Chris Routledge

Coral background with faint heart illustrations. A glossy male Blackbird with a bright yellow bill faces left. Large title reads: “Birds as bad exes*” Smaller text reads: “*Yes, you read that right.”

Happy Valentine’s Day, from us to you. Tag your exes. Xoxox

Slow is good. I enjoyed reading this very much, and the photographs are terrific. You are obviously in amongst the horses, physically and mentally.

Deborah Parkin Photography Slowing Down. Photographing my Horse series. I have been seeing a new trend lately - 'Slow reading' - in which we are invited to read along ...

I have just written a blog about my approach to photographing my Horse series. If you have the time, I would really appreciate you stopping by.

I have had a few technical problems with sentences going for a walk but hopefully it will be ok.

deborahparkinphotography.blogspot.com/2026/02/i-ha...

Neat!

Pushed HP5 is great. I think I'll end up only photographing on winter afternoons.

Thanks Deborah, it's a lot of fun seeing like this.

Black and white diptych of a country road in Cumbria. Photographed with an Olympus Pen FT half frame camera on Ilford HP5+ pushed one stop.

Have been channelling @analoguelass.bsky.social making Lake District diptychs. Here is some street photography. #BelieveinFilm #LakeDIstrict #ThePark

Tilberthwaite pt 2 lichen trip report 7 February 2026 Eleven months on, we returned to Tilberthwaite. Last time we visited the old mine workings, this time the woods were our destination. We made short work of the journey from the car park; the rivers...

Here's a thing about the recent Cumbria Lichen and Bryophyte Group trip to Tilberthwaite. cumbrialichensbryophytes.org.uk/2026/02/12/t...

Advertising banner with black and white photo of wrestlers, for Wrestle, a free exhibition at the Grizedale Forest Visitor Centre, Cumbria. Paintings by Janet Moss and Photos by Chris Routledge. Supported by Forestry England and the Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling Association.

Have spent part of this week installing the Wrestle exhibition (formerly at The Florence, Egremont) at Grizedale Forest Visitor Centre. You can see it there until May. #Wrestle #LakeDistrict #BelieveinFilm

I think this innocence can be filed under "unconscious bias".

Language is important, and photography is I think the only art form with "extractive" terms like these in such widespread use. All the others are about creating something: painting, drawing, writing, sculpting, composing, filmmaking etc. I hate "capturing" in particular.

It's really something. His work with quarries is terrific.

A while back there was one of these about a Lake District village near to where I live, which was illustrated with thatched cottages in Cotswold stone under a blue sky. I'm sure the tourists it was aimed at will be neither disappointed nor confused by the grey slate and the hammering rain.

This and every week apparently.

Amazingly, Julian Cooper offered me my first solo photography exhibition, at the Archive Gallery in Grasmere in 2019. Apart from being a very thoughtful, imaginative, and accomplished landscape painter, he's also a highly amusing fellow to be around, with a dry wit of the best kind.

Excellent news.

it's *always* the women. always.

Indeed, it would have been a long night.

I had a very lucky time the one and only time I've been recovered. The car was at the weight limit of most of their transporters, but the one that was big enough was both empty and five miles away when I rang, otherwise it would have been the next day.

I'm sure they did.

Yes it's a lovely idea isn't it?

In the late 1990s I used to write in the UKC library. I had no affiliation (worked at Christ Church College and then Greenwich), but it was quiet and you could just walk in. There was a blackbird near the door that could imitate mobile phones and make the (few) mobile users jump.

Exactly!

I bet half of all humans are able to speak two or more languages, but the royal family's only job is to believe they are special.

Old school ;-)

Oh man, this kind of thing is so much worse than it was. Best of luck

Oh goodness that's very sad news indeed.

‘How shall I paint thee?’ (William Wordsworth’). A brilliant talk by @chrisroutledge.bsky.social
this evening on the evolving landscape of the Lake District and how we can explore and tell its layered and complex history through photography and art🍃

Three copies of Steve Ely's 'Eely' against an orange background.

A symphony in four movements, Steve Ely's 'Eely' explores the themes of power, conflict, biodiversity and eels as they converge and ramify in the Yorkshire fenlands (and beyond). Available as a beautifully produced hardback, with £2 off until tomorrow:
longbarrowpress.com/current-publ...

Julia Pirotte (1908-2000) .

open.substack.com/pub/deborahp...