Call of the wild part 1 - Ockle, Ardnamurchan

One of my favourite books of recent years is Christopher Somerville's “Best Wild Places”. In it he explores 500 of his favourite wild places in the British Isles from the hill tops of Scotland to the flat fenlands of East Anglia. Throughout his journey he discovers the wild in the most unusual places and poses the question what constitutes a “wild place”?

Most of us think of the mountains and moorlands as the ultimate wild places; sections of the landscape that remain untainted by human influence. But I am not sure these places exist any more. Almost every part of the British landscape, wild or not, is influenced in some way or another by human activity; whether that be through managed wildlife reserves, farming, or tourist activity. Yet despite this the wild still exists and nature abounds.

Over the last couple of years I have used Christopher Somerville's book as a guide whenever I have wanted to find somewhere new to visit for my photography. This year I though I would share my experiences, images and personal take on the places that make up “Somerville's best wild places".

I will begin with one of my favourites and a place that I have come to associate with my first ever golden eagle sighting.

Ockle (No. 390 in Somerville's book) lies on the northern shore of Ardnamurchan; the most westerly tip of land on mainland Britain and a remote and beautifully wild part of the country. Travelling across the peninsular from Kilchoan the road forks just before Fascaldale and crosses the Achateny Water. It is here that I caught my first sighting of a golden eagle flying majestically over the trees on the edge of sloping ground. I had been coming to Scotland for years hoping to see an eagle; spent countless hours staring at buzzards wondering if they could possibly be something more interesting. Having finally had a positive sighting I felt stupid to have ever wondered if a buzzard was an eagle – the difference between the two is amazing.

From Achateny water the road twists and turns following the coast. Very soon we pass a charming circular graveyard bounded by a stone wall; the only access a path across a boggy hollow. Foxgloves grow wild by the side of the road and beyond the ground slopes dramatically falling away to the sea. Arriving at a row of cottages overlooking a small stream we parked the car and continue on foot along a stony path between grassy swathes dotted with cotton grass and orchids. The path leads to a sheltered bay edged with a stony beach at the back of which stands a ruined crofters cottage. In front the islands of Eigg, Muck and Rum complete a view to keep me engaged for hours.

Sitting on a lichen strewn boulder by the waters edge I contemplate the tranquilly of this place, wondering what life must have been like for the occupants of the now abandoned croft and marveling at how nature has begun to reclaim the last vestiges of human habitation. Bracken brushes at the crumbling stones and foxgloves point their fingers to the sky from within the roofless walls. Dragonflies dart among the foliage and butterflies quietly sun themselves on the rocks. The wild is everywhere and it is amazingly cathartic.

Although I took plenty of images at Ockle it seemed much more important to just soak up the essence of the place, breathe it in and connect.

Ockle can be found on OS Explorer 390 at grid ref:556704

Cape Wrath and the distruction of our wild places

Scotland is one of my favourite places. For walking, wildlife watching , photography and for for simply recharging the batteries, it is the place I go to reconnect with the natural world. It has some of Britain's wildest places, some of its rarest wildlife and most dramatic scenery, and as such should be a landscape to protect and cherish for future generations.

Whilst reading the Outdoor Photography facebook page last night I was saddened to discover the possible threat to Cape Wrath on the North West Coast. This iconic photographic location attracts visitors from all over the world and has recently been announced as the finish point for the newly formed Scottish National Trail. With its towering sea cliffs, abundance of seabirds, marine wildlife, historic lighthouse buildings, and iconic geographical location it is an area which should be preserved.

However with the land currently owned by the Northern lighthouse board up for sale the future of this area is under threat. The MOD have submitted an application to buy the site but if this fails they are threatening to step in and purchase the land for training purposes, increasing their live fire range and effectively closing the area to public access. The alternative to this is a proposed community buy out which would safeguard access for all and the future of this area. The decision is in the hands of the Scottish Government.

