My 2021 Exhibition at the Steadings Gallery in Balmacara Square starts on the 31st July and runs until the 7th August.  The event is free to enter and is open daily from 11 am to 6pm, except the last day (7th August) when is is open from 10 am to 1pm.

As the title might suggest I have focused this year mostly on a more desaturated style of imagery which has resulted from a post-processing workflow that I developed while working on my Graded Unit project for the HNC in Photography in 2020.  The style is perhaps motivated by a reaction to the commonly over-saturated imagery that is prevalent on social media platforms such as Instagram, where most of the images are incredibly punchy and vibrant, often captured on mobile phones.  While these images are dramatic and impactful I find myself being increasingly detached from them and much more favouring those which focus on tone and texture.  This perhaps harks back to my liking for monochrome and this technique does help to emphasise the key subject and works well when there may not be particularly strong colour contrast in a composition, or where there is a distracting element that you do not wish to be the focus of the viewer's attention.

Over the past year, regular readers of my blog will have noticed a tendency for this style of imagery to come more and more to the fore as I have experimented with the workflow.  It does not always work but it has become a bit of a habit for me to at least try it out on a lot of my images.  Sometimes it sticks but often I do revert back to the more traditional workflow. 

The exhibiton consists of a collecton of images taken over the past 12-15 months, plus some re-worked older ones where I felt this style might work well.  I have also included a few more traditional images as I felt they naturally worked well within the scope of the exhibition title. 

Watch this space as I am producing a pdf book for the exhibition which I will post a download link to here once it is ready.

In addition to viewing the actual exhibition if you make it along you will also be able to purchase prints, canvases and cards.  Many of my older prints and canvases will be on sale at reduced prices so try and get along to see if you can grab a bargain.  Please feel free to share this post and encourage folk to come in and say hello.

Last week I had a week's holiday with my wife and a couple of friends on Orkney, my first trip to these islands.  I went with great expectations of photographic opportunities and one or two specific targets.  However, the weather was not overly kind to us, with pretty constant low cloud and overcast conditions, resulting in very flat light. 

One of my main targets was to try and find, and photograph, Scotland's only endemic plant species, the Scottish Primrose, shown above.  This lovely little plant is restricted in its distribution to the extreme north coast of the Scottish mainland and the Orkney Isles, and I had dipped out on spotting it at Durness when on a recent camping trip with one of my daughters.  On this occasion it was really easy to find, and not far from the car park near the cliffs at Yesnaby.  The flowers are not very large, less than 1 cm in diameter, and sit in a small group atop a stout little stem (no doubt needed to cope with the winds), rising out of a fleshy cluster of leaves.  Its colours are really bright with a distinct white ring around a bright yellow centre and dark purple petals, as can be seen below.

Orkney came as a bit of a surprise to me, with much larger scale agriculture than I had expected, depsite being warned in advance.  Being more accustomed to small scale crofting as found in Wester Ross, the lare green fields of cereals and silage crops and numerous herds of cattle were more reminiscent of the Black Isle of even parts of Fife.  That being said, the habitats do support a good range of bird life with me counting around 65 species in the week, including Arctic Skua (Dark & Light Phase), short-eared owl and lots of Arctic Terns.  I had plenty of opportunities to try and capture shots of the terns as they paid me a lot of attention whenever I walked close to the shore and away from the main farm land areas.  The following shots are a selection of the best I manged until I had to leave to avoid being pecked on the head.  These are really noisy and aggressive birds and very protective of their breeding territories, as well as being spectacularly beautiful with their sharp white lines, dark head and bright red beak (very pointy!).

The only other bird shot I managed, which I was able to do anything meaningful with at least, was this one of a cormorant on a rock by the shore.  Not the best shot as it was at extreme range for my 70-200mm lens, even with the 2x converter as used for this shot.  The converter is not a tool I use often as it does tend to produce soft images, and most times I find I am better off simply shooting with the professional lens on its own and cropping the image a bit.

