The narrative of an image

A recent review of my image archive and a question I repeatedly asked myself :

What is the narrative of the image?

Many of my early images were trying to conform with paradigms of composition rules for landscape photography : lead in lines, zigzags, rule of thirds and with the benefit of hindsight way, way too contrived. Some may think this a virtue, it really isn't, in too many instances it just disguised my ignorance of the landscape. An image narrative of ticking composition boxes is no substitute for interest and it is dispiriting to make images that hold very little interest.

2008 ~ Composition is no substitute for narrative

The images that held appeal were those that conveyed interest in the landscape and generally where I actually knew something about the subject matter. Which exposed an inconvenient truth: There were many aspects of the landscape that I was blissfully ignorant of. I needed to understand the landscape and know something about the landscape I was attempting to photograph.

2008 ~ A narrative of geology, ice phenomena and geomorphology.

The allure of waterfalls

The 18th/19th Century witnessed Great Britain's leisured classes undertaking tours specifically to view and experience landscape scenery from the perspective of Romanticism and then specifically to locations that were deemed to satisfy the aesthetic ideals of the Picturesque. It was a time that heralded the start of the British tourism industry, with guides, guidebooks, transport, accommodation and infrastructure, to satisfy the leisured classes. It is a happy coincidence that waterfalls are generally best experienced with high water flows and an ideal subject for itineraries in an oceanic climate, when weather negates the views from elevated locations.  Two centuries on and waterfalls, provide inspiration for landscape photographers, on days when weather negates elevated views.

From a purely aesthetic perspective there is something visually compelling in the juxtaposition and interplay of colours from white water, dark rock and verdant greenery. The camera may not capture the sound, but it can capture movement and long exposures create an ethereal effect on foaming white water.

Coincidentally in the 18th Century, waterfalls were also the focus of inquiry by early geologists, who investigated their relationship with the underlying geology to elucidate their nature. The geologists determined that waterfalls exploited weaknesses in the bedrock and their nature influenced by : joints, rock competencies, fractures, cleavage, bedding planes, faults, structures etc The character of a waterfall was determined by Geological control. There was also a dawning realisation that the waterfalls in the context of the wider landscape, represented a vast amount of time, to allow for fluvial erosion of bedrock. The vast time for waterfall formation were used by geologists championing Uniformitarianism and challenging the prevailing paradigm of Catastrophism.

An enlightening exercise

After years of prevarication and half hearted attempts, I recently undertook a comprehensive image library review, primarily to delete images and free up disk space. As it turned out, it proved to be an exercise that was enlightening for a number of reasons. On a mundane level a not insignificant number of images were ruthlessly deleted, for varied reasons, many of which I would euphemistically categorise as embarrassingly poor demonstrating considerable scope for improvement.  What was particularly thought provoking was revisiting images with fresh eyes and a measure of objectivity.

Locations to be revisited

A number of areas/locations had fallen off my radar in recent years, I have no idea why, nonetheless I'll rectify that with some future excursions.

2009 ~ A revisit is long overdue to this area of the Cambrian mountains

Weather, Air clarity and Lighting

It was disheartening to view images that suffered from poor air visibilty, numerous excursions suffered from haze caused by sublimated frost, water vapour, particulate matter or wildfires.

2014 ~ Haze in the Cairngorms

2011 ~ Haze courtesy of wild fire smoke, clear skies courtesy of a weather front that failed to materialise.

Then there were days when the cloud didn't break up.

2011 ~ Geologically compelling scenery that would benefit from more than flat lighting

Or hill fog put in an unwelcome appearance

2012 - Hill fog bubbling up at sunset on Aran Fawddwy

Then there were forecasts where the cloud base was too low.

2013 ~ Low cloud base in the Cuillinsv

I make a point of taking and saving a screenshot of the weather forecast before a trip, to see the difference between theory and practice. It certainly pays to be philosophical and accepting error margins with weather forecasts, as there are also days when the cloud base lifts and a break appears.

2013 ~ Cloud base lifts and a break appears in the Black Mountains

The attrition of wind vibration on image quality can be profound and unsurprisingly there are a number of 'soft' images deleted. Wind afflicted excursions are signified in my image library by a series of apparently identically framed images.

2015 ~ crop of wind vibration effect on image quality

Then there are wrong season and/or wrong place and/or wrong time, AKA hard earned field experience.

