News/Blog

A seletion of A5 Cards have been recently added to the Shop and there will be some more added over the next couple of weeks.

These cards are in a rectangular landscape format and consist of :
A 210mm x 148mm greetings card made out of Trucard Crisp 355 micron FSC Certified single sided board (semi-gloss 1 side, matt reverse) and manufactured from re-cycled paper
A White 100gsm envelope manufactured from re-cycled paper to fit the greetings card
A sellophane wrapper for the greeting card
The card is blank on the inside.

Click here to purchase New A5 Cards

Card images

I've not posted for a while with an update of what i've been up but I thought this post would be a good opportunity to put that right and give an insight into the sort of things i have been doing.

Over the last couple of months I have had a little exhibition of some of my landscape prints at the Old Courthouse in Shap with another local photographer Patrick Neaves. This has been a great success with numerous prints and cards sold. In addition I have also started volunteering at this great place in Shap, Cumbria which is owned by the people of Shap and acts as the local village library, free computer access, play group, a location for local people to sell their crafts. These kind of places need volunteers to keep it going. From the few weeks i have been there volunteering there are always visitors using the computer equipment, visitors popping in to look at exhibitions and people bringing their library books back. In addition lots of locals pop in for a coffee and a chat. If your passing look us up on the internet for the opening times and come and say hello.

I do quite like the time of year of going from spring into summer where there are lots of colours in Cumbria and the Lake District, Bluebells, crops ripening, bracken greening up on the fells which ensures there are many beautiful things to photograph. Dawn and dusk however are very early and late in the evenings at the moment which i have to freely admit means i struggle to get out and do as many golden hour kind of shots that I would like to.

I have recently come back from a lovely walking/photography holiday in Glencoe where overall the weather was kind, the walking sublime and some of the photographic opportunities were fabulous even if a little cliche. Glencoe has been photographed extensively so I prefer to get lots of my shots from up on the tops and anyone who visits Scotland regularly knows this can be a challenge. In May there was plenty of snow still on the tops and quite alot on the Cairngorm plateau which we visited on a day when Glencoe was dreich and drizzly. I have started to load one or two of them on this site.

I am currently trying to get my 2017 calendars ready for printing and updating websites and social media. This has been hampered a little by a broken computer and has bought home to me even more than ever. How valuable a comprehensive backup strategy is. Fortunately I back up constantly so have not lost any images or info.

To end this little post I have enclosed a few shots which for me just capture the beauty of this time of year

Summer in the Langstrath Valley, Borrowdale


Heartland Point, Devon


Sunset at Bamburgh Beach, Northumberland


Ripening Barley in the Eden Valley

A link to the piece included in this weeks Westmorland Gazette 29/4/16 of the Landscape photography exhibition at Shap Old Court House running at the moment

Click Here

Landscape Photography Exhibition at The Old Courthouse Shap, Cumbria



I am currently having a small exhibition of some of my landscape photography with a fellow artist Patrick Neaves at the Old Courthouse in Shap, Cumbria. This is going to be running for two months and the link below provides details of the exhibition including opening times.

If your in the Lake District or Cumbria in April and May pop in and have a look around. There is also a selection of prints and greeting cards available to purchase and your support would be much appreciated.

This building is owned by the community and is a fabulous vehicle for allowing artists to show off and sell their work.

The Old Courthouse Shap

I am recently back from a lovely trip to Northern Sweden around the lovely area of Sorbyn, typical Swedish lapland country. A beautiful wilderness of forests, snow covered lakes and paths. Combined with the low light pollution aurora activity is fairly frequent and easy to capture even when the levels are relatively low (KP 3). If you like snow covered landscape, cold weather and lots of beautiful silence, then this place is for you.

I've never been to Northern Sweden before so was not sure what to expect but this holiday (provided by Artisan travel for a competition I won in the Guardian) was a fabulous experience. Miles and miles of snow covered, forests, tracks, frozen lakes, rivers and and friendly people made this a lovely place to visit. During the time here we had a mix of Snow mobiling, husky sledging, snow shoeing, ice fishing and aurora photography. A great combination of activities and lots of photographic opportunities for which i am still going through.

During the holiday We stayed at Sorbyn Lodge a nice little hotel with friendly people and superb food and lots of great places to explore, what a lovely place. This was followed by a few nights camping in Tipees in a secluded forest down by a frozen river. A nice opportunity to experience very low light pollution and a spot of glamping at the same time. An ability to keep a wood burner stocked up throughout the night is a mandatory skill but the camp fire ambience and cooked meals in a dedicated social Tipee is a nice touch which gets everyone staying at the camp socialising. During the time there I managed a few pictures quite a few pictures. I have selected a few which captures the beauty of this place around Sorbyn and of the camp.