Despite its natural heritage appeal, Orkney is probably better known for its cultural heritage, especially the ancient remains at Skara Brae, Stenness and Brodgar.  We obviously took the opportunity to visit a good number of these sites during our holiday, and thankfully it was not excessively busy so it was possible to get some decent shots without too many folk in the way.  The next collection features various sites including (in order) the Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar, the Broch of Gurness, Skara Brae and the Doocot at Rendall.  For these, and most of the remaining shots on this blog post I opted for a desaturated, highly textured process to try and bring out the detail in the monuments and buildings.  This was really a response to the incredibly dull flat light that I had to deal with, but I think the results are pretty decent.

There are also many eclesiatical and religious monuments and buildings in Orkney, with the most spectacular being St Magnus' Cathedral and associated Bishop's Palace in Kirkwall.  I also wanted to visit the Italian Chapel on Lamb Holm with its famous painted interior.  Below are some shots (some taken on my phone) of these two sites, plus the remains of a circlur church which can be found at the Earl's Bu near Orphir.

We also enjoyed walking around some of the old settlements and towns on the islands, especially St Mary's Hope on South Ronaldsay, Stromness, the old fishing sheds at Marwick and the farming museum at Kirbister.  I shot the following collection of images and once again processed in a high textrue, desaturated style which I feel brings out the detal and textures in the stonework, despite the poor light.

To finish off, here are a few of my other shots from our visit, including some views of the Old Man of Hoy and the Hoy ciffs from the ferry, the cliffs at Yesnaby and a brief glimpse of blue sky, clouds and spectacular light.

This morning I was designated driver to drop off two of my girls at the station in Kyle of Lochalsh for the early train to Inverness.  Despite the early start this is not something I mind doing as I usually make the most of getting up early and head out to the crofts for a bit of birding or photography.  Today it was the turn of the camera rather than the binoculars.  Initially the light was pretty flat but by 7am it was much better.  The above shot was taken from near the station at Duirinish, looking towards Drumbuie.  The dark clouds in the background and shadow on the hill ground set off the bright sunshine on the township really well, with the wild dog rose in the foreground adding some vibrant splashes of colour.

The following shot illustrates well the difference in the quality of the light at 6:15am.  While the light was flat, the cloudy sky set against the wild flowers in the croft meadow made this an appealing composition, which I have photographed before.

While flat light is not usually that great for landscape photography it can be ideal for close-up and macro shots.  If the light is too bright you can easily get blown out detail on the petals and leaves of plants, while soft cloudy light is ideal.  As a result I started looking more closely at the plants in the meadows rather than the wider landscape.  I did not opt for true macro as it was quite breezy and the plants were moving around a lot, making macro focusing impossible.  Instead I opted for my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens, working from a bit further away.  The first shot below was actually taken with my EF 24-70mm f.8L II lens but I have included it for context as it shows the wonderful species-rich croft meadows in full flower just now.  The close-ups were all taken with the 70-200mm lens.

The last shot (above) is probably my favourite from the morning.  I really love the soft tones and the back light really brings out the subtle translucancy of the petals.  The cropped version focuses on the two main daisies without the distractions of the surrounding flowers and grasses.

Aside from the wonderful flora I was also fortunate enough to get a good sight of a roe deer before it ran away and jumped the croft fence, plus a male siskin kindly posed for me on a spruce branch.

Another feature of these crofting townships that interests me is the old vernacular buildings, the older houses, barns and the like.  This old barn sits at the edge of a small area of croft land in Duirinish.  Set against the flower-rich grassland, with the looming cloudy sky made we want to shoot this image.

Finally, as I got back to the car, the light came out to play again and I captured this shot looking across the crofts towards Duirinish, showing off the marvellous meadows in these two spectacular crofitng townships.

I got back yesterday evening from a couple of days farther north in Coigach, Assynt and Durness, with a detour home via Altnaharra and Lairg, and have spent a few hours today processing images.  Despite lots of driving I had plenty of opportunity to get my camera gear out and enjoyed it very much.  The above shot is one of my favourites from the tirp, although I have shot this old building before I think I prefer this angle and the clouds and mixed light on Suilven in the background make for a compelling composition.  It looks good in desaturated colour as well although, personally, I prefer the monochrome version.  I also had my Intrepid 5x4" film camera with me so I exposed a few sheets of film at this location as well.  I now have 12 sheets of film ready for development, so a spell in the darkrom is required soon.  Watch out for a post with the results.

