Where the Wild Things Are

Discover our a Cumbrian Wildlife Photography Experience with a prize winning Wildlife Photographer

In the soft light before dawn, the fields of The Rowley Estates look almost untouched by time. Mist lifts slowly from the hollows, drifting past ancient oaks and stone walls warmed by centuries of seasons. And it’s here, amid the hush and pulse of the Cumbrian countryside, that wildlife photographer Jason Hudson has crafted a new kind of immersive photography experience.

For Hudson, whose work has earned accolades including a runner-up award in the World Landscape Photography Competition, the move into wildlife photography was never a departure — it was an expansion. Landscape and wildlife are, after all, two faces of the same wild coin. “You learn to read the land,” he says. “Understand the land, and you understand where the wildlife will be.”

A Photographer Drawn to Wildness

Hudson’s reputation was built on atmosphere — brooding skies, sweeping fells, places where light behaves like a living thing. But in recent years, his lens has turned increasingly toward the creatures that animate these spaces: red deer emerging from thickets at sunrise, red squirrels threading through tree canopies, raptors slicing across open skies.

His growing dedication to wildlife is not just artistic; it is philosophical. Hudson speaks often of the irreplaceable value of wild places and the responsibility to protect them. Photography, for him, becomes more than documentation — it becomes advocacy.

That ethos is woven through the Wildlife Photography Experience he now leads at The Rowley Estates, an expanse of privately owned countryside managed with deep respect for its ecological richness.

The Rowley Estates: A Living Canvas

A typical workshop with Hudson begins early — long before the human world has stirred. Participants slip quietly across the estate grounds, guided by Hudson’s almost uncanny intuition for wildlife corridors: a barely visible track through bracken, a line of snapped twigs, a patch of flattened grass.

He teaches not only how to frame a shot, but how to anticipate one. “Wildlife photography is patience layered on curiosity,” he tells his group. “If you understand the behaviour, the photograph becomes the natural conclusion. ”Hudson is not simply chasing images; he is constructing a story — one told through tracks, light, and fleeting animal encounters.

A stag emerging through the mist, antlers haloed by first light. A red squirrel pausing mid-branch. A goshawk breaking from cover in a sudden, explosive burst.

These are not staged scenes. They are moments earned.

Hides on the Melmerby Estate: Windows Into a Secret World

While many of Hudson’s most dynamic encounters unfold on foot, The Rowley Estates now offers photographers a more contemplative way to experience wildlife — from hides designed to disappear into the landscape. On the Melmerby Estate, two purpose-built hides sit quietly within private woodland, each offering its own distinctive perspective on the creatures that thrive here.

The Red Squirrel Hide: Life in the Branches

Deep within the family’s private woodland near Melmerby, a pair of expertly positioned hides allows guests to encounter one of Britain’s most iconic species at astonishingly close range. Built from premium camouflage materials and featuring silent-opening apertures with a sweeping 270-degree field of view, the hides immerse visitors in the secret life of the forest.

Here, amid rustling leaves and the soft murmur of a nearby stream, red squirrels reveal themselves entirely on their own terms — scampering across trunks, pausing to forage, leaping effortlessly between branches. Often, they come within feet of the hide, offering photographers a rare chance to capture behaviour rather than only fleeting glimpses.

For many guests, it becomes more than a photographic session; it feels like being invited, quietly and respectfully, into another world.

The Fallen Oak Hide: Woodland Stillness and Sudden Flight

Just beyond the grounds of Melmerby Hall lies The Fallen Oak Hide — a thoughtfully positioned refuge on the edge of ancient woodland. Designed for slow, observant photography, it offers comfortable recliner chairs and four well-placed viewing windows that welcome natural light throughout the day.

This hide hums with woodland life: robins, blue tits, finches, nuthatches, and great spotted woodpeckers visiting through the seasons. Overhead, buzzards circle, and the occasional bird of prey drifts silently past. Deer often slip through the clearing during quieter hours, moving with the understated elegance only woodland animals possess.

Optional one-to-one or small-group tuition helps photographers refine everything from camera settings to ethical fieldcraft. But even without guidance, The Fallen Oak provides something equally valuable: stillness. Time slows, senses heighten, and the woodland reveals its rhythm in its own time.

A Collaboration Rooted in Place

The partnership between Jason Hudson and The Rowley Estates is intentional. Both share a commitment to conservation-minded land stewardship. The Estate’s owners have long invested in enhancing and protecting their habitats, and Hudson’s workshops dovetail seamlessly with that philosophy.

By inviting guests onto the land for photography experiences, the Estate fosters a kind of tourism that prioritises respect, restoration, and quiet appreciation over intrusion.

Participants don’t just capture wildlife; they learn how to move within it.

The Story the Landscape Wants to Tell

What makes Hudson’s Wildlife Photography Experience so compelling is the way photographer and landscape speak to one another — a dialogue between place, creature, and the people who come seeking connection.

There is an intimacy to the experience, as if guests are being guided through a private world the photographer knows deeply. By the end, they leave with memory cards full of images — but more importantly, with a sharpened understanding of how to read the land, recognise its signs, and allow nature to dictate the pace.

A Final Glimpse of the Wild

As the sun rises and shadows shrink, the Estate shifts. The nocturnal creatures fade back into cover, deer slip toward the tree line, and the hush of early morning gives way to the stirrings of the human day.

But those who walk these landscapes with Hudson carry something rare — not only photographs, but a renewed awareness of wildness. The kind that waits quietly, reveals itself slowly, and rewards those willing to look with patience, respect, and wonder.

To book call Jason Hudson on 07545152260
www.wildlifehidesandsurveys.co.uk