I'm hoping to return to Scandinavia for further holidays and photography opportunities in the future and am currently looking at holidays/breaks in the Loften Islands in Norway and Aurora holidays in Finland... It would be good to get a taste for them all.

Over 12 months ago I entered the Guardian 2015 Travel photography competition and submitted an entry for the month of January which had the theme of "WILD". I was told in February that I had won the month of January and my entry would be submitted to the overall end of year completion. I have recently found out I had won the overall completion for 2015 and as a result will be off to Lapland (Northern Sweden) to do some winter snd aurora photography sometime in March 2016.

As you can imagine i'm over the moon about this and for me it has been a great end to my 2015 photography year where during this time I have sold a variety of prints online and in retail outlets, sold lots of greeting cards and calendars and also had one or two pictures published in Regional and National newspapers.

The picture I submitted is shown below. It was taken whilst ascending Hallin Fell in the Lake District with lovely views over Martindale Common. During that walk I experienced sunshine, sleet, hail, a near whiteout and very strong winds. That is a typical winters day in the Lake District. Whilst climbing up the hill i turned around for a breather and saw the lovely (crepuscular) light rays coming through the clouds and illuminating the snow shower and land down below. I managed to take a few handheld shots before the next shower came in and obscured the land below.

Ascending Hallin Fell



The following link below takes you to The Guardian website where you can view the other monthly winning entries in the competition and further comments from the Judge about my picture.

Guardian 2015 Travel Photography Competition Winners

We are having a little winter sale at SycamoreBarn.com until the end of January where we have 20% off all Prints and Cards. Enter WINTER at checkout to get this offer.

I leave you with a recent picture taken in December at Orton Scar in Cumbria and hopefully over the next few months there will be a few more winter themed cards and pictures coming onto the website.

In 2016, I have one or two travel plans including walking and camping trips to North West Scotland, Wales a trip to Northern Sweden and I hope to do some more locally based landscape work in the Eden Valley and Yorkshire Dales. So hopefully there will be lots of news to report on the blog section of the site and the appearance of new material for sale.

Once again thanks to all my customers in 2015.

I would just like to thank all my visitors to this site and everyone who has purchased Prints, Cards and Calendars in the last twelve months a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I have lots of new cards and prints coming online in 2016, So do come and visit us when you get the chance.

thanks

Michael

December snow at Orton Scar and mist in the valley.

I would just like to thank everyone who has purchased my calendars from this site. I have now SOLD out of the A4 calendars and have a handful of the slim calendars left. This is the first year I have sold them on-line and I have been surprised how popular they are.

Next year I plan to start selling them a little earlier and through a few more local outlets in Shap, Penrith and Keswick

Click here to purchase slim line calendards





There is currently 10% off all Cards and Christmas Cards in the shop. To take advantage of this offer enter AUTUMN at checkout.

Click here to purchase Christmas Cards

I am currently running a promotion on all shop items cards and calendars with a 10% discount available on all orders with a minimum spend of £5. To take advantage of this offer enter the code AUTUMN in the promotions box at checkout and the discount will automatically be applied.

Three new cards have also been added to the Winter and Christmas Card folder in the shop. These cards are in a square format and consist of :

• 
  A 145mm x 145mm (approx 5.75 inches x 5.75 inches)greetings card made out of Trucard Crisp 355 micron FSC Certified single sided board (semi-gloss 1 side, matt reverse) and manufactured from re-cycled paper
  

• 
  A White 100gsm envelope manufactured from re-cycled paper to fit the 145mm Square greetings card and sellophane wrapper for the greeting card.
  

• 
  The card is blank on the inside.
  

Snow Showers at Great Wood, Keswick


Winter Blencathra from Great Mell Fell, Lake District


Down the track at Old Mill Flatt, Newby, Cumbria

2016 Calendars featuring scenes from around Cumbria and the Lake District are now available in the Online Shop - Click Here

Two formats are available an A4 Wall Calendar and a Slim Wall Calendar (420mm x 148mm). Both calendars are bound with white wire and a hanging clip.

A4 Wall Calendar


Slim Wall Calendar


Both Calendars use the same images for each of the months, these are shown below
Monthly Images

Going to Keswick at all ?

if you are visit this wonderful pet friendly coffee shop called Java Chocolate by the (Moot Hall on Main street in Keswick The coffee and cakes are great, service very friendly and you can take your dogs in with you. They'll make a big fuss of them.

