2017 Predictions

In December 2016 I made 3 predictions: A film's influence on landscape photography, an uncontroversial WPP awards and handheld photography. Here's how they turned out.

1. Although I enjoyed the Revenant story and scenery, the natural lighting employed wasn't quite what I had anticipated. From memory, the natural lighting seemed to be mostly courtesy of leaden skies. A compromise perhaps, for where scenes needed to be reshot or continuity of lighting was important. On the other hand, the film won plenty of accolades for directing and cinematography, so perhaps diffuse lighting was integral to the mise-en-scène? Despite the accolades, I do not believe the Revenant has had or will have any effect on landscape photographers abandoning composited skies etc. Time will tell if other film directors also choose natural lighting for their films too.

2. The WPP awards passed without notable controversy, radical proof that enforcing competition rules before announcing the winners, does actually work.

3. My prediction on handheld photography, I have no idea and no inclination to investigate further. I simply lost the will to monitor the landscape photography scene : It is far too insipid, hypocritical, narcissistic and wearing on the spirit.

Overall, really poor. Nonetheless, I'll try again and make another 3 wildly uninformed predictions.

1. Harsh Light, the new black

Business savvy landscape photography workshop providers, know there is an untapped market of wannabe landscape photographers to exploit, who are simply too feckless to make the effort needed for dawn and dusk excursions. Marketing abhors a vacuum, so the golden hours will be the new landscape photography workshop mantra : Mid day summer photography! Lighting added afterwards courtesy of digital software. The golden hours will be nothing to do with the quality of light, the feckless do not care about light quality in the field, only an end result that satisfies their delusion. The golden hours will refer to the filthy lucre made from exploiting individuals at their convenience. The photography media would champion this cause with relish, to fill out anaemic content and widen their dwindling audience. As a bonus, it will generate controversy too, as this time of day has traditionally been the preserve of middle aged males, typically Black and White landscape photographers, a demographic, vociferous in defending their artistic creative comfort zone. A google search of photography forums should easily confirm whether this has come to pass.

2. Post-truth landscape photography

The Brexit referendum and Trump election, have elevated making wildly inaccurate untruths as acceptable practice. I therefore predict a significant rise of untruthful statements* in the wider landscape photography community and a significant increase in the number of images, that will be underpinned by heroic challenges overcome, outpouring of pseudo emotive gibberish and spiritual epiphanies. Expect a backlash from some celebrity landscape photographers who will be threatened by this unwanted competition.

*A minor caveat though : post-truth has been prevalent in fine art landscape photography since its inception and widely deployed by some gear reviewers, with affiliate links for sales commission.

3. Landscape photography media

2017 will mark yet another year, when there is an absence of any commercial media not pandering to the lowest common denominator of landscape photographers  

3. Auteur theory

Finally a frankly ludicrous prediction and one I have so little faith in  a prediction for a positive development in landscape photography, where auteur theory is elucidated. This would encourage the not-so-confident landscape photographer to move away from the soulless bucket lists of iconic views and venture forth into the landscape, to apply their vision and knowledge of the landscape, weather and light quality, in creating images that underpin a narrative of their curiosity.

Autumn woodland - Forest of Dean and Wye Valley

With the 1st day of winter, this post is a retrospective of the autumn 2016 woodland photography, where I made a conscious decision to concentrate on the woodland of the Lower Wye Valley. Specifically the woodland growing on the steeper slopes of the upper gorge. The Lower Wye Valley is the habitat for some rare and uncommon trees. The challenge is : locating them, identifying them, finding photogenic specimens and lighting. Some species of Whitebeam are endemic to this area, the global population concentrated on crags along a few kilometres of the river Wye.

Whitebeam leaves and berries

Photographing Whitebeams, was an ignominious failure, identifying the species relied on determining subtle nuances in the morphology of the leaves and berries, I lost the will on that one. Whitebeans current habitat appears predominantly restricted to crags and their shrubby nature, proved too challenging for my idealised vision. I need to regroup and try another approach for the future.

Wild service leaves and berries

Wild Service trees, also proved equally challenging with photogenic specimens elusive.

Wild service bark

Ambitions for images of expansive views of the wooded river valley once again fell short and what I consider good lighting was used to illuminate the autumnal colour of the beech woodland on the slopes.

