I’m in the process of writing a book. It’s pretty short really, around 20 pages, but it deals with ‘approach’, how we interact with a landscape.

FrontCover

Judging by the title of the book, you may be forgiven for thinking it’s all about making images of the Taj Mahal, and you’d be right, as well as wrong. The book touches many things involved with approach. How we interpret what we are presented with and how we deem to capture what we see. So as much as it is about the Taj Mahal, I’m really using that location to illustrate some aspect of how I make my images.

I aim to have it completed in a week or so, and i’m going to distribute it through one of the eBook publication sites. Do any of you have any experience of them and which ones you prefer or think I should avoid?

Now that 2010 is here, I’ve been thinking back on 2009 and there have been quite a few things that have happened for me, which have opened my eyes:

Inverpolly

Workshop leaders learn something too

I always thought that being the leader of a photo workshop would mean that I would have to fill the role of the expert, but if anything, what I have learned is that workshops are a melting pot of ideas with people who see differently, work differently, and it’s not just the participants on the trips that learn something.

I learn a lot too: some of it is an improve awareness of my own thought processes when making my own images. This has had a massive impact on my images and I feel my own compositions are getting more and more simplified. I’m unsure if this is a good thing as I believe very much in going with your gut feeling, but on the other hand, I’m pleased to see my photography moving on a bit.

But on each trip I’ve been on, I always find something new to take away with me.

Digital technology is improving at a pace

It’s always hard to get a feel for how much things are changing and we always tend to rely on reviews of camera gea. One of the things I’ve found very interesting on the workshops is the access I get to new equipment and this year I have been stunned a few times by what is now capable with digital SLRs….

1. Dynamic Range is on the up. Yep, some of the cameras I’ve seen this year hardly need grad filters at times and I’ve had a few occasions where a scene I knew would not fit onto my trusty Velvia 50 film would more than easily be recorded on a digital camera without the need for grads. The Nikon D3 records 8.5 stops dynamic range while the new Leica M9 records around 10 stops I believe. The Phase One medium format digital backs are supposed to record somewhere around 13 stops of dynamic range.

2. Not all high end DSLR’s are created equal, and comparisons between different manufacturers at the same price point does not often mean you get the same level of quality.

3. I love the new Nikons. I never thought I would say this, but if I were to go back to Digital at the moment (financially not possible and more importantly from where I feel I want to go – digital is not an avenue I wish to pursue), then the D700 or the D3 would be the camera I’d choose. The D3x would be more of a contender because it has a mask for composing in 5×4 aspect ratio, which is one of the reasons why I went back to my Mamiya 7. I’m sure this will stir those that are ‘gear-heads’, but the way I see it, digital technology moves on at a pace, and sometimes one Camera manufacturer is ahead of the others. For a long while, it was Canon, but over the past few years the Nikon’s have really moved on. This of course, will change again. I have no time for the Canon vs Nikon debate. It’s just equipment.

Photography is many things to many people

Well, this is not a new observation for me, but even so, I’m still amazed at what I’ve seen some of my participants shoot, how they like to shoot and what they find aesthetically pleasing. All this is great…. Photography should be an inspiring, enjoyable process that takes you somewhere – to a new reality in your mind.

It’s all so easy to become very staid…. to keep within the same comfort zones. This applies to our reading as well as our art.

How many of us find new photography web sites each week? Or are we all just going back to the same select group of book marked sites?

It’s very easy to start to see the web in a shrinking way, and to think that there are only a handful of photography sites worth visiting.

So today, I went over to see what David Alan Harvey is saying. He’s got a great site where he frequently shows off the work of emerging photographers. Granted, the work is possibly not to your taste if you are strictly a landscape photographer. I love it though. My tastes over the past decade have moved from pure landscape to nocturnal photography and then onto photojournalism. The story, not just a pretty picture. I feel my sensibilities have been broadened by my venture into these realms. I’m certainly no photo-journalist…. but there is something wonderful about Harvey’s work and something doubly more compelling about his site.

If you’re in the market for seeing something that is not the usual bag of tricks (Ken Rockwell, Luminous Landscape, DPreview, Photo.net, Flickr, Nikonians…. etc, etc) then you can possibly do no worse than check out David’s Burn Magazine.

