Progress? Or just different?

After 13 years of running workshops to some locations I know so well, there is the tiny issue of running into the same compositions I have encountered in the past. Should I take them? Will they show some insight perhaps in terms of progress? Or am I just falling into a pattern where I am stuck on repeat?

I think these thoughts, as negative as they might appear, are perfectly normal thoughts to have about one’s work, if we continue to go to the same places over many years.

I know this particular set of Gneiss rocks well, and I’ve tried on several occasions to utilise it in my compositions. I would estimate that out of maybe a dozen attempts, I have only managed twice to use it, and be satisfied with the results. The most recent attempt was last November (image above) and the back in 2014 (image below).

I think stylistically I’ve changed. I am not the same person I was back in 2014, and although I am still very pleased with the older image, I think the newer one just shows that I’ve changed, and that is all it shows.

To compare oneself with your past is folly. You are just who you are now. So rating your current existence on this planet seems a bit pointless. But that doesn’t mean any comparison between old and new work is irrelevant. If you’re objective enough, and can handle the effort of doing it, it can maybe shed some light on what you are doing now that you didn’t do a while ago, and conversely, what you used to do, and don’t do now.

Seems I liked darker images a long while ago. But this is something I have been aware of for a while because I consistently do these comparisons on my work. I like to ‘check-in’ on myself to see where I am, and where I’ve been.

I try not to judge my older work. I just try to look at it from the perspective of ‘it is what it is, and was a statement about where I was back then’. But I have certainly had times to wish that I could go back. I think it is inevitable to see things in your older work that you don’t so so much now, but wish you still did. I’ve been aware for the past few years that my work got lighter and lighter, and in a way, I noticed there was a pendulum swing happening. I was feeling like I needed to go back and start visiting the darker tones in my work.

But wishing to do one thing, and actually doing it isn’t easy. I feel that as I start to re-introduce darker tones in my work, it’s coming from someone who has been to the other side of the luminance scale and he’s learned much that he can’t forget. The newer work feels more polished, but I’m not so sure that it has as much atmosphere as the original work. It was after all shot on a different kind of day, one with less drama, but the edit is more ‘tight’ in terms of object placement and tonal separation.

We can never go back, and I think we should just enjoy the reminisce. What you did, and what you were into, and who you were, aren’t exactly the same as who you are now. It is a reminder that all things are transient. And our photographic style / ability / skill is no exception to this.

The only thing that is permanent is change.

Assynt February 2022 Workshop

I’ve just set up a second workshop for Assynt (north west region of the Scottish Highlands) for February 2022.

This is one of my own personal favourite locations in Scotland, and February can often be one of the coldest months in Scotland. So there’s a good chance of finding snow on the mountains around this region, as well as interesting winter light.

Assynt & Inverpolly, Scottish Highlands
£1,895.00

Price: £TBA
Initial deposit: £TBA
2nd Deposit of £TBA due six months before tour start date

5-Day Photographic Workshop

Date: February 10 - 15, 2025

Introduction

In the far north west lies some of the most distinctive mountains of Scotland. Stac Pollaidh, Suilven, Canisp and Cul Mor dominate the landscape, yet there is an abundance of wide open space. This is real highland countryside with some dramatic coastal scenery to boot.

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Isle of Eigg Workshops for 2021

Isle of Eigg, Scottish Highlands
from £598.00

2024, March 25-30, Price: £1,895
2024, September 2-7, Price: £1,895
Initial deposit: £598
2nd Deposit of £598 due six months before workshop start date

5-Day Photographic Workshop

Introduction

The small island of Eigg contains perhaps one of the most dramatic and photogenic beaches in Scotland: the Bay of Laig & the Singing Sands. With abundant geological features on each beach and the isle of Rum as a perfect backdrop, this location is a dream for any landscape photographer.

We spend all our time on two beaches, which are in easy walking distance from our accommodation. This trip is suitable for anyone with regular fitness. If you have mobility issues please get in touch to discuss.

Date:
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I’ve just listed two more Scottish workshops for 2021 on my workshop page. I will be going back to Eigg (it’s a favourite place of mine that I have been running a workshop on for the past decade). The island is small, we spend all of our time on mostly one beach (which is highly photogenic).

We have private rooms, in small cottages but some of the bathrooms are shared. Eigg is a small island of around 85 people, eight miles long. So there are no hotels, nothing to spend your money on, and as such, it gives a unique Scottish highland experience.

To enjoy this trip, you should be fit enough to walk for 30 minutes over uneven and boggy ground with your camera bag and tripod. The beaches are rocky in places. To get the most out of this trip I would suggest you need to be comfortable being on rocky beaches (some previous clients have not been). We spend our entire time on just two beaches, both highly photogenic.