A wood amongst boulders of quartz conglomerate was also visited.  Harvesting operations a few years back, resulted in canopy gaps and deadwood on the ground, brambles that overran the woodland floor are being shaded out as the canopy once again closes over and saplings create an understorey.

A Scowles woodland, where I had high hopes for an image with a backdrop of autumnal beech trees never happened, the timing of my visit coincided with beech leaves having already fallen or were still green. The trip emphasised another indicator of ancient woodland, the heterogeneous rollout of autumnal colouration and leaf fall, amongst 'wild' tree populations.

The oak/beech woodland in the Dean, provided an image showing the intimate relationship between underplanted beech and oak timber trees.

A number of images were made for a couple of long term projects on decay in woodlands.

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 Only one trip coincided with autumnal mist.

And that was it until next year.

Isle of Skye - round up

The best weather day of the holiday was set aside for a trip down Glen Sligachan, Nic didn't fancy a hillwalk and the low elevation of Glen Sligachan enhances the prominence of the surrounding hills. Besides there was an opportunity for an image with early sunlight on the floor of the glen as the sun cleared the tops of the Red Hills to the south east.

It was an enjoyable walk, a stretch of the River Sligachan was explored, but the best of the early light had passed and with the Black Cuillin in close proximity, a wide angle, tilt shift lens would have been useful to preserve the true perspective.

The excursion turned into a something of a social, as a local professional landscape photographer, was met on the way and we chatted amongst other things about the current situation on Skye, which has grown to be a prime bucket list destination for landscape photographers and the photography workshop industry. Shortly after we stopped and chatted to two contractors heading down to carry out path maintenance on the slopes of Druim Hain, for the John Muir Trust. One was carrying a Hasselblad film camera and documenting the work and landscapes, with 'quality lighting' as part of a long term project, I'll look forward to viewing that body of work one day. Given the forecast of heavy showers for the afternoon, a decision was made to take advantage of the weather and change the plan, to view the Cuillins from further away.  We retraced our steps back up Glen Sligachan, as the showers started to roll in.  We then travelled to Strathaird, for southerly views of the Cuillin and Nic, could spot for marine wildlife in Loch Scavaig from elevated position.

The Camasunary track was taken, prolonged showers meant it was heads down walking and the opportunity to appreciate the geology exposures - sedimentary rocks, dykes and basalt. Nic, didn't fancy the walk to Beinn Leacach, she could scan the sea and coast for marine life adequately from Am Mam. A break in the cloud to the SW let some light through for a double rainbow. That brief window of light was the only one of the trip.

With dusk approaching and the hill fog lifting from the Cuillin, the opportunity was taken to make an image of the juxtaposition between glacially scoured rock and the periglacial landform of the Cuillin ridge.

There's something compelling about about the Black Cuillin in some weather, wreathed in hill fog and rain. I have yet to make the photograph that captures that brooding atmosphere, but the climate of Skye at least gives plenty of opportunities for practice.

The trip to Skye was an enjoyable one, a mix of weather, geology, landscapes, scenery and wildlife and a few areas/locations identified to explore in the future.

Isle of Skye - Geology

The Isle of Skye has a long geological history, illustrated by a Geology Excursion Guide that has 21 detailed itineraries, the majority are of 8 - 10 hours in duration. Located on the Atlantic coast of Scotland there is the prospect of some changeable weather, which means there is the opportunity for making a landscape photograph with a narrative of the geology and/or geomorphology.

View from the western slopes of Marsco  ~ 2013

One particular geological feature has played on my mind, since my last visit to Skye, in late November 2013.  I had followed an excursion in a geology guide book, down Glen Sligachan and ended up in Harker's Gully on Marsco, that has exposures of intrusive rocks in a composite ring dyke. In lieu of typing verbatim the geology guide description, there is a description of the ring dyke and its context within the western Red Hills (volcanic) centre on the BGS Earthwise blog or Geological Conservation Review. The ring fracture was differentially weathered into a gully and a distinctly verdant flora compared to that growing over the thinner soils on the adjacent granite bedrock. That geology excursion was compromised by the distraction of the views over Glen Sligachan to the Black Cuillins, glacial geomorphology and the course of the River Sligachan, that in places delineates the boundary of the gabbro and granite intrusions.

