LPH News

What a great year, thank you for your support and it was brilliant to see so many regular guests and a large number of new guests including over 20 international visitors from places as far as Canada, Australia, Norway and Sweden. It has been a hectic year, but also very enjoyable, with great weather at the beginning of the year and a couple of holidays for ourselves.

Many of you will know that John visited Tuscany back in April and we are now pleased to announce our new Tuscany workshops for 2008, from the 19th-27th April and 20th-27th September 2008. These workshops are being run in association with Jimmy and Angela McCracken, whose beautiful farm house located in the Tuscan hills will be your base for the week. Full details can be found on our website and there is also a separate leaflet available for download from the website.

We have spent most of the year planning a large building project to extend LPH. This has at last been approved by the planning authority but we did not received any grant from Cumbria Tourism on the basis that we did not add value to the Lake District, albeit over 300 photographers per year leave here will beautiful images which are exhibited in a range of media in camera clubs, exhibitions and on the net—but we aren’t bitter! The new extension will provide 2 new ensuite double bedrooms on the first floor to be known as Rydal and Grasmere, a radically different Derwentwater and a new shower room for Bassenthwaite. On the ground floor, the building work will provide a new limited mobility bedroom (Ullswater) with its own access, a larger lecture room which can be used all year, and not be affected by rain or sunlight and finally a larger digital room which will provide better facilities for digital based workshops. Loweswater room is being converted into a laundry storage facility. Unfortunately we will be losing the front lawn into car parking facilities for the landrovers, but this should provide for up to 9 guest cars in the car park. The work is commencing on the 5th November and is due for completion and opening on the 5th April 2008—we hope!

John has had a great photographic year. He was awarded his AFIAP in April. He then gave excellent presentations at the EAF and Southport. John was at Focus on Imaging for three days, working with ePhotozine, Manfrotto and Longridge. He also spent time with Lee Filters signing the Inspiring Professionals book which has been very successful. He will be back there again next year, with lectures already planned for each day. John entered the Austrian Trierenburg Super circuit and achieved 45 acceptances out of 50—not a bad result, the highlight was being awarded a FIAP bronze medal.

Emma's’ LRPS achievement as the youngest ever, awarded when she was still 10 has at last been recognised by the RPS. Afzal Ansary FRPS campaigned on Emma’s behalf and a 3 page article was published in the September issue of the journal. If you missed it, a copy is available on our website. Emma also won the Penrith Town Photo competition back in May , winning a Kodak digital camera and 100 sheet pack of photo paper. She is continuing to enter the FIAP competitions and is now thinking about her ARPS.

There have been a number of staff changes during the year. Jenny has started to look after her grandson on a Monday and Friday, so we are now joined by Anne Todhunter on those days. Emma is now working on Sunday nights, enabling Shona to have one night at home. We have recruited a new chambermaid, Joan (Shona’s mum) for a Saturday and Sunday, to assist Jenny and enable Gail to get some time with Emma and Mikey. Due to the volume of work on a Saturday, especially with the new bedrooms, could we please request that people do NOT arrive before 3.30pm.

We now have a new roaming credit card machine which makes checkouts quicker and easier and we are investigating the use of prepayments on arrival. Gail has been attending a range of new business workshops over the past year, sponsored by Cumbria Tourism and has working with a business consultant to improve productivity within the business. A number of our new initiatives are a direct result of this work. We are looking very closely at our advertising and you will be noticing a drop in the adverts in the magazines, but more online advertising via the magazine sites, Google and more direct e-newsletters to our guest list. This reflects a the huge change in the market and where we now get the majority of our enquiries and bookings.

