While Winter can be a great time of year for us Landscape Photographers it also comes with risks and those risks are the weather. There is no better way to describe the weather I experienced on Glencoe over the 4 days I were there as challenging. Challenging because of gale force winds and sideways rain. In the whole time I was there I saw the sun once for a few moment that I managed to capture on a vlog. It was really a testing time, however I do always say that us photographers have to adapt to the conditions and work with what we are presented with.

Having had a long break from taking images I quickly became aware that I was out of practise and my technique was somewhat lacking behind the camera. I quickly got back into the swing of things and with such inspiring Landscapes who wouldn’t, despite the driving rain and high winds I had a great time. It was liberating to be out and to have a little more time than usual to explore this wonderful place. Certainly a location to keep coming back too.

My current range of Landscape Photography Prints from Glencoe are available here on my website.

During the course of my 4 days on Skye I’ve been capturing snapshots of the bus shelters dotted across the Island. One happens to be at the bottom of the Lane to the house so I forced asked Lewis to go and pose for me.

Back on Glencoe, rather flat but still great to appreciate this giant of a mountain

All of the images featured on my blog are available as Archival Quality prints. Contact me for details…

My initial plan was to visit Elgol on the way home tomorrow, however and rightly so that would cause two issues. 1. It would add a lot of time to the return journey and 2. I wouldn’t be there at the right time of day so a leisurely trip today with no time pressures was best. The conditions weren’t the best but when are they, us Landscape Photographers seem to moan a lot and find something to be negative about, just watch most of the Landscape Photography vlogs on YouTube. This isn’t right, that isn’t right…. Boring. The fact is, it’s hardly ever perfect and us Landscape Photographers have or at least should have some form of pre-visialisation ability. Perhaps people are dreaming of ideal conditions and anything less than perfect is a failure. Perhaps they see what a fellow photographer has “got lucky” with and expect to get the same when they visit. I believe it’s better for us as people to just adapt to the conditions and see what unfolds. One thing I’ve learnt in my personal life is we can’t always control every aspect of life. We just have to give ourselves the best chance of success. Which is relative to what’s defined as success but for me success is being able to visit places I connect with and see something that inspires me to get my camera out. On that note here is what I saw today on Elgol beach…

All of the vertically inspired images are available as Archival quality prints. Please contact me for details….

It was decided today would be the best day to walk up Storr. With no urgency to get there and no strong winds to battle it was now or never. I’ve only been up to the Old Man of Storr once previously and that was back in 2007. 12 years ago now. While I hold no fascination with making a strong image from here I do appreciate this place and the effort that goes into getting here and capturing the best of the days light. What will be will be.

A leisurely stroll is the best way to describe todays efforts and leisurely it was. If not a little busy with people from all walks of life, in all kinds of clothing and speaking all kinds of languages. Skye is truly a worldwide destination for travellers.

All of the Landscape Photographs form the Old Man of Storr in this blog post are available as archival quality prints. Please contact me for details…

The Long trip to Skye

Every Christmas and New Year break for as long as I can remember I’ve longed to visit The Isle of Skye. My previous trips have typically been at the Easter, over Summer on my motorbike or in Autumn for Landscape Photography. This year I was determined to make it to Skye over the Christmas holidays. 

As with previous years, leaving things until the last minute is leaving things to chance but now having invested in my camper van I’m really free to go anywhere, whenever I am able. The reality of a camper van is it’s best suited to use exclusively by myself or at the most 2 people. I’m not a huge fan of the idea of being confined to a tight space in the cold and possibly wet with moaning kids so it’s best I find somewhere to book. I got lucky this year with 4 free nights at a place I stayed at previously on Skye. I booked in for 4 nights at 12 o’clock and by 3pm I was on the road North. Staying the first night at a Premier Inn just north of Glasgow meant I was free the whole of the following day for a relaxed drive up over Glencoe and up onto Skye. 

I look forward to stopping off at a few beauty spots on the drive up but this time the weather was awful, extremely wet and windy, therefore no photographic opportunities were available in these beautiful parts of the journey. Fingers crossed things improve once on Skye. I arrived on Skye about 5pm in the dark and hopeful of a good few days visiting some of my favourite locations to make Landscape Photographs.

