by Pitchup | guides

Fancy yourself as a bit of a photographer? Then you’re in luck! We’ve compiled a fantastic Beginner’s Guide to Outdoor Photography, enlisting the help of some outdoor photography experts, to ensure your snaps while camping and caravanning are top notch.

The guide includes a range of hints and tips on how to achieve great shots in a range of areas encompassing wildlife, landscape and outdoor sports. With opinion from Josh McCulloch and Tony West and easy-to-follow instructions, you’ll be soon turning every snap into a piece of work which really captures the great outdoors experience.
 
This guide includes awesome tips such as:

• How to deal with the 'circle of fear' that surrounds animals, and come out with a great shot
• Using the sky to bring your landscape photos to life
• Essential items every outdoor photographer needs

For all you budding photographers looking to capture that perfect outdoor shot, browse around some of our favourite picturesque spots:

• Carradale Bay Caravan Park in Argyll is situated on one of the best beaches on the Kintyre Peninsula. The site is close to Carradale Point, a nature conservation area, which offers a herd of feral goats, bird life in abundance, deer, otters and seals, as well as eagles and buzzards tumbling overhead
• Wild Duck Holiday Park in Norfolk is set within acres of beautiful woodland - perfect for catching stunning sunrises through the trees - and is home to ducks, rabbits, deer and foxes
• South Penquite Farm is a 200-acre working hill farm situated high on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. Offering camping and Mongolian yurts, this organic farm features a flock of 200 ewes, horses, geese and working collies – a great juxtaposition against the unusual accommodation

Click here to download the Beginner’s Guide to Outdoor Photography.

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by Pitchup | industry news

You know how it is. You unzip the tent one morning for that first lungful of fresh air, to find that Kate Moss has plonked her fancy caravan between you and the sea view.

Or you queue at the tap with your water carrier for ages, because after Tom Cruise has finished, his family, security detail and religious adviser all need to fill up.

In fact you can hardly stir a sausage into a pot of beans these days for fear that Jamie Oliver will jump out of the hedge with a handful of herbs to add a bit of flavour.

Just how many magazine covers or Oscars do you need these days to go camping? Our celebrities are deserting their usual luxurious destinations faster than you can say ‘designer wellies’ and drinking their champagne in the open.

There has always been the odd celebrity camping story knocking about. Sir Paul McCartney was caught kipping under the stars in Missouri (age 66), and singer Robbie Williams did likewise, hoping to see UFOs (quite).

But now they are all at it.

I’m a celebrity – pitch me over there

When Kate Moss descended on a travellers’ campsite for a fashion shoot, she spurned the usual lavish hotels, staying in a caravan and singing round the fire with other campers. Tom Cruise  took his daughter Suri camping last year so that she could experience an essential part of childhood. And ‘Desperate Housewives’ star Eva Longoria was spotted emerging from under the canvas in Normandy while visiting her husband’s native France.

Celebrities are not just camping and caravanning – they are championing them too. Chef and TV star Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who has long made programmes about cooking in the wild, has proudly contributed to a book about camping, alongside model Jodie Kidd and Blur bassist Alex James. And who would have thought that pop stars Mark Owen and Jay Kay, actors Helen Mirren and Billie Piper and model Nell McAndrew would be united by – a passion for caravans?

We know that these celebrities are hardly slumming it (apart from actors Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany, who camp  unglamorously to swap paparazzi for mosquitoes). Katie and Tom had their entourages and their designer gear, and Jamie Oliver fitted his VW Camper with a Porsche engine, for goodness’ sake. And while he might have stayed in a caravan park in North Wales, £30m England defender Rio Ferdinand only stopped there for one night.

Camping, glamping, it’s all good

The style is hardly the point. Any celebrity who draws attention to the joys of camping is doing a service for the industry and for staycations as a whole. Introducing people who would not touch a tent pole with a bargepole to staying outdoors – albeit with Ted Baker airbeds, silk-lined sleeping bags and opulent motor homes – is a victory for camping, for nature, and for us ordinary folk who have been enjoying it all along.

The closest that most celebrities got to camping used to be kicking their stalkers’ tents off the lawn. Now they’re out glamping in force and highlighting that there are more options than ever for holidays outside. And that has got to be a good thing.

Have you ever seen a celebrity pitching up? Heard of any other stars who like to camp? What do you think about this trend among the famous for the camping life?

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by Pitchup | industry news

With member recruitment up by a quarter, last year was a record year for the Camping and Caravanning Club, the world's oldest and largest club for all forms of camping. And the Club looks set to sustain its success into 2010, recently announcing a 15% rise in advance bookings compared to this time last year.

We caught up with Matthew Eastlake, the Club's Marketing and Communications Director, for his perspectives on the camping and caravanning trend and his own experience of camping holidays in the great outdoors.

1. The ‘staycation’ has been much debated in the media – would you say it's myth or reality? Was it something that the Club anticipated?

Both the number of new joiners and the number of pitch nights sold have significantly surpassed expectations this year. People have certainly taken their holidays in the UK this year or at the very least taken one of their holidays in the UK.

2. Do you think this trend will continue in coming years?

We see no reason as to why continued growth will not occur. The Club has grown year on year both in terms of new members and pitch nights sold for many years. We don’t know whether the rate of growth will continue and it is quite possible that 2009 could be a significant ‘blip’ in this growth curve.

3. How do campers / caravanners find out about good sites?

There are numerous channels available these days. I suspect that word of mouth is still way out in front. Generally speaking, websites are much the easiest way to search, compare and book these days for our members I believe.

4. What is it that will keep newcomers to camping coming back?

Clearly this will be a reflection of how much they enjoyed their first camping trip. There are many factors involved but certainly the weather will always play a key role.

5. Why caravan/camp in the UK rather than in continental Europe?

This year there has certainly been nervousness about the exchange rate. There have been numerous horror stories of the cost of eating out and general living in near Europe. In fact, countries such as France are certainly no more expensive than the UK even with a strong euro. But nevertheless people have felt that it’s perhaps better to keep all one’s costs in pounds and indeed if camping in the UK, it is easier to get home if anything should change such as weather.

6. What do you predict will be the strongest trend in camping/caravanning in 2010?

I think one trend that we will see increasingly is extended families camping together.

7. How are site owners having to innovate to respond to consumer technology / demands of the modern world and how important is this to campers?

This industry still relies heavily on people turning up at a site, a.k.a. "off roaders", and therefore it is important for site owners to be presented on websites and in directories for site search purposes but it is not critical to have a booking facility as yet. One of the attractions of camping and caravanning is the “go as you please” aspect, in fact the ability to roam freely. Hence turning up at a site "on spec" is all part of the charm.

8. What’s the most bizarre request you’ve heard from a holidaymaker?

Strangely enough campers are very practical people and often quite experienced. I have yet to hear a bizarre request!

9. Where is your favourite campsite and why?

West Runton, Norfolk. I first camped here with my family in 1968 and for some years thereafter. The winding road to the site is magical and I remember playing with other children in the gorse bushes. What fun!

10. What’s your top camping/caravanning tip?
 
Test your kit in your garden before going camping.

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