osura I came across this delightful little waterfall. Getting close enough to make the image I wanted proved to be a little harder than I had anticipated but nothing good comes without a struggle, or so they say.

Image 'Val Osura' added to gallery 'Water'

Continuing up the valley from the waterfall is this section where the river broadens and slows a little as it flows over flatter rock. I find it hard to resist the lure of reflections and I chose to build the image around the reflected mountainside and blue sky. Once I realised that the very angular rock should anchor the top left corner of the picture, everything else fell neatly into place.

Image 'River Reuss' added to gallery 'Water'

This spot is quite local to where I live and it was during an early evening walk with my camera that I spotted this scene. It's very pleasing to be able to make a satisfying image close to home.

Image 'Bolle di Magadino 1' added to gallery 'Water'

This is a place I return to whenever I am in the area. Since it's on the route home, it is usually my last stop before hitting the road. There is always something worth photographing.

Image 'Bolle di Magadino 2' added to gallery 'Water'

This is a place I return to whenever I am in the area. Since it's on the route home, it is usually my last stop before hitting the road. There is always something worth photographing.

Image 'Lake Kozjak' added to gallery 'Water'

Tufa falls in a small corner of Lake Kozjak.

Image 'Štrbački Buk' added to gallery 'Water'

I was keen to visit Bosnia on this short trip but only had time to scratch the surface of this fascinating country. This location is, in some ways, a mini Plitvice but with fewer tourists. And those seemed to be coming from mostly Islamic countries - not so surprising as Bosnia has a majority Islamic population.

Image 'Lake Gradinsko' added to gallery 'Water'

This was quite a perilous composition since I was crouching on the boardwalk, one tripod leg in the water and two on the wooden slats, when I found myself surrounded by a gaggle of selfie-obsessed Chinese tourists. With half an eye on protecting my gear from being trampled and the other half on not getting an accidental soaking, that only left one eye for photography...

Image 'Japanese Willow' added to gallery 'Water'

A slightly deceptive picture as the 'Japanese Willow' is nothing of the sort. It is born out of a fortuitous coming together of reflection, pond grass and tree branch.

Image 'Perturbations in the sand' added to gallery 'Water'

Waves caught and preserved in sand or river silt is something of a recurring theme in my photography. There is something about the Zen-like calm an image such as this evokes that I particularly enjoy.

Image 'Tide pools' added to gallery 'Water'

The beach at Westward Ho! is wide and flat. As the tide recedes, natural depressions are left full of water to make a nice foreground for a sub-genre of landscape photography I rarely indulge in - the traditional sunset. Sometimes you just have to.

Image 'Washed up' added to gallery 'Water'

A quiet morning scene by Lake Bohinj, found just a short walk from our hotel in Ukanc.

Image 'Angler in the mist' added to gallery 'Water'

An angler enjoying the early morning solitude on Lake Bohinj. I wonder if he caught anything?

Image 'Flow' added to gallery 'Water'

Spending time near rushing water is somehow reviving and energising. At least, that's what I think. I hope some of that feeling is transferred to the viewer of this image.

Image 'Held back' added to gallery 'Water'

One of many eroded forms in the bed of this lovely little river gorge in western Slovenia.

Image 'Lakes of Lovrenc' added to gallery 'Water'

A more conventional view of one of several ponds that make up the Lakes of Lovrenc.

Image 'La Petite Camargue' added to gallery 'Water'

La Petite Camargue, like its big sister in the south of France, is an area of richly varied and protected wetland. Whilst the real Camargue covers the delta of the RhÃ´ne, this is just a small offshoot of the river Rhine as it turns north, forming the border between Germany and France. Although rather lacking in the semi-wild horses and flamingoes of its more famous counterpart, La Petite Camargue does have storks and many other waterfowl.

This is a wider view of one of the many ponds to be found here.

Image 'Frozen' added to gallery 'Water'

I was taken by this frozen cascade in the Gorges du Doubs and spent an hour photographing it from every angle.

Image 'Cascades de l'Hérisson' added to gallery 'Water'

This is one of several places I have been visiting repeatedly for many years. It still rewards me with interesting scenes even after all this time.

Image 'Ruisseau de la Combe' added to gallery 'Water'

This is a just a small stream made special by the colours of autumn.

Image 'Ruisseau de Bonneille' added to gallery 'Water'

I have made several visits to this intriguing (and hard to reach) stream in the French Jura and it has always yielded interesting images. This is a little tufa cascade, festooned with fallen mossy trees.

Image 'Ruisseau de Bonneille' added to gallery 'Water'

I have made several visits to this intriguing (and hard to reach) stream in the French Jura and it has always yielded interesting images.

Image 'Cascade de Baumes-les-Messieurs' added to gallery 'Water'

Another location that I have visited many times down the years yet which always seems to have something new to offer.

Image 'Tufa cascade' added to gallery 'Water'

This extraordinary tufa formation is tucked away up an old farm track with no sign to mark it. If you didn't know about it beforehand, you would almost certainly drive on by and miss it.

Image 'Ravin du Puits Noir' added to gallery 'Water'

This little gorge was often visited and painted by the French artist and forerunner of the Impressionists, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), and remains virtually unchanged since his day.

I visited it on a damp day in early April before it had shed its forbidding winter appearance. I wanted to emphasise the stark beauty of the location.

Image 'Ravin du Puits Noir' added to gallery 'Water'

Image 'Swollen River' added to gallery 'Water'

On my second visit to the Ravin du Puits Noir a month after the first visit, I had hoped a dry April might have reduced the level of the river. Sadly the reverse was the case and parts of the footpath were submerged under unphotogenic brown water. Here the swollen BrÃªme engulfs a tree.

Image 'Flow' added to gallery 'Water'

The river Dove as it negotiates some rocks in Dovedale, with reflections of grass and sky.

Image 'Ravin du Puits Noir, Ornans, France' added to gallery 'Water'

The 19th century French painter and local lad, Gustave Courbet, painted this little ravine many times in different seasons and weather. Feeling inspired, I decided to try something similar with my camera. This pair of images is from high summer.

Image 'The Pond' added to gallery 'Water'

This tiny pond is quite local to me and is set in a small managed woodland which separates the Zurich suburbs of Opfikon and Kloten. Local enough for me to follow through the seasons.

Image 'Choked' added to gallery 'Water'

A detail of this small pond near where I live.

Image 'Derborence' added to gallery 'Water'

Derborence is a beautiful alpine lake born of catastrophe. In the 18th century, a landslide destroyed much of the community of Derborence and dammed the Derbonne river to form Europe's youngest lake.

Image 'Les Pertes de la Valserine' added to gallery 'Water'

River boulders leading to a fascinating submerged karst formation with trees beyond. I could not ask for more, really!

Image 'Chute' added to gallery 'Water'

This is another 'water feature' in the same general area as the previous image.

Image 'The young Verzasca' added to gallery 'Water'

The young Verzasca river just a couple of hundred metres downstream from the impressive waterfall in the previous image.

Image 'Sculpted cascade' added to gallery 'Water'

In a remote corner of the Val Verzasca the young Verzasca river has to negotiate this solid gneiss cliff. On its way it has carved interesting shapes into the rock.

Image 'Lac de Bonlieu' added to gallery 'Water'

It was an unpromising dull day with flurries of snow but I thought I might be able to find some details worth photographing on the shore of the lake. Instead, I was lucky that a small gap in the clouds allowed the sun to sneak through and illuminate this scene to perfection.

Image 'Gorges de l'Areuse' added to gallery 'Water'

Moss-covered rocks in the Areuse river.

Image 'Moraine Lake, evening' added to gallery 'Water'

After the sun had dipped below the surrounding peaks, the blues of twilght take over the lake. I was struck by how the yellow larches contrasted perfectly with the dark hues of the rock and water.

Image 'Cascades de Baume-les-Messieurs' added to gallery 'Water'

A popular location - with the general public as well as photographers - so it's always a challenge to find a new angle. I hope I succeeded.

Image 'Cascades de Baume-les-Messieurs' added to gallery 'Water'

Another view of the lower cascades at Baume-les-Messieurs in the French Jura. This show the view looking to the top of the formation.

Image 'Reeds and Reflections' added to gallery 'Water'

A more abstract view of the reeds and the dawn sky at the Lac du Petit Maclus in the French Jura.