In addition they now sell some of my Greetings Cards which you can buy from there.
Pop in and see Adele and Laura, my favourite coffee place in Keswick.

Lovely spot for a stroll...great greetings cards by @mgrolys http://t.co/Fmh14zURjo #Cumbria #landscape #photography #greetingscards

— DCS Print (@DCSPrint) August 12, 2015

A new folder of cards has been added to the SycamoreBarn shop for Winter and Christmas themed cards. This is a selection of winter scenes which would be appropriate for festive greeting cards.

Additionally, three new square card designs (semi gloss 145mm x145mm) have been added to the shop at Sycamorebarn.com Shop

The three cards are made up of

(i) - Winter Tree in the Eden Valley


(ii) - Helvellyn Skyline from Askham Fell, Lake District


(iii) - Morning stroll, Cliburn, Cumbria

The Journal is a Northern England daily newspaper which always includes a few pictures of the local areas entitled View of the North. I've recently spent a few days up around Belford and Bamburgh and always take the opportunity to get down to the beach with the dogs and get a few pictures. The weather was lovely if not a little windy on the beach (make that sandstorm !!) I have got a couple of pictures that have used by the Journal on their View of the North photos on two separate days.


Journal - Farne Island Picture



Journal - Old Ship Wrecked Engine, Seahouses

Four new Square Gloss cards (145mm x 145mm) have been added to the online shop making a total of 20 different designs available now, covering various locations in the Lake District and Cumbria.

I am also in the process of getting the cards available for purchase in various local retail outlets. From the 11/07/2015 a selection of Greeting Cards are available for sale at the Mill Yard, Cafe in Morland



The latest individual cards added to the shop are shown below.

I would like to thank everyone who has purchased some of the new cards available on this site. I have had a very positive response and am in the process of getting some of them for sale in various cafes and establishments in Cumbria.

Another 12 designs of blank Greeting Cards have been added to the website for purchase. This set of 12 consists of rectangular format card designs (105mm x148mm) depicting various landscape scenes around the Lake District and Cumbria.



These are printed on re-cycled Trucard Crisp 355 micron FSC Certified card (semi-gloss 1 side, matt reverse) and come with high quality 100gsm White envelopes and a clear cellophane wrapper.

Prices include FREE Postage and Packaging. I am currently offering a four pack of various or themed cards for £5. Alternatively individual cards are available at £1.60 each with a minimum spend of £4.

To see the full set of cards available click on Greeting Cards Link or visit the SycamoreBarn Landscape and Dog Photography website and navigate to the Galleries and Shop section of the site www.sycamorebarn.com




I will be adding some blank Christmas cards over the next few months.

I now have small selection of blank Greeting Cards available on the website for purchase. This initial set consists of Four square format card designs (145mm x145mm) depicting various landscape and dog related scenes.



These are printed on re-cycled Trucard Crisp 355 micron FSC Certified card (semi-gloss 1 side, matt reverse) and come with high quality 100gsm White envelopes and a clear cellophane wrapper.

Prices include FREE Postage and Packaging. I am currently offering a four pack of cards which consists of 1 of each of the card designs below for £5. Alternatively individual cards are available at £1.60 each with a minimum spend of £4.

To see the cards available click on Greeting Cards Link or visit the SycamoreBarn Landscape and Dog Photography website and navigate to the Galleries and Shop section of the site www.sycamorebarn.com

I will be adding more cards over the next few weeks. They will consists of a variety of Lake District and Cumbrian landscapes depicting scenes throughout the seasons and some Dog related cards in a mix of A5 size and A6 landscape/portrait formats.

This year the blossom on the trees and wildflowers in the fields have been excellent mainly due to the mild winter and spring we've had. If you have hayfever you may have noticed this already !. I've noticed it because the car is constantly covered in a yellow powder. The rapeseed fields in Northumberland are spectacular if not a little smelly at the moment. Some fields and roadside verges have been taken over by red campion which adds a bit of colour to the landscape. I have added a picture of recent trip to Bamburgh of one of the nearby fields which contains a mix of rapeside and campion.

I have also been out looking at the Bluebells at various places in Cumbria and my favourite wood at the Old Naddle Bridge at Burnbanks near Hawsewater always provides a beautiful display.

At Orton Scar there is a small display of Common spotted Orchids on the limestone pavement. I have been up three times so far to take pictures without success. Hopefully once the windy weather subsides I might try to get some pictures of these

Red Campion and Rapeseed at Bamburgh, Northumberland


Bluebells at Burnbanks, Hawsewater, Lake District