Mission Statement
Our objective is to provide those interested in outdoor photography with high-quality location information showing where to take the best photographs and advice on how to get better at photography. We are committed to providing photographer-authors with a way to make an income from their passion by authoring photography location guidebooks, both print and e-book. We work closely with photographer-authors to do this. We always respect copyright. Photography is a creative work.
Team
Mick Ryan
Mick Ryan is the founder and a co-director of fotoVUE. He is based in Calderdale having spent the last seven years in the Peak District. He also spends part of the year in Saratoga Springs, upstate New York.
He is the founder of Rockfax guidebooks and introduced well-designed large-format photo-topo climbing guidebooks to the UK. As well as publishing, editing and writing in the UK he has published six climbing guidebooks in the USA and authored four.
He lived in Bishop, California for nine years and was inspired whilst there by the beauty of the Eastern Sierra and the Sierra Nevada mountains and the landscape photography of the late Galen Rowell and Vern Clevenger. Whilst in the USA he also worked as a graphic designer.
From 2004 to 2013 he was chief editor and advertising manager at UKClimbing.com one of the most successful enthusiast media in the world. He is credited with commercialising and monetising the site, and increasing editorial quality and content, helping make UKClimbing.com a success with his longtime collaborator Alan James.
Mick’s photography has been published in magazines, websites and books around the world.He is co-author with Chris Gilbert and Villager Jim of the forthcoming Photographing The Peak District. Mick works as a photography guide and instructor for Wild Photography Holidays.
Stuart Holmes
Stuart is a co-director of fotoVUE. He is based in Keswick in the English Lake District where he was fortunate to be brought up. He has been taking photos from the age of 11 and using an SLR from the age of 16. For 20 years until 2009 he worked as an exploration geologist all over the world and during that time he was also taking and selling landscape and adventure sports photographs, primarily to magazines.
The geology work allowed lots of time for travel and having adventures. In 2003 he joined a group of climbers on board a small sailing boat on a trip from Tierra del Fuego to South Georgia. The outward voyage took 11 days, on occasion sailing amongst enormous icebergs. They spent 6 weeks on the island trying to climb mountains and getting beaten by the weather then 21 days sailing back to South America including surviving 2 nights of above hurricane-force winds!
In 2005 along with a group of friends he reached the summit of Everest from the north, Tibetan side.
Wild and mountainous landscapes are Stuart’s passion and photography often provides the necessary motivation to explore these places. Putting in the effort when the location, weather or time of day is outside of the comfort zone often rewards with spectacular scenes that few people witness.
Stuart is the author of the first fotoVUE publication: Photographing the Lake District.
Don Williams
Maps are an integral element of our photo-location guidebooks and we are fortunate to work with the very talented cartographer Don Williams. Don lives on the Isle of Bute from where he runs his freelance cartographic service Bute Cartographics. He has been twice awarded with the Wallis Award for Cartographic Excellence by the Society of Cartographers.