Image 'Cascade des Tufs, Baumes les Messieurs' added to gallery 'Water'

I previously visited these beautiful and other-worldly cascades on a crisp Winter's day in 2008. This time, however, the weather was very different. Gone was the beautiful sunlight reflecting from the limestone cliffs and in its place was a dreary grey sky. Perfect! I love dreary weather as it makes the colours of the landscape sing and the gentle light allows every detail to be seen.

My previous image of these falls concentrated on patterns in the flow of water (something of a recurring theme in my work!) so for this one I moved back a little and captured the full scene. Sadly, on this day a recent spell of dry weather had reduced the flow to a mere trickle.

Image 'Cascade des Tufs, Les Planches' added to gallery 'Water'

The French Jura is blessed with not one but two of these amazing tufa cascades. The cascade at Les Planches bears obvious similarities with its more southerly sibling but here the only development is a simple earth footpath. This, and the heavily forested setting gives these falls an almost magical atmosphere. I spent quite a while here, exploring upstream as well as down. A beautiful and unspoilt place.

Image 'Cascade des Tufs, Les Planches' added to gallery 'Water'

As with my earlier visit to the cascade at Baume-les-Messieurs, I couldn't resist going in close to record the patterns in the water and the textures of the tufa rock. The bizarre shapes are not the result of erosion by water but the reverse process. Here, minerals dissolved in the water precipitate over countless thousands of years and slowly build up these incredible rock formations.

Image 'Still-life with seaweed' added to gallery 'Water'

Pirate's Cove, on the island of Arran, is noted for the bizarre red sandstone formations to be found on the foreshore there, formations which have led to it being dubbed 'Utah-on-sea'. Although I made some more specific images of the rock, it was this arrangement of washed-up seaweed that really caught my attention. The way the seaweed was spread out on the flat rock seemed so perfect I couldn't have made a better display had I placed it myself.

Image 'Tine de Conflens' added to gallery 'Water'

This is the confluence of the river Veyron and the Venoge, although the word 'collision' is a better description of the violence of the meeting. The two rivers come together after dropping some 15m into a rocky 'cauldron' with only one exit. It is a place of immense atmosphere where one can truly feel the raw, elemental power of nature.

Seen here is the river Venoge. The Veyron makes its entrance through a short canyon off to the left of the frame.

Image 'Last resting place' added to gallery 'Water'

The salt marsh at Achnahaird is a bleak and desolate place. No wonder, then, that the local sheep sometimes succumb to the elements. There is no outward indication of why this animal died but it is more than likely that it was caught out by the stormy conditions that preceded my visit.

It is, perhaps, not a particularly easy subject for a photograph but this image speaks more about the wildness and isolation of this location than any number of attractive postcard shots.

Image 'Moonset over Magadino' added to gallery 'Water'

With precisely this shot in mind, I arrived at this location before dawn and had to wait nearly an hour before the light was ideal. It was worth it, however, to catch the moon sinking behind the mountains...

Image 'Rapids' added to gallery 'Water'

The force of the Verzasca river has dragged along many boulders, which are left scattered across the riverbed, continuously battered by the power of the raging torrent.

Image 'Tobelbach - 1' added to gallery 'Water'

The Tobelbach in Northeastern Switzerland is a charming little stream, set in a steep-sided wooded valley. In a relatively short distance it drops over two waterfalls, as well as forming a 'secret' pool at a quieter point above the lower fall.

The river is prone to serious flooding and nowhere is this more visible than here at the lower fall, where an uprooted tree has been washed over the edge and is now lodged squarely in the middle of the flow.

Image 'Tobelbach - 2' added to gallery 'Water'

Above the lower fall is this quiet 'secret' pool. Perhaps because it is surrounded by living woodland, this place has an almost womb-like feeling of peace and tranquility about it.

Image 'Lac du Val' added to gallery 'Water'

The road to the lower end of the Cascades de l'HÃ©risson runs alongside this attractive lake. I was particularly taken with the way the sunlight was striking the reeds and how this contrasted with the dark winter trees in the background so I just had to stop the car and make a photograph.

Image 'Early autumn in Slovenia' added to gallery 'Water'

A general view of Mostnica Gorge, near Stara Fuzina in western Slovenia.

Image 'Ravin du Puits Noir, Ornans, France' added to gallery 'Water'

Image 'Gorge de la Lizerne' added to gallery 'Water'

This spectacular gorge must be negotiated in order to arrive at the small mountain community of Derborence. The road goes through narrow galleried tunnels, blasted from the rock with the occasional passing place and overlook from which it is possible to see the vertiginous drop - all of which certainly encourages careful driving!

Image 'Gorges de l'Areuse' added to gallery 'Water'

I previously visited the Gorges de l'Areuse in late Summer at which time I made some rather unsuccessful images. In Winter, the gorge presents a much more raw and uncompromising face and I tried to reflect that elemental power in this image, shot on monochrome film.

Image 'Reflections' added to gallery 'Water'

Still water provides many opportunities for layering of subject matter. Here sub-surface detail merges with reflections and foliage above the surface for an interesting interplay of different elements.

Image 'Le Pontet' added to gallery 'Water'

The Pontet is a short river that begins its life deep in the limestone cliff, exploding out from a small cave and flowing a turbulent 200m to its confluence with the Loue.

Image 'La Petite Camargue (detail)' added to gallery 'Water'

La Petite Camargue, like its big sister in the south of France, is an area of richly varied and protected wetland. Whilst the real Camargue covers the delta of the RhÃ´ne, this is just a small offshoot of the river Rhine as it turns north, forming the border between Germany and France. Although rather lacking in the semi-wild horses and flamingoes of its more famous counterpart, La Petite Camargue does have storks and many other waterfowl.

It also provides the opportunity to make fascinating details such as this.

Image 'La Petite Camargue' added to gallery 'Water'

This is an interesting area of preserved wetland, adjacent to the river Rhine as it forms the border between France and Germany after turning north in the city of Basel.

Image 'Cascades de Verneau' added to gallery 'Water'

The French do seem somewhat obsessed with health and safety and footpaths are often closed for no discernible reason. Naturally, I had to at least go as far as I could so I was surprised to find no obstacle at all. The reward was this scene...

Image 'Abisko Canyon' added to gallery 'Rock'

Image 'Sudden snowstorm' added to gallery 'Rock'

I arrived at the summit of the Col du Sanetsch in conditions of poor visibility, having enjoyed largely clear skies through much of the ascent. The cloud was moving fast and visibility was changing by the minute. It was during such a clearance that this scene was revealed.

Image 'Ironstone with fern' added to gallery 'Rock'

Hiking down the cliff path to The Strangles bay, I saw this quiet and very simple scene - resisting the urge to take a photograph was totally pointless.

Image 'Badlands' added to gallery 'Rock'

Image 'Slot Canyon' added to gallery 'Rock'

Image 'Pareidolia' added to gallery 'Rock'

Pareidolia is the human tendency to see familar images (often faces) in random arrangements of objects and/or textures. How many 'faces' can you see?

Image 'Nestling' added to gallery 'Rock'

The last image of a very productive session amongst the holidaymakers and sunseekers at Sandymouth features this pebble nestling in amongst the colourful rock strata.

Image 'Strata' added to gallery 'Rock'

Beautiful rock strata is what draws photographers to this beach in Cornwall. Mainly composed of sandstone, there is also mudstone and what appears to be a thin seam of coal there too.

Image 'Playa de la Franca' added to gallery 'Rock'

A single morning was all I could spare to explore this lovely beach before heading in land to the Picos de Europa. It was not enough!

Image 'Rocks in the Deva' added to gallery 'Rock'

I was in this gorge, beside the busy road that is the only direct link between the town of Potes and the coast, with a group of other photographers but I managed to find a quiet spot that not only offered a measure of solitude but also a number of good compositions.

Image 'Pink Strata' added to gallery 'Rock'

Zumaia is bordered on one side by the Urola river and by the Atlantic on the other. The ocean-facing side has a popular bathing beach with extremely satisfying geology. In late October, there weren't many sun-seekers but there were plenty of people around, nonetheless.