Re-interpretation

Before I begin my article today, I’d like to make a few points very clear:

  1. There is always a trade-off. When you gain something, you lose something.

  2. Sometimes we like something because we’re attached to how it is.

  3. The two images below, I don’t view one as better or worse. And hopefully you should get beyond this point also. ‘Like’ is a personal preference. It has nothing to do with the validity of an image.

I have just recently chosen to go back to some of my favourite landscapes in Scotland in 2021. Partly it is because I would like a change: It has been many years since I photographed my own home country, and I feel that there has been a big change in my style of photography over the past few years. I’m curious to see how I will approach / react / and photograph, since I am aware that I am looking for different things now.

This is the original image, shot circa 2009, in the Assynt region of Scotland. It is not of Stac Pollaidh, as many people assume.

This is a re-interpretation. I did it, just to see where I may end up based on my current tastes / aesthetics, etc. I realise I’ve learned so much in the past 10 years, so I was curious to see how I may re-interpret the same image.

Well I’m sure you’ve already studied the two images above : both from the same film-scan and reached your own view of which you like more than the other. This article today is not about this. I am not going to say ‘this image is better or worse because of…..’. Instead, I just wish to discuss some other aspects.

Point 1. Familiarisation makes it hard to see it any other way

I personally love the original image, but I’m really not sure how much of this has to do with familiarisation. We become set / stuck in our ways the more we live with how things have been. And this is just as applicable to our older work. Attempting the re-interpretation image has forced me to think about whether I’m attached to the original image because it’s good, or just because I’m overly familiar with it now.

Point 2. How radically different an image can be through editing

Editing / post-processing (I abhor this term personally), is a highly creative place to live. I have never believed that the work is to ‘get it right in camera’. And I’ve always enjoyed the editing / interpretive side of my photography. It’s interesting to know that an image can be edited in many different ways. Editing is an art, it is a skill. It is a life-long endeavour in learning to see what was in the image and bring out the main motifs. Editing isn’t done by learning Lightroom in a few weeks and that’s it. It can really take you places if you don’t mind departing from what was there at the time of the capture.

Point 3. How much I have changed

I don’t know if I have it in me many more to do deeply saturated colour work. I’m wondering if I may return to it in some years to come, but I’m certainly aware that the original image from 2009 isn’t something that I would do any more. There is always a trade off in your own development. I see things in the original image that I love, but I couldn’t do that now if I tried, because it’s not where my aesthetic leanings are. I’ve lost some aspects to my image making, but I’ve gained also. As I said, there is always a trade-off.

Which leads to my last point:

Point 4. The original capture was made by a different me. Edited by a new me. Perhaps this doesn’t work?

Yep, the guy who made the original shot was the ‘Bruce-Percy-2009’ edition ;-) We shed skin, we move on. I’m not too sure it’s a good thing to return to older work that was created by a different you. Because there is in some way a disconnect. I think I would shoot this scene differently now and I think it would be done differently with an aim to edit it a particular way. These days my editing and composition skills are intertwined. Where I once just went out to make images and then see what I could do with them later on. I think that when I compose shots in the field now, I already know what I’m going to do with them when I edit them.

I think if one wishes to return to older work to re-edit it. There has to be a reason. For example, if you ‘see’ something in the work that you can bring out, or enhance then I think it’s valid to return to it. But if you are trying to ‘update the work to match where you are now’, I’m not convinced it will work.

This is what I tried to do with this image. I attempted to edit it to ‘see what I would do with it now, based on who I am now’. And I’m not sure it’s a success. My reasons are, there are too many distractions in the foliage that I probably wouldn’t have shot it this way. So I’m trying to start on an image that isn’t at the right starting point for where I am now.

Conclusion

It’s fun to go back and revisit older work. You can really learn a lot about yourself in the process:

  • How far have you come?

  • Would you shoot the work this way now?

  • What distractions in the work do you see now that you didn’t see at the time of the original creation?

  • Do I want to return to the same places now, that I feel I am looking at things differently?

For me, the last point is the salient one. I am very curious to find out how I will approach photographing in Scotland now that my style has evolved. Will I find some common ground? Will I see new things?

Landscapes can teach us so much about our photography and about ourselves. Find the right landscape in your own development and it can move you forward in ways that other landscape won’t. Returning to a well known place many years later can be very interesting because you will most likely be looking for different things and you’ll therefore see it in a fresh and new way.

I’m aware that my work is always in a state of change. Nothing is ever finished. There should be no rules. Do as you please, return to older work if it’s what you feel you need to do. Re-interpretation can teach us so much. I just don’t think it will always yield better / improved results, but you’ll certainly grow from the experience.

