The Art of Adventure Photography

Assynt : Podcast

Bruce Percy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:16:46 +0000

Assynt is a special place, situated in the far north west of Scotland. It’s not so well known as places like Glencoe, but I think that’s more to do with Glencoe’s accessibility. While Glencoe has a major trunk road going right through it, Assynt is tucked away from most people and certainly, the photographic press don’t cover it much, if at all. Which is a blessing as well as a burden. A blessing because it’s not overrun with photographers and a burden, because it takes more effort to convince people to come here!

Please click on the image to play the podcast

This podcast deals with the subject of isolation. Perhaps the biggest thing that bothers me while I’m away making images.

I sometimes find myself feeling too much on my own and in this podcast, I try to ask some questions: is it a wild landscape that makes us feel isolated, or does the landscape more or less amplify our own feelings and reflect them back to us?

I’ve been pumping out the podcasts lately. I’m sorry for the sporadic publication of these. It takes quite some time to put them together…. but they are a labour of love on my part. I often find I can get round to doing them when I feel inspired to do so. With any ‘art’, it can’t be rushed, and conversely, you have to strike when the iron is hot (take action when you’re feeling creative). I’ve been feeling creative this past few weeks.

India’s People Podcast

Bruce Percy — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:22:42 +0000

India was captivating in many ways. In this podcast, I try to convey how overpowering India’s culture is and how it affected my approach to portraiture photography.

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Now that I’ve had some time to reflect on my trip to India and to re-charge my batteries, I’d love to go back. I think we need something to challenge us, to surprise us from time to time and in that respect, India succeeds hands down.

I’m really quite surprised to discover that it’s taken me just over a year to get round to putting this little podcast together. I think there was a lot going on for me last year and a lot of travel. It was so satisfying going back to the audio recordings I made whilst in India and listening to them with fresh ears. It took me right back. I’m hoping to record more ambient sound for future podcasts….. it’s a much more enriching experience to have sound as well as photos. Perhaps even video at some point, but I feel that involves quite a bit of a leap in technique. For the time being, I’m just going to stick with iMovie for my basic slideshows and an Audio recorder (Sony PCM-D50 which is great by the way) and of course, my photography for the substance to my podcasts.

Podcast : Harris & Lewis

Bruce Percy — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:26:35 +0000

Now available under the podcast section of my web site, I’ve a new podcast about Harris & Lewis. Confusingly, Harris and Lewis are the same island. The south part is called Harris while the north part is called Lewis.

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I’ve been twice now – first in May 2009 and then back in November 2009. It’s an hypnotic place and the light last November was stunning. Dramatic, changeable and moody. I hope to get back to putting some new podcasts together. I’d like to discuss Assynt and Skye too, perhaps talking about the efforts that I go into making a trip and staying out there for a concentrated time. Until then, I hope you enjoy this little podcast!

Nepal, Photographic Karma

Bruce Percy — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:05:42 +0000

Nepal allowed me time to consider the impact of my approaches to photography – perhaps best described as my photographic-karma!

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This podcast covers my trip to the Kathmandu valley in Nepal earlier this year. I recorded a lot of audio source material while I was there.

Hope you enjoy it.

Podcast : India’s Taj Mahal

Bruce Percy — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:29:59 +0000

I’ve not even begun to work on my Indian images yet. But along while back, sometime in February when I got home, I started to collate all the usable images from my visits to the Taj Mahal.

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It’s quite an incredible landmark and it didn’t disappoint me. Photographically however, I was restricted : they won’t let you in with a tripod or any recording devices. Still, I did manage to smuggle an audio recorder past the entrance gates. So in this podcast, you can hear ambience from the surrounding gardens. It’s hard for me to explain, but it was just so calming to be there, despite the fact that I was there with 1000 other people at 6am in terrible smog.

My throat and lungs ached after spending a couple of hours there. So bad was the pollution.

However, the Taj Mahal is simply one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. It did not disappoint.