I was returning home from my trip to the Picos de Europa and, saly, my schedule didn't allow for the luxry of shooting at dawn the next day, when the next low tide was expected. So I had to work around the people who were there and was unable to investigate the beach as fully as I would have liked. A return visit is very much needed.

Image 'Nearing the Cave of the Counterfeiters' added to gallery 'Rock'

The entrance to the Cave of the Counterfeiters can be reached via metal stairs behind the large outcrop on the right of this image.

I liked how the mossy trees played off against the shape of the outcrop making it look like a giant fish moving amongst a forest of seaweed.

Image 'Quartzite incursions - 1' added to gallery 'Rock'

A small cave at The Strangles provided a treasure-trove of quartzite patterns in the black rock.

Image 'Pebbles' added to gallery 'Rock'

Whilst holidaymakers around me were enjoying the warm weather and the bracing prospect of a dip in the Atlantic Ocean, I was perversely photographing the cliffs. And why not? The strata and colours there are wonderful.

Strange looks notwithstanding, I would rather be photographing rock than lying on a windy British beach, wearing next to nothing and hoping the sun might appear for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Image 'Rockfall' added to gallery 'Rock'

I saw this rockfall with its beautiful carpet of moss and lichen and simply had to take a picture. The adjacent woodland is home to a number of semi-tame birds (there are nesting boxes and feeding sites throughout the wood), some of which were inquisitively settling on a branch just centimetres from my head as I made this image.

Image 'Gritstone' added to gallery 'Rock'

I spent a whole morning discovering the amazing eroded gritstone forms of Stannage Edge in England's Peak District. Here I particularly enjoyed how these boulders had come together in an attractive grouping.

Image 'Cascade du Rochejus' added to gallery 'Rock'

A long hike in led me to this hidden gem of a cascade tucked away in woodland near the village of Durnes in the northern french Jura.

Sadly, the weather was a landscape photographer's worst nightmare - full-on midday sunshine with not a cloud in the sky to mitigate the harsh light. However, I had walked a long way carrying a heavy pack of camera gear and I wasn't about to let a spell of 'adverse' weather prevent from me making an image or two.

Image 'Rock of ages' added to gallery 'Rock'

The result of a violent landslide, this split rock up a side valley of the Val Maggia caught my eye.

Image 'Rockpools' added to gallery 'Rock'

We returned to Panther Falls the following day where aspen leaves lay strewn attractively around the rocks. I later discovered that it was one of my fellow photographers and not Mother Nature who had been doing the strewing... Oh well. :-)

Image 'Verzasca Boulders' added to gallery 'Rock'

The Verzasca Valley draws me back again and again yet the amazingly coloured boulders always seem to inspire new compositions.

Image 'Sculpted Alcove' added to gallery 'Rock'

Sculpture from the river Maggia, which has taken the local granite as its inspiration and with nothing more than sand, grit, high-pressure water and a great deal of time has created these gently flowing forms. Particularly intriguing is the motive on the wall of the alcove and how it mischievously quotes the shape of the orifice. The trompe l'oeil tunnel effect is a touch of genius.

Image 'Rockpool eflection' added to gallery 'Rock'

Sunlight striking the forested valley side is reflected in a small rockpool in Swtzerland's Verzasca Valley.

Image 'Pink sandstone' added to gallery 'Rock'

Another image from an extremely productive session at St. Bees.

Image 'Balanced' added to gallery 'Rock'

Whilst hiking the headwaters of the Verzasca River I came across this fallen boulder, precariously balanced above a waterfall.

Image 'Gole di Breggia - 3' added to gallery 'Rock'

The river Breggia flows through a steep sided gorge where the folded and distorted geological strata are laid bare. This makes for a fascinating area to explore photographically. I made these three very different images in a short 100 metre stretch of the river.

Image 'Drumadoon' added to gallery 'Rock'

Drumadoon Point is a wild and windswept location on the more exposed western side of Arran. It also boasts a golf course which, to a non-golfer like myself, seems like it might be one of the more challenging courses in the area simply because of the location.

Image 'Igneous rock, Imacher' added to gallery 'Rock'

Just a tiny part of the beautiful striated formations at Imacher Point on Arran.

Image 'Bryce under snow' added to gallery 'Rock'

A recent fall of snow contrasts with the delicate pinks and reds of the sandstone formations of Bryce Canyon, giving this strange landscape a fairytale look.

Image 'Donegal beach scene' added to gallery 'Rock'

Rock, sand dunes and low cloud at Annagary Strand.

Image 'Slate detail' added to gallery 'Rock'

On my previous trip to this area I made a more general image of this intriguing rock-face, promising to myself that I would return to explore it in more detail. There is much more potential here but sunny conditions and a strong wind limited the photographic opportunities this time around. Perhaps next time...

Image 'Fluid forms' added to gallery 'Rock'

The rocks at Kynance take on the colours of the minerals found within the granite and basalt matrix. Greens and reds predominate indicating the presence of malachite and iron ore.

Image 'Trapped' added to gallery 'Rock'

I first photographed this trapped rock a little over a year ago. At that time, I went in close on the yellowish rock and... failed miserably. Focussing proved to be the main issue so this time I resolved to do better. I set up a little further away and everything finally fell into place.

Image 'Rock patterns' added to gallery 'Rock'

A feature of this part of the Verzsca valley is the spectacular markings on the rocks to be found there. Every so often, the random movement of rocks by high-pressure water throws up a fascinating conjunction of pattern and form. So it's a real delight to happen on a perfect arrangement like this.

Image 'Gole di Breggia - 1' added to gallery 'Rock'

Image 'Gole di Breggia - 2' added to gallery 'Rock'

Image 'Natural rock art' added to gallery 'Rock'

Natural markings in this water-eroded granite boulder give the impression of petroglyphs left by an unknown prehistoric tribe.

Image 'Ravine' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I was driving over the Julierpass when I had the urge to pee. Needs must, so I turned down a convenient side-road in order to do the necessary - and to take a few photographs.

Image 'Striped forest' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I was driving over the Julierpass when I had the urge to pee. Needs must, so I turned down a convenient side-road in order to do the necessary - and to take a few photographs.

Image 'Early-season snow' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Image 'On the banks of the Silsersee' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

As I was driving towards Maloja, I couldn't help but notice this little scene beside Lake Sils. What the snow is conveniently covering is the ugly truth that I was standing in a small car-park only a few paces from my car when I made this... waiting, waiting, waiting for the sky to clear enough to show the top of the mountain.

Image 'Stunted pine' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

While my partner swam in the warm shallow bay, I scrambled up over the rocks to see what there was to photograph and this plucky little tree, survivng on very little, caught my eye.

Image 'Fallen Larch' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I have another image of this rockfall in the Val Rosegg, near Pontresina, taken a year or two before this one.

This time I was particularly taken with the two fallen tree-trunks and spent a while trying to figure out the best composition.

Image 'Fallen logs' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

The Pfynwald is a forest of predominantly pine trees and is now left as a natural resource for the enjoyment of all. Trees fall and are left alone to rot naturally. I felt drawn to this particular arrangement of fallen pines.

Image 'Overrun' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

This rocky outcrop in the forest just below Champex was being threatened with the rampant undergrowth. I seems to be putting up stoic resistance, however.

Image 'Rocky outcrop in the forest' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Exploring this quiet woodland on a steep slope outside Champex, I found this rocky outcrop that had been taken over by undergrowth and trees. I immediately set to work to create this intimate study.

Image 'Along the Reuss' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

An unusually thick covering of snow meant an opportunity to explore my local patch of woodland as it is rarely seen.

Image 'Branches caught in the snow' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

An unusually thick covering of snow meant an opportunity to explore my local patch of woodland as it is rarely seen. This quiet, intimate scene drew my attention.

Image 'Snow woodland' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

An unusually thick covering of snow meant an opportunity to explore my local patch of woodland as it is rarely seen. The late afternoon sun gave the scene a subtle warm backlighting.

Image 'Golf Course' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Sadly an increasingly rare sight at such comparatively low altitudes, this thick covering of snow arrived over two days of constant snowfall. It temporarily transformed this unremarkable golf course into a landscape photogrpaher's playground.

Image 'Colourful Crags' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

The Blausee may be a renowned tourist hotspot but when you lift your eyes from the crystal waters of the 'blue lake', there is some wonderful mountain scenery to be seen...

