Lives in a Landscape - Series 4 - Fellside Photographer

Documentary series telling original stories about real lives in Britain today. Alan Dein meets Wayne Hutchinson, a Cumbrian farmer who combines the hard graft of shepherding with a second job - photographing some of Britain's most expensive livestock. Wayne farms Swaledale sheep with his father in the hills linking Cumbria to the Yorkshire dales. It is rugged territory, but Wayne has allied his farming pedigree with an enthusiasm for photography. He now mixes his farming duties with time spent travelling the length and breadth of Britain taking pictures of pedigree livestock. It takes him to the farms of some of the wealthiest landowners in Britain as well as smallholders with a passion for livestock. But these are tough times for farmers, with the aftermath of foot and mouth still being felt, alongside the twin menaces of Blue Tongue and the increasing pressure put on them to protect the environment while at the same time keeping cheap food on our plates. Alongside those tensions are the pressures of mixing farming and family life with the increasingly 'on call' nature of the photography business. Alan introduces us to Wayne as he prepares for what nobody realised at the time was to be the penultimate Royal Show.