Once upon a time, I lived and breathed writing music and, I always felt that if I were forced to define myself, I’d have said I was a musician.

Please click on the image to play the podcast

Things change, and over the past decade, I’ve had to accept that a life in music is not for me. It seems that Photography was always there, sitting in the side lines, waiting for me to sit up and listen. So these days, I now fully accept that photography chose me, and not me it.

But I’m still deeply passionate about music, and I listen to it all the time, whether it’s with my Sennheizer HD-25 DJ headphones, or through some of my home hi-fi. Music is the background to my life. So I’ve been thinking for a while, that i’d love to do a project that could incorporate my first love in a more prominent way.

As some of you know, I have a podcast available on iTunes, and this has been a great outlet for me to use my musical abilities, to set a backdrop for my own music. It’s been a lot of fun to do.

But i’ve been thinking of something a little grander in scale. I would, for instance, love to pay music back. Whereas music has been the backdrop to my life, then would it be so strange to think of putting together an event where my images of Scotland become the backdrop to some of the music that I love?

It’s very early days…. and I may be speaking out of turn here. But for the past few months I’ve been thinking of putting on a show where I invite some of the most contemporary Scots musicians to play their music with my own photography as a backdrop. I’d seriously love to do it, and I’ve begun talks with a particular outfit that I’m very keen on. It may not happen, but I’ve discovered over the past few years that an idea can become something real. My book, for instance, was once just an abstract thought. A dream. But with a bit of focus and attention, dreams can become real.

I just mention this all to you, because, despite the reality that if anything comes of this, it will take a year or two at the very least to get funding and organise it properly, the main message is that you should follow what inspires you. For me, inspiration for my creativity (I make no distinction towards photography, as I feel that as a creative person, the medium can change over time), can come from anywhere. I deeply love music, and there are some very contemporary musicians in the Scottish Folk scene that I’m particularly drawn to. They summarise for me, the moods and the feelings I have for my own back yard.

Maybe it’s time to put those feelings to good use.

This post was written on the last day of my last workshop this year. I never got round to finishing it, but since I’ve just scanned the image below, I feel it’s fitting to include the posting, post event, post posting if you like.

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Today is the last day of my last workshop of 2010, and I can’t help but feel rather reflective about this year and just how it’s gone.

It’s been a bit of an amazing year for me. I’ve done quite a lot of workshops, I’ve met a load of really nice people on my trips and I feel I’ve expanded my life in a direction that I never really thought I’d go.

One thing that has been incredibly inspiring is just how positive a lot of the participants can be. They want to get out there, to experience the landscape and will do anything in their power to get to a workshop – even if the weather here in the UK is trying its very hardest to make sure the trip doesn’t go ahead. I’ve also had a lot of encouragement from participants who believe in what I do, and for that, I can only thank them.

So I end today’s last workshop with an image from Elgol. I spent a bit of time with Simon trying to express how using a rock in the foreground of a wide-angle shot will not work by using any old rock. What we use or choose to put into our frame should be elegant, have some form of symmetry to it, or as Simon says, it should be a ‘pretty rock’. I think it just has to be ’special’. So we spent a bit of time with what I felt was a ’special’ rock and I used it to compose the shot you see above of the Cuilins of Skye – only the second time in my life that I’ve seen them with snow on them.

I’m on the isle of Skye right now, half way through a workshop and we’re having some terrific weather. Which is in some ways, surprising to most people here in the UK because England is mostly buried under some of the worst snow and blizzard conditions we’ve had for a long time, and Scotland, particularly the east coast, is inundated with terrible weather too.

But Skye and the north west, has got off lightly and things here are really great. We’ve had some beautiful mornings, and we even ventured up to the Storr yesterday evening for sunset. The main image is by Simon on the workshop. We’ve had some long distances to cover as Skye is a *big* island, but we’ve managed to get to Elgol and a few other nice locations on time for sunrise each morning.

I think it’s interesting that winter often gives the best light here in Scotland, but for some reason, we seem incapable of dealing with any thickness of snow that comes our way. It’s surprising really as Switzerland, Germany, etc, treat this kind of weather as the usual and everything continues as usual.

I’d like to finish this posting by saying how much of a terrific year I’ve had running the workshops. It’s fitting to find that Outdoor Photography magazine here in the UK have chosen one of my Skye images to adorn the cover of their Christmas edition, while I finish off the year with my last workshop on Skye too. I feel this is a nice way to have closure on the year and it makes me feel encouraged about the year ahead.

I was up in the Shetlands a few weeks ago. Jon, one of my participants from a workshop last year kindly showed me around for a few days and then left me with his car. Which was very kind of him.

While driving past the Drongs on several trips, I found them just too far away to make a picture of, but in my mind’s eye, I visualised the image you see here. This all came about because I parked Jon’s car  and hiked in to the tip of a peninsula. Being high up, I was able to get this shot – it’s a 6×7 image, shot in portrait mode and the top part of the sky cropped. I shot it with my most powerful telephoto for my Mamiya 7II – a 150mm lens, which equates to 75mm for full frame 35mm shooters.

I’d like to get the 210 lens for the Mamiya again, but feel it would make the entire outfit I own much more of a drag to carry around. I had to return to using a tiny LowePro bag with just the Mamiya and three lenses in it because the airplane flight was very restrictive in what I could take. It’s been a revelation going back to such a small bag and very little to carry.

There’s some amazing scenery on the Shetlands and Jon has been suggesting I come back in winter time, which I’d love to do as I find winter light my favourite kind of light, but this shot’s got some special light too – I think it was made around 9pm.

Last year I spent a week on the isle of Harris. I didn’t quite make it to Barra, Eriskay, Berneray or the Uists. So this May, I will be heading out there for a few weeks to photograph the islands I missed out on last year.

I’ve travelled a lot. I’ve been to many countries and many exotic landscapes around the world. It’s been an incredible journey. If anything, what I’ve learned is a deeper appreciation for my own country. Scotland is incredible.

I feel that my own photographic projects for the next year at least, are going to be Scotland centric. I know that this trip to the Hebrides is only one of many to come over the next few years. There’s simply so much to my own country and I can’t wait to get out there.

If you want to join me, I’m conducting a photographic workshop on Harris at the end of May. More details here.

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

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.

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.

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.

I’ve just uploaded a new portfolio of images from the Isle of Arran.

Perhaps my most simplest of compositions yet. I do feel that conducting the workshops, has led me to understand a bit better ‘why’ I make images the way I do. I think this is good and bad. Good from the point of view that I can improve upon my compositions a bit better, but it’s perhaps a bit bad in that being consciously aware of why I make decisions in the field could perhaps lead to being contrived. I hope not.