Golitha Falls is a wooded stream that's situated to the south of Cornwall's wild and desolate Bodmin Moor: a couple of miles to the northwest of Liskeard and just west of the tiny village of St Cleer. The falls lie on the River Fowey in glorious, verdant setting, a wooded canopy, and the river passes over a series of cascades for eight hundred yards or so. The whole Golitha reserve consists of old oak, ash and beech trees, which occupy the sides of a steep-sided valley gorge, a remnant of an ancient woodland which once covered much of the surrounding area. The falls are reached via a footpath through the woods which commences opposite the car park. The trail snakes through attractive beechwoods along the banks of the River Fowey. These beeches are notable for the lichens festooning their upper branches, and the trees are (thankfully) protected by a "Tree Preservation Order"! The unusual name is pronounced 'Goleetha' and is derived from the old Cornish word for "obstruction".

If you're into photography and find yourself down in Cornwall in the leafy seasons, this place is really worth a visit - I've marked it with geodata so you can find it. This river woodland is one of those places that actually looks and photographs much better when it is raining... and a flowing stream is always nice! Technically, well I honestly wasn't too wild about this shot myself because, like all people with a new toy, I overdid things with my new fisheye and the distortion is getting on my nerves. But, my son, Laurence, said it was his favourite, so clearly I had no choice but to post it =). I do sort of like it - it's lush, rich and all that, but I'm sure that I can make it better next year - the composition is a little off, and the moving water which isn't as delicate as I'd like to see it - I think I should try it with a polariser. As someone once said... "I'll be back!".

Sadly, where I live, in the county of Surrey, England (that's just below London for those of you who are unfamiliar with English counties), there appears to be a total absence of fast-flowing streams like this, so whilst I'd love to have an opportunity to practise such "flowing water" shots, I'm restricted to 2 weeks of the year when I'm down in Cornwall during the summer. Annoying! Interesting though, looking again at this photo, it has actually made me realise something about my own photography - that maybe I have a thing for 'stuff that moves' - stars, clouds, water. As a photographer you're told that you should have a theme and although I've enjoyed a certain amount of success with portrait and macro stuff, I guess that perhaps I'm a 'movement' guy...

Winner PentaxWorld March Challenge 2010 #8 in Explore on 2010-03-17 - Thank you!