We keep going back. Creating memories. These weekends are always amongst the most enjoyable of the year. Lifelong friends. Magical camaraderie. For our first trip of 2024 the weather was generally overcast, punctuated with welcome intervals of golden sunlight. No rain. 

The photographs here were shot by me on Kodak XXX monochrome 35mm film, a present from one of our number, good friend Phil McAllister, a talented photographer himself. 

When I received the scanned negatives back from the lab I was mildly shocked. Although I have form shooting The Lakes in black and white, these particular representations of beautiful Coniston felt strange and other worldly. It seemed like they were somehow of another vintage, relics from a travelling Victorian exhibition. I had to live with them for a few weeks and let them grow on me before I did anything with them. At the very least it makes a change to see the verdant glory of this magnificent national park rendered in greys and blacks. 

I asked each of the other boys to let me have a simple quote about what it is that they most enjoy about our visits to The Lake District. They didn’t disappoint. I knew they wouldn’t.