Image 'Distant Larches' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

It was a bumper year for berries of the mountain ash tree or rowan, if you prefer. Some years the berries form too late or are few in number but this year everything came good at the right time. An impressive crop of red berries coincided with the peak of 'goldener Herbst' (golden autumn) when the larches were at the height of their colour.

I made several images exploring the theme of red-on-gold.

Image 'Above Kühmatt' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

It was a bumper year for berries of the mountain ash tree or rowan. Some years the berries form too late or are few in number but this year everything came together at the right time. An impressive crop of red berries coincided with the peak of 'goldener Herbst' (golden autumn) when the larches were at the height of their colour. I made several images exploring this theme of red-on-gold.

Image 'Rowan and Larches' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Early in the morning, I left my hotel room and drove the short distance to the spot where I'd seen this perfect arrangement of larch and rowan the previous day. With the soft light of a mountain dawn keeping contrast low, I set up the large format camera and unhurriedly set about framing this shot.

Image 'Cascading Rowan' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I saw this rowan cascading into a little ravine right next to the hotel we were staying at.

Image 'Foot of Mt. Ventoux' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

It has been a long-standing aim of mine to get to the top of Mt. Ventoux. In 2006, when I first tried, the road was closed due to snow. This time it was closed due to high winds. C'est la vie.

As I followed the road out of Bédoin, I soon saw this lovely little pine forest so I stopped the car and started to explore. The air was full of the scents of pine and wild sage but, despite the wonderful aromas, finding a composition proved difficult. This is, I feel, something of a compromise. But, as a certain Austrian body-builder once said, I will be back...

Image 'Lötschental Spring' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

A partial lifting of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions allowed travel slightly further afield so I travelled to this attractive valley in central Switzerland.

Image 'White Hellebore study' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

On a hike into the mountains at the far end of the valley, I came across one of many clumps of White Hellebore - a fairly common alpine plant but one with very photogenic leaves.

Image 'Wild garlic study 1' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

As I was unable to travel any great distance due to the Covid-19 lockdown, I decided to explore my local area instead. Fortunately, where I now live is close to a wooded area containing a great deal of this attractive little plant.

Image 'Wild garlic study 2' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Image 'Garlic wood' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Image 'Gorge de la Lizerne' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

A scene I have photographed before however I do enjoy the shapes in the steep sides of this lovely little gorge.

Image 'Ferpêcle Larches' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Low sun lights up a larch forest behind a small stand of larches.

Image 'Marais Plat' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

The 'Marais Plat' or 'flat marsh' is in one of the meadows which punctuate the Bois de Chènes. This little pond, created specifically to encourage wildlife, was melting fast when I was there and pools of meltwater can just be seen on the ice.

Image 'Beech Saplings in the Snow' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Beech trees retain some leaves in the winter to help protect the buds during cold weather and I was taken by the contrast of orangey-brown leaves against pure white snow.

Image 'Fallen Oak, Le Lac Vert' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

This part of Le Lac Vert is always a compositional challenge. Here it was a technical challenge as well with my 5x4 view camera...

Image 'Le Lac Vert' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I decided to make a winter visit to the Bois de ChÃ¨nes and, after an unusually mild spell, I was very lucky to find snow still on the ground.

Image 'Fallen Tree Study' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

These dead grasses had become wrapped around the trunk of a fallen tree. Moss and scattered leaves complete the picture.

Image 'Baigne aux Chevaux' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I decided to make a winter visit to the Bois de Chènes and, after an unusually mild spell, I was very lucky to find snow still on the ground. This is a small pond known as the 'horse-washing pond', although no horses were to be seen taking advantage of the facility, unsurprisingly. I liked the interaction of the reeds and the retained leaves of a beech tree.

Image 'Blazing Beech' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I saw these elegant old beech trees from the road that winds its way up from Fernilee Reservoir in England's Peak District and couldn't resist making a photograph.

Image 'Tangled Branches' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

This, for me, is probably the most satisfying image I have made at this location. It was a difficult compositional conundrum to solve, bringing order to such a chaotic scene and it took me several attempts to find a workable composition. That it was gently raining at the time just added to the problems.

Image 'Forest Spring' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I was keen to move away from the Duck Pond and explore the adjacent area. I was pleased to find a little spring which feeds the little stream that runs the length of the forest.

Image 'Forest Stream' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

As I was heading back to the car just as it was starting to get dark I saw this scene and was immediately faced with a choice - set up my large-format camera and shoot this scene or avoid having to walk back in the dark. Luckily, I was able to manage both - just.

Image 'Le Grand Marais' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I have been meaning to photograph this part of the wood for quite some time. Back in March, when the area was under water, a composition eluded me and a concentration on the northern part of the forest meant that this little are of swamp had to wait. It was still not an easy composition and I had to explore the dense woodland for some time before I happened on this spot - quite close to where I started my exploration!

Image 'Fallen branch' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I spent over three hours exploring just a small part of this magical little forest. I will return as the seasons change.

Image 'Autumn tree' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I spent over three hours exploring just a small part of this magical little forest. I will return as the seasons change.

Image 'Towards Le Grand Marais' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I spent over three hours exploring just a small part of this magical little forest. I will return as the seasons change.

Image 'Snowline' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I find the transition to and from a snow-covered landscape quite fascinating. Here the retreating snow marks the boundary between autumn and winter.

Image 'Silver Birch Dance' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

A stand of silver birches appear to be caught in mid-dance as the trunks appear to move to an unheard beat.

Image 'Silver Birches and Heather' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Millstone Edge, not far from the village of Hathersage, is a noted local beauty spot and in high summer the moorland puts on a great show of purple and green.

Image 'Bolehill Birches' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

The quarry at Bolehill was apparently used to supply the stone for the dam that created the Derwent reservoir - the very same one that 617 Squadron used to practice for one of the most audacious bombing raids of the Second World War.

These days the quarry is overgrown with silver birch, grass and bracken but the quarry face and workings are still clearly visible.

Image 'Hidden larch' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I loved how this little larch was peeking out from behind the framing trees.

Image 'Mountain Light' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

My exploration of the margins of Lake Derborence brought me to a marshy area by a stream. I spent a while photographing this stand of willow trees with their attractive leaves but my favourite image is this one where light reflected off the mountainside behind makes its way through the foliage in this shady spot.

Image 'Last Leaves of Autumn' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

As I was walking away from the gorge I saw this small tree with remnants of autumn foliage adorning the skeletal branches.

Image 'Anonymous woodland' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

An anonymous patch of scruffy woodland rendered eerily claustrophobic by rain and bare branches.

Image 'Larch colours' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Larches in different stages of autumn colour, near the top of the Ofenpass in the Engadine region of Switzerland.

Image 'Autumn larch' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

A small stand of larches in Switzerland's remote Val Müstair show off their autumn colours.

Image 'Misty forest' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Whilst trying to pin down an elusive set of cascades on the river Verneau, I found myself driving down a narrow road which quickly became a track and ended in a small parking area marked 'only for hunters'. Considering myself something of a 'hunter' (strictly of potential images, not furry quadrupeds!) I stopped and went to explore...

Image 'Bolle di Magadino - 1' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Leaving my hotel, I looked towards the other side of the lake and noticed some low mist hanging over this small area of wetland at the northern end of Lago Maggiore. However, the curse of the landscape photographer struck again and by the time I arrived the mist had dispersed. Not one to let a photographic opportunity go to waste, I shot a couple of sheets of film anyway. I was experimenting with out-of-focus effects and rather liked the look of the blurred highlights.

Image 'Bolle di Magadino - 2' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

More from the wetland and nature reserve at the northern end of Lago Maggiore. This time I chose to place the focus on the foreground shrub and let the trees go defocussed for a slightly ghostly effect.

Image 'Beech bough and white water' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I enjoy the challenge of seeking out images which elevate the ordinary into something special and I feel I have succeeded in this simple scene of a beech bough in front of the river Doubs.

Image 'Undergrowth' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

A larch and some colourful indigenous undergrowth proved irresistible.

Image 'Colourful bush' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

One thing that has to be said for the Canadian Rockies (well, apart from the obvious) is that the local flora is a lot more attractively coloured than we are accustomed to seeing in Europe.

