As you may remember, I had set myself a task as outlined in Project 10. Yesterday I completed my task for January with a visit to Ludlow. The resulting images can be seen in a large size here, or by following the Project 10 link under Ideas. I hope you enjoy them and who knows, it might inspire some of your to come to Ludlow to meet some of these people for yourselves.
Mr Farmer of Farmer's Market, as good a place as any to pick up local fresh produce.
To celebrate Valentines Day this year and the launch of my new website, I am offering a Mini Lifestyle shoot at an incredible price. This offer is open to romantic couples of all ages and while the offer is time limited, the shoot can take place anytime this year.
Check out the Mini Lifestyle shoot and then look under Special Offers for more info on this not to be repeated deal.
by michael
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I am offering a free print of an image of my choice to anybody who can tell me what that image is. This is a puzzle and is open to everybody in the UK. It is free to enter and should not cost anything to solve either, so long as you have a modern phone with a camera in it.
You can find out more here, Jan/Feb Puzzle
by michael
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On Monday 11th January I discovered that I had a major problem with my website. Unfortunately it is entirely my fault so I can not blame anybody else, and it has resulted in me loosing all previous posts and comments from you. I thought I had it covered, but it turns out I had misunderstood one key issue. Live and learn. Over the next few days I will rebuild some of the posts that were there and also implement a much better back-up system.
Michael
by michael
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Yesterday I went with my two good friends, Mark and Jon, for a walk in Snowdonia. Over a fine cooked breakfast at the Bryn Tyrch Inn we made plans for our route. There was plenty of snow on the tops so wee decided on a route taking us up Y Garn, then dropping back down to the top of the Devil’s Kitchen before heading back up over the Glyders and then following the long ridge back down to Capel Curig.
Parking the car at Idwal Cottage at the end of Llyn Ogwen, we set off up the steep ridge leading to the summit of Y Garn. The temperature was -3c. It was not long before we had to don crampons as the ice covering the rocks became more and more tricky. If you never used crampons, it is an amazing experience to feel total grip on the ice. Just before reaching the summit of Y Garn, 947m, there was a steep climb through a snow cornice, the soft snow being hard work to work our way through, but once on the ledge, the views were stunning. From here it is a leisurely climb to the summit and then the long easy descent down to the top of Devil’s Kitchen. On our way down we heard that just below us somebody was waiting for the Mountain Rescue helicopter, so we went over to see if there was anything we could do to help. It seemed it was a suspected broken ankle caused by a simple trip over his own crampons. It is easy to catch the spikes on the inside of the foot on the trousers of the other leg, so when wearing them you need to walk a bit like a duck with toes turned out. Anyway, he had a good group of experienced friends with him so we carried on, reminded how easily such fun can turn seriously bad very quickly.
After a break for coffee and Christmas cake we trudged up the steep scree slope that leads to Glyder Fawr, 999m, except it was no longer a scree slope but now a snow and ice route. Again crampons made the going safe if not easy. Once on top, the sights were just amazing, the ice crystals, views, the rocks and the clouds with bright sunshine and blue skies. A winter wonderland. Too cold to hang about for long we marched of to Glyder Fach, 994m, sometimes walking on solid ice, at others pulling ourselves out of deep snow pockets.
The descent in the snow was much the same and I was glad of my crampons, but spotting one long slope down to a gentle stop at the bottom, I removed my ruck sack and held it in my hands as I sledged down on my back. Brilliant fun. After a while the snow gave way to frozen ground and then boggy paths.
Eventually we staggered exhausted into the cafe at Capel Curig for a well deserved pint of tea before a lift back to the car. ‘Twas a great day.
by michael
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to all of you from the team.
We look forward to seeing you all again in 2010.
by michael
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I want to say a big thank you to James, Jemima, Charlotte and Emma for the great photoshoot this morning. You were all stars and I hope you all enjoyed it too, not forgetting Clara. Here are some of the images to keep you going for the time being. Hope you like them, I think they turned out great.
Emma, Jemima, James and Charlotte
The Gang
by michael
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This morning I caught the train back to Delhi from Chandigarh. I spent the weekend in the village of Malikpur, which was an interesting experience. The village is about an hour out of Chandigarh, but the city limits are always stretching and it won’t be many years before the village is swallowed up and the locals have become rich from selling their land to developers, then they will all live in flats, drive cars and loose their identity. At present it is like one big family, everybody seems to know everybody and they all wander freely in and out of each others living spaces. Privacy is an alien concept to them, as is silence.
On my first evening the local priest was chanting Sikh Scriptures over the loud speaker system so al the village could hear. This went on till 11.00pm and started again at 4.00am. I was up at 5.30am and after a ‘chai’, went with my host into the fields. He told me he had been working his land all night and managed one hour of sleep, no doubt in the field, Captain Prem Singh is known in the village for not needing any sleep and working all hours possible. I asked him his age and he thought almost 60, and as there are no records of his birthday, we have to take his word for it. It is common in rural India that there are no records. Water buffalo play a major role in village life with almost every household owning two or three. Breakfast consisted of very tasty maize ‘Makki’ rotis cooked with ’saag’ (often called spinach but actually a mustard plant) and served with white buffalo butter, buffalo curd and washed down with buffalo milk, or maybe a tea or coffee made with buffalo milk and lots of sugar for good measure.
Here are a few pictures of village life.
The village potter with his favourite buffalo
Breakfast is cooked over a buffalo dung fire!
Morning prayers to a Hindu deity.
On the way to work.
Captain Prem Singh and his father taking a break.
by michael
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Yesterday I went to the Apti Mandi, the farmer’s market. Once again mostly fruit and veg, but this time direct from the small farms, most of the goods being brought in by tractor, some on cycle carrier, some three wheelers. Here are a few of the characters I photographed.
Not the normal headwear in this part of the world.
by michael
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by michael
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