Was it worth it ... ?

The walking is over, as is the photography. And it’s taken less elapsed time than I imagined when I set out. I had no target by when I wanted to have completed the walk but was sure it would take me a year. So, just less than 6 months later I feel a real sense of achievement. In fact of several achievements. Firstly, I didn’t give up the project part way through. I had wondered whether I’d have the determination to see it through to the end. Secondly, I managed to find at least one black and white photograph for every day I spent walking. It was touch and go, particularly as I neared the end, but I managed a full house even though some made it by a very narrow margin. Thirdly, I walked 204 miles carrying my 35lb camera backpack – who is it who said that the way to eat an elephant is one mouthful at a time?  This was done a few miles at a time.

A few statistics for the record:

• 204 miles over 23 days of walking – 8.8 miles per day – ranging from 4 to 14.
• 23 days of walking over 24 weeks – averaged 1 walk per week.
• Average of 7 hours per day walking – averaged 1.25 mph (including all stops).
• Exposed 113 B&W negatives – 4.9 per day.
• 53 B&W images published in the blog – 2.3 per day.
• Exposed 1133 colour digi-snaps – 49 per day.
• 60 colour digi-snaps published in the blog – 2.6 per day.
• 1500 miles driving – an average of about 65 miles per day.

Apart from the physical achievement I’ve concluded a couple things photography related:

• It’s not easy to have the need to walk and cover distance allied with the aim of finding good things to photograph. Too many times I found myself concentrating on the act of walking and paying little or no attention at all to what might be good subject matter to photograph. Over the years I’ve concluded that I do my best photography when there is no rush and no other distraction. I like time to contemplate a scene and allow potential images to develop as I spend time at a place. This is precisely not what happens when walking with a self imposed need to cover some miles.
• My photo backpack is far too heavy for my poor knees to carry for more than relatively short distances. After every day’s walk I suffered discomfort and stiffness for 24 hours. Without the weight I can walk without problems or aftereffects for twice the distance I can with my back pack. I speculated earlier that I might do this walk all over again, starting immediately, so that I had the chance of walking and photographing in the winter and spring. I’ve abandoned that idea.

So how do I reconcile these two most enjoyable things – the walking and the photography? In future I’ll continue to walk regularly but without my large format camera. When I’m walking I’ll concentrate on the pleasures of walking and carry a lightweight day pack and a small digital camera for when the need arises. My B&W photography with my large format camera will be restricted to specific projects and visits where I can drive with my camera to the vicinity of my intended subject. I don’t expect this in any way to diminish my B&W photography; indeed I already have a couple of projects in mind that may even increase my output whilst saving my knees.

Given my caveats and reservations above I must say that overall I’m very pleased with my B&W work though these three images really stand out for me.

Tyndale Monument from Stinchcombe Hill

Chandelier - St Peter's Church - Winchcombe

Bath Abbey - The Organ & North Transept

And as for the colour digi-snaps – I thought I’d only take a few for the record and show even less. But I was wrong there - I ended up taking 10 times as many as B&W pictures and publishing to my blog a similar number as in B&W. But there’s no chance of my making a change away from large format B&W. B&W is what I do and what I enjoy.

As for the blog, well that's been my device to ensure that I kept going.  I set myself the target of always writing my blog and publishing my colour pictures on the same day as the walk and bar a couple of days I always achieved that.  After a few entries it became a matter of not breaching my commitment and failing publicly to complete what I set out to do.  My B&W pictures have always had to follow days or even a week or two behind as they first require me to develop the film sheets and then scan them then work on them in PhotoShop to achieve my intended rendering.  I've no idea how many or how few people have seen this blog though I do know I have some followers.  Whether or not I've written anything of interest is of no real consequence, except that I've thoroughly enjoyed the discipline of having to assemble my thoughts and commit them to 'paper'.  I've started to understand why people keep a diary - it helps remember!

And yes, it was worth every minute.

#23: B&W Images: Outskirts of Bath - Bath Abbey (The End)

Pulteney Bridge

The Royal Crescent

Fence & Trees

Bath Abbey - The Organ & North Transept

Bath Abbey - The Choir & Nave

Bath Abbey - Memorial Tablets

#23: Outskirts of Bath - Bath Abbey (The End)

Bath Abbey - The End

Pulteney Bridge & Weir

The Royal Crescent

The Way Passes by a Church

Autumn Leaves

The Circus Windows & Leaves

Today marked the end of the walk and the end of a most enjoyable period of 6 months since I set out from Chipping Campden on 28th May.  I left myself just a short walk for my final day as I wanted  to spent time in Bath Abbey with my large format camera and black and white film.  I spent over 3 hours there and took maybe a dozen pictures.  It's a beautiful old building full of light.  It was built on the site of the earlier Norman Cathedral and before that an Anglo-Saxon Abbey Church.  The day was a gloriously sunny late autumn day with strong winds whipping away the last of this year's leaves from the trees.  Bath itself is a wonderful old city - I think I agree with its claim to being the most beautiful in England.  The harmonious mellow stone buildings are all built on a scale that is more human than in many other cities.