It seems crazy to me that this is happening, why does our government seem intent on destroying all our natural spaces or removing our right to access them. If we fail to let our children experience these places for themselves how can we expect them to care about the future of the countryside. After all you cannot love what you don't know. Access to natural spaces is important for us all; for our well being and and for the future conservation of our environment. We seem to hear on a daily basis the call for more housing, more roads, more wind farms; the ever increasing march of urbanisation. How is this sustainable and what message are we sending out to the younger generation - that natural spaces don't matter, that they are there to be used if we need them?

We need these places to be conserved and protected. We need to access them to learn from them, to admire them and to nurture a love for them in our children so that when we pass them on it will be to a generation that understands and cares.

More information about the sale of Cape Wrath can be found here

If you are interested in protecting our wild spaces please check out the John Muir Trust

Developing a sense of vision part 1

As we progress on our photographic journey we are constantly seeking ways to improve and refine our image making. We are persuaded by manufacturers and the media that we need the latest gear or the in vogue techniques to grow and develop our craft and these things are all valid but for me the more important element to master is learning how to develop "vision".

I meet many people through my photography and I am often asked how I captured various images. People tend to recognise the locations but often comment that their images never look the same. They then follow this up by asking me what camera I use. For the most part the difference in images between one photographer and another has little to do with equipment and much more to do with a sense of vision.

So what is vision and how should we go about mastering it?

I believe vision is the art of portraying more than just the literal image. It is about getting a message across and evoking an emotion, looking at a landscape, knowing what you want to say and communicating that using only the elements in your viewfinder. Without vision an image is just a snap, a record of a particular place and time, but with vision it becomes a much more powerful medium through which we can convey our thoughts and emotions.

Vision is unique to every one of us; a personal expression of how we see the world, how we react to our environment, what we see and our emotional response to it.

My photographic vision has been moulded by my love of the great outdoors. When I stand in front of a landscape I want to photograph I feel inspired. I am often struck by a sense of awe and wonder at natures beauty. For every image I make I try to capture something unique about that particular environment, by selecting and carefully using the elements available to me I try to give the landscape a personality which I hope then conveys my connection to it.

From a practical point of view there are several things to consider which can help us develop our sense of vision, but I will save those for another day. As 2013 stretches in front of us maybe this is the perfect time to consider our what we want to achieve photographically in the comming months. We may already have new gear to try out or new techniques to practice but whist doing all that we should think about our vision and what message we want to convey with our images. It may be this after all that makes the biggest difference to our photography.

For inspiration have a look at "Developing vision and style" which has contributions by Joe Cornish, Charlie Waite and David Ward.

My new e course "Reconnecting with our environment through photography" will be available later in the year, but please feel free to register your interest now.

Happy New Year everyone.

Dealing with overcast skies on the Isle of Mull

Ever since spending a day in Tobermory back in July I have wanted to return to Mull and discover what else the island has to offer. Having been delighted by the town's colourful houses and vibrant harbour I have been itching to re visit with my camera and get down to some serious landscape photography.

Returning at Christmas I was hoping for some great winter light and abundant photographic opportunities. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas. We arrived to howling winds and heavy rain which eventually gave way to grey overcast skies, pretty much setting the scene for the whole week.

There is a theory in landscape photography that there is no such thing as bad weather only different kinds of lighting and it is up to the photographer to make the most of the available conditions. Sunshine and bright skies create high contrast images where as grey overcast skies produce much more subtle effects. Colours tend to be pastel tones rather than vibrant hues. These can work really well to create calm, muted images which evoke a sense of tranquility.

Grey overcast skies can also form an effective background to man made colour. In this image of Tobermory the muted colours of the sky and water help the coloured houses to stand out from the background.

Landscape photography on a grey day is all about dealing with the available light and thinking creatively to produce compelling images.

My top 5 tips for creating good images on an overcast day are:

1. Learn to see the landscape in pastel tones, if there really is no colour then practice thinking in black and white and convert your images to monotone during post processing.

2. Think about the available light which is likely to be significantly reduced in overcast conditions. A tripod is essential, shoot in Aperture priority and choose a large F number to achieve a good depth of field.

