Solas, North Uist

One of my oldest friends from my school days is from Solas, North Uist. He kindly gave me some tips of where to go. I camped right on the beach for several nights.

It was really windy whilst I was in North Uist. It's such an incredibly beautiful part of the Hebrides and I feel I need to return in Winter to get more photographs of it. There are areas here that I only briefly touched.

One night I ventured out onto the beach at Solas facing towards Harris. There's some very fine sand dunes there and the light was something else. I remember feeling it had the edge of a storm to it but with some strange colours happening in the sky. I love dunes and it's always very poetic for me to watch the ferns blow in the wind. Capturing the feel of a place, the sound of the wind, the exposure and feeling of being on the verge of the Atlantic, is hard to grasp in a photo. But for me, my photos are a way of helping me remember what I experienced there at the time.

Traigh Mhor (revisited)

Why is it, that a lot of landscape photographers love to shoot beaches?

I've noticed that if I go onto most photo sites, there's a predominant selection of beach scenes. Is it because they're easy to shoot? Or is it because they're highly attractive, taking us away from our every day normal view point of roads, hills, places that are fairly static? Beaches are magical places and they are great to study composition at a very simplistic level.

I've found myself shooting a lot more coastal scenes this year, which I feel is mainly due to visiting places such as the outer hebrides here in Scotland. The beaches are some of the most beautiful to be found in the northern hemisphere.

In some respects, I'm looking forward to Ethiopia simply because it will be a big change. Scotland is an amazing place, with some of the best landscapes that I've witnessed. I just think that sometimes, we need to push ourselves into shooting something different and new. Besides, I love making pictures of people, so I fully expect to come home from Ethiopia with a lot of new portraits.

However, the beaches on the isle of Barra were very photogenic indeed. Most of these shots were taken on the same stretch of beach over three different evenings. I have to keep telling workshop participants that repeat visits to a location are a must and that each encounter often brings something new. One of the shots though, is of the Cockle Strand - a wide flat beach that the plane lands on (something I've promised myself - a plane flight to Barra to land on the beach there). The airport is only a stroll away from Traigh Mhor - the main beach you see in these shots, so I fully envisage taking my camera and a rucsack with stove, tent and sleeping bag later on in the year.

Tuesday's Photo

Taken this February in Torridon on a week workshop. We went looking for some more locations and found this vantage point at the edge of loch Sgamhain.

Contact Sheet.. (so far)

Just dipped into my images over the past few days - my scanner requires a good cup of tea each time it is loaded, oh, and so do I. I'm such a tea jenny.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you a contact sheet of the images worked on so far. I feel like I've been let loose in a sweetie (candy) shop. So much material over the past six months - Eigg, Harris, North Uist, Barra, Torridon, Glencoe. It's a bit of a whistle-stop contact sheet for me. Keen to see what's left on the remaining rolls of film :-)

Mcleod Stone, Harris

I've been to the Mcleod standing stone on Harris a few times, but this May, we had some very special lighting conditions and I was able to get an image of it that I'm happy with. It was a special evening. The clouds seemed to gather, brooding, dramatic.

As the evening went on, the light just seemed to get more and more interesting and just before 11pm, we were heading back to the van for our return journey back to the hotel when I saw these textures in the sea on the beach below the Mcleod stone.

Traigh Mhor

At the north tip of Barra is one of the most beautiful beaches I've encountered on the outer Hebrides. I went here on several evenings to see what I could do with such a minimalist location.

I took along with me my Contax 645 and left my Mamiya 7II at home. I feel it's the only way to really get into a new camera : leave behind what I'm used to otherwise I'll opt for it every time.

I didn't feel that enthused for most of my trip away. I found myself sleeping a lot and just reading books. I thought at the time it was because I was just so burned out from all the workshops and business things that have been going on this year for me. But I do remember getting all hot and excited about this shot when I saw it. So this brings to mind that sometimes we're just not inspired because we're either just tired or the landscape isn't providing anything at that particular moment that you can connect with.

I think it's very easy to blame the location. Oh, there's nothing here. When what we're often really saying is 'I can't see anything here'. I am the problem. I am not receptive. I am walking around with my eyes shut :-)

The Drongs, Shetland

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 6x7 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.

Saturday's image

Just busy working through some images from this year. I love this one in particular of the isle of Rum from Laig bay.

We had some very mixed weather over the entire week and there were times when I felt that we weren't getting the light I'd hoped for, but I think that's one trait of most photographers : we're never entirely happy unless everything is 'just right'. As it turns out, I remember there being some exceptional mornings with beautiful hues.

Colours courtesy of Velvia 50 RVP.

Backlog

So! Today I got back around 30 rolls of film that I've been stocking up all this year so far. Running a photographic workshop business doesn't mean that I get to take photographs. Far from it, I find that conducting photographic workshops is very demanding on me. If I have clients that are receptive, it's very satisfying to see them take stock of what I'm showing them and see their photography progress. But it means that I don't take many photos myself (which is not a complaint - the workshops are intended for me to tutor others).

But as the week long workshops progress and people start to get into looking at things with their own 'vision' I tend to have a little bit more time to do my own stuff.

So, I've been building up a number of rolls of film since January, mostly off the cuff, when I have five minutes spare, to make some images and thought I'd show you one.

This was taken in Glencoe in March during a week long workshop. We started out the week with frozen lochans and zero reflections. As the week progressed things started to thaw and on our second last morning I spied this amazing little curve of ice. It almost looks yellow, but the ice has been tempered by the peaty water (If you don't know what peat is - check it out on wikipedia). We're used to peaty water and we also like to drink lots of it here in Scotland.

I had found my participants were busy taking their own photos and felt that I needed to take a step back and let them get on with doing their own thing. So I went for a wander and came across this little shot. We ran out of time and had to start heading back to our hotel for our morning breakfast, but I keenly told Henk and Fred about what I'd found. So I made a point of taking them back there the following morning to explore the same location, only to find that the ice had completely melted.

I've found a few crackers in my contact sheets so far, so I think I'll be posting some more over the coming week or so :-)

Eigg Workshop 1 Space Available

Just a quick note to let you all know that one of the guys on the Eigg workshop this September can't make it. So if you were keen to come to Eigg this September, there is now a free space for one lucky individual on my workshop.

First come, first served. :-)