New BMC Guidebook

Pogle's Wood

It's been a long time coming, but the British Mountaineering Council's new Froggatt to Black Rocks guidebook is finally here. And, like the other guides in the series, it's a beautiful thing. I've contributed a number of photos, including this one of Andy Rao on the scary E2 The Gully Joke at Froggatt, one of my personal favourites as it is very much not staged.

To coincide with the release of the guidebook, the BMC guidebooks main man, Niall Grimes, wrote an article on selecting photos for climbing guidebooks, published in the July issue of Climber Magazine. I'd completely missed this, having not seen the mag for a couple of months, but I stumbled across a copy the other day and was flattered to see that Niall had singled out one of my shots for praise, in part because it was shot on good old 35mm. The photo is of Dave Parry on the brilliant boulder problem Pogle's Wood at Gardom's Edge. Here's a snippet of what Niall had to say:

"In guidebook work you get fewer and fewer slides these days. Thanks god, 'cos they're a pain in the arse. But every now and again you get a scan, look at it, the quality, warmth and depth of the colours, and it has that unmistakable Velvia glow. Beautiful. John Coefield's pic of Pogle's Wood is one of those. Sunlight filters through the trees and a warm feeling comes all over you. Each slide, between buying the film and processing it, costs around 36p. At that price you just don't fart out 20 exposures. You make each count. And it shows. The composition is great, a shockwave tree rippling away from the climber."

That's really great coming from someone like Niall. I just about remember taking the photo and being slightly frustrated that I couldn't get high enough to prevent the edge of the trough clipping Dave's foot, but I think that's nit picking. Otherwise it's a simple shot, with a 50mm lens. I did look back through my slides out of curiosity, and, as I thought, I exposed one slide of Pogle's Wood that day. A good reminder about careful, considered technique in the digital age. And 36p well spent.