Experimentation

2009 ~ Polarising filter and peat stained water - not the best. 

In a moment of weakness I purchased a polarising filter and was underwhelmed with the lurid colours it produced across a range of subject matter. The small positive was the insight into marketing of photography products.

Image sets taken for panoramic stitching, in practise frustrating to execute well in dynamic lighting of dawn/dusk and/or atmospheric weather. I cannot recall who said it, but I wholeheartedly agree with the statement :

"A panoramic stitched image looks exactly like a stitched panoramic image, taken in weather and lighting amenable for panoramic stitching."

Sometimes it pays to set a manual white balance, most oftentimes it doesn't.

Philosophical

2009 ~ Abstract view of Dam overflow

From 2006 I followed my landscape photography journey and noted the change in subject matter preferences. Getting to grips with the challenge of woodland photography, the drift away from coast and seascapes, woodland plantations, ancient sites and the increase in visits to locations rich in geology and ecology.

2011 ~ Stone circle

It was a very worthwhile exercise and one I would recommend for the insight gained.

Snowdonia trip - December

The opportunity arose at the start of December for another week away and after very little thought I decided on Snowdonia National Park, a search for accommodation on the Friday, resulted in a cottage booked up for the next day. Nic, was left at home to fend for herself and look after the cat, whilst moi, would enjoy a week with no one to please, but myself. It's a tough life.

Migneint, Snowdonia National Park

I have a reasonable overview of the Snowdonia National Park and booked a cottage in Blaenau Ffestiniog a central location and with good road access to other parts of the Snowdonia NP. There are also interesting landscapes and geology in close proximity to Blaenau Ffestiniog, these being : Ceunants, Migneint and Moelwyns. Excursion itineraries were subject to the weather and weather resilience, with a list of locations to explore and subject matter, to cherry pick from : hills, moorland, ceunantydd, geology, mosses and lichens.

Ceunant

Ceunants are the Welsh name for gorges and ravines that have been fluvially eroded into the bedrock by water draining the adjacent higher ground and possibly sub glacial drainage. One ceunant is also a Geoconservation Review site for its fluvial geomorphology. Geologists have estimated their development has taken place over millions of years.

Ceunant

The steepness of slopes and inaccessibility of ceunants to grazing herbivores means that most have ancient semi natural woodland. The high annual rainfall maintains a high humidity and an ideal habitat for the bryophytes and lichens, of the Celtic Rain forest. These fragmented woodlands are part of a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) for old sessile oak woods.

Taylor's flapwort (Mylia taylorii) 

It would be fair to state that the Migneint is an extensive area of upland bog and moorland, courtesy of the climate and elevation. It is also where ice accumulated during Quaternary glaciations and evidence of ice flow can be gauged from glaciated bedrock and the quarrying/plucking of exposed bedrock outcrops.

There are also some compelling views of the Migneint and from it.

The Moelwynion are a range of hills, overlooking Blaenau Ffestiniog, little visited by walkers, who overlook them for the hill ranges of more commanding stature. Nonetheless the views are good.

Flush lines, blanket peat and glacially scoured depressions, provide a habitat for sphagnum mosses.

Whilst bryophyte and lichen communities take advantage of bedrock outcrops and boulders.

The Snowdonia National Park is predominantly underlain by Cambrian and Ordovician aged, sedimentary, volcanic and igneous rocks, that have been weakly metamorphosed and folded during the Caledonian orogeny. Some of the rocks tell the story of explosive volcanic eruptions generating pyroclastic flows with bedding surfaces, indicating pulsed flows, ash still hot enough to weld when it settled and volcanic pyroclastic breccia.

Pyroclastic flow with planar foliation and cross bedding 

Welded tuff with fiamme in-weathered

Volcanic pyroclastic breccia

I also chanced upon bedrock outcrops with igneous intrusions of flow banded rhyolite into tuff, cut by vein quartz (segregated quartz?) and intrusive rhyolite breccia with net veins of quartz.

Some outcrops of intrusive rhyolite presented an opportunity to photograph miniature landscape with an accompanying flora of saxicolous mosses and lichens

One dawn outing, suffered from a number of unforeseen events and own goals, on the journey and at the location, that culminated in a radical change of plan. The dawn colour was good, followed by a brief window of sunlight, before the sun rose into cloud.

Overall a good trip, a mix of weather, varied subject matter and plenty of photography opportunities.