3. Think about your white balance. Try switching your cameras metering system to cloudy which should warm up your image and make it visually more appealing.

4. Grey skies can produce flat underexposed images so I tend to use a circular polariser to enhance the texture and colour in the sky. Remember that a polariser will also stop some of the available light; roughly 2 stops, so again a tripod is essential for good depth of field. Check your histogram regularly and dial in exposure compensation if necessary. You may also find it necessary to use an ND filter to balance out the exposure between the sky and the land.

5. Think about your composition and avoid large areas of sky if it is lacking in detail. Try to find interesting foreground detail with plenty of texture or tonal contrast to add interest to your image.

Inspiration and motivation

Traditionally, as December draws to a close, I like to review my photography and the journey I have taken over the last 12 months.

This year I have spent a lot of time thinking about my inspiration and motivation and the drivers which lead me to make the images I make.

For me photography is as much about interacting with the environment as it is about producing good images. As human beings our relationship with the outdoors and connection to the natural world is vital to our sense of fulfillment. We need to get outside, to breathe fresh air, take in the view and marvel at our place in this world. We need to do these things to feel alive but I also think that from a photographic point of view we need to do these things to connect and have empathy with our environment. Surely this is the only way we can capture great landscape images. How can we possibly hope to convey a landscape in all its glory if we are not fully connected with it?

For me photography provides a reason to get outside. We live in an age where our relationship with the natural world is diminishing. The fast pace of life has taken its toll and there never seems to be enough time to just be and enjoy our surroundings. Without my love of photography I would have missed so many wonderful things; beautiful sunrises, stunning sunsets, the ebb and flow of the tides and the changing of the seasons. These are all things that have enhanced my life, things that are available to everyone, but which many of us fail to take advantage of. For most these wonders of the natural world go un noticed, burried in a never ending cycle of work, stress and commitment.

I have realised over the last few months that my photography has improved the greater my connection with the environment and equally the more I photograph and observe a landscape the greater my connection to it becomes.

My inspiration has come from many locations but none more influential than Ramsholt on the River Deben, a place I shared with my family for several years. This location shaped my photography; I came to know it really well, I documented it through the seasons and watched the wildlife come and go. I grew to love the landscape, the light, the changeable weather and the flora and fauna. I noticed and observed and channelled all my feelings for this place into my image making.

I was reading a book the other day by Richard Louv which contained the following quote which sums up my attitude to photography and the outside world - "We cannot love what we do not know and we cannot know what we do not see."

Perhaps if we all examined our connection with the natural world we would find our outdoor photography improved as our knowledge of our environment grew. We may also feel a growing sense of fullfillment and a renewed fascination with the world around us and that has to be good for our photography and the future of our environment.

In 2013 I will be introducing a new e - course based on this very subject. It will cover how we see our environment, how we interact with it and how we can channel this into emotive and inspiring image making. If you are interested please contact me for more details.

Looking beyond the obvious an article in Outdoor Photography magazine

Published in this months Outdoor Photography magazine www.facebook.com/outdoorphotographymag this is a copy of the letter I wrote about familiar locations.

I have lost count at the number of times I have you opened a photography magazine only to find the same images of familiar UK locations? Every part of Britain seems to have one; an iconic landmark which is so often photographed that it has become the defining feature of an area. The lone tree on Ranock Moor in Argyle(sadly now no longer standing), the Old man of Storr on Skye, Burnham Lighthouse in Somerset, Eileen Donan Castle in the Western Highlands, Thurne Mill in Norfolk and the much photographed boat landing stage on Derwent water in Cumbria. All are amazing places and fully deserve their iconic status for the quality of photographs that they have inspired, but as artists should we not look beyond the obvious and try to seek out the detail in a landscape instead of being encouraged to replicate already successful images?

