Top shots from Kendal

Two Lake District photographers impress in the Kendal Mountain Festival Photography Competition’s 'Mountain Landscapes’ category

Winner Rod Ireland and runner-up Steve Jacques may have captured their breath taking images on opposite sides of the world, but they had one thing in common - both strayed from the beaten path to grab the shots that impressed in the Trust-sponsored 'Mountain Landscape' category of the 2018 Kendal Mountain Festival's photo competition.

Winner: The Long Walk

Professional photographer and mountain leader Rod Ireland is based near land the Trust looks after in the Lakes – Glenridding Common. His winning image ‘The Long Walk’ (pictured at the top of the page) was taken in March 2018 when he was visiting Glenshee in the Cairngorms for a few days skiing with his wife.

"The snow conditions were excellent with the whole area blanketed. After skiing for about an hour, the light began to develop and I decided to wander off-piste to get a nice vantage point from close to the top of Carn Aosda.

"Looking across the valley towards Glas Maol the lighting was just sublime, picking out the form of the mountains beautifully. 'The Long Walk' shows the Sron na Gaoithe ridge which leads up to Glas Maol. It was only when I'd returned back home from the trip that I noticed there were two mountaineers in the shot, tiny dots perfectly illustrating how small we are in the vastness of the world surrounding us."

Runner up: Karst bagging in Yanshuo

Postman Steve Jacques is also based in the Lakes. He took his photograph ‘Karst bagging in Yanshuo’ (pictured above) while on an extended family road trip back in August 2016.

"The picture was taken in Yangshuo - a relatively popular tourist area in South Western China famous for its karst landscape which stretches up from Northern Vietnam. We were travelling this area in August, the Chinese holiday season, so it was very busy and hot!

"The landscape, like much of China, is incredible. We generally avoid tourist view points and hunt out our own. A local recommended this view point and after a short but steep hike we shared the views with only a handful of other tourists, which in August is a miracle!"

Find out more about Rod Ireland Photography and Steve Jacques.