Scarista Beach, Isle of Harris
Canon 5D3, 0.5″@f/11 ISO100. 17-40L lens at 29mm.
Stormy conditions but the soft light had the usual Harris effect of turning everything into pastel shades. The stormy conditions first thing in the morning meant we had this corner of paradise all to ourselves.
Two shots from the Troon a beach town on the west coast of Scotland. West coast sunsets can be a grey dull thud or an all singing, all dancing affair of light and colour.
I need to get a bit more decisive. Normal exposure or long exposure? I keep dithering between the two.
Tech: 5D3, 24-70 lens, 2 stop hard grad on the sky and a 6 stop ND for the long exposure.
Conditions: Very still, moderate visibility. Broken cloud.
Troon sunset with concrete.
Troon sunset with concrete. Long exposure.
Poppies and Pomegranate
Three recent still life images.
Loch Chon, Trossachs, Scotland.
On most days this stand of trees is hard to make out against the conifers on the hill behind. One of the great benefits of the Scottish weather is the frequency of mist and rain that throws a soft blanket over the distant forest making the whole scene “pop”. Nature’s own Photoshop.
Tech: camera 5DMk2, Lens: 20-200L at 150mm, ISO100, 1/10 sec at f/8.
Buachaille Etive Mor at Sunrise Mid-Summer
Summer morning on Rannoch Moor, Scotland. Captured about 8am. Last shot before I packed up to go home. 15 minutes later the low clouds had dispersed. I still don’t really understand how the mountains stimulate these micro-climates into being. Must add that to my reading list!
Olive Trees and Grass, Umbria.
Conditions: Early evening, light breeze moving the white grass around. Light filtering through olive trees.
Tech:Canon 5Dmk3, 30 secs @f/11, ISO 200. No filters, 70mm focal length.
The light on the grass was beautiful if a bit hard to keep from over exposing.
West Kilbride Rocks
Conditions: moderate winds, falling tide, moderate to high swell.
Tech: 5D3, 70-200 zoom.
80mm, 1/4 sec @f/32, ISO50, no filters.
Grabbing a precious 1 hour at the coast to indulge in some wave watching and enjoy the gannets diving for fish.
Quantum computing is on its way. We are moving into a world where nothing will be fixed until it is observed. Binary-encoding photons occupying fields of probability. Being everywhere at once until a glance from you or me fixes their position in space-time forever. This offers the hope that we can model super-complex systems like the oceans and simulate how they respond to human activity and the climate. Fascinating of course but still not as awe-inspiring as a gannet hurtling out of the sky into a six foot wave.
portencross pier with lichens
Like most people I enjoy looking at interesting portraits as well as images of people interacting with each other and with the world around them. We are social animals and endlessly fascinated by each other. Consequently most people don’t find images of empty landscapes compelling. I sometimes wonder, having made an image, “Is there enough here to justify this composition?”.
I was having just such an angst on Portencross Pier the other night. The sun had gone down and the light was just stunningly blue and clear. I was standing there looking at the angle the concrete pier made relative to the horizon. Imagining a line from my feet to the distant horizon and the complementary angles that would be formed where those line meet. I imagined the construction worker many years ago marking out the lines on the concrete when he was going to cut the slots to allow the water to drain through the pier. Carefully cutting with his still saw to achieve those straight black lines. I enjoyed the complimentary colours of the blue sea and those yellow lichens and then it dawned on me that the lichens grew in a zone along the edge of the pier but no further . Why? What was different about the habitat in that zone? No idea and still can’t work it out.
There is an uneasy feeling in these empty, long-exposure images where man-made structures protrude into the natural environment. A sense that the landscape, even the man-made landscape does not need us any more. We are the ephemeral element here whereas the landscape is relentless and unyielding. It is full of interest if we look for it. There is beauty in the geometry and the maths, the natural and the constructed if we look for it. Without the distraction of people the empty scene started to tell its own story.
Camerwork: Canon 5D mk3, 63 seconds as f/11, ISO100. 3 stop hard grad on the sky and 3 stop ND over entire frame.
Good day out on the east coast with Niall and Joe. This great looking breakwater hides behind the harbour wall at St Monans. The stormy weather and tidal surge created some nice water movement and moody sky.
Camera work: Canon 5Dmk3, ISO50, 1/4sec @f/16. 17-40L lens at 21mm. 3stop ND grad on sky and further 3 stop ND grad over entire frame. Lens cloth working furiously to clean the sea spray off the front.
Portencross Sunset with Small Cloud
Technical: canon 5D3, 17-40 lens at 20mm, ISO100, 2″@f/16. Lee filters on the sky.
Conditions: slight breeze at sunset with a gentle swell on the water.
I can’t make up my mind about the balance of this image. There is a diagonal that goes up to the small cloud and seems to balance with the small rock lower left. It’s bottom heavy. Perhaps a square aspect ratio but then those nice lines in the rock are lost.
wytchwood 