The above shot is one of three that I took of old abandoned dwellings during my trip.  This part of Scotland is of course well-known for the part it played in the story of the Highland Clearances so it is perhaps not too surprising that there is plenty of evidence of older habitation, often in some incredibly remote spots.  It is, I think, somewhat ironic that so much of the north-west is not only denuded of people but also of trees and its natural vegetation, as a result of the extensive sheep farming that prevails there.  So, as you will see in these three images, there is not a lot of woodland, and there is lots of empty space.

Solmar is a small collection of old structures located on the headland beyond the old church and the golf course at Balnakeil Bay in Durness.  Just beyond the ruins it is possible to make out the ancient field patterns of what would once have been croft land which would have been cultivated.  Beyond that are the amazing sands and torquoise waters of the Kyle of Durness with Fashven in the background.   This image also works well in monochrome but in this case I prefer the colour version as the ruins stand out more clearly and the contrasting colours of the sand and the sea make it special, although the field patterns do stand out better in black & white.

The last of the three old buildings is located at Alnabad, above Strathmore, close by the minor road from Hope to Altnaharra.  This is a slightly more recent structure than those at Solmar but has none-the-less been long abandoned, and given its location in the middle of nowhere it is not at all surprising.  This shot was taken from beside the road, looking west towards the empty lands of the Reay Forest (an ironic name if ever there was one as there are virtually no natural trees here at all, only some ill-conceived forestry plantations).  The clouds were looming over the hills but there was some light getting through in patches, helping to illustrate the landforms.  The overall perception was one of desolation.  It must have been a pretty unappealing place on a bad winter's night.

This one also works well in black & white.

The following shot is my other favourite from the trip.  I really love the light that you get at Durness, and particularly on the Kyle of Durness with its amazing sands when the tide is out.  On this occasion the tide was well out and, while it was pretty overcast, there were gaps in the clouds which were providing amazing shifting light on the sands and the many channels by which the River Dionard reaches the sea.  I managed to time this shot to capture one of those shifting patches of light falling on the house at Altanan.  The contrasting colours and light and shade make this a really dramatic exposure and one that I am sure I will print so I can have it somewhere on the wall.

At Achnahaird Bay the Sea Thrift was in full flower on the saltmarsh at the head of the beach.  It was a truly impressive dislay of soft pink flowers, visible from the road.  I made my way down to the beach specifically to try and capture some shots of this colourful feature, set against the rugged landscape of Coigach.  These three are my favourites.

The following images are a few of the others I captured during the trip.  Some of these work well and others perhaps less so, but if you don't try things out you never really improve.  The black & white shots of the trees and the drystone wall didn't really come together as I had hoped, but I quite like them all the same.

Yesterday evening was one of those wonderful soft nights where the gentle breeze was just enough to keep the midges away without making it chilly, and the late evening sun provided lovely warm light on the landscape.  I chose to go for a walk around the coast from Duirinish to Port an Eorna and on to Drumbuie and the views across to Skye were truly fantastic.  My favourite plant, the globeflower, was in full flower at Drumbuie, overlooking the bay at Port Cam with the Skye hills in the background.  The above shot is my favourite, taken with at small aperture (f/16) to get the star burst effect of the sun. I exposed for the bright sky as I didn't have my ND Grad filters with me, and brought out the details in the foreground in post-processing.  One of the beauties of my fantastic Canon 5D Mark IV is that it has great dynamic range and when shooting in RAW it is possible to make these kinds of adjustments.  The following are a few of the other shots from the evening.

This month has been incredibly busy and as a result I have not been out with the camera for nearly four weeks.  However, yesterday, while returning to the house, I was taken by the amazing light shining through the vibrant green leaves of the trees.  I returned with the camera to try and capture the essence of that wonderful light.  I chose a small aperture to produce a star burst effect with the bright sun, and managed to balance the exposure reasonably well considering the dark shady foreground. 

