the only problem I saw with this was this project will score better marks if its fitting with my final project and mine wasnt nor did I want to do this on landscape photography which I had oready wrote a lengthy essay on and handed it in.

I fooled around with the idea of completely changing for a long time and wasted a lot of time not to mention the stress was building up fast I decided if I was going to pas I better make my mind up and go for it,

My essay talks about how I would like to make landscape images for a living but how that is not a viable source of income in this day and age the stock market has put an end to that, this blog is the journey from aspiring ameture landscape photographer to what i want to be a well-rounded professional photographer

My first idea was to cover something to do with water because of the rising levels due to the climate change and about 70.28% of the earth’s covered by it leaving 29.22% of earth land and possibly only 15% of this accessable(estimate)

Out of 70.28% of the water on earth 98% of it is salt water leaving 2% fresh water and

(info from discovery channel documentary)

this fascinated me as these thing tend to do and as I was about to delve into the research and tackle this subject I came across an article that spoke about Tolkien studying at stonyhurst college in Lancashire and being inspired by the surrounding landscapes I thought about this for a while and how todays landscape photographers could be considered coastline photographers Joe Cornish being just one example, so i decided to do landscapes that could have influenced The Lord Of The Rings.

with conformation from my tutor it was i good idea it was all systems go or so i thought

James Balog: Photographer

good video of timelapse photography showing the extreme ice loss we are currently facing

A little known fact about the Ribble Valley is that J.R.R. Tolkien was a frequent vistor here and wrote parts of ‘Lord of the Rings’ here.South African born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was at the time a Oxford professor and made frequent visits here between 1942 to 1947.His name has just been discovered in the Stoneyhurst guest book where it appears many times.Tolkien found time to write part of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ in a class room on the upper gallery at the college.When he was not writing he would take walks around the area with his son Michael.His son Micheal later taught Classics at Stoneyhurst in the 1960′s and 70′s.Because Tolkien was a professor he taught a few lessons at the college on his visits here.On his walks around the area it has been suggested that he got some of his inspiration from the countryside aound the Ribble Valley.Pendle Hill dominates the surrounding area and is associated with witches and sorcery in the 17th century,inspiration maybe for the Middle Earths Misty Mountains or the Lonely Mountain.Around Stonyhurst and Hurst Green there are alot of names of lanes e.t.c. that are familiar in ‘The Lord of the Rings’.Towards the end of his life Tolkien use to stay with his son in a house belonging to the college afew hundred yards away from St. Mary’s College,in Woodfields.Tolkien had a very strong love of trees and persuaded his son to plant a copse in the garden,evidence of which can still be seen to this day.Later on in his life Michael Tolkien moved down the road to Waddington.Another very famous author associated with Stonyhurst is Sir Auther Conan Doyle who studied at the college and then went on to create the character ‘Sherlock Holmes’,the setting for his book ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ was itself Stonyhurst College.The above photograph was taken around the 1920′s.

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Explore Lord of the Rings Country in the beautiful Ribble Valley

You don’t have to cross the Pacific – just the Atlantic – to experience the beauty of Tolkien’s “Middle Earth” from the most successful movies of all time, ” The Lord of the Rings”. Lancashire’s beautiful Ribble Valley in England’s North Country is believed to have been the inspiration for Middle Earth, the setting for much of the action in the three Lord of the Rings movies.

J R R Tolkien wrote most of The Lord of The Rings book having visited this beautiful part of Britain, and it isn’t hard to believe that a corner of the Ribble Valley in the misty, green Lancashire countryside is actually the true inspiration for the “Middle Earth” of the book and movies. Ironically, the Ribble Valley is also geographically set in the very centre of Britain!

Tolkien visited Stonyhurst near the castle town of Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley. Nearby Hurst Green is supposed to have been the inspiration for Frodo Baggins’ home of Hobbiton, whilst the River Shirebourne in the movies (actually the River Ribble) is believed to have been named by Tolkien after the Shireburn family who actually built the Stonyhurst estate!

Follow a map of Clitheroe’s fields, it is claimed, and you can trace Frodo’s route across the Shire, through the Old Forest (Clitheroe’s Mitton Wood) and on towards the Crack of Doom, carrying with him the Ruling Ring of Power, which he and his friends must destroy.