Screen shot taken from http://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain/home.html to illustrate Marsco hybrids of the western Red Hills Centre

For those curious about Britain's bedrock, the British Geological Survey has an excellent Geology viewer application to investigate the landscape. Below is a satellite image taken in late winter of Marsco, judging by the snow lying on the Black Cuillin, shadows and the drab brown foliage. Clearly visible are stripes and patches of green foliage.

Screen shot taken from http://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain/home.html to illustrate Marsco hybrids of the western Red Hills Centre

 Clicking on a green strip reveals the underlying geology as mapped by field geologists, which is the Marsco Hybrids.

Changing the geology transparency layer reveals the underlying geology and the green foliage correlates with the outcrop of the Marsco Hybrids.

On the visit to Skye in late October 2016 and in the itinerary under 'iffy weather' there were a list of geology excursions and two in particular explored the nature of the ring dyke further. First up was an impromptu geology excursion to the John Muir Trusts, Sconser estate, that proved interesting, but probably best visited after some drier weather, with lower water flows to make crossings easier and when the Sligachan 'peatlands' are less saturated. The plateau basalts, Glaimaig granite and the composite ring dyke of Marsco Hybrids are revealed in the stream exposures of bedrock and also on the north spur of Druim na Ruiage the Marsco Hybrids are revealed by verdant green flora against the autumnal russet flora of the sedges and grasses. Sadly by the time I had got to grips with the geology exposures, the weather had really deteriorated and dusk arrived. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the potential of the area and the backdrop of the Red Cuillins.

After arriving on Skye, Nic booked a kayaking trip on the day before we departed Skye and at the time the plan was to drop me off somewhere and then pick me up somewhere else at at dusk. The weather forecast deteriorated, with a weather front spreading in from the north around midday and so the plan changed, to me dropping off Nic and picking her up from the kayaking offices, giving me a window between 09.00 - 16.00 hrs. The leading edge of a weather front can deliver some atmospheric weather, so I decided on a walk up into Coire nam Bruardaran,  which was also covered by a geology excursion I could cherry pick from and if the opportunity arose, wander up a hill summit if the weather held. After dropping Nic off in Lower Breaknish, I parked up at Loch Ainort and the weather was pretty good, a few wisps of hill fog over Glaimaig, but the higher summit of Gharb-bheinn clear. A beeline was made for Gharbh-bheinn, the geology could wait until the descent. An hour later and the summit of Gharb-bheinn was 'clagging' up, sigh. I was passed by two local hillwalkers, who in view of the dire weather forecast, were heading up Gharbh-bheinn for a shorter hill day in preference to the Black Cuillin. In view of the hill fog I decided to concentrate on the geology and views from Druin Eadar Da Choire and Point 489.

Topographic expressions of weathering and erosion.

Where the ring dyke crosses the ridge of Druin Eadar Da Choire, its presence is revealed by a gully, the ground vegetation is less convincing, although the signature of the verdant flora corresponding with the Marsco Hybrids is readily apparent on the eastern flank. The view across Coire na Seilg, juxtaposes the weathering and erosion profiles of differing lithologies : granite of Glas-Bheinn Mhor and assorted intrusive/extrusive basic rocks of Belig.

Onwards to point 489, which for a modest elevation has extensive views. Any lingering hopes I had of taking in more elevated views were dispelled by incoming cloud and orographic fog. I should add that the western summits of the Black Cuillin appeared to be largely free of cloud/fog, whilst the lower tops of the Red Hills were afflicted by cloud/fog. A 'wee blether' with the two hillwalkers on their return journey, revealed that they did get a brief view from Gharb-bheinn's summit.

I did chance upon a Hard fern nestled in an outcrop of granite accompanied by some Fir clubmoss.

The western slopes of point 489 had extensive granite block fields against a backdrop of Marsco and the Black Cuillin. I did keep an eye out for any glacial erratics, but didn't notice anything, which suggests the block fields are autochthonous and generated under periglacial conditions, some areas of the slopes had distinct banded pattern of vegetation and block stripes, landforms indicative of periglacial mass movement.


The dark basic rocks of Garbh-bheinn, provided a contrasting backdrop to the granite block slope. The name given to this area is the Red Hills, I somehow arrived in an area where the geology comprised either dark basic rock or granites that were blue/green/gray when fresh and gray/brown when weathered. The weather as forecast deteriorated and I made my way back to the car, not a bad excursion and an area to return to again one day. I'll cover other excursions on the Isle of Skye in the next post.