A few weeks ago I enjoyed a weekend exploring the castle that dot the north coast of Wales, Conwy, Caenarfon, and Beaumaris were all built by Edward I and are remarkably well preserved. Conwy castle is particularly photogenic from just up river, Turner painted the castle from here, although at that point the railway and Stephensons magnificent box girder bridge had not arrived. The skies were pretty dull and it was the middle of the day so I opted for a simple B&W image in post processing.

I spent the night wild camping just above a beach on Anglesey, it was ridiculously warm for February and barley a breath of wind rustled the fabric of my shelter. I had a location in mind for a sunrise photo and was up early to walk across to the island of Llanddwyn and the fantastic lighthouse of Twr Mawr. The island is connected to the Anglesey by a spit of sand which is covered at high tide but fortunately today the tides were working in my favour.

I arrived in plenty of time only to discover I had left the matches for my stove back in the car a mile back along the beach. This put me in a grump immediately, and my mood want improved by the lack of colour and warmth in the sunrise. I salvaged the trip with a nice long exposure shot that with a B&W conversion in post processing works quite well. 

I spent the weekend in Northumberland, it's been a few years since I last visited and I wanted to explore some locations that i didn't feel I had go the best out of on my previous visit. Costal Northumberland is beautiful, long sandy beaches, dunes and castles perched above the sea. Two of these were on my list, Dunstanburgh and Bamburgh, the first a gaunt ruin the second virtually intact and still very much a home, if an expensive one.

During my previous visit to Dunstanburgh I had tried photographing it from the south but had not been very pleased with the results; I'd then discovered that from the north it can appear a very striking prospect. With the winter sun due to rise pretty much behind the castle I planned to camp on the beach, liking the idea of falling asleep listening to the sounds of the waves using up and down the sand. A forecast for strong winds through the night drove me from the top of a dune to a hollow at its base, a decision I was thankful for as later tucked up in my sleeping bag my shelter was battered by strong gusts even in the lee of the dune.

Morning brought clear skies, although a bank of cloud was fast approaching from the east. The wind was whipping up the sea into a series of rolling waves which passed under the castle to crash onto the beach. Despite all this kinetic energy my favourite image from the shoot was a long exposure smoothing out the sea but accentuating some movement in the clouds and the colours of the sunrise reflected off the retreating water of the waves falling onto the sand.

Later I went north to Bamburgh, cloud coated the sky and the wind picked up. I was initially sceptical about the conditions but notices the wind was picking up streamers of sand which then danced over the beach towards the castle. I was able to combine this fain leading line with a stronger feature of outcropping rock in an image I was really pleased with.

I was very lucky this January have to go to Australia as part of my day job, and a free flight to the far side of the world was just too good an opportunity not to tag on to the trip a holiday to New Zealand, a place I have dreamed of visiting for over 20 years. Although I was in Australia for two weeks I had very little time to explore, so I made use of my one free weekend to drive as much of the Great Ocean Road as possible. The Southern Ocean crashing into the cliffs of Victoria has created a stunning coastline of sea stacks, arches, and great beaches, although you will have to get up early to avoid the crowds.

New Zealand was more relaxed, but still a question of choices. I knew I had two weeks, hardly enough to scratch the surface of the country, so I decided against rushing around and instead chose to focus on just the South Island. In the end even this plan proved too ambitious, I was so taken by the landscape and relaxed culture I chose to loiter rather than rush through.

Photography was not the main aim of the visit, I was there to enjoy hiking the hills, exploring on a bike, and swimming in lakes, but the landscape is so stunning it was easy to get myself out of bed on a morning to grab an image or two. Very few things you dream about for 20 years surpass expectations, New Zealand did, I'm going back.