This little shrub was proudly showing off a stunning array of autumn colour. I fancy it knew it was being photographed...

Image 'Wildflower meadow and forest' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

En route to Mt. Robson we spotted this beautiful meadow on the margins of a forest of bizarrely-shaped conifers. It was attractively backlit which made the colours stand out all the more.

Image 'Undergrowth' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I came to this forest to photograph trees but the light wasn't quite right for that so I started exploring what was at my feet.

In the end, I spent around two hours photographing in a two square-metre part of the forest floor, making three images - two of which have made it to my portfolio.

Image 'Vortex' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Blackthorn and bramble combine with ivy to make a 'tunnel' or 'vortex' to a patch of wasteground beyond. More fancifully, I like to think of it as a portal to a parallel universe.

Image 'Lone tree' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I had high hopes of a misty sunrise as I crested the Col de la Tourne but, although the mist in the valley was holding on, at higher levels it had all been burned away by the sun. Almost. The last vestiges served to simplify the background and help this wonderful tree stand out in the morning light.

Image 'Pfynwald ' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

This small area of wetland in the midst of the Pfynwald (ForÃªt de Finges) provided me with an interesting, if difficult, subject. The difficulties lay with access to the few unobstructed vantage points and in framing the composition so as to avoid some rather inconveniently-located power cables.

Image 'Last light, Lac de Narlay' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

I completed my photographic tour of Les Quatre Lacs with a trip to the Lac de Narlay, hoping to use the sparse reedbeds in a composition. That didn't work out but this one did....

Image 'Forest of larch' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

A forest of larch provides a magnificent display of Autumn colour.

Image 'Autumn colour' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

The tree-lined lower slopes of the limestone cirque at Baume-les-Messieurs.

Image 'Val Dessous' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

The valley below Les Cascades de l'HÃ©risson is full of wetland vegetation. Making sense of this natural complexity proved to be an intriguing photographic challenge.

Image 'VallÃ©e de Nozon' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Climbing out of the deep ravine that forms this part of the VallÃ©e du Nozon, I looked back to see this wonderfully soft Autumnal scene of beautifully-coloured beeches. The fast descending mist added its own special touch...

Image 'Gorges du Pichoux' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

The Gorges du Pichoux was cut by the Sorne river as it traversed an outcrop of Jura limestone. Towards the bottom of the gorge is a large wooded area, criss-crossed by streams and waterfalls. This weathered and dilapidated old footbridge drew my attention immediately and I felt it had to be the centrepiece of an image of sylvan beauty.

Image 'Dead trees and grass' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

On the Kolob Terrace to the west of Zion Canyon, I came across this strange field with its skeletal trees poking out of the long grass.

Image 'Magadino Nature Reserve' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

In the northern-eastern corner of Lake Maggiore, lies a small nature reserve. This area of marsh is a reminder of how the lake must have looked before it was developed as a holiday resort. It is a fascinating area, full of photographic possibilities. I spent a sunset and sunrise the following day there, recording its quiet beauty.

Image 'Pine Bark Study' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Simply an appreciation of the wonderful shapes and textures to be found in pine bark.

Image 'Fallen leaves, Baigne aux Chevaux' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Leaves under water with retreating ice and reeds.

Image 'At the Forest's Edge' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

This is part of a boggy patch on the edge of one of the meadows which break up the forest. I was particularly drawn to the stark branches and sparse remaining leaves.

Image 'By the Serine' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Autumn serenity beside the river Serine.

Image 'Trembling Aspens' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Conveniently located adjacent to an overlook, these aspens at Medicine Lake contrasted perfectly with the blue of the water and the distant shore.

Image 'Neighbouring larches' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Larches are among the very few deciduous conifers and in the Autumn they slowly turn from green to lemon yellow to brown making them some of the most spectacular of trees. For this image, I decided to concentrate on two neighbouring larches whose branches had become intertwined.

Image 'Feral Mountain Ash' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

On the edge of Forestry Commission land in England's Peak District, I found this rowan which, surprisingly, sported pink, rather than the more usual red, berries. I suspect that it is an ornamental garden variety which has been seeded by birds. Despite that, it was doing well away from 'captivity'.

Image 'Fallen' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

A Forestry Commission plantation in England's Peak District yielded this composition of fallen and standing firs.

Image 'Beech and Larch' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

A stand of beeches in the foreground with larches behind providing a golden glow to set the composition off nicely.

Image 'Vosges Woodland' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

Autumn colour in the Vosges mountains.

Image 'Les Usses' added to gallery ' Forests, woods and trees'

A short (barely 40km) tributary of the mighty RhÃ´ne, this little glacier-fed river runs down a picturesque course bordered by forest.

Image 'Looking across Haukland Bay' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Looking across Haukland Bay in Norway's Lofoten archipelago.

Image 'Lofoten sunset' added to gallery 'Vistas'

My partner decided to make an early night of it, so I ventured out to enjoy the long arctic twilight.

This image was made at about 11:30pm and I could easily have continued shooting into the early hours...

Image 'Looking towads la Grande Dixence' added to gallery 'Vistas'

After descending the Sanetsch pass, I realised I had some time to kill so I decided to venture up to the end of this side valley in Wallis to try to take advantage of the dramatic cloudy sky, before the frontal system passed through leaving clear blue skies in its wake.

Image 'Platueau d'Ambel' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The Plateau d'Ambel, taken on what turned out to be a decidedly over-ambitious day's hike around the entire plateau.

Image 'Snow-pillows' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Image 'Bog Cotton with pond' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Bog cotton is an intriguing plant. It grows in colonies in marshy ground, particularly in upland areas. I saw this little pond, surrounded by tufts of white that were being blown about by the wind, at the top of the Col du Sanetsch in central Switzerland and just knew I had to make a photograph.

Image 'Sunlit Uplands' added to gallery 'Vistas'

I was with a group of other photographers and we had spent the morning in the rain. Luckily the weather broke and by lunchtime everything had cleared, allowing the sun to illuminate the rocky summits of the Picos de Europa with attractive sidelight.

Image 'Hidden Meadow' added to gallery 'Vistas'

We fiound this meadow at the top of a short incline leading from the road and spent some time enoying its obvious charm.

Image 'Sunlit grove' added to gallery 'Vistas'

As part of the trip, we went on a 4x4 expedition over private roads into the heart of the mountain range. This grove of trees was being shaken by frequent gusts of wind while being lit by intermittent direct sunlight. Unfortunately, gusts did not coincide with the sunlight so I din't manage to catch as much movement in the trees as I would have liked but the dramatic lighting was a good compromise...

Image 'The heart of the mountains.' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Deep in the heart of the Picos de Europa mountains, we stopped at an abandoned village. Looking back up the pass, the scenery took on a dramatic aspect, heightened by cloud and intermittent sun.

Image 'Braided River' added to gallery 'Vistas'

I was driving over the Flüela pass that links Davos on the west side with the Engadine Valley to the east when I was suddenly struck by this scene. For some reason, I had never noticed it on previous drives. Perhaps it was the light or the frustration of being caught behind slower traffic that made me stop the car and get the camera out but I'm glad I did.

Image 'Goldener Herbst' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The title refers to the German for 'golden autumn' and is often used as way of referring to the Engadine region at the time of year when the larch forests put on a dazzling autumn display.

As I was driving to this spot there was a most magnificent sunrise but the road was closed and there was a diversion right through the middle of a gravel works. By the time I had found my way to a spot where I could photograph the valley without the ugly manmade intrusion, the colours had drained from the sky. I still like the image enough to include it here, however...

Image 'Moonrise Over the Sassi' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The moon rising over Sasso Lungo on the left and its neighbour, Sasso Piatto on the right.

Image '"El Capitan"' added to gallery 'Vistas'

This splendid cliff rather put me in mind of its rather larger DoppelgÃ¤nger, El Capitan in California's Yosemite Valley. The geology is rather different (limestone rather than granite) but the resemblance is uncanny.

Image 'Passo Gardena' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Whilst relocating from Val Gardena to Cortina d'Ampezzo, we drove over the Passo Gerdena and I couldn't resist stopping the car near the top of the eastern flank of the pass to capture this shot.

Image 'Clearing Summer Storm, Tre Cime' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The previous day, a svere hailstorem had swept through the area, clearing the atmosphere of dust particles and leaving some magnificent clouds in its wake.