As a photographer on the Suffolk Coast I have many beautiful local landmarks available for me to photograph. Several have become magnets for image makers and have almost come to define this stretch of coastline. If you have never been here before you may well be forgiven for thinking that the best the Suffolk coast has to offer is a pier at Southwold, interspersed with rows of colourful beach huts, a giant scallop shell adorning the beach at Aldeburgh and an amazingly fanciful "house in the clouds" at Thorpness.

These features are so well photographed that they have become instantly recognizable landmarks on the Suffolk Coast. I am not denying their attraction to a photographer. When the sun rises in front of Southwold pier it is hard to image a more perfect image and one I have been guilty of trying to replicate many times in the past. It is right that these places should inspire us but they should also lead us to search for something different. After all it is not the landmark that makes a great photograph, but the skill of the photographer. With this in mind maybe we should choose compositions which are more representative of an area as a whole instead of heading straight for the well known landmarks. They may not initially seem as striking but then surely that is the challenge?

There have been many times that I have visited an unfamiliar area with preconceived ideas for the type of images that I would like to take there. These have generally been formulated from photographs seen in magazines, books and tourist information literature. Often my destinations for a photographic outing are chosen based on familiar iconic images. However I have found there is a fine line between inspiration and replication and going to an area with fixed ideas can be creative suicide.

In my work I have found that iconic images tend to lead to inspirational and beautiful areas of the British countryside, but once there I have found from a creative point of view it is much healthier to ignore the obvious and look around for something more subtle.

It has often surprised me how many different images can be created from within a very small area, even when at first the potential may not seem obvious. I believe the skill is really in seeing the landscape in every detail; looking into its soul if you like to get the best from it, much as you would if you were taking a portrait. The deeper you delve, the more you discover what a particular landscape is all about, and it is this understanding that goes a long way to creating a compelling image.

Now, when I am planning a trip to an unfamiliar area I look at the images that already exist together with OS maps and then I spend my time researching the environments and habitats that I am likely to encounter when I get there. Understanding the topography, the flora and fauna and land use give me a much better idea of what to expect when I arrive.

My work as a photographer on the Suffolk Coast has led me to document a small area of estuary shoreline in an attempt to uncover the true character of the place. Over two years I have put together a collection of photographs which create a fascinating insight into a beautiful stretch of coastline. There are no iconic images, even though several exist locally, and few man made structures but I hope my images go some way to conveying the beauty of the Suffolk Coastline in a more in depth way than is usually portrayed by shots of Southwold Pier or the Aldeburgh Scallop shell.

For my part I believe that there are enough amazing places to photograph in the UK to fill magazines and books for years to come without continually replicating the same landmarks. It would be wonderful to see something different from now on so that we can truly begin to appreciate what a diverse and visually rich country we live in.

Words on images - adding extra impact

We are all familiar with the old addage "a picture is worth a thousand words" which refers to the notion that a single image can convey a complex idea. Whilst it is true that a photographic image is a very powerful medium sometimes adding a little extra in the form of words can help create a greater impact. This technique is used all the time in marketing campaigns, but it is also something worth considering as a photographer especially if you are trying to add that extra punch or meaning to your images.

In May's edition of Outdoor Photography magazine Niall Benvie http://niallbenvie.photoshelter.com/ wrote a really interesting article about the subject. "Too many images, he believes, are being lost in the crowd, not because of any aesthetic or technical shortcommings but because they lack context". This is a problem Niall says can be overcome by adding a few words to a photograph and getting the image to speak to its audience.

This is a process which can easily be undertaken in Photoshop or Indesign, but it is worth paying careful attention to your choice of words and the font type, size and location - all of which are fundamental in getting your message across.


My winning entry in the Outdoor Photography words on pictures competition


This image was taken on Christmas day on the shores of Loch Reraig in Wester Ross. It was fairly early in the morning and the loch shore was deserted. I took the shot hoping to convey the peace and tranquility of this beauiful place. When it came to adding the words I used indesign and Palatino Linotype font to express the connection I felt with the outdoors at that moment in time. I hope this creates an image with just a little more impact.

Here are some other examples of my images with added words