First day on Skye – New Years Day 2019.

Thankfully I woke to a much nicer day here on Skye. I was treated to some beautiful low winter light on the house I was staying in.

Being based in-between the Old Man of Storr and The Quiraing I’m spoilt for local places to visit and today I chose the Quiraing. I’m hoping to walk up Storr at some point on this trip but today was just a bit too Windy for that, I’m hoping to make it for sunrise which is at a landscape photographer friendly hour of 09:20 hours this far north.

Having made the short drive to the Quiraing it always amazes me at the scale of this true marvel. It’s a wonderfully interesting place with some fantastic views and geological features. I made a few portraits of the Kids here on my Hasselblad 503cx and managed to capture a few landscape shots with my Leica M-D. Easing myself in, nothing technical. Tourist shots if you will. You really need to be up here for sunrise to make the best of this place. 

Moving on from The Quiraning I decided to make the journey across Skye to Neist Point. A fantastic Sunset location and given todays weather I was hopeful of witnessing a beautiful sunset. Driving across Skye is a real treat with the gentle winding roads and jaw dropping scenery around every corner. Once at Neist Point it was clear that the prospect of a jaw dropping sunset was unlikely give a bank of could hugging the horizon. However you never know how things are going to turn out and just being here is special enough. 

I took a few moments to walk along the cliff edge and weigh up various viewpoints. With a few photographers already here I was able to find a spot that appealed and got myself setup. On my last visit here I was overwhelmed with how many people were just lined up taking the same shot. It didn’t leave a pleasant feeling to be honest and is something I’m noticing more and more as Landscape Photography becomes more accessible, more popular and the rise in guided tours or Landscape Photography courses that ferry people around in groups to popular spots become more of an everyday occurrence. Today in fact I witnessed a guy stood vlogging on the cliff edge. Stood behind his tripod, talking into another camera mounted on a handheld gimbal. Explaining to his camera exactly what filters he was using and his choice of composition. That word “Composition” I promised myself I’ll never use that word. For some reason it annoys me.

What dawned on me as I was stood there assessing the scene and making micro adjustments to my camera to best frame the scene in front of me was that surely vlogging a landscape photography shoot ruins the shoot itself. While we all focus in on the landscape and make decisions in our minds about what to include and what to leave out. From my observations the vlogger was simply in the same position and talking of his process when in fact from his vantage point he was in my opinion missing out on the best viewpoint. 

Whilst on the subject of vlogging, I often feel frustrated that I don’t produce enough videos for my YouTube channel. That given the number of Landscape Photography shoots I go on (approx 120) in 2018. I could in effect produce a lot of content. However Landscape Photography for me isn’t about anyone else. It’s always been about my enjoyment and precious time in the Landscape. 

Surely creating a vlog is just diluting the experience and giving yourself more work to do. One eye on the image and one on the video. What would my viewers want to see? Would this make interesting content? Which B-Roll shall I shoot? Cinematic sequences etc. All the while I doubt you can be the best Landscape Photographer you can be with your focus split between capturing a still image and telling the story of capturing that image through video. 

From my perspective I would require an additional person to film me and ask me questions. As I seem to become really engrossed in the process of trying to see the image. I doubt, in fact I know, I’d not be good at producing such a compelling vlog that I’d like to put my name to it. It’s hard, first and foremost comes the image for me. It is that in which I’m primarily focused on and ultimately the reason I’m there. I am after all a Landscape Photographer and have no real desire to be a YouTube personality or outdoors presenter. However Landscape Photographers these days can;’t ignore the exposure YouTube provides in developing ones own brand.

So, given my soul focus is on the Landscape in front of me and creating the best Landscape Photograph I can here is my best effort from Neist Point on the Isle of Skye on New Years Day 2019….

All the photographs featured in this blog post are available as archival quality prints. Contact me for details….

All of the Landscape Photographs featured in this blog are available as Archival Quality prints. Contact me for details…