Once the final B&W images are done I'll round off my blog with a look back over the last six months.  I did something similar at the half way stage but I now want to take stock of the whole project.

#22: B&W Images: Site of the Battle of Landsdown (1643) - Outskirts of Bath

Racehorse Catcher - Bath Race Course

#21: B&W Images: Dyrham - Site of the Battle of Lansdown Hill (1643)

Cold Aston Church

Soon After Sunrise

Cold Aston Pulpit

Misty Stubble Field Path

#22: Site of the Battle of Landsdown (1643) - Outskirts of Bath

What to say about my worst day on the Cotswold Way? It was dull grey overcast sky for all of the walk. Whilst the southern third of the Cotswold Way is attractive and pleasant countryside, it is no match for the northern two thirds. I took no colour snaps and managed to find just one b&w photograph located on the edge of Bath Racecourse. I'll reserve judgement on that until I see the negative. If that turns out to be a dud then it will be the first stretch of the walk without a b&w to show for it.

However, my gloom was most likely to have been a reflection of the fact that I felt increasingly ill as I walked. It became a real struggle to make the last couple of miles back to my car. I completed what I set out to do but really I shouldn't have set out in the first place. One day later as I write this I feel fine - I attribute my ill feeling to what was probably a dodgey bowl of mussels eaten the evening before.

Notwithstanding the tribulations, I am now just two miles from the centre of Bath. So, one more day and I'll have completed my walk. I'm planning my last day to be a very short walk allowing most of the day to photograph in Bath. I've visited several times without my large format camera and I know there's a wealth material to consider photographing. Hopefully I'll end up with being able to post several b&w images from that day.

#21: Dyrham - Site of the Battle of Lansdown Hill (1643)

Eastern Sky

Octabench

Not such a Pleasant Stretch

Yesterday I wrote that it would be next week before I got my next chance to walk. Most of that was down to commitments, but I was potentially free on the next day. I had looked at the weather forecast and seen almost unrelenting rain but yesterday evening I took another look and Wednesday's forecast had suddenly ameliorated and there was to be a dry interlude between 7am-ish and mid-evening. So I walked, and for walking the weather was perfect. The rain held off until 5 minutes before I got back to my car at 3:30 - but I won't sound off here about what I think of the accuracy of our forecasts.

There was a lot of rain yesterday and overnight and, just my luck, one stretch near Pennsylvania had been ploughed the day before. At least the farmer had marked the path across the field by flattening the route with his tractor wheels. By the time I'd made it the 1/4 mile across the field my boots were so heavy with the thick heavy clay mud I was really struggling to walk. I muttered to myself for a bit - then I got over it, forgetting for a while that I had to do the same again on my return later in the day. But I'm left wondering whether the hamlet of Pennsylvania in Gloucestershire is an unusual example of a place in the UK being named after a place in the USA?

A break in my walking schedule ...

It's 12 days since my last walk along The Way and it looks as if it will be another week before I next get the chance. Frustrating, but my excuses are perfect - my mother-in-law fell and broke her hip then a few days later my mother fell and broke a toe. So, other things are keeping me occupied at present! There was to have been a break anyway as we were due to spend a week in Corsica but of course that was cancelled.

But last week I did manage to keep a long standing arrangement to visit London to photograph the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields on Trafalgar Square. I took several pictures with which I am very pleased. Follow this link to see them on my website.

#20: B&W Images: Old Sodbury - Dyrham

Coomb's End Clump

Tormarton Church Organ Pipes

Tormarton Church Yew Berried Tombs

#20: Old Sodbury - Dyrham

Sheep & Strip Lynchets - Frenchpiece Wood

The Ceysell Brass - Tormarton Church

XXIII to Cirencester, XIII to Tetbury, X to Bath

Kissing Gate at Dawn

Mixed feelings about today's walk. Firstly, it was a most beautiful early morning with the sun rising on mist in the hollows and the first frost of the year was very welcome, photographically speaking. So, lots of potential photography to be had - but I was still in the car and didn't arrive at my start point until some of the best light had dissipated. Another lesson for me though it's not as if I don't know it. But I did find one lovely backlit group of trees which I photographed in b&w just in time. When I first saw the scene there were dozens of backlit woolly sheep which would have made the picture even more appealing - but after a couple of minutes of frantically setting up the tripod and camera, loading the film, metering the scene the sheep count on the ground glass was down to just two or three. I wish I could have done what Alfred Hitchcock did with "The Birds" - he's quoted as saying in response to a question about how did he get them to do what he wanted, he replied "I paid them well".

The Ceysell Brass in Tormarton Church is beautiful, but easily missed. It's hidden under the blue carpet to the left of the entance - slide the carpet to reveal all. I have a close up b&w photograph of the organ pipes in the church that I'm looking forward to seeing.

Once over the M4 motorway there is a stretch of perhaps 3 of miles or more of very boring walking along the edge of large farm fields with almost nothing to rival the scenery of most of the rest of the walk from Chipping Campden.

I'm finding the limits of the capability of my knees whilst carrying my heavy camera backpack, and today's 12 or 13 miles was a bit too much. I need to throttle back a little to my more usual eight or nine miles.

