The Art of Adventure Photography

Photographing in winter can often be a miss rather than a hit. The weather here in Scotland can tend to be mild, damp and grey for days upon end.

I’m quite frustrated at the moment because for the last month, we’ve had clear skies, beautiful sunsets and cold snaps abound. But now I have some free time to head off into the hills, the weather has turned very mild and grey. Not the kind of weather you want for landscape photography. So I’m house bound today.

So it was nice to head round to a friends house to get this image scanned in. It’s a Large Format transparency and I don’t have the means to scan it myself. We had a good chat about the state of photography and I thought I’d show you this image. It is a picture of the Buchalle Etive Beag, a mountain in the Glencoe region of the highlands. It was taken a few years back.

I’m a real sucker for this kind of light. Winter can provide some of the most beautiful light of the year. Those pink tones and blues are seldom repeated throughout the year. I just thought this image would make up for me not being able to head off into the hills. Until the weather improves, this will be my yard stick for what I would like to accomplish in the following weeks ahead.

I’ll be up in Applecross on Thursday to meet Mark from BBC Scotland’s Great Outdoor Show. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the dawn will bring something special. Until then…..

Hi All,

I’m off to the Isle of Eigg on Sunday to stay in a £10 a night caravan - no expense spared for me. This is part of my 2 week trip up into the highlands.

As part of my trip - I will be meeting Mark from the Outdoor Show (BBC Radio 4) on Thursday morning for sunrise. I’ll let you all know how it goes and whether they decide to broadcast any of my musings.

Until then……

I’ve just published information on some new photographic workshops that I will be doing in Scotland during 2009.

I will be conducting a one week workshop on the Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Highlands during September, whilst during October and December respectively, I will be holding two short workshops - weekend trips to Glencoe in the Highlands too.

Please feel free to checkout my workshop section of my site for more information.

I love many aspects of the photography world : landscapes such as Ansel Adams, Paul Wakefield and of course Michael Kenna, but I also like images which have no immediate asthetic appeal to them. Reportage images tell a story yet they are seldom beautiful to look at in an obvious way.

© copyright Fay Godwin

And then there are photographers that I cannot define so easily. One such person is Fay Godwin. Her images have a sense of reportage about them, yet at the same time, they don’t appear to have any particular message to give anyone. They just are.

But the reason why I bring up Fay, is that tonight I’ve been reading Elmet - a book she made in the 1970’s, and decided to look up the internet, only to find an interview with her with a line I feel I must share with you all.

Fay is asked the following question: What would be your advice to a beginner in photography?

And her reply is : Look at lots of exhibitions and books, and don’t get hung up on cameras and technical things. Photography is about images.

I’m getting all set for a trip up north. I’ll be hitting the Scottish Highlands from mid December till just after Christmas. It’s long overdue as I’ve not had much time over the past few years to photograph my own country and I have to say that I cannot wait!

So what I would like to ask you all is this: Do you ever plan trips to a place you love? If so, do you find that your mind ‘dreams’ up images of what you wish to photograph when you get there? Do you essentially day-dream about the experiences of being out there, roaming the landscape with your camera?

I know that my mind is currently filled with aspirations and dreams about my forthcoming trip. But it’s not just the images that I am seeking. It is the feeling of just heading out there with a loose plan, knowing that surprises will come my way and images will be born that I had never anticipated.

Then again, there is the sense of freedom I am looking forward to also. The right to wander the landscape during the small hours of the mornin once I’ve dragged myself out of my sub zero tent no doubt. I guess it all ads up to be part of one big adventure.

My rough plan is as follows:

Half a week on the Isle of Eigg
Then into Torridon, exploring Applecross beach with it’s fine views over to the isle of Skye
Then up towards Ullapool and Inverpolly which has some of the most distinctive mountains in Scotland
Up towards Oldshoremore beach reaching Cape Wrath, one of the most bleakest and barren parts of the British Isles
Over towards the Kyle of Tongue with expansive beaches and mountains
hitting my Dad’s house sometime on or before Christmas for some warm food and a bath no doubt.

So where are you heading to next?

I’m heading off to India and Nepal, for two months of photography in early January but I have the same dilemma I always have when I travel. What camera system should I take?

As much as I don’t like to focus on the gear aspect of photography, because I feel there is already plenty of that on the internet, deciding on what sort of kit or quantity of kit to take on a major trip is an important decision.

The first question I’ve had to ask myself is this : what is it I intend to photograph, and for that, I already know the answer - people, shrines, temples and landscapes.

I learned a lesson a while back when I discovered that taking too many systems, caused too much conflict for me. One system tends to get overlooked for the other, and inevitably becomes a bit of a dead weight that I wished I’d hadn’t taken with me. One of the greatest constraints is portability. It’s really a burden to have discovered that the camera bag is a lot heavier than I thought, once I’ve been carrying it for a few hours. But it’s also frustrating to see images that I know I cannot capture because I don’t have the right lens with me and I come up against the same wall each time : compromise.