Well, I know this must seem like I’m pumping out the photos at the moment, but it’s not often like that for me.

Skye Portfolio

Part of the Storr

So to get to the chase, here is a new portfolio from Skye.

There are often spells of what seem like ‘inactivity’ to others, but for me, it’s actually the opposite – if you’re seeing me on the blog a lot, it’s because I’m not out shooting! And if you don’t hear from me on my blog for a while – it’s because, well, you know – I’m out there practicing what we all love to do when we get some time.

I was up in Skye about a week ago for 3 or 4 days. I’d booked another trusty camper van for the trip, and almost didn’t go. So bad were the weather warnings and advice not to leave home unless it is absolutely necessary. So I went!

The weather was pretty mild, but the landscape was still arctic. For those of you know know Skye well, the river at Sligachan had around seven inches of ice on it. I wasn’t quite sure sometimes if I was standing on the ice or firm ground while roaming with my camera.

Skye Workshop

So you won’t be surprised that I’m now offering a workshop to Skye for this December (3-8). This trip is strictly limited to 4 people as I thought it would be nice to do a much more intimate group size. The hotel we will be staying at is not far away from the Storr, and caters for 5 people max.

As I type, it looks like there is now currently only 1 space left on this trip, so if you’re interested in coming, email me for more details.

I’ve just begun to process my images from my trip to Skye last week.

It’s strange to be back in Edinburgh, with the weather being very damp, grey and cold, instead of clear blue skies, crisp dry conditions and lots of snow.

The Storr, Skye

Ok, so this is (part of) the famous Storr situated at the far northern tip of Skye. I had to use crampons and four season walking boots to get up here because the snow was so deep and icy in places too. This shot was taken in the evening. The sun in the winter is practically south, so as it turns out, being here in the morning or evening has pretty much the same effect – shooting into the sun. I got here a little bit late in the morning (trudging through snow waist deep in places, it robbed me of my time), so I didn’t really have much of a chance to survey the landscape and make some good decisions. So I resolved to come back in the evening to shoot, now that I knew how difficult the terrain was to get around, and had already picked out a few spots for the evening shoot.

I’ve only processed a handful of images at the moment, but some of the films show some pretty crazy colours, courtesy of a polarizer used in a landscape where the ground is white and the sky is dark…. when you see the images I’m sure you’re going to think I did something very strange to them.

Hope you enjoy this photo of the Storr.

I’ve just been spending the last week on the isle of Skye, again in a trusty camper van.

Cuilins from the bay of Elgol (Jan 2004)

There is something quite liberating about a camper van. It means you can stop anywhere and be there for sunrise, or sunset, and if the weather isn’t working in your favour, then you can always pop on the kettle and have a nice cup of tea (I’m British, that’s what us British people do – we love boiled water in copious quantities).

Having said all that, I find spending a week or so, anywhere, on my own – a bit too much. So this time I brought a pile of Audio books. Some were great (thanks Bill Bryson for your humour and company).

So what was Skye like this January?

Well, I parked below the magnificent Storr landscape and trekked up there early one morning. I did however have to use crampons and four season walking boots to get there. Icy, perhaps three feet of snow in places, it was hard going, but well worth getting there.

The only issue I have with Skye is that it’s simply too big an island. I did around 700 miles all in, and I’m knackered. Happy, but knackered. I’ve shot in some of the most bizarre winter conditions we’ve had here in the Uk for over 30 years… and I’m curious to see how the pictures turn out.

The trip started in Glencoe a week ago, and it was -15 there in the morning…. I was out taking pictures in snow drifts for about one hour, perfectly happy, but when I returned to the car, I met another photographer and we got chatting. Well, he got chatting, I got mumbling…. my face was so numb, I’d lost any coordination of it – it was just like I’d been to the dentist!

I’m looking forward to a bath when I get home, and then I’ll work on my images from Skye.

In the last week of December 2009, I spent most of it in a camper van in the far north west of Scotland – specifically, the area known as Assynt.

Suilven, Assynt, Sutherland

I love this area very much, and since I’m keen to do an Assynt workshop (October 22-27), I felt that I needed to gather together some good images of the landscape. So without further delay, you’re very welcome to view my new Assynt portfolio.

