#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

#15: B&W Images: Nympsfield Long Barrow - Dursley

Hartstongue Ferns & Steps

#14: B&W Images: Stroudwater Navigation Canal - Ny...

Selsley Common

#16: Dursley - North Nibley

Towards the Tyndale Monument from Stinchcombe Hill

Russet Apples

The western escarpment of the Cotswolds appears to be perfect territory for golf courses. Today's walk was the third or possibly the fourth. The walk circumnavigated the whole course which is situated on the top of Stinchcombe Hill and which, like all of the others, commands spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. The far south point of my last walk was Dursley where I walked round the church but failed to find a really good b&w picture that I liked. Later I thought about something I'd seen in the church and decided I needed to return. That was easy as Dursley was today's walk's most northerly point. I now have the picture I missed last week.

It was much calmer today but still not quite calm enough for the hartstongue ferns. One day ...

The panorama above was beautiful in the early morning light. I've also photographed it with my large format film camera and am anxious to see if that has worked out well too. The imposing Tyndale Monument visible in the distance was built in 1866 to commemorate William Tyndale who first translated the bible into 'Early Modern English' in the 16th century. He was born at North Nibley, the village below the monument. My next stretch of the walk passes close by the monument.

My new boots had their first outing today. Verdict - very comfortable and much better than my three other pairs. Success.

#15: Nympsfield Long Barrow - Dursley

East from Cam Long Down

Yew Berries on John Wilkin's Tomb

One of the challenges this walk poses for me from time to time is not related to the walk. It's the wind. Photography with a large format camera requires the use of very small apertures (typically f32, f45 or f64) in order to secure sufficient depth of field for sharp focus. This in turn leads to having to use very slow shutter speeds in order to let sufficient light on to the film. If a sharply captured image is what you're after, and I generally am, then wind causing the foliage to thrash about like crazy is your number one enemy. At least it is in the relative darkness of a woodland walk which again was the case for a substantial part of today's walk. And today was not just breezy. Well, it started breezy at 8am - and steadily became strong and gusty. All the more frustrating as today I found the best area of the walk so far for Hartstongue ferns of which I'm desperate to make some good photographs. The woodland stretch between Nympsfield Long Barrow and Uley Long Barrow has many fine areas of these beautiful ferns but they were waving about like promenaders at the Last Night of the Proms. I will return when it's calm - John Sexton's "Quiet Light" is called for. I did find one small very sheltered area where I chanced a picture - fingers crossed - which I'll get to process next week.

I stopped for my cheese sandwich lunch on top of Cam Long Down. In spite of the wind it was warm in the occasional sun and I found some shelter from the wind on the lee side where I must admit to lying back and dozing for 10 minutes. I was woken by the croaking cries of 3 ravens directly above me enjoying the uplifting wind from the escarpment. It seems that for the sheer fun of it they were engaging together in their spectacular 'flip upside down' aerobatics. A joy to watch. And several hundred feet above them was an elegant slender sailplane enjoying the updraft in almost the same manner.

October's issue of Cotswold Life Magazine

Cotswold Life Magazine has confimed that a selection of pictures from my walk will be in the October issue.
It is advertising this on the front page of its website with a link to a short article and a link to this blog.