Image 'Fractured Stone' added to gallery 'Vistas'

On returning to the car after hiking right around the Tre Cime, this scene confronted me. It pretty much composed itself.

Image 'Scree and old snow' added to gallery 'Vistas'

I had intended to drive to the summit of the Col du Sanetsch but a landslide blocked my path some five kilometres from the top. Instead of the expected mountain vista, I turned my attention to the patterns in the mouintainside across the valley.

Image 'Lone larch with rowan' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Larches and rowans appear to have some sort of symbiosis going on in places where they can both grow as they are often to be found very close together, occasionally with intertwining branches.

Here I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the lone larch, with attendant rowan, the neighbouring trees and the mountains in the background. It seemed to bring together everything I enjoyed about the Lötschental.

Image 'Korana Gorge' added to gallery 'Vistas'

At the northern end of the complex, the lakes give way to a short river gorge where the Korana river has worn its way through the limestone.

Image 'Plitvice Lakes' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Walking in the hills above the Lakes provided the occasional opportunity for a wider view of this unique landscape.

Image 'The view from Ferpêcle' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Looking out over the larch forest at Ferpêcle.

Image 'Old Snow' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The remains of an avalanche, near Zinal in southern Switzerland.

Image 'Lake Derborence' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Last light looking over Lake Derborence towards Mt. Gond.

Image 'Roseg Glacier' added to gallery 'Vistas'

It was long hike to get to this point - around 20km there and back - but it was worth it. The deeply sad aspect to this is the evidence of glacial retreat with the bare moraine (the ground-up rock left behind by a glacier) clearly marking the relatively recent extent of the glacier.

Image 'Val Roseg' added to gallery 'Vistas'

It was a long hike with a heavy camera-pack to reach this spot but the view to the distant peaks made it all worthwhile.

Image 'Snowline' added to gallery 'Vistas'

I find the transition to and from a snow-covered landscape quite fascinating. Here remnants of recent snow create patterns on the high pasture.

Image 'Larch and Dolomites' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The Dolomites are full of spectacular mountains but, due to an unfortunate tripod breakage, I was limited to handheld grab-shots on this visit. I will be back...

Image 'Glacier du Trient' added to gallery 'Vistas'

I made a slightly different version of this composition on my first visit to this beautiful alpine valley in the Spring of 2014 and it was always my intention to return when autumn colours make the mountainsides appear to glow yellow.

Image 'Glacier du Trient' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Just one more retreating Alpine glacier. Fifty years ago, the snout of the glacier came down to the valley just above the treeline. No longer.

Image 'Mt. Blanc from Emosson' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Clear conditions meant that the summit of Europe's highest mountain was clearly visible. An idea of scale: my location was at about 2000m however the summit of Mt. Blanc is a more than twice that height.

Image 'Last of the winter snow' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Spectacular images of soaring peaks are something of a Swiss clichÃ© so I wanted to make a more prosaic image that reflected the day-to-day reality of living in the high Alps. I was perched on a low berm, created to provide avalanche protection for the nearby community of La Fouly. To my right, a football pitch had been scraped out of the landscape.

Image 'Moraine and meltwater' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Alarmingly, I could not have made an image at this spot just three years ago since it would have been under several metres of ice. In this short time, the Morteratsch glacier has retreated roughly 150m. If you want to see it, go soon before it disappears for good.

Image 'Morteratsch glacier' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The rapidly retreating Morteratsch glacier. Signs along the the path indicate where the glacier came to at ten-year intervals from 1900. Back then, you could alight from the train at Morteratsch and take a short stroll to the glacier. Nowadays you must hike nearly 3km.

Image 'Alpine larch forest' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Looking down the lower Val Trupchun towards S-Chanf and the peaks on the opposite side of the Inn valley.

Image 'Looking towards the Val Müstair' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The view from the top of the Ofenpass. This is the only direct link between the remote Val Müstair and the rest of Switzerland. Other routes involve long detours through either Italy or Austria.

Image 'Dawn over Moraine Lake' added to gallery 'Vistas'

This image is from the first dawn shoot of the trip, at Moraine Lake. A well-known beauty spot, certainly, but magnificently scenic nonetheless.

Image 'Borrowdale' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The view across Borrowdale in England's Lake District.

Image 'Sunlit Uplands' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Returning from a hike to the Ducantal (the valley pictured), I turned to look back at the spot I'd just hiked to and was pleased to see the mountainside beautifully lit up by the low sun.

I just had to get the camera out again...

Image 'Larches and an Alp' added to gallery 'Vistas'

I do my best to avoid obvious views but sometimes my resistance just crumbles and I have to succumb to temptation...

Image 'Val d'Arolla' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Arolla is a small ski-resort at the end of a side-valley of the Val d'HÃ©rens, itself a side valley of the RhÃ´ne Valley.

I tend not to shoot such obviously beautiful scenes, preferring instead more subtle beauty but even I couldn't resist this - especially when I could shoot from the relative comfort of a hotel carpark and pop in for a coffee afterwards.

Image 'Newlands Valley' added to gallery 'Vistas'

I don't really do scenics but sometimes even I can't resist. This is Newlands Valley on a windy and showery day from the ridge up to the summit of Catbells.

Image 'The view from the Creux du Van' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The Creux du Van is a vast natural amphitheatre of limestone, created as a result of geological faulting. Standing at the edge of a sheer cliff at dawn as the light slowly grew in intensity and looking at this impressive view was a special experience - and one which I hope my image evokes.

Image 'Bryce at dawn' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The sheer other-worldliness of the landscape of Bryce Canyon gives the place a very special atmosphere and at no time is this atmosphere more tangible than at dawn. The way the sun slowly reveals this awe-inspiring sight, whilst all around is reverently silent, is an experience that stays in the mind. I like to think that this image captures a little of that feeling...

Image 'Horseshoe Bend' added to gallery 'Vistas'

Near Page, Arizona the Colorado River makes a tight bend underneath 100m cliffs. A favourite spot for photgraphers, the overlook has a scary unguarded drop right down to the river. This is not a place for vertigo sufferers...

Image 'Dawn over Monument Valley' added to gallery 'Vistas'

For some pictures you have to trek miles through desert and wilderness, while others are just there for the taking.

This was shot from the balcony of my hotel room in Monument Valley....

Image 'John Ford's Point' added to gallery 'Vistas'

The rock formations of Monument Valley are well-known to lovers of Westerns. This is the aptly-named John Ford's Point.

Image 'Fishing boats at dawn' added to gallery 'Vistas'

A group of fishing boats awaits early-morning fishermen on the Silsersee.

Image 'A street in Mirmande' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

One of the quiet streets in the pretty hillside village of Mirmande.

Image 'Stairway to Heaven' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

(With apologies to Led Zeppelin)

Stone steps leading to the small church at Mirmande.

Image 'Maison Suspendue' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

Pont-en-Royans is noted for its 'maisons suspendues' - houses that are built into the cliffs of the Gorge du Bourne - and this is a detail of one such building.

Image 'Gate' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

A close-up of the aged timbers of a gate in Tudes, northern Spain.

Image 'Green Window' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

I enjoy the opportunity to pick out small architectural details and when I saw this brightly-painted boarded-up window, I simply could not resist.

Image 'Hanging Gourds' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

A difficult exposure made tougher by my forgetfulness in not accounting for a pecularity of working with a camera with bellows: accounting for the fall-off in illumination as the distance from lens to film plane exceeds the focal length of the lens. This usually happens when focussing on an object that is closer to the lens than the lens is to the film and requires increasing the length of exposure in proportion to the draw of the bellows. I was in a hurry and positioning the camera for just the right composition had proved to be more time-consuming than usual...

Anyway, it was a difficult job to make the scan presentable but I'm pleased I persevered. This is one of my favourite images of the whole trip.

Image 'A quieter side of Venice' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

Taken shortly after dawn one morning, this group of photos is an attempt to move away from clichÃ© and to show the less glamorous side of La Serenissima. We were staying in the Jewish Ghetto and this image was made a short distance from one of the ghetto's entrances.

Image 'Small boat and brick wall' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

A single boat moored by a brick wall provides an interesting contrast of colour.

