Pennine Lines w/c 2 September 2024
|| Warm and humid || Still a way to go ||
Apremont Bizons || Fontainebleau
|| Focus On... ||
A Time To Dream
I write this after just arriving back home from France at the end of the summer, so naturally a few age-old questions occupy the mind. How is the sun setting before 8pm all of a sudden? Why does the sandstone of Fontainebleau afford much more and much better kids / easy bouldering than seemingly anywhere in the UK? Why do they drink UHT in France - which is objectively abysmal? What’s the deal with those square pillows? How soon can I get back to Font? Should I pepper this week’s email with Oasis references in a transparent attempt to appear in tune with the national zeitgeist?
On that note it’s one of those times of year where it feels natural to look ahead. Not only to the next pilgrimage to Fontainebleau, but to the local scene. One of the things I’ve always thought is great about the climbing in the Pennines in particular is the seasonality, the contrast in character between the limestone summer and the gritstone winter, both rock types complementing each other. Some might say the crossover seasons of spring and autumn can give the best of both worlds. And in the Peak it feels like we’re at the cusp of a season change right now. The purple heather is fading, making way for the brown of autumn, and there’s even signs that the bracken is finally on the turn. Soon the smothering monotone sickly green fades to that burnt orange via every shade of yellow along the way. It can’t come soon enough. I do quite like the comfort of the climbing-in-shorts summer Fontainebleau thing, but if there’s some cooler weather on the way then I say bring it on. Down jacket is at the ready.
Crisis Averted, Hawkcliffe || Climber: David Mason
Let’s not linger on the fading daylight hours, that’s a given, but at this time of year there’s space to imagine if it’s going to be one of those vintage autumns. Cool and dry, the gritstone feeling crisp under the skin after the sweaty grind of summer, shoe rubber feeling sticky, and the limestone crags staying dry well into November. Confidence running high, momentum building, and maybe a few long-term projects will fall? We must be due a good ‘un after the last couple of warm and damp autumns. Last year in particular was terrible but I’m determined to not look back in anger.
For the minute that epic autumn season will live forever, rent-free, in the imagination, as all the best climbing seasons often are. It’s a great time to be a member of the perpetual daydreamer community (and it IS a community), to climb your dream line in your head again and again in those idle moments sat at your desk, at a red light, or waiting in the supermarket queue. A honeymoon period before you have to put your money where your mouth is and actually go out and do something about those projects and not-yet-planned road trips. But don’t worry about that now, just enjoy the moment. In other words; roll with it.
|| Exposure Festival ||
If you’re after an event without surge pricing and ticket touts this coming weekend then check out the new Exposure photo festival in Sheffield. The brains behind this whole thing is Sam Pratt, who should need no introduction these days, but needless to say he’s a glutton for punishment for taking on the task of organising and coordinating the event. The graft, and not to mention stress, which goes into something like this shouldn’t be underestimated! Anyway, Sam’s put together a cracking lineup of speakers and workshops. Check it out on their website as there’s hopefully something for everyone with even a vaguest interest in photography and climbing.
I'm proud to have been asked to teaching a couple of workshops at this event. The Saturday AM workshop is about using Off-Camera Flash in climbing photography and will be a hands-on session where I break down my approach to using flash out in the climbing landscape. The aim being to enhance your image-making opportunities and demystify the dark art of lighting (pun intended) and show you how a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of gear can go a long way, and create something decent and a bit different out of some hard-to-shoot situations. We play the hand we’re dealt a lot of the time in UK climbing photography, not every boulder problem is Careless Torque at sunset, so knowing your way around off-camera-flash is like having a sneaky +4 card in Uno discretely stashed in your back pocket. It certainly rescued me in a few situations when out shooting for Grit Blocs.
In addition, the Sunday PM workshop is an intro to film photography - one of my favourite subjects, hopefully throwing a few keen participants down the massively fun and rewarding film photography rabbithole….so I hope this one will be useful to a few people who are taking their first steps into film one way or another. Shatter a few myths, open a few doors and avoid a few common mistakes. As the blurb says, this is “a deep dive into the unique processes and creative possibilities that analogue photography provides.” Long-term financial ruin not guaranteed, but certainly encouraged…
At the time of writing this there are still places left on both of my workshops, and of course there are loads more great sessions being run by a range of really talented professionals - check the full range on offer here. See you there.
|| Recently Through The Lens ||
Just a little slice of the Fontainebleau summer away from the crags.
|| Fresh Prints ||
For all the chat about looking forward to autumn I'm still sad to see the flowering heather disappear. If you are too, then grab yourself a permanent heather reminder for your wall at home from the Print Shop. Shot on film in the time-honoured fashion, as are all my landscape prints on the website.
