by Steve Tanham
It began with the sunset, yesterday. Breathtaking colours, but a sense of strange events unfolding. Nothing threatening… just events I would not have expected, let alone predicted; and all of them ‘inserted’ into reality as the day unfolded. An inner feeling of ‘wheels turning’. One of our regular dog- walks is through the forest and up to Sizergh Barn for a take-out coffee. All … Read More Charcoal, focus and heart-stones
by Steve Tanham
There’s a saying in Cumbria; you don’t get the real spring till it’s fooled you, twice… But you do get the sun; and its increased energy brings real life to the natural colours in the landscape and the sky. Below: One of the great trees on the shores of Lake Windermere has a large network of half-exposed roots which look magically green in the … Read More Signs of Spring (1): the edges of colour
by Steve Tanham
As January lets go its dark and icy grip, passing us, with a smirk, into the often colder clutches of February, the marginally lighter mornings contain surprises that are harbingers of the spring to come. (440 words. A three minute read) One of these is what I have come to think of as the ‘winter morning moon’. Often quite high in the sky, the … Read More Winter’s Morning Moon
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by Steve Tanham
It flows, seemingly singular… until something intrudes. Then, instead of resisting, it parts at the level of molecules, and recombines on the other side. The bank is the end of one world and the beginning of another; a place of soft contrasts, where organic forms reach the limit of their existence, and begin to dissolve. The water embraces them all. Its force and flow, … Read More Winter wanderings with camera (2) Water: form and flow
by Steve Tanham
Winter… Most, but not all, of the colours are gone. What remains is a harder edge of the spectrum, where contrast is to be hunted rather than assumed. And texture and shade take on a different level of purpose; to stand in for the vividness of summer’s colour, to beckon our eye to look deeper. The sky is the photographer’s winter friend, donating half … Read More Winter wanderings with camera (1) mood and meaning
by Steve Tanham
As autumn gives way to winter, different aspects of nature create new opportunities for photography… (300 words. A three-minute read) (Above: the shores of Lake Windermere – a winter favourite to come) Photographically, I prefer the UK Met Office’s guidance on the dates for the beginning of each season. In this convention, winter’s start is the first day of December, so this will be … Read More Mellow moods for Autumn (9) end of season
by Steve Tanham
When the leaves have all but gone, nature still has one or two colourful surprises left. (220 words. A two-minute read) Rivers are beautiful at any time of year. This one, the River Kent, flows through Levens Park on its final mile to the sea, joining three other rivers in its outfall into the north end of Morecambe Bay Levens Park is the ancestral … Read More Mellow moods for Autumn (8) the Levens Estate
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by Steve Tanham
Autumn is a beautiful time in the Lune Valley… The River Lune rises in the gentle hills of the Eden Valley, in Cumbria, the last western county before you cross the border into Scotland. It flows for 53 miles in long curves, defining a series of beautiful valleys. It’s most scenic section is where it passes a few hundred metres from the centre of … Read More Mellow moods for Autumn (4) : by the river
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by Steve Tanham
There are three ways back from the centre of Kirkby Lonsdale to Devil’s Bridge, where most visitors park their cars, if they’re just there for the views and, possibly, a coffee. There’s the river path, itself, with the steep descent down Mill Brow to the Lune Valley; there’s the main street out of the town to the south; and there’s this – the tree-lined … Read More Mellow moods for Autumn (2) The Secret Path
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by Steve Tanham
A series of seasonal shots for Sunday, in either monochrome or with the colour reduced to give that mellow mood… The mists and the lane. The first mists gently fill the spaces between the trees at the end of the lane. So ‘soft and special’ you want to run out and take the shot before the shafts of sunlight disappear… ©Stephen Tanham, 2020. Stephen … Read More Mellow Moods for Autumn (1)
by Steve Tanham
It’s a short post this morning… I’m awash to the gunnels with prep for this coming weekend’s ‘On the Pictish Trail’ weekend, based in Inverness and a few points north; eventually, (with a whittled-down group) ending up in Orkney, one of the most naturally spiritual landscapes I’ve even visited. All those will be reported on here, and at the Silent Eye in due course. … Read More #ShortWrytz : PotFest – it’s a hoot!
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by Steve Tanham
We’re often in Kirkby Lonsdale. It’s the perfect dog-walk for Tess, our collie, who loves to chase the ball in its riverside park, then sniff her way along the riverbank as we enter the town by the steep steps that lead to one of the best views in the county – Ruskin’s View. This part of the Lune Valley was a favourite haunt of … Read More #ShortWrytz : The house by the river
