Last day of Skye Workshop

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. --

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.

Arran

As I continue to scan through my backlog of images, I've stumbled upon this curious image taken on the Isle of Arran. I rather like it - it's fractured, abstract, moody.

Surely a photo doesn't have to be of anywhere specific, to have value? Surely an image can exist purely because it is an image that resonates / works for you?

Eigg Formations

There's one particular spot on the isle of Eigg that I've been drawn to for some time. Each time I visit Laig bay, I always have to come and check out this spot with the hope that the water levels will be high and I'll have what I'm looking for: a sense of space around the main feature you see in the photo.

During our Eigg workshop this September, we had the highest tide of the year.

Below you'll see a small contact sheet of some of the 'highlights' from this year's visits to Eigg. I went with a group in April, followed by a private tuition week with a Canadian client and then back again in September for a workshop with a group of 8. Each time I return to Eigg, the light is so different and I remember during September we had a brief 10 minutes of freaky light that lit up the entire bay in red as you can see from the (obvious) image included in the contact sheet (click on it to see a larger version).

Lalibela Portfolio online

I've just put up my collection of new images from Lalibela, Ethiopia into my Portfolio section of the web.

It was an interesting experience making these images. The light quality was very different from my images in Nepal and India. For some reason, the light is a little bit colder in Ethiopia compared to India and Nepal. I'm not exactly sure why, but in Lalibela, I did spend a lot of time shooting in dark recesses, alleyways hidden deep in the rock hewn areas of the churches there.

I intend to put a podcast together about my experiences there and also put together an eBook about it too. Until then, I hope you enjoy these images.

St. Petersburgh

I'm thinking of going to Russia to photograph St Petersburgh. I started reading the 'Rough Guide' to the city a week ago and was informed that I may have a lot of difficulty and getting arrested by the Police is not uncommon. Also, I may receive unwanted attention from gangs in the city, esp if I am out making images in the early hours of the morning on my own. I don't mean to offend anyone from Russia with this, I'm merely repeating what I've read and it does sound like I may have a bit of trouble if I go out in the early hours of the morning to make photographs.

So I'd like to ask anyone if they have any contacts for a good guide there? If so - please e-mail me directly. Thanks.

End of season Workshop

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.