Landscape

Scotland

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Apologies for my lack of content on here of late. I’ve been somewhat lacking in inspiration over the Winter plus some internet troubles meant that I wasn’t able to upload images. I will endeavour to be out more with the camera and share the results here and on the usual channels. It’s been a few months now since we went on a trip to Scotland. Hoping for some nice Autumn weather we were a bit unlucky with plenty of dreich days but we managed a few adventures in the mountains, escaped the crowds where we could and managed to get across to the Isle of Mull which was a highlight. Below is something of a photo dump of or time which was mainly in the Western Highlands, Skye and Mull.

Offas Dyke for Mother Goose Films

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In June I popped down to Shropshire to meet with Rob, the warden for the Offas Dyke National Trail that runs the length of the border between Wales and England. An ancient boundary, the path was established as a National Trail 50 years ago and Mother Goose Films have been commissioned to provide photo and video to promote the path at this milestone. I went down to get some shots for them that showed off the bluebells which were in full bloom, adding colour on a grey day.

Traeth Llyfn

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A selection of shots from Traeth Lyfyn, the beach between Abereiddy and Porthgain. These were taken around 9.30pm as the light was fading. They are all variations on a theme but I’ve included them all here just because I couldn’t decide on a favourite, or at least my favourite changed each time I looked through them. Please let me know which one you like.

It was fairly obvious from the time I left the house that the light wasn't going to be anything special but it was one of those still evenings when it was nice to be stood on the sand with a gentle swell only occasionally pushing a wave of any size onto the beach. The tide was dropping from high meaning I couldn't initially get any further onto the beach so I took a few from the bottom of the steps until the tide dropped a little. It's a creative time for me when the light is flat and dusk is closing in. On an empty beach (somewhat rare this summer), when the night is warm and still and there's no rush to get a shot before the light changes (it just gets dark) you can slip into a zone and find a good shot in the gloom. Eventually there is no light to work with and it's time to go home. On the way back I met a badger who hadn't heard me coming or got a sniff of me in the still air. It scarpered when I had to hasten past and I listened as it galloped up the path and trundled off through the barley.

Oh, the first shot is the barley field you pass on the way to the beach from Porthgain. This is virtually the same as the shot I entered into the Landscape Photographer of the Year a few years back but with flat light the colours were rather dull so I felt it worked better in B&W.

North from Porthgain

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After what seems like a few weeks of wall to wall sunshine, the weather broke with typically British contrast to bring high winds and rain over the bank holiday and into this week. In all the sunshine I’ve barely touched the camera and was beginning to feel a bit lacking in motivation to go out and take a photograph. Sunny weather is for riding bikes. Dramatic weather is not for riding bikes but is for taking photos. Today, I thought it worth the effort to head off to Porthgain. I was intending to shoot a landscape that included the usual coastal spring flowers which are in bloom but I found none on my short walk which became a race to find a nice view before the sun set. In the end I’d virtually given up on a shot as I couldn’t find any flowers and the cloud wasn’t behaving for a shot of the harbour markers which looked good against an incoming storm. A large and annoyingly square patch of bare sky ruined any composition I tried so I decided to look North instead. I managed to take a few frames here before the storm made landfall. Soon after this shot it enveloped the Strumble peninsula and a minute or so after that it arrived with me, hail battering my legs as I trotted back to the car. British weather reminding me that just because it’s May I shouldn’t rule out a good old hailstorm!

Technicals: This is a two shot panorama. I’d decided to take my 24-70 lens but the 24mm composition was a little too tight so I stitched two shots together in Lightroom to get a little extra width on the left of the frame to better show the approaching weather. I was shooting in aperture priority so one of the shots is eight seconds and one is five seconds (f8 ISO100). I should have shot in manual mode to make sure the exposure was even but in the end it didn’t matter and the three second difference in exposure isn’t really noticeable in the textures of the water.

The other version of this story is about inspiration and where it comes from. I was faffing around in the early stages of the evening wondering if I should go out at all. The weather wasn't inviting and I didn't feel like I wanted to drive anywhere if it was going to be a waste of time. In the end, as often happens, music helped get me out of the door. I'd been watching an episode of Classic Albums the night before about the Tears for Fears album Songs From the Big Chair and had already played Head Over Heels a good few times before a Youtube rabbit hole featuring Ian Brown's F.E.A.R and Stardust, Prince absolutely shredding the guitar solo on a live version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Massive Attack's Better Things and Home Again by Michael Kiwanuka. The combo was enough to spur me into action and off I went. I got to Porthgain playing the album So by Peter Gabriel at which point I lost phone signal meaning I could only play Don't Give Up on repeat. There's so much to enjoy in that song which has some loose relevance to Porthgain being about the decline of industry (although we can't blame Porthgain's industrial demise on Thatcher). I think it's got to be one of the best duets out there and when that gospel style piano kicks in before Peter Gabriel's penultimate verse, I'm lifted. The bass solo on the tracks outro is beautiful too so with no signal still, it goes on again... and again and again.

Being lost in musical reverie is a great mindset to take photos with. It inspires me to be reckless or meditative, to try and capture the epic or the mundane or sometimes to put the camera back in the bag and shoot nothing at all but enjoy a moment for the soul. When I got home editing was done to Neil Young live at the BBC in 1971 followed by Bill Withers live in '73 by which point it was late and time for bed. So it's thanks to Peter Gabriel, and other music makers and creatives that help me and many others produce our own work by providing inspiration through theirs. I feel that pictures, words, music and art of all kinds are all connected in some intangible way and combining them can be a special alchemy.

Abercastle

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Some images from an evening on the coast close to Abercastle with the drone and the long lens. A beautiful sunset lit up the coast with a golden glow. I’ve always liked the sea arch here and it was nice to get a new angle on it with the drone. The final sunset shot was an exercise in patience. The sun was rapidly dropping but none of the gulls, returning home to roost, were in the right place until this one obliged!