Winter Wonderland

Alastair BegleyLandscape Short Link

This weekend I was up in the Brecon Beacons and unfortunately it had warmed up so most of the snow had gone but I was caught out by the trecharious conditions walking to the waterfalls that are near Ystradfellte, as the paths were covered in ice and made walking very difficult, but it was worth it as when we got to the waterfalls there was still a large amount of ice left which was a stunning site. I just wish that I could have been there last week when it was a long way below freezing as I think that the waterfall would have been even more spectacular!

Yorkshire Caving

Alastair BegleyCaving Short Link

This weekend was the annual meet up of lots of university caving clubs, and this year it was up in Yorkshire at the Dalesbridge Center. It was a very cold weekend with snow forecast but we decided to go caving anyway and headed up to Gaping Gill. I went to Gaping Gill with a specific photo in mind, but overlooked the fact that it is winter up north and it gets dark early so when we got to main chamber it was dark outside which was fairly disappointing but I tried to make the best of the situation and came up with these photos. It was so cold outside that the waterfall that is normally the main waterfall was barely flowing due to the water at the top freezing and all the water coming down the waterfall that is normally the smaller of the two. This also meant that when we left the cave the hour long walk back to the car at -3 degrees was a fairly cold experience and our caving oversuits froze while they were on us!

Hunting with the North Herefordshire Hunt

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

On Saturday evening myself and David from Vero Photography were booked to shoot the North Herefordshire Hunt ball in the evening  so we decided to go along to the hunt (hound exercise and trail hunting) in the aim to get some more business and have some fun while we were up there. I have hunted all my life on horse back but we discovered that it is a lot harder to follow the hunt on foot, especially when you don’t have a four wheel drive car, my poor focus went to places that it just should not have been! The weather was stunning on Saturday though with the low autumn sun this lead to very contrasty light which made photography very difficult as it was hard enough keeping up with the hunt, let along making sure the sun was on the right side relative to us and the hunt! Though the warm weather due to the sun did make it a much more pleasurable experience at least! Overall it was a great day out and we learnt a lot about following the hunt on foot and we are looking forward. Read the full article…

Single Rope Technique

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

Today some of the members of the caving club I am a member of were doing some Single Rope Technique (SRT) training with ISCA Outdoor in preperation for our trip up to Yorkshire in a few weeks time.  SRT is where you go up and down vertical ropes to enable access to cave systems which involve large changes in height such as Gaping Gill and Allum pot as shown in my portfolio. As I had to drive them there I decided to stick around and take some pictures.  Though unfortunatly due to a lack of club SRT kit one of my friends had to borrow my harness and metalwork which meant that I had to stay with my two feet firmly on the ground which made positioning myself fairly difficult as they were going up a rockface.  I am hoping to rectify this next week and take some pictures while I am hanging on a rope!

Ottery St Mary Tar Barrels

Alastair BegleyGeneral Short Link

Every year in Ottery St Mary which is a town near Exeter for bonfire night the tradition of “Rolling” barrels through the extremely crowded streets is somehow still continued despite the trouble that it must cause in the health and safety mad world we now seem to live in. “Barrel Rolling” is where over a 12 month period barrels are coated with coal tar before being lit and carried through streets packed with people who have to make sure they get out of the way before getting hit by it! The event starts in the late afternoon with the children’s barrels and progresses as the evening goes on to the ladies and men’s event.  The barrels progress in size as the evening goes on with the final barrel weighing around 30kg!  In order to carry a barrel you must have lived in the town for all or most of your life. This year was my third year attending the event and for the third year in a row the beautiful British weather supplied us with rain, though thankfully it was only for about half an hour but long enough to. Read the full article…

NHHPC Indoor Showjumping

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

On sunday we were attending the North Herefordshire Hunt Pony Club’s indoor showjumping event at Kings Equestrian Center with David from Vero Photography running the print station. The day involved 12 hours of pretty much straight shooting which is ok in itself but when you mix it with running around after horses to get them over as many jumps as possible it starts to get very tiring! It was a great albiet tiring day which over the whole day may have ended up with en excess of 3000 photos being taken! Though we are looking forward to returning on the 19th December with a few improvements from the lessons we leart this time, including a seperate viewing station so my assistant does not have to manually show people every image they want to see and can focus on printing!

Caving in the Mendips

Alastair BegleyCaving Short Link

Last week I had some free time and was looking through some of my old photos, and I found these from a trip to Swildons Hole in the Mendips during August 2009.  Swildons Hole is one of my favourite caves as there is so much to do there, it has a waterfall which you have to climb down on a ladder, an active streamway with places to jump into and sumps along with the usual climbing that you get in caves. Last year I did not get to do much caving photography, but this year I am hoping to rectify that due to the wonderful sights that you can see underground that very few people ever see, and showing people the photos is a far easier way of explaining why I enjoy caving!

Summer Holiday

Alastair BegleyScrambling, Switzerland, Walking Short Link

At the end of August/start of September I went to Fiesch in Switzerland with my family and some family friends for 2 weeks of mountaineering, downhill mountain biking and climbing.  We had a fantastic time while we were out there but of course with me being a photographer my camera went everywhere with me (apart from the biking).  At some points I did question why I was doing this, for example, when I was walking up a 4000m mountain and had 5kg of camera gear on my shoulder!  But overall I am so glad I did as some of the sites we saw were fantastic. While we were out there we experienced all types of weather, the start of the holiday was 30 degree temperatures which makes strenuous exercise more difficult but it then cooled down and we had lots of sunny weather but nicer temperatures but also snow at resort level!  But despite this we didn’t have a single day when we didn’t get out even if it did mean wrapping up warm and going for a walk while it was snowing! I thought I would share these 6 photos that I took. Read the full article…