Image 'Boats tied up in a side canal' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

A row of small boats moored in a side canal.

Image 'Leaving the ghetto' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

One of the bridges looking towards the main gate of the Venice Ghetto, where the Jewish residents had to endure a strict curfew.

Image 'The Painted Houses of Burano - Violet' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

No visit to the Venice Lagoon is complete without going to the small island of Burano with its gaily painted houses, each one a different colour from its neighbours. There are many theories surrounding why the houses got their colourful faÃ§ades. My favourite is so that fishermen could find their way home in the thick fogs that envelop the island from time to time.

Image 'The Painted Houses of Burano - Yellow' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

The houses on the island of Burano are not only stylishly painted - the faÃ§ades are accessorised with flair, too.

Image 'Fort St. André' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

I left the hotel shortly before dawn and made some photographs at Pujaut before arriving here. The sheer size and solidity of the structure is impressive and the quiet dawn light helped add a slightly melancholy air.

Image 'Hôtel de Ville, Rousillon' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

Rousillon is, arguably, the prettiest of the Provençal hilltop villages with its characteristic ochre-coloured architecture. It's fitting, then, that the neatest and prettiest of all the buildings is this joyous town-hall.

Image 'Church, Rousillon' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

Rousillon also boasts an attractive church which, given the harsh light that day, I chose to picture in monochrome.

Image 'Backlit Archway' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

It was a clear sunny day when I visited Assisi and the strong light made photography difficult. Just occasionally, the opportunity to use that harsh light to my advantage arose.

Image 'Steps' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

Another well-photographed scene but the interlocking shapes were simply irresistible.

Image 'Abandoned Chapel' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

The interior of an abandoned chapel in the Tuscan countryside.

Image 'Abbazia di Sant'Antimo (interior)' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

Part of the southern Tuscany 'tourist trail', certainly, but deservedly so. This simple abbey has a pared-down beauty with its austere Romanesque architecture and this means it is another well-photographed location.

The interior has a simple purity about it with only the carved capitals of the columns providing any ornamentation. In addition to that, I was keen to capture the gentle quality of light that filled the space.

Image 'Abandoned Farm Building ' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

Many old farmhouses and barns have been 'gentrified' and are now used as holiday homes - we stayed in one such - but there are still old, abandoned farmhouses to be found. They are intriguing places, full of atmosphere.

Image 'Buoy zone' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

Three colourful buoys stored on the foreshore at Priest Cove.

Image 'Memento mori' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

A fish skeleton (possibly a dogfish) washed up on the shingle beach at Cadgwith Cove.

Image 'Concrete dam, Le ChÃ¢telot' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

In all my visits to the Gorges du Doubs I have so far shied away from making images of the brutal curtain-wall dam holding back the Lac du Moron at Le ChÃ¢telot. This is partly because it's not very attractive but mainly because, up until now, I couldn't find a way of making an interesting image of it.

Image 'Disused cement works' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

The Gole di Breggia (gorge of the river Breggia) is an area of outstandingly beautiful rock formations in southern Switzerland which has been made into a geological park. So it's quite a shock to find a partially-demolished cement works adjacent to the main point of access.

The owners, Swiss concrete manufacturer Holcim, have decided that, rather than eradicate it completely, it would be better (cheaper, presumably) to leave it as a shell and turn it into a "tourist attraction". Still, it makes a great photographic subject and I spent a while one Sunday exploring it.

Here, I particularly enjoyed the geometric layout of the various parts of the structure.

Image 'Disused cement works' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

The Gole di Breggia (gorge of the river Breggia) is an area of outstandingly beautiful rock formations in southern Switzerland which has been made into a geological park. So it's quite a shock to find a partially-demolished cement works adjacent to the main point of access.

The owners, Swiss concrete manufacturer Holcim, have decided that, rather than eradicate it completely, it would be better (cheaper, presumably) to leave it as a shell and turn it into a "tourist attraction". Still, it makes a great photographic subject and I spent a while one Sunday exploring it.

This image shows what is left of the support buttresses of the main hall.

Image 'Disused cement works' added to gallery 'Miscellaneous'

The Gole di Breggia (gorge of the river Breggia) is an area of outstandingly beautiful rock formations in southern Switzerland which has been made into a geological park. So it's quite a shock to find a partially-demolished cement works adjacent to the main point of access.

The owners, Swiss concrete manufacturer Holcim, have decided that, rather than eradicate it completely, it would be better (cheaper, presumably) to leave it as a shell and turn it into a "tourist attraction". Still, it makes a great photographic subject and I spent a while one Sunday exploring it.

I was intrigued by the way this spade had been left leaning against the wall...

Image 'Fallen branch' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

I spent over three hours exploring just a small part of this magical little forest. I will return as the seasons change.

Image 'Autumn tree' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

I spent over three hours exploring just a small part of this magical little forest. I will return as the seasons change.

Image 'Towards Le Grand Marais' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

I spent over three hours exploring just a small part of this magical little forest. I will return as the seasons change.

Image 'Le Lac Vert' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

It may be called 'le Lac Vert' but it isn't green and it's more of a pond than a lake since it is not fed by a stream or river and therefore dries up completely in warm weather.

The overgrown brush in the middle of the pond appealed to me somehow and I set about finding some order in the disorder, using a partially submerged tree-branch to contrast with the chaos.

Image 'Le Lac Vert' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

It may be called 'le Lac Vert' but it isn't green and it's more of a pond than a lake since it is not fed by a stream or river and therefore dries up completely in warm weather.

I liked the starkness of the fallen tree and branches.

Image 'Le Marais Plat' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

This atmospheric area of woodland near Lake Geneva contains several meadows and, at the edge of one such field, I found this small marshy area.

As I was setting up, it came on to rain, intensifying as I went through the slow process of making an image on my view camera. Undaunted, I felt the inclement weather would add an extra element to the image.

Image 'La Baigne aux Chevaux' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

I found this small detail in another pond in this fascinating woodland area near Lake Geneva. Dubbed the 'horse-washing pond', it was generally unremarkable except for this patch of reeds at one end.

Image 'Duck Pond' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

This little pond goes under the prosaic name of 'Baigne aux Canards' or 'Duck Pond'. Such a dull name belies its beauty and fascination. A little piece of the Everglades in Switzerland.

Image 'Fallen Branches' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

I liked the juxtaposition of life and death - the dead branches and the new leaves - and searched for a composition which harmonised these two themes.

Image 'Floating' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

This little pond goes under the prosaic name of 'Baigne aux Canards' or 'Duck Pond'. Such a dull name belies its beauty and fascination. This rather odd 'island' with its small clump of trees drew me to this otherworldly scene.

Image 'Le Lac Vert' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

I first photographed these dead branches in March where the skeletal forms gave the image a very different mood. Spring foliage, however, brings life and vibrant colour to this scene.

Image 'Fallen Oak' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

Its rare to come across such a complete fallen oak. What made it all rather strange was the lack of an identifiable stump - either on the shore or visible under the surface. How did it get there?

Image 'Stand of Birches' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

I was attracted to the lichen-mottled trunks of these birches but I was having trouble finding a workable composition. Then I decided to ignore all the so-called rules about photographing trees and point the camera at the ground. The resulting forced perspective, selective focus and patch of brighter light make for a much more interesting picture.

Image 'Dry Duck Pond' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

I had only previously seen the Duck Pond when it was full of water. Like some other ponds in this little wood, this one is seasonal and dries out during the summer months so I was keen to return when the water had gone. Ideally, I'd like to see it during the transitional phase but a lot of factors meant a summer visit was out of the question. So I returned in early autumn and found these two trees which seem to mirror one another in root systems and shape.

Image 'The heart of the swamp' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

This is the, now dry, Duck Pond. I was keen to include these tufts of grass which I spotted protruding from the water on previous visits. Back then, the water would have made this composition nearly impossible. It was shallow enough to wade but all the debris on the ground would have presented a significant trip hazard...

Image 'Le Lac Vert' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

Like the Duck Pond, Le Lac Vert also loses its water when the weather warms up. This reveals quite a lot of interesting detail, particularly how the bushes which obscure the centre of the pond appear to grow horizontally under the water before deciding to finally grow towards the light.

