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Tim Parkin

Amateur Photographer who plays with big cameras and film when in between digital photographs.

Flickr, Facebook, Twitter

Location guides are funny things. The mainstream magazines include them in nearly every issue and they typically include a photo, a low resolution map and a short ‘story’ about the location which will usually include “I nearly left and then the clouds parted”, etc. Alternatively we have some of the in depth guides I have made in the past which include multiple 360 interactive views and maps and sample images. Both ends are useful but at the ‘short’ end we have enough information to find a location with a little inspirational photo and at the long end we can have a virtual tour and find our own spots of interest.

The problem with the short reviews is that they don’t really have much more information than you would get on the typical flickr photo (if they have a ‘title’ included).

The longer reviews are great but you don’t get many of them because they take a huge investment of time.

So there must be a sweet spot in the middle where there is enough information to be useful but that isn’t too onerous to create that it just never gets done.

And this is exactly the space that the “Photographer’s Guide to …” occupies. The three books cover the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales and finally the writer’s home, the Lake District.

Each book is split into sections as follows

Peak District

North, South, East & West

Lake District

The Langdales; Coniston & Hawkshead; Ambleside & Windermere; Grasmere & Rydal; Ullswater; Keswick & Borrowdale; Buttermere & Crummockwater; and Wasdale, Eskdale & Duddon Valley.

Yorkshire Dales

Ingleton, Dentdale & Sedburgh; Ribblesdale; Malhamdale & Airedale; Wensleydale; Swaledale; Wharfdale; & Nidderdale.

And each section is broken still further into ‘viewpoints’ (or we could call them ‘stations’ if we were of a Picturesque persuasion)

For example the Langdales section has

• Blea Tarn
• Side Pike
• Lingmoor Fell
• Great Langdale Green Lane
• River Brathay at Elterwater
• Slater’s Bridge
• Cathedral Cave
• Little Langdale Tarn

Here's an example of the overview map of the Lake District book.

A reasonable overview of the icons in that area I think you’ll agree!

And the guides are very much about those iconic locations. There are a few lesser known or less obvious locations such as Birker Fell and Haystacks Summit Tarn but most you would recognise from Flickr or other photographers galleries.

However the content that is really useful are the maps. They aren’t the usual Ordnance Survey maps (due to cost) but provide very clear data on where the parking is, where any walks are and where the ‘icon’ is located.

For example - see the page below for the an example of Elterwater.

Each section gives an overview of the area and then each 'station' gets a description of what the location is like as you can see below.

Conclusions

Ellen Bowness has created a set of guides that provide just the right amount of information to get you to those interesting locations and most of the locations have a lot more than just the single photograph available. And finally, the photographs used in the books have been drawn from a range of photographers that you might know the names of - Colin Bell, Stewart smith, Adam Burton, Mark Littlejohn, Andrew Yu, John Finney, Martin Levers, Mark Sunderland, Stephen Spraggon, Mike Green and many more. Here's a few pictures to whet your appetite.

Very well researched, good photography, very nicely put together and highly recommended.

The cover price is £12.95 and if you can, please buy directly from Long Valley Books as the author will make more money and hopefully we'll see some more guides!