As you can probably gather by the dates specified above, I’ve also set up a corresponding workshop for Assynt which you can find out more about here.

This landscape is in the far north west of Scotland, about 1 hours drive from Inverness. But what I love about it, is that it’s not on the tourist trail as much as some other locations in Scotland. Unjustified as it is, I think it’s predominantly because it’s a little bit more out of the way.

Hi all,

Isle of Arran – August 23 to 28th, 2010

Just a quick note to let you all know that I’ve finalised the date and price for a forth coming workshop to the Isle of Arran.

Pirate Bay, Arran

Arran is a fairly large island with some interesting geological features, particularly on the coast, some nice waterfalls and plenty of standing stones too. They call it ‘Scotland in minature’. It’s a subtle island, not as craggy or as dramatic as Skye for instance, but it has its own charm, and it is certainly one of those places that you have to spend time discovering its subtle landscape – as I did this year.

This is #30, in my series ‘the making of 40 photographs.

As we go along as landscape photographers, I feel we settle into a way of shooting. In my own case, I have a tendency to restrict myself to shooting in soft light only, but as time has gone on, I’m finding that there is a much more interesting world out there to be found in overcast, dull, rainy days, and of course – foggy days too.

We really have to ‘think outside the box’ as photographers if we want to move on with our imagery, and we have to remove any walls that we have put up over time. This is one of the biggest things I see in students on my workshops: preconceived ideas of what they want to shoot, and a real dislocation when they arrive at a spot and ‘can’t find anything worth shooting’. They have placed a limitation on their own creativity. We must learn to use what is presented to us, rather than force our own will upon our surroundings – it’s very easy to turn up at a special place like the Taj Mahal with a mind already filled with a fixed idea of what we want to capture. That certainly happened to me when I came here in January 2009. It’s hard not to with such an iconic structure. 

I’m big on visualization, building up a mental picture of how I see the ‘final print’ is an important step, but it can be dangerous to come along to some place I know well from seeing it in many books, and ‘limit’ or close my mind to other opportunities.

When I arrived in Agra on the first morning here, I was initially frustrated at the thick heavy smog. I initially thought it would be useless to try and photograph the Taj Mahal in such low visibility, but once I’d accepted my surroundings, I seemed to get along with the environment and before I knew it, I had made quite a few images of the place which I now see as a very different approach to the Taj Mahal, and I’ve certainly had a lot of correspondence from visitors to my site who share my feelings too.

So here are two pictures taken at the Taj Mahal while the entire complex was shrouded in smog. The first is of the building with a glimpse of a tourist in the middle of the shot.

It’s one of my favourite images of the place now. Walking around with my Mamiya 7, I shot the camera wide open with +1 exposure compensation to compensate for the smog.

The second image was taken in the gardens. I love repeating patterns in images and I felt that the trees were an ‘echo’ falling into the distance. Fog is a great device for isolating subjects, and the extremely soft, diffused, directionless light that it provides can be used to great effect.

Although my initial reactions where those of disappointment at not getting the usual ‘Taj Mahal at sunrise’ shot, I feel that I did eventually ‘get it’ and started to go with the flow – I went with what was presented to me and made the most of it. I now feel extremely proud of these images, as I’m sure it would have been only too easy to put the camera away and think there was nothing there to capture. I could have been so wrong.

I’m just back from Assynt – a special area of the highlands of Scotland that I’ve been drawn to for the past 9 years.

But it’s a tough place. I’ve been here countless times over the past 9 years, only to go home feeling I didn’t ‘get’ the landscape. It didn’t give me the images I know are there.

An early image from Inverpolly, Assynt

Perhaps some landscapes will always be elusive, but after two days of being stuck in-doors due to heavy snow which prevented me getting back to Assynt, I got back out there today for three hours. And it was a great three hours – for me anyway. For the first time I had perfect light, snow capped mountains and I also had to work a bit too – trekking into an area that isn’t on any trail map to get the shots I wanted.

But I know that Assynt still has so much more to offer, and I really haven’t managed to ‘get’ it just yet.

Part of this is, I’m sure, never being satisfied that you’ve got all the images you want (we all do this, don’t we?), but I also think that Assynt doesn’t give itself freely. Perhaps I have to earn it.