I live in a bit of the country that has no mountains at all – plenty of other geological wonders but the odd steep hill is as mountainous as it gets. So with this in mind you can imagine how superbly exciting it is to travel somewhere where the rocks tower up and touch the skies – like Snowdonia in Wales, for example.

The hotel below… fabulous, huh? It’s not where we stayed but I like to believe if we had it would have been exactly like the ‘Great Northern Hotel’ in Twin Peaks. It’s called the ‘Swallow Falls Hotel’, which is a big clue to the deafening roar that fills the air…

Wowzers! There were quite a few ‘proper’ photographers here setting up their tripods and getting clever long exposures – I like to be improper though and managed by balancing my camera on the hand rail and holding my breath.

Taken with Canon 5D MkII and a car boot full of lenses

In my day job I am lucky enough to work with people from all over the world. The ones that are new to these shores all seem to want to visit the same particular place – the white cliffs of Dover. When announcing this intention they then look puzzled as to why us native Brits make weird faces at each-other and incredulously mouth the word ‘Dover’ in a questioning fashion. Dover?!

 Taken with Polaroid SX-70 and 600 film

I’m not down on Dover – far from it; I mean, you can wake up in the morning and see France from your bedroom window if you live in Dover – how cool is that?! What I will suggest to my new work colleagues though is that they consider visiting Beachy Head instead – it’s half the distance away and looks just as impressive in my opinion.

 Taken with Konica C35 camera and Kodak Ektar 100 film (35mm)

You do of course have to shake out of your brain that it’s the one of the top suicide spots in the world (not something they put on the tourist brochures) – that’s hardly the places fault though.

 Taken with Fuji Instax 200

When I was there I kept looking at the people I was passing; looking for a troubled expression or a tell-tale sign of anguish (I think some of them were looking back at me for the same reason). Everyone looked happy enough though so I let them go on their way.

 Taken with Fuji Instax 200

So yes, I like it there a lot – it was a bit overcast when we were there – I bet those cliffs glow bright white when the sun’s shining. I’ll have to return!

 Taken with Canon 5D MkII and 17-40mm lens

As you can see – I took a few different cameras with me – I just couldn’t decide which one would produce the best results. What do you think?

Meteorologists have been saying that when autumn finally gets started then the mild weather we’ve been having should mean it will be a very colourful one, leaf-wise.

Well, I think it’s finally got started and it is indeed looking spectacular – I went for a wander with the Mr, my brother and niece. Look at us all with our camera gear – watch out trees, you’re about to get ‘papped’!

It’s rather handy having a National Park full trees on your doorstep…

And not just any old trees, no, this here is the tallest tree in England – even taller than Big Ben apparently…

But it’s not just the trees though, there are also some amazing fungi…

And of course there’s the New Forest ponies, including this blonde beauty…

But mainly it is about the leaves. So many leaves and so much colour – I love it…

All photos taken with my Canon 5D MKII