The Ribble Valley’s green countryside is dominated by the dark shape of Pendle Hill, famous for its association with witches, sorcery and black magic in the 16th century – claimed to be inspiration for Middle Earth’s Misty Mountains or The Lonely Mountain.

If you visit the Ribble Valley in search of the Lord of the Rings story, then you must take time out to enjoy a pint of beer in the Shireburn Arms, where JRR Tolkien himself was a regular visitor in the 1940′s. He came to visit his eldest son, John, who was studying at what is now the prep school for Stonyhurst College. Tolkien loved woods and walking, and he roamed all over the Ribble Valley. The places he visited and their names often found their way into the Lord of The Rings. These include, near the River Ribble, a series of green mounds too big to be man-made burial mounds, but too small to be hills.

The ferry over the river has not run since the 1950′s, but it was here in Tolkien’s day, and he used it as the inspiration for the Buckleby Ferry, in which Frodo and friends take to leave the Shire and enter the Old Forest. The old boathouse can still be seen in the museum in nearby Clitheroe. Across the river bank is the imposing Elizabethan house of Hacking Hall, which is Brandy Hall in the Lord of the Rings.

Stonyhurst College itself is breathtaking with two chapels almost as big as cathedrals, grand staircases and corridors wide enough to drive down. Among the treasures at the College are a 7th century Gospel of St John (the oldest existing English bound book), a gold cloak work by Henry VIII, and the Book of Hours that Mary Queen of Scots carried to her execution.

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This is a shot taken a year o so age from crown point depicting where I live its titled HOME this is where my images start and I wasnt to make a timeline of progression though this blog so I can look back and see haw far iv come.

The image was shot on a Nikon D300 camera and a 11 16 f2.8 lens for a college project i walked to the location with about 30kg of equipment made me appreciate the view more put it that way

The Tolkien Trail

In the footsteps of J.R.R. Tolkien (Leaflet)

This is a 9Km/5.5 miles circular walk starting and finishing at Hurst Green in Ribble Valley, Lancashire.

How to Get There: Hurst Green is 8Km/5 miles west of Clitheroe and 15Km/9.5 miles north east of Preston on the B6243. There is limited car parking in the village. Buses running between Clitheroe, Whalley and Preston serve Hurst Green. For details contact Traveline on 0870 608 2608,

The epic ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy was compiled over the course of some 16 years, and finally published in 1954/55. J.R.R. Tolkien, his wife and other children, regularly stayed at a guest house in the grounds belonging to Stonyhurst College. Their son, John, who was studying for the priesthood at the English College in Rome, was evaucated to the Jesuit seminary at St. Mary’s Hall (now the preparatory school for Stonyhurst College) during the Second World War. J.R.R. Tolkien spent much of his time writing, both at the guest house and in the College itself.

This map of the Tolkien Trail is followed by instructions to the route. The walk starts from the War Memorial in the centre of Hurst Green.

1. With your back to the main road, walk along Warren Fold. Just beyond the last of the houses, go over a stile – you will see the domed turrets of Stonyhurst College straight ahead of you. Follow the wall on your left, pass through a gateway and turn sharp right. Walk across the field, passing a lone tree, to reach the fence on the other side.

2. Don’t go through the gate, but turn right and follow the fence, heading towards the red brick cricket pavilion. Go through a kissing gate and continue to follow the field boundary. After passing through another kissing gate, follow the path downhill and over the stream. Climb uphill with Fox Fall Wood on your left.

3. As the gradient levels, bear right across the narrow paddock to follow the iron fence to the corner. Go through the gate in the corner and turn right, passing the current Observatory for the College. Follow the tarmac track downhill towards Hall Barn Farm.

4. Turn left before the gate and go through a wooden gate, following the line of the farm buildings. There is a magnificent view of Stonyhurst College and the Pavilions to your left. You will shortly emerge on to a track. Keep straight ahead, following the hedge. To your left is St. Mary’s Hall, formerly a seminary. Across the playing fields to your right is the distinctive profile of Pendle Hill, with – a little to its left – Clitheroe Castle.