#19: B&W Images: Somerset Monument - Old Sodbury

Old Sodbury Church

#18: B&W Images: Wortley Hill - Somerset Monument

Hartstongue Fern in Ivy

Alderley Church

#19: Somerset Monument - Old Sodbury

Autumn Sumach

Owl & Swallow Roost - A Millennium Folly

Old Sodbury Church Stained Glass
and Reflection in the Pulpit Lecturn

I started this walk a few hours later in the day - I usually start early morning - and anticipated a different feel to the walk, particularly with the approach of sunset. But the late afternoon light was nothing special for photography. I did chance a b&w cloud picture as well as several in and around the church at Old Sodbury but I'll have to wait to see how they work out, and I found more colour snaps than usual, perhaps prompted by the onset of a little more autumn colour in the trees.

Most days of the walk I've seen and heard ravens and their amazing tumbling and flipping upside down flight. Today added a new feature to their display act which was quite startling. I heard a low metallic sounding noise as if a piece of metal was being hit. I turned to see a raven about 50 yards away fold its wings in as it flipped onto its back for a second and at the same time heard it emit the metallic 'tonk-like' sound. It did this several times so cause and effect were confirmed. I've seen and heard ravens many many times, both here and in North America but never heard this sound before.

#17: B&W Images: North Nibley - Wortley Hill

Wortley Hill Maize

Almshouses - Chapel Window

Tyndale Top

Westridge Woodland Path

#18: Wortley Hill - Somerset Monument

Sunken Green Lane

Ivy & Virginia Creeper

Glancing Light

Woven Floor Grill

As I'm progressing south the walk is becoming a little less cotswold-like. Certainly there are fewer ups and downs and fewer stone walls. And now the route has turned almost due south and is distancing itself from the continual low level background sound of the traffic on the M5. Parts of today's walk were so peaceful that the only sound I could hear was occasional birdsong, or the crarking of ravens or the mewing cries of buzzards, and now and again a distant farm tractor. But periodically the peace was shattered by an explosion of alarm calls and feathers as a pheasant broke cover just feet away from me, deciding not to sit quietly and let me pass.

We're obviously into autumn now but I'm surprised how green all of the trees still are. There are some signs of leaves on a few species of tree starting to turn colour but the first frost can't be far off which will accelerate the whole process.

One stretch of the walk - on the side of Wortley Hill if I recall correctly - was along a very deep cutting. A sort of deeply hidden green lane. There have been several others, but none as deep and long as this one. In a couple of places there were what appeared to be badger setts amongst the roots of old beech trees as well as many other smaller holes which must have housed various species of wild life. This was another place in which the sides were lined with hartstounge ferns but whilst the breeze was very gentle it was still just too much to photograph. I did actually find one patch to photograph which perhaps was just calm enough though I'm not certain the picture will pass muster. And I made a couple of b&w pictures in the Georgian church at Alderley - normally only open at the weekends but the lady doing the church flowers let me in for a few minutes - thank you.

I met several groups today walking the whole of the Way including one couple from Belgium. Compared with most of my previous days' walking this was almost crowded - but it was still only once every hour or so.

Totting up the miles I find that I'm now three quarters of the way to Bath. It will soon be time to decide whether to do it all again as a winter and spring walk - or find a new project.

Cotswold Life - October Issue

In the current issue (October 2009) of Cotswold Life magazine there's a two page spread of black and white pictures which I made during the first part of my walk along the Cotswold Way. They appear at the end of the 25 page feature on the Cotswold Way. There's a link to this blog included in the short article accompanying the pictures.

#17: North Nibley - Wortley Hill

My Camera at the top of the Tyndale Monument

Spiral Staircase - The Tyndale Monument

Victoria's Jubilee Clock - Wotton under Edge

A relatively short walk today but quite productive for my B&W images. The Tyndale Monument was open and I hauled my heavy backpack up the increasingly narrow spiral staircase. There must have been 150 steps to the top. Very rewarding views at the top and I think I found an excellent B&W shot but as usual I'll have to wait and see.

I've been surprised how few people I've seen as I've traversed the Cotswold Way - but today on the stretch between Wotton under Edge and the Tyndale Monument I'm sure I saw far more than on any previous day. Joggers, couples, mums with toddlers and pushchairs, many with dogs either on or off the lead, as well as several hardened walkers going 'all-the-way'. It seems to be a very popular stretch with local walkers out for a shortish stroll as it's an easy and very level stretch making a welcome relief from the more challenging sections. A little further on I met a group of walkers who I previously met a couple of weeks ago further north - hello again!

One of the hazards with my kind of photography arises from the fact that whilst I'm working with my camera my camera bag and other equipment lies open on the ground. The hazard is that it seems to be a magnet for dogs to come sniffing around. And you know what they do! I've been lucky as it's actually never happened to me though there was a near miss today! But I have seen a photographer have the expensive contents of his bag liberally annointed. I dread to think of my reaction to having thousands of pounds worth of equipment treated that way.

#16: B&W Images: Dursley - North Nibley

Tyndale Monument from Stinchcombe Hill

Hymnals & Prayer Books