Image 'Tangled Branches' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

Image 'Forest Spring' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

I was keen to move away from the Duck Pond and explore the adjacent area. I was pleased to find a little spring which feeds the little stream that runs the length of the forest.

Image 'Forest Stream' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

Image 'Le Grand Marais' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

Image 'At the Forest's Edge' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

This is part of a boggy patch on the edge of one of the meadows which break up the forest. I was particularly drawn to the stark branches and sparse remaining leaves.

Image 'Marais Plat' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

Image 'Beech Saplings in the Snow' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

Beech trees retain some leaves in the winter to help protect the buds during cold weather and I was taken by the contrast of orangey-brown leaves against pure white snow.

Image 'Fallen Oak, Le Lac Vert' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

This part of Le Lac Vert is always a compositional challenge. Here it was a technical challenge as well with my 5x4 view camera...

Image 'Le Lac Vert' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

I decided to make a winter visit to the Bois de ChÃ¨nes and, after an unusually mild spell, I was very lucky to find snow still on the ground.

Image 'Fallen Tree Study' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

These dead grasses had become wrapped around the trunk of a fallen tree. Moss and scattered leaves complete the picture.

Image 'Pine Bark Study' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

Simply an appreciation of the wonderful shapes and textures to be found in pine bark.

Image 'Baigne aux Chevaux' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

Image 'Fallen leaves, Baigne aux Chevaux' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

Leaves under water with retreating ice and reeds.

Image 'Into the Swamp' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

One of the things I really enjoy is returning to pet locations time after time and finding something new to photograph on each occasion.

I have been to this spot in the Bois de ChÃ¨nes many times but it is rare to find it flooded at the height of summer and I was keen to capture the unusual scene.

Image 'Fallen' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

This is another part of the wood that I have been to many times and often I have looked at this fallen tree wondering how best to incorporate it successfully into a composition. With plenty of foliage and a dull sky, I finally realised the idea that has eluded me on previous visits.

Image 'Summer Reflection' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

I really enjoy playing with reflections as they can often add an element of mystery and abstraction to an image. The photograph then becomes a puzzle for the viewer to solve.

Image 'Roots' added to gallery 'Bois de ChÃ¨nes'

Image 'Water, ice and rock' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

A mountain lit by the setting sun is reflected in a pool of still water.

Image 'Eye of the Storm' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Near Lavertezzo in southern Switzerland, the fast-flowing Verzasca river has carved many bizarre forms and patterns into the granite bedrock. This is a small pool of still water amidst the rushing torrent of the river.

Image 'Rapids' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

The force of the Verzasca river has dragged along many boulders, which are left scattered across the riverbed, continuously battered by the power of the raging torrent.

Image 'Granite basin, Revöira' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Image 'Stone huts, Revöira' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Another of the impressive stone basins in the small mountain community of Revöira. This picture also shows two of the huts and looks towards the mountains on the other side of the Verzasca Valley.

Image 'Open door, Revöira' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Finally, a detail from one of the abandoned huts in Revöira.

Image 'Shard' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

An beautiful shard of ice adorns a rock near Lavertezzo in the Val Verzasca.

Image 'Trapped' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Image 'Rock patterns' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Image 'The young Verzasca' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

The young Verzasca river just a couple of hundred metres downstream from the impressive waterfall in the previous image.

Image 'Sculpted cascade' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

In a remote corner of the Val Verzasca the young Verzasca river has to negotiate this solid gneiss cliff. On its way it has carved interesting shapes into the rock.

Image 'Verzasca Waves' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Southern Switzerland's Verzasca Valley is an old stamping ground of mine - I've been coming here since 2003 - yet the fantastic flowing rockforms always provide interesting subject matter.

Image 'Rockpool eflection' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Sunlight striking the forested valley side is reflected in a small rockpool in Swtzerland's Verzasca Valley.

Image 'Verzasca boulders' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

The valley of the river Verzasca is another of those locations I never tire of photographing. Each time I visit, the changing water level hides some formations and reveals others or, as here, shows familiar formations in a new light. I try to visit away from high season when the sun is lower in the sky and the place is almost deserted.

Image 'Val Osura' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Image 'Leaf and Reflections' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Image 'Verzasca Reflections' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

The area around Lavertezzo, in the Val Verzasca, is somewhere I have been returning regularly ever since moving to Switzerland some twenty years ago. This little spot is always a joy to visit and there are limitless compositions to be found here.

While I was setting up my camera, the sun was sitting conveniently behind some cloud but by the time I had finished faffing about with my large format camera and was ready to shoot, it had started to emerge. Thinking it would mess everything up with harsh shadows everywhere I started swearing. Loudly. Then I looked again. Luckily there was still some light cloud moderating the worst of the constrasty light so I thought, "OK. Let's do it!" Shortly after packing up to go, some thicker cloud rolled in to provide the nice diffuse light I wanted in the first place. Still, I think I made the right decision to go with the slightly iffy light...

Image 'Verzasca Flow' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Image 'Rockpool Study 2' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Image 'Waterfall' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Image 'Rockpool Study 3' added to gallery 'Val Verzasca'

Image 'Larch and lichen' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

A rather complex composition but unavoidable if I was to capture this lichen-coated larch with its remaining needles on the turn.

Including some context provides a framework for the chaotic nature of the tree branches whilst presenting a contrast of straight and flowing lines.

Image 'Autumn Reflections' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

Days where the sky is entirely cloudless are a landscape photographer's recurrent nightmare. On this unexpectedly warm day in early November, I had to look hard for something that would work in the 'terrible' conditions.

Image 'Heather, Limestone and Pig Wire' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

A roll of abandoned pig wire fencing might seem a strange subject amongst the beauty of Surprise View but it's a reminder that this seemingly natural landscape is entirely manmade - heather being one of the few plants that can resist heavy grazing by sheep. Left to its own devices, the area would eventually revert to forest.

Image 'Goyt Valley Detail' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

The Goyt Valley is something of a hidden treasure, tucked away near the top of the Cant and Fiddle pass. In high summer, with the heather in full bloom, it's a lovely place to be. Or at least it would be but for the irritating midges and mosquitoes...

Image 'Birch' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

I love chaotic scenes where there are elements which provide a measure of order. Like here where the crossed fallen branches frame the chaos of this stand of birch trees.

Image 'Beside the Doubs' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

Looking across the river Doubs, towards France. Near the hydro-electric installation at La Goule.

Image 'Valley' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

Stopping for a 'natural break' as I was driving towards Bellegarde, I was suddenly taken by the view across the valley. I just had to rush back to the car and grab the camera...

Image 'Mixed foliage' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

It was the patterns of the branches, the interplay of light and shade and the abstract blocks of colour that fascinated here. I set up the large-format camera but couldn't make a workable composition. It needed the longer reach of my digital camera's telephoto lens to flatten perspective and really bring out the textures and patterns.

Image 'Fallen pine' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

If a tree falls in the forestâ€¦ What started as an exercise in framing an intimate composition with a wide-angle lens resulted in my favourite image of the trip. The fresh spring colours contrasts with the decaying tree, providing an underlying narrative of rebirth.

Image 'The Fallen' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

Tree-trunks, swept down by the forces of nature make interesting patterns as they slowly descend to the river below.

Image 'Endurance' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

Butterbur, or 'bog rhubarb', are fascinating plants. Colonising river-margins and marshes, they are dramatic and highly photogenic.

I was particularly taken by this lone example, enduring the constant onslaught of fast-flowing water.

Image 'Woodpile' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

Moving in close to one of the piles of thinned-put branches makes for an intriguing study in ordered chaos.

Image ''The Clump'' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

A famous and much-photographed 'clump' of cypresses in the Val d'Orcia. I was here previously in 2005 when I was the only photographer there but that was before photo-sharing on the Internet really took off. Now, at peak times, you almost have to jostle other photographers just to get tripod space...

Image 'La Paysage Jurasienne' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

A typical agricultural landscape on the Jura Plateau. I was lucky enough to be there on a day when the weather was changing. The day before I battled through snow and rain yet it was around 15Â°C as I set up for this image.

Image 'Le Pontet (detail)' added to gallery '-- Temporary dumping ground'

The Pontet is a short but turbulent river, deep in the heart of the Gorges de Nouailles. I spent a while exploring the patterns made by the water as it crashed over the boulders in its path.