5. When you reach Woodfields, cross the road, bearing slightly to the left and turn down the lane between the houses. The lane soon becomes a rough track and swings to the left. Turn right and go over the wooden stile, then follow the edge of the field alongside Over Hacking Wood. Near the corner, turn left over a stile, then right to descend a stepped path.

6. Cross the bridge over the stream and follow the path which forks to the right towards the River Hodder. Just before reaching the river, turn right over another bridge and climb steadily uphill. Passing Hodder Place on your right, the path now descends towards the river. Herons can be seen along this stretch of river. Go through the stile at the bottom of the hill to emerge from the woodland on to a wide, surfaced track. You will now follow the river as it curves gently round to the right.

7. Where the track meets the main road at Lower Hodder Bridge, cross over, pausing to admire Cromwell’s Bridge just a little downstream. Turn right along the footway and follow the road uphill. Opposite the junction, go left over a stile and bear slightly left across the field to another stile in the fence opposite. Go over the stile and walk straight uphill, crossing another stile before the brow. Bear slightly right across the field, passing through a kissing gate and heading towards the hedge to the left of the farm buildings.

8. Go through the kissing gate and turn left along the tarmac track, which drops steadily downhill. Where the track levels, go straight ahead, through the gate and into Winckley Hall Farm yard. Turn right, go through the yard, then turn left, passing a brick wall on the left to reach a gate. Go through the stile and turn immediately right along a gravel track, with the River Hodder again on your left..

9. Where the Hodder joins the River Ribble, take the path to the left, around the gate, to reach a stile by a bench. Go over the stile and turn left to follow a wide track alongside the Ribble. After about 1km, the Ribble is joined from the left by the River Calder, with Hacking Hall on the opposite bank.

10. Continue to follow the bank of the River Ribble until the path narrows near a stone building on the right. Go through a gate on to a track and over a stile, heading towards Jumbles Farm. Follow the track around to the left to pick up the line of the river again. Where the track turns right, keep straight on alongside the Ribble. As you walk you will see a stone cross on the hillside to your right.

11. Where the cross disappears from view, go over a stile, across a gravel surface, then over another stile to continue alongside the river. Ahead of you is a graceful three-arched aqueduct. When you reach the aqueduct, go over the stile to its right, bearing slightly right across the field and through another stile on the edge of a wood. Cross the wooden bridge and climb the stepped path to another stile. Go over this stile and walk straight ahead, following the fence on the left.

12. Where the fence turns sharply left, keep straight on downhill. Cross two bridges and another stile, then turn slightly to the left. You should now be walking uphill along a low ridge with streams on either side. After about 200m, cross the stream on the right and turn left to continue uphill, following the line of the field boundary on the left. At the top of the field, go over a stone stile in the left corner and pass through the car park of the Shireburn Arms Hotel. Cross the road to return to the start of the walk.

Places of interest to be found along the route of the Tolkien Trail

The Observatories

The first observatory at Stonyhurst was begun in 1838 and completed in 1845. In 1868, this observatory – known as the Dome Observatory – was completed. It houses a larger telescope than the original building and is still in use by the students.

Hill Barn Farm

The Barn, which stands alongside the path, is at least in part probably late medieval. Until as late as the 1820s, a number of 14th and 15th century buildings survived at Stonyhurst. It is possible that the barn dates from the same period, as the roof is supported on 5 massive oak cruck frames. This building technique fell out of favour in the 16th century due to a shortage of timber.

Garden Pavilions

The two pavilions, with their elegant curving roofs, were added to Stonyhurst – along with a formal walled garden – by Sir Nicholas Shireburn in the late 17th century. The octagonal building beyond (now used as a tea room) is the old observatory of 1838 (see above).

Pendle Hill

Pendle Hill dominates the south eastern flank of the Ribble Valley and is the highest hill in Lancashire at 557m (1860ft). Clitheroe Castle was built in the 12th century on the rocky outcrop overlooking the crossing of the Ribble at Edisford. The castle and adjacent museum are open throughout the year. (For opening times, contact Clitheroe Tourist Information on 01200 425566.)

