First, I must make it very clear, I am not a fully trained, fully paid up professional photographer. My passion for images came about through discovering climbing … a few years … ago! Trekking round the hills of North Wales with my Kodak Instamatic in hand, taking and wasting countless rolls of film on blurry memories of those days when you start to map out the future direction of your life.
What started out as a habit, 30 odd years ago, has become a bit of an obsession now – much to the irritation of many climbing and canoeing partners. From the habit grew a not too strong fascination with the workings and technicalities of photography and I slowly began to accumulate gear and a smattering of techniques that allowed me to capture some truly stunning scenes from angles that most photographers never ever dare tread. Some of my most memorable days have been spent, emerging from atrocious weather into a breath taking sunset, or the never dull walk down from the summit of Ben Nevis after another day tackling one of the classic ice climbs on its North Face.
Just to give you a flavour of how the photos for CosmicRay Images and the Atmospheres Headers are collected here’s a slightly irreverent video of our recent ascent of a long awaited classic on Creag Meagaidh in Scotland. South Post Direct, one of the classic climbs in the coffee table collector’s book “Cold Climbs”. This winter has been one of the most memorable in the UK for a very long time indeed
Image Gathering for CosmicRayImages
I’ve only had to wait 20 years to get on this particular beauty, after injury, work, marriage, children and all the other necessities of life kept me (quite happily) away for years. Even in my unfit state, I was still able to lead the top pitch of steep ice, so that was a double bonus. The ice warriors featured here are the cream of the UK’s current crop of middle aged, not-fade-away, arthritic has beens 
… so if we can do it, what’s stopping you?
The Recent Crack!