Assynt, Scottish Highlands Workshop, February 2021

Assynt & Inverpolly, Scottish Highlands
£1,895.00

Price: £TBA
Initial deposit: £TBA
2nd Deposit of £TBA due six months before tour start date

5-Day Photographic Workshop

Date: February 10 - 15, 2025

Introduction

In the far north west lies some of the most distinctive mountains of Scotland. Stac Pollaidh, Suilven, Canisp and Cul Mor dominate the landscape, yet there is an abundance of wide open space. This is real highland countryside with some dramatic coastal scenery to boot.

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I thought that it would be nice to spend a bit more time in Scotland during 2021, for some of my trips.

I’m pleased to let you all know that I will be going back to Assynt / Inverpolly region of the Scottish Highlands in February 2021.

This region of Scotland has some of the most distinctive mountains, and lochs.

We should have a lot of nice light in February and maybe many cold-snaps / frost.

It’s been a while since I’ve been here, and I’m really looking forward to it. Especially in February as it is often one of the more ‘frosty’ months in Scotland.

Just click on the image to go to the respective page, if you’d like to learn more.

Moving between fixed and fluid creative states

I made this photo of Stac Pollaidh (pronounced Stack Polly) last October during an exceptionally windy day. I've known of this location at the end of the loch for some time, having first spotted it many years ago on a week long workshop with a group. I was drawn to the criss-crossed lines in the foreground rock, and knew that if I could be here when the conditions were right, then I might get what I envisaged in my mind's eye.

I've stuck with the same film type for years now because I love it, and because I know it well. You could say this is part of my structured approach to creativity.

I've stuck with the same film type for years now because I love it, and because I know it well. You could say this is part of my structured approach to creativity.

I've found over the years of repeatedly going back to places, I learn how the landscape works. I begin to understand where the light is coming from and where to be at sunrise and sunset, but I also get to know some of the more intimate details of the locations I visit - the criss-crossed features of the foreground rocks in the above picture is a perfect example of that.

Continuing from my previous post, I think it's important to keep things fluid. I love to go for a wander and to find things by chance, or to encounter something where there was no pre-visualisation involved. It's very freeing to work with what you're given. But there is also value in researching places and building up knowledge of locations too. I like both approaches and tend to move between fluid and fixed states all the time.

I think my personality has dual sides: in some ways I prefer to be structured while in others I prefer to be fluid. For example, i'm very structured with my technical process. I've used the same film stock for many years now, and I never deviate from it. I am also very wary of changing even the smallest of things in my workflow, because I believe it could have far reaching consequences that I'm unable to comprehend until much later. But I also like to be very fluid - I prefer not to pre-visualise a scene, often going for what feels right at the time. This is not just in what I choose to shoot while on location, but also in how I edit the work. I like to keep an open mind in this regard as I may find later when I come to review the photographs that I see something different or new in them. 

So I think to be creative, we need to be able to move between these two states of being fluid and fixed. Being fluid allows us to find new things and find inspiration, while being fixed allows us to shape them - to give our ideas structure and to see them through to completion.

The skill however, is in knowing which state to be in, and when :-)

I like to try out my shots in black and white sometimes. They may be better in monochrome, but even if they aren't, I maybe notice new things about the image when viewed with the colour removed. It allows me to free up what I'm doing and I think thi…

I like to try out my shots in black and white sometimes. They may be better in monochrome, but even if they aren't, I maybe notice new things about the image when viewed with the colour removed. It allows me to free up what I'm doing and I think this is perhaps a fluid aspect to my creativity.

Subliminal Inspiration

When I turned 12 years old, I found music for the first time in my life. Up until that moment, I had been an arty kid who spent a lot of his time drawing and painting. The arts I guess had always featured largely in my future.

OMD-Organisation

One of the bands that I got into at the age of 12, was OMD. Initially attracted by the pop singles they produced, I found this album to be completely opposite to what I had imagined. It was dark, atmospheric, inspired by the sounds of Joy Division more than pop. I loved it as soon as I heard it and it opened up my mind to the possibilities of atmosphere in music. This is not the OMD of chart success that we all know, it is a brooding album and I think it's perhaps their best. If you like dark brooding electronica, then try 'Statues' on this album.

Anyway, the album was released in 1980. I've grown up with it and I've never tired of it. Sure sometimes there has been many years between listens, but I still come back to it from time to time to get re-acquainted with the teenage me.

Tonight I'm listening to it and I'm looking at the cover, and I can't help wondering if that cover has been more influential for me than I had ever considered before. The photograph, I had assumed, was of Glencoe for a long time. It encapsulates everything that is moody and dark about Scotland.

Since I got into photography, I've always been attracted to mood and atmosphere. I think I'm a product of the environment I've grown up in. With parents from the north east of Scotland (Sutherland) I've spent most of my free time up there on holidays and I think the landscape has always rubbed off on me, even if I didn't really know it at the time.