Woodfields and New Lodge

The houses around Woodfields are owned by Stonyhurst College and provide accommodation for staff. J.R.R. Tolkien stayed at nearby New Lodge when he visited his son John at St. Mary’s Hall. At that time, it was a seminary for the English College evacuated from Rome. His other son Michael later lived at Woodfields and planted a copse in his father’s memory following J.R.R. Tolkien’s death in 1973.

River Hodder

The Hodder marks the historic county boundary between Lancashire (this side) and Yorkshire (far side). Much of the land in the Hodder Valley further to the north is owned by the Queen as the Duke of Lancaster.

Hodder Place

This impressive building dates back to 1780, when it was the home of a cotton mill-owner. All traces of the mill, on the river bank below the house, have now disappeared. The building was greatly extended by the Jesuits in the nineteenth century when it was used as a Novitiate and then as a preparatory school until its closure in 1971. It has since been divided into privately owned houses and flats.

Cromwell’s Bridge

Also known as Devil’s Bridge, the packhorse bridge across the Hodder was built by Sir Richard Shireburn in 1562, replacing a wooden bridge dating from at least 1331. Legend says that it was used by Oliver Cromwell during his march from Skipton to intercept the Royalists at the Battle of Preston in 1648. It is far more likely that he would have crossed the river at Higher Hodder Bridge.

Winckley Hall Farm

In the 12th century, Winckley was part of the estates of the Knights Hospitaller. By the early 13th century it had been granted to John de Winkley. John supported Thomas Earl of Lancaster in his revolt against Edward II in 1318. Although Thomas was executed for treason, John Winkley was pardoned. Little of the early house survives.

Hacking Hall

The de Hacking family occupied this site from at least 1200, until it passed by marriage to the Shuttleworth family in the 14th century. The present house was built in 1607 by Sir Thomas Walmsley of Dunkenhalgh, the noted circuit judge, who had married the heiress Anne Shuttleworth. Just upstream of the hall was the ferry service, which operated until the 1950s. The ferryman’s hut and the ferry itself are on display at Clitheroe Castle Museum.

The Stone Cross

The base of the cross dates to the early Christian period and was originally sited to the north of Cross Gills Farm. It was moved to its present position in 1833 by the Rector of Stonyhurst. At the same time a new shaft and arms were cut to surmount the pedestal.

The Aqueduct

The graceful stone aqueduct was constructed in the 1880s by the Blackburn Corporation. It originally carried water from Whitewell via an underground pipeline

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I normally have my camera with me all the time and I always walk past some steps where the entrance to the backstreet is covered a little by the trees and they block the light making the steps look erie so I decided to shoot a test there that night

here is the test shot I really like it it’s exactly what I want to do with these images shame about the house and lamp-post but it gave me an idea to try to shoot it again but with the full moon as the light source although in a new location when the full moon comes around its been to cloudy try it not a full moon now untill the 27 may so heres looking forward to that.

all the images in this set will be handheld to represent the fact that the images im trying to make arent set in stone I have a wooly recollection of the tone and mood set by the book and I like what im getting with this so far

heres a shot I took near to a main road, its shot on a dx lens on a  full frame camera the black border is the lens hood and the vignetting that occurs I love this lens and feel the distortion adds to my idea I also like the high contrast because usually see thing in smooth tones like the clarity slider in lightroom all the way down but these image are very clear in my head so it made sence to do them like this,

this is of the same bridge just closer to the water I climbed down the ‘cliff’ face to get the angle I wanted the mood around this bridge was very weird it sorta felt like a sad location,

this image is hand held at half a second exposure and F22 the water was moving fast enough to get me what I wanted,

this was shot in a ladys back garden its the same river as the images above only lower down I like the stillness of the water I shot this when I decide what I was going to do with all my uni projects and uni life in general, I was shooting these images blind and now I see what I want to do.

when I read these comments I was disheartened to say the least I had invested in this future and hoped to be able to make a living from this, not one to turn down a challenge I looked for other ways of funding my landscape photography ‘hobbie’ I looked into different branches of photography and found i liked portraiture well photographing people and came to the conclusion im suited to shooting series of image suitable for books and now in the very early stage of making contacts in the area.