This Easter we went to the Lake District on our annual pilgrimage to the mountains. I just LOVE being there, as walking in the hills is one of life’s true pleasures. To be honest our trip up there is mainly for the benefit of me, especially this time when its bitterly cold. Cathy is a coast person and because our kids are still young, it falls down to one of us to keep them happy. And because Cathy would prefer to reed a book, than go up a freezing cold mountain, she takes the kids to play farms and the such like and I get the pleasure of England’s most beautiful mountain range to explore. This shot was taken in the Langdales, it’s rather easy to get to and quite close to where we were staying, so a gentle amble up the ridge and I was happy. Luckily the clouds were typically full of rain / snow and it blocked the direct sunlight from bleaching out this wonderful view. What I like about this image is the shaft of light falling in the centre of the valley and the subtle snow showers you can just make out on the summit of Bowfell and Crinkle Crags just top this off nicely. I would normally summit a few mountains whilst there, but my trapped nerve is still giving me some problems. At this point up the ridge I had to turn back, due to fear of overdoing it, (my leg and back were not too good at this point and I didn’t want to get rescued in the freezing conditions). What struck me whilst there this year is how easy it is to get a shot that will be considered ‘good’, when in such beautiful environments. God if I lived there, it would be ‘so easy’ to be in the right place at the perfect time. Its almost too easy for your breath to be taken away by what you see. In some ways I feel sorry for photographers that do live in such beautiful environments around the world. It must be hard to keep the creativity flowing when it’s so tempting to produce images that will wow in this way. I mean if you live in a very normal place, you have to work harder to make your environment attractive and interesting and find new and exciting ways to experiment in order to be interesting. But hey I'm just jealous really. I wished I lived in the lakes for six months of the year and in Cornwall for the other six. EDIT: YIPEEEEEEE IVE JUST BECOME AN UNCLE. MY TWIN BROTHER HAS JUST HAD HIS FIRST BABY A FEW HOURS AGO. CONGRATUALTIONS MANDY AND DOMINIC! I WISH YOU BOTH A VERY HELTHY AND HAPPY BABY. I CANT WAIT TO SEE THE LITTLE NIPPER!