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I am a part-time Royal Photographic Society Licentiate (LRPS) photographer who is also a Chartered Geographer with his own part-time consultancy business. I also work as an estate manager for a national conservation charity in Scotland, and I am based in Lochalsh, Wester Ross, just next to the Isle of Skye.
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My main interest, photographically, reflects my career working in conservation in the west Highlands of Scotland. However, my focus lies more in the cultural landscape than the concept of wild land. I seek to capture a unique photographic perspective of the Highlands & Islands as a cultural landscape and to offer the opportunity for people to experience that through my images.
I got my first camera, a medium format twin reflex model (I can't remember the make and model), when I was in my early teens. With only 12 images per film it led to a frugal attitude to creating exposures. I was soon to inherit a Praktika 35mm with a variety of lenses which served me well for a good number of years, despite being driven over by a dormobile on the Isle of Skye. I was always inspired by the rugged landscapes, the coastline and mountains, the croft lands and the lochs of the Highlands, even as a young child when my relationship with this wonderful land was shaped during my excursions north from central Scotland during our family holidays. One of my early passions was taking photographs of flowers and other plants using my Praktika with a 135mm macro lens on an old bellows system. I was also inspired by the images of Colin Baxter, who brought in an entirely new era in Scottish landscape photography. Suddenly postcards and calendars had artistic and dramatic images that captured a sense of the atmosphere of Scotland. Later I was to discover other photographers from further afield, most notably Ansel Adams, Paul Strand and Michael Kenna. Perhaps unsruprisingly I have developed a deep love of black & white imagery and many of my shots today, even the digital ones, are processed as monochrome. |
I hope you enjoy browsing my website. My Portfolio pages include a range of my favourite photographs although I have many more, most of which have featured in my Blog which I have maintained since 2015. In the blog I try to describe some of my motivations and photographic process and also include some experiments, successful and otherwise. If you enjoy readng my blog please feel free to add a comment. You can also buy my images, either for digital use or in a range of printed formats, via my Sales page.
Photo of the Week
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For a very long time now I have aspired to capture some lovely soft, misty images of trees and foliage in woodland. However, living, as I do, in the north-west highlands, it may well be wet a lot of the time but we don't get a lot of misty weather, at least not the sort that creates these wonderful conditions for moody woodland imagery. However, on Saturday, 4th November, I finally managed to get a good image, and it is certainly one of my all-time favourites. This shot was taken in Glen Affric, in the lower reaches fo the glen where the mist never really burned off all day. I had been wandering around taking shots of the birch foliage where it was illuminated by sunshine through gaps in the cloud and mist, and then turning around I spotted this wonderful branch of a birch tree protruding out over the road. the amazing pendulous foliage, sparse and ethereal, was contrasted by the golden coppery foliage of its neighbour. Set against the misty background, through which you can just make out more trees and foliage, plus the small green bush in the bottom right of th image, makes this a special compisiton in my mind. I shot this at f/2.8 with a bit of zoom (153mm) on my Canon 5D Mark IV with an EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens and a Zomei HD glass CPL filter, separating the central branch form it ssurroundings really nicely, and keeping it all beautifully soft.
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Misty Birch Foliage in Glen Affric
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Updated -- 3rd December 2023