Family News

There have been loads of great things happening to the family this year. Sid (Johns’ Dad) who is now 89, has recovered completely from his operation and heart attack and is enjoying himself living in Letchworth.
He is off on his next cruise to the Baltic in December. Gail’s Mum celebrated her 90th birthday this year in Letchworth and was joined by all her family.
We had a great ski-ing holiday back in February, when Mikey really learned to ski for the first time and by the end of the week was following Dad and Emma (the mad ones) over the bumps and jumps! We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in July and then spent a fantastic 2 weeks in Antigua with the family and our friends Keith and Heather. We all really relaxed as you can see by the photos on the previous page. The landrovers also got their annual outings to Eastnor and Billing. Heavy rain meant the latter felt like Glastonbury without the music but we still had a great time with the Camel guys.
Emma has had a great year and is now in year 9. She is doing very well at school and is in the top set for every subject. She has recently passed her grade 5 ballet exam and is now in Intermediate foundation, which is a huge achievement. Emma has now started keyboard lessons and also restarted guitar, so she is constantly busy with loads of practising
dancing, music and school work. During our visit to Antigua, Emma had a great experience. Scuba diving. She saw millions of different fish of all shapes and sizes and in the most unusual colours, three black lobsters, two moray eels, an octopus, a spider crab, a sting-ray, a jelly fish which she stroked and much more!
Mikey has also had a busy year, especially when you consider he was only 5 at the end of August. He passed his level 1 swimming in July which meant he was able to really enjoy the warm sea and swimming pool in Antigua. He is now doing really well at level 2. His cycling has developed in leaps and bounds, losing his stabilisers at the end of the summer holidays. He is now happily cycling round 2.5 miles with either Dad or Mum in tow. He started Year 1 at Braithwaite in September, meaning shirts and ties, but is enjoying the work and learning all about the body. He is also learning keyboard and going to gymnastics club on a Thursday night, so a really busy timetable. He is due to start Beavers next Easter.

Looking ahead to 2008

Our new building extension is planned for completion on the 5th April.
Two new workshops: Photoshop for Photographers aimed at people who have tried PhotoShop and now want to get the most out of the product to enhance their photography. The workshop will provide an overview of the product, full use of adjustment layers, layer masks and printing. The workshop will also include practical sessions and a photographic excursion with John.
Tuscany Workshop Photography for 7 nights in the beautiful Tuscan landscape.
Staying in a private farm with its own olive grove, vineyard and swimming pool and including 5 full days of photography with John all for the price of £850 excluding flights and meals taken away from the house. We are providing transport and transfers from Pisa airport. This is an exciting new venture in association with Jimmy and Angela McCracken. Jimmy was a regular guest at LPH until he retired and moved to Tuscany, so he knows how we operate and is also passionate about photography and his adopted home of Tuscany. The Tuscany brochure is available on the website or by phoning us—with only 8 places per week they
are already booking up fast.
We are also launching two new websites: johngravett.com to provide galleries of Johns beautiful photos to a wider audience and lakelandphotosupplies.co.uk. This is a new opportunity to provide photographic accessories to photographers visiting the lake district and for the photographers already located here. We are already the northwest dealer for Permajet, Longridge and will be the main dealer for the whole range of Manfrotto and Gitzo tripods from next February. Please see the website before you join us and we will have your equipment waiting for you—we will attempt to be competitive, but if it is collected from here you won’t be paying postage! Unlike many shops—we can offer practical advice on what equipment meets with your requirements.

We are aiming to replace all of Johns’ photos on the LPH website with guests Lakeland photos. The aim is to demonstrate the wide range of photographs available to photographers whilst staying at LPH. We have taken time to review our prices for 2008 and these will include some necessary price rises. The changes are due to a number of factors, rising prices for fuel, food, staff pay and new facilities which will be made available with the new building work. The regular Landscape Workshops will now be £565 per person per week and the Specialist
workshops will be £585. There are significant price reductions if you book and pay your deposit before 31st Dec 2007.The 2008 calendar and workshop details are attached with this newsletter and updated on the LPH website.

We thank you all for your support during 2007 and wish you a Very Merry
Christmas and look forward to welcoming you to a new LPH during 2008!