Aira Beck lives a short but charming life. It rises in the hills to the west of Ullswater, takes a sharp right (south) at Dockray and then tumbles through a series of waterfalls and gorges to create a pretty wooded delta into the lake. Probably no more than 6 miles yet such a pretty thing. And the largest of these falls is Aira Force. Not a world giant as falls go, the water cascades 20 metres  into a mini gorge yet oh so photographable. And it offers an unusual opportunity to take photographs straight into the fall, the result of two bridges, one at the top and one at the bottom. ‘What a pity’ one might think ‘ to spoil a natural wonder with a bridge’, yet the bridges were built almost a hundred years ago out of local stone, so they have blended and form part of the scene. And there is the option to stand on the top bridge and photograph into the maelstrom. I have done this many times and will do so many times, for the stream and its falls change every time. And this constant changing face of Gaia is an important lesson for photographers, to know that there is always something new; that and the fact that most people never walk beyond the main drop, and the walk reveals many more falls, great and small.

And a conventional view from below