The amazing blossom of the crab apple tree in the background stands out in perfect purple against the bright lime green of the new leaves.  The following shot is a close-up of the same blossom.  I really like this image with the soft tones of the purples of the blossom against the smore muted green of the new leaves.

Inspired by the wonderful late-afternoon light I shot a few more close-up images of various plants in the gardens.

The South Skye Camera Club held its first outing for ages and ages tonight with a visit to Cill Chriosd and Torrin.  After a quick meet up at the old churchyard at Cill Chriosd we split up to try and find some interesting shots of the area, agreeing to meet up again at the shore at Torrin.  I shot this, and the following variation, from the side of the loch, managing to capture the crepuscular rays breaking through between the heavy cloud above Bla Bheinn.  The colours were very muted with backlight from the low sun, and it was only when these occasional rays broke through that the scene merited a shot.

After a heavy cloud descended on the mountain I headed to the shore at Kilbride to see if a different angle, with the rocky shore in the foreground, might offer up something worthwhile.  The light was not that great on the hill with the sun setting behind it, but the following shot captured the scene quite well, with the sun illuminating the clouds just above the top of the mountain.  I liked the small rock pool in the foreground providing interest and colour among the rocks and the angles leading the eye into the view, countered by the spreading cloud pattern above Bla Bheinn..  Once again the colours were very subdued late in the evening and it was extremely cold for May.

The first overnight trip of the year, since lockdown, was to Uist this weekend.  We were very lucky with the weather, bright and sunny most of the time but the north-easterly breeze did provide some more active fronts, including the above which moved quickly across the islands from east to west.  The dark clouds and curtains of rain, offset by the bright sunny patch on the dunes and the amazing turquoise of the sea in the bay made this shot irristible.

Equally dramatic was the light at Clachan when we first arrived, looking west.  Again the amazing turquoise colour of the sea made this scene truly wonderful.  I particularly liked the renovated old croft house adjacent to the old abandoned one, and the ubiquitous telephone poles.

The trip involved quite a bit of driving, mainly to do a lot of bird watching - 64 species counted in two days, but I did manage a few shots in between.  Not surprisingly, the white-tailed eagle was one of the main highlights, but we also had decent views of a male hen harrier, short-eared owl, and long-tailed duck.  The following images are my other favourites from the trip.

The other evening I popped out for a short walk and took along my APS-C cropped sensor Canon 250D fitted with my Sigma 105mm macro lens, which is equivalent to 168mm on a full frame camera.  I was inspired by the latest edition of Outdoor Photography magazine which had a really interesting article on photographing flowers and plants.  There were not too many good photo opportunities during my short walk but here a few of my results - more practice needed and perhaps I should take the tripod with me next time as getting these remotely in focus was challenging.

A great day today, with the relaxation of travel restrictions we had a trip to Spean Bridge and Loch Arkaig to meet the in-laws for the first time in 16 months.  We had a lovely picnic lunch in the sun at the Forestry car park at Eas Chia-aig waterfall.  Despite it having been a long dry spell and most of the watercourses along our journey being pretty dry, this fall was still flowing well, although nothing like it would when the river is in spate.  The falls are in three steps, these two being the lower parts, with a magnificent pool at the base.  The early spring colours offset the brown of the pool and the blue sky really nicely, providing good contrast and texture in the woods around the falls. 

I used my Zomei ND64 (6 stop) HD Schott glass filter to allow the use of a long shutterspeed, in this case 1 second.  This produced a lovely smooth effect on the water, capturing the sense of motion really well.  It is easy to overdo this by using too long an exposure and all the water just becomes a blur with no details remaining.  I tend to favour 0.5-2 seconds depending on how much water is flowing.  I took a few shots from different vantage points with the above being my favourite, but I like the following two as well.  The first captures the rocks in the foreground, while the second was taken from between the two falls, and I like the patterns in the rocks, all of which are obviously covered in water when the river is in full spate.