Longstanding OMer and professional photographer Simon Kirwan
dropped us a line the other day to say he has two mountain
photography books out at the moment, one covering North Wales and the
other the Lake District and very nice they are too...
The
Lake District From The Air - published by Myriad, £20
Pretty much does what it says on the tin, being a selection of
photographs taken of the Lakes from the air. They're not aerial
photographs in the google earth sense though, more landscapes taken
from a high angle with a little bit of text telling you what they
show.
The views aren't confined to mountains, but it's the hill vistas
that are going to catch most OMers' attention and they're lovely. It's
really nice seeing a familiar peak or tarn from a slightly different
view and picking out paths and features you know seen from a
different angle - so that's where we went wrong coming off Wetherlam
in the murk :-) And hey, just how green is Buttermere? And oooh, you
can see people on Sharp Edge.
Great for inspiration and post expedition browsing, here's a
shot to whet your appetite, more at www.the-lightbox.com
North
Wales Landscapes - published by Myriad, £20
Simon's other recent project is a more conventional set of
landscape photos from North Wales and again, some of them are
absolutely lovely.
The book splits the area into sections and covers both the obvious
like Snowdon itself, in winter here, Tryfan, Idwal and so on, but
also less obvious spots like Cadair Idris - the most obvious of less
obvious mountains - the Aran range and swathes of coastline that many
mountain freaks will be completely oblivious to... it made us want to
go paddling.
A nice browse for anyone who loves Snowdonia; the best shots
aren't generally the 'classics' but more lesser known places you
might not even have considered.
More examples of Simon's work at
www.the-lightbox.com
plus check out links to his articles on improving your mountain
and travel photography below this article.