I went perhaps three or four times, and the last time was enough for me. Going in the evening is the worst because everyone, and I mean everyone, is there. It was like Disney Land. Terrible. It’s also a shame that the gardeners are onto touting the tourists too. After spending weeks being harassed by threatening touts, I thought I was going to get some peace in the gardens. So I was pretty frustrated when I had to tell the gardeners to leave me alone in peace.

I think the Taj Mahal has to be enjoyed in silence, with time to reflect, it’s a beautiful special place, more so because it is a reprieve from the madness of India.

Bolivian Altiplano Podcast

Bruce Percy — Fri, 22 May 2009 23:05:31 +0000

I had no idea I was going to be so taken with this landscape.
The Bolivian Altiplano brings together a vast expanse of varied geological features under unusual climatic conditions.

For one thing, the altitude of the Altiplano averages around 4000 meters or 12,000 feet. The air is thin here and for no reason I can fathom, this seemed to guarantee stunning light each sunrise and sunset.

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Because of this, I felt that I pushed my tour guide and driver to their limits as we navigated the vast Salar de Uyuni landscape before sunrise and long after dusk. With scarcely defined roads, more a slight suggestion, a faint scar on the desert like landscape, it was hard for me to watch as my driver sped through the darkness with no visible signposts as to where we were, or where we were going.

And we sped on, often to some intangible destination that my driver knew about.

But I was suffering hard. A mixture of slight Altitude symptoms and running around too much, too soon after my ascent onto the altiplano had left me with a thumping headache and slight dizziness – symptoms of mountain sickness.

I felt overawed by the experience. Coupled with my suffering, everything regarding landscape photography seemed inverted. The ground was often brighter than the sky and the sunsets proved to be more impressive than the wondrous sunrises. I was never really just sure how to meter the landscapes for the film I was using.

This is not what I’ve come to expect from most of the landscapes I’ve photographed over the years.

Being so high up, I´d expected to feel cold, yet strangely I didn’t – even though I got caught out. Like a mouth that has gone numb and un-cooperative after a visit to the dentist, so I found my hands unable to operate my camera after being outside for more than half an hour in the dawn light.

As for my most lasting impression, well I must say that I tried one day to walk on the vast salt plain for as long as I could with my eyes completely closed. It didn’t take long for my mind to concoct imaginary obstacles in my path and I had to fight my instincts, which kept screaming at me to open my eyes. When I did, I was greeted with the unchanged, vast emptiness of the Salar and a feeling that I had been tricked. By my own mind of course.

Perhaps this was the Bolivian Altiplanos parting gift to me – a lesson that most limitations in my life come from within rather than from without.

Easter Island

Bruce Percy — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:12:53 +0000

I lost all sense of context whilst on Easter Island.

In this podcast, I explain how easy it is to lose your point of reference in a new land. In this case, I found that after a few days on Easter Island, I felt like I’d always been there. Home felt like it had never existed.

I sometimes find I lose all sense of context when I’m somewhere remote, making photographs.

I’m just not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

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Patagonian Ice Field

Bruce Percy — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:01:18 +0000

Going to extreme lengths to get a shot of Cerro Torre, I ventured onto the southern Patagonian ice field.

In this podcast, I explain why sometimes, I go too far in the pursuit of an image.

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Lost in Norway

Bruce Percy — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:34:32 +0000

Depriving myself of sleep, I spent most evenings ‘lost in the moment’ above the arctic circle in Norway’s Lofoten Islands.

In this podcast, I explain why it’s possible to go slightly mad in the pursuit of photography.

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Industrial Landscapes shot at Night

Bruce Percy — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:37:39 +0000

Torness nuclear power station shot during the nocturnal hours.

Have you ever stepped outside your photography-comfort zone? I did just that when I took an interest in a nuclear power station situated on a reclaimed peninsula here in Scotland. It was my first proper foray into the realm of night photography.

In this podcast, I describe my mixed feelings about such a place being on the door step to the John Muir way.

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