Looking at this album cover (which is not of Glencoe, but somewhere else that I know really well - can you guess where?), It strikes me that my love for atmosphere in music seeped through into my photography. The stage was set when I was a teenager so it seems.

Popular culture influences us in many ways. I'm sure the photograph on the cover of OMD's Organisation album has played a much bigger part in my development as a creative person, than I can ever know. Maybe there is a similar album cover in your collection which has had a similar impression on you?

Half concealed, half revealed

I love it when inclement weather hides part of the landscape. Rain clouds came in today and hid most of the isle of Rum (the land mass you can see on the horizon) from view. For most of the morning it wasn't visible to us, and just as we were getting ready to depart for lunch, it decided to start showing itself to us.Tràigh a' Bhìgeil

 

This is a digital file from the little Lumix GX1 camera with the 12-35 panasonic zoom lens. As I explained a while ago, I got this system for my workshops, so I could help explain compositional ideas to participants. As you may also know, I am really a film shooter and everything on this site has been captured with film.

It's nice to have such a little camera with me to illustrate and work on sketches. The thing is though, this kind of image is not one to go back to repeat (ideally, I would go back with my film camera to get this shot). The inclement weather provided a unique opportunity. As too, did the tides. My group spent a bit of time last night discussing how a landscape changes over a week. At the start of the week we had high tides, so many of the features of the landscape were hidden from us. I personally feel this is a good thing, as most beaches can be too busy with too many rocks competing for your attention. Towards the end of the week, the tide is lower and we are now finding other areas of the beach that we did not see on day one.

With this particular image, we ventured here at high tide. There is a lot of redundant rocks and kelp hidden under the water, which allowed this 'curve' to stand out. Normally, it wouldn't present itself as a possible composition option because of the 'noise' around it. But also, I feel this image wouldn't have presented itself because of the rain shower that managed to completely hide Rum on the horizon, and for a brief moment, revealed it to me.

Isle of Eigg, Lummix GX1 Style

This week i'm on the isle of Eigg with a group. We were out this morning shooting on Laig bay.Eigg-September-2013

 

I've got my little Lummix GX1 system with 12-35 Panasonic lens and Lee Seven5 filter system with me, mainly for illustrative purposes. I made this little shot just before we headed back to the guesthouse for breakfast. I deliberately used a 3 stop hard grad on the top 1/4 area of the frame (to intentionally get a lot of burn-in into the image, and I composed it square at the time too (the Lummix is one of very few cameras that allows you to change aspect ratio - something I feel ALL cameras should offer as a matter of course). Aspect ratios are vitally important to how we see, compose and how we find images in the landscape, in the first place.

Anyway, I really wish I knew how to make the colours in digital 'sing' like my Velvia images do, but I've never been able to achieve it. I personally feel it's just not possible right now with the capture mediums as they are right now. But that's my own personal feeling and I know many will not agree with me. So I decided to opt for a black and white interpretation of the isle of Rum here, with a beach littered with evenly distributed kelp.

A matter of 'flow'

One of the things I love about square aspect-ratio right now, is it's ability to help project the 'graphic' elements within the frame.

I found these dark sand lines - from a river outflow on Lagg bay on the Isle of Eigg during last April's workshop there. I was showing others how they act as a beautiful lead in, so long as we could distill it down to the most elegant sections of the 'fingers' - i.e, not have too much of them in. I felt I wanted to get closer, but as you'll see if you look at the final image in this post - that didn't quite happen when I tried the same shot with the Hasselblad 40 mm lens. So I think this 50mm version works the best.

But this image is really about reading from right to left I feel. Let's now look at an image shot from up on Pescado island, on the Bolivian Altiplano Salar de Uyuni....

My eye walks into the frame from the bottom left and then up to the mid far right. Your eye may walk the scene differently, as I've discovered during my workshops that everyone has a different way of interpreting images.

While we were on Pescado island, I was really drawn to the colour of the sky, and it's so hard to get a nice shot of the cactus, when Jezz, on the trip pointed to what was happening behind us, I could sense that I should use the curve in the foreground to lead up into the frame. It was also a great opportunity to show the cactus on Pescado island too (so that made me very happy).

And returning back to Eigg, I loved the arc in the sky - that red cloud banding across the landscape like a vignette, it helps keep my eye inside the frame. I feel a flow between the cloud and the dark sand bars in the foreground, each guiding my eye back towards the horizon, while the isle of Rum sits nestled in between the space between cloud and sand pattern.

I often see my compositions like that. There has to be a sense of flow to the objects and the tonal relationships as they work together, hopefully to produce a nice image or two.