I think I’ve got it sussed this time. I will be taking my Mamiya 7 kit with a wide angle, standard and portrait lens in one little bag and that’s it. I’ve bought the same stock of film to use throughout the trip so I don’t get frustrated at having the wrong type of film in the camera at the wrong time. So I’ve settled on Portra 160NC, because:

1. It’s a lovely people film. Skin tones are lovely
2. It has fine grain and is a decent speed
3. It’s also quite nice for landscapes
4. It’s a negative film, so it’s latitude is a lot wider than slide film. It’s easier to scan and it’s also a lot kinder to higher contrast situations which are common in Nepal. The light is often extreme there.

But I think the most important thing for me was that If I were shooting digitally, I would miss the beautiful rich tones I get from Portra+medium format. It’s as simple as that.

So here is the complete list of what is in my bag for this trip:

1. Mamiya 7II
2. Mamiya 50mm wide angle (my favourite wide angle, equiv to 24mm in 35mm land)
3. Mamiya 80mm (eqiuv to 40mm lens in 35mm land)
4. Mamiya 150mm (equiv to 75mm lens in 35mm land)
5. Sekonic L608 light meter (I don’t trust the Mamiya meter when using the wide angle as it’s essentially a spot meter)
6. Lee full ND kit (2 & 3 stop hard / soft grads + full NDs + Circular 105mm polairser filter
7. 100 rolls of Kodak Portra 160NC film
8. Manfrotto monopod (for indoor or shaded shots)
9. Gitzo 1220 tripod (for landscape shots)
10. Lowe Pro Stealth Reporter DW400 shoulder bag

I wonder what you found the most surprising in this list? It sounds like there is a lot, but it’s quite compact and well below the carry on requirements. Having one system means I remain focused on using that system. Having the same film means I don’t have to worry about changing ISO on the camera too (I know this sounds ridiculous, but I like to cut down as much chance of error as I can).Most folk tend to go for backpacks for their camera gear. I’ve lost count of how many bags I own at home and not one of them is ideal. I have backpacks but in general I really loathe them and here are my list of reasons:

1. Every time I want to take a photo, I have to take the bag off my back and open it on the floor. It does not give me immediate access.
2. Backpacks encourage me to carry more than I should
3. Using a shoulder bag means I have access (through a zip in the roof of the bag) to it’s contents. I can do this while on the move or in confined spaces where there is a lot of bustle going on
4. A shoulder bag encourages me to cut down the amount of gear I take. There is no space for a ‘just in case’ lens or something that may not get used. Because the shoulder bag has to be light, it is inevitably as comfortable as a backback is.
5. I’ve had things spill out of a backpack that hasn’t been zipped up fully. I don’t have to worry about that with a shoulder bag.

All these ideals and thoughts are purely my take on things and I’m sure everyone has come up with their own way of packing for a trip.  I want to be comfortable while I’m away and free to do what I want to do, which is immerse myself in the pursuit of photography.

ps. I’m still on the look out for a 65mm lens (great for street scenes), so my wee bag may get a bit bigger yet.

I lost all sense of context whilst on Easter Island.

In this podcast, I explain how easy it is to lose your point of reference in a new land. In this case, I found that after a few days on Easter Island, I felt like I’d always been there. Home felt like it had never existed.

I sometimes find I lose all sense of context when I’m somewhere remote, making photographs.

I’m just not sure if that’s a good thing or not.

Please click on the image to play the podcast

Now that I’ve brought up Ansel Adams in my blog, I thought it would be a good idea to also introduce Michael Kennas work. Both artists (and I mean Artists) have been pivotal to me in my own progress as a photographer. Ansel was responsible for making me want to pick up a camera in the first place, and Kenna has shown me that photography is about what you visualise and imagine in your mind. It doesn’t always have to be a verbatim recording of what was there.

Shooting throughout the night, he has a very ‘zen’ like approach to the landscape which I very much agree with. Photography is not just about seeing something and making an image of it. It is also about forming an emotional connection with your surroundings and being open and aware to what is presented to you. And perhaps just enjoying the moment.

What I love about this clip of Ansel, apart from how modest he is, and seems like a really easy going chap, is how open he is about his art.

He explains how he manipulated his images in his dark room, and how he liked to ‘visualise’ the scene before he took it. Essentially, the negative for Ansel was the starting point in creating his ‘visions’, and to look at the negative printed verbatim would have been an uninspiring experience. He coined the phrase ‘the negative is the score, and the print is the performance’.

Now what gets me is that there are a load of folk out there who think manipulation of the image is lying. And that it’s a relatively new thing since the digital revolution came along, but If you listen to Ansel, you’ll realise that manipulation of the image has always been there, and it’s part of the creative process of photography. Sure I love it when an image comes together that requires no alterations, but I do like to put my own ‘art’ into my work, as do many photographers.

Ansel was very forward thinking and he embraced the (at the time) forthcoming digital revolution. He thought it was exciting and it would lead to new possibilities. He was a purist in the artistic sense and was no dictator of what should and should not be acceptible as art.

Going to extreme lengths to get a shot of Cerro Torre, I ventured onto the southern Patagonian ice field.

In this podcast, I explain why sometimes, I go too far in the pursuit of an image.

Please click on the image to play the podcast