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.

Landscape photography aesthetics - Atmospheric hills

What the UK's hills lack in stature they make up for in atmosphere, courtesy of North Atlantic weather systems, driven by the jet stream. The atmosphere manifests itself as precipitation, cloud and wind, that provide the opportunity for atmospheric images and pose genuine questions of a landscape photographers endeavour, gear and technique, in the field.

Personally there's some appeal in making images in dynamic weather in the uplands and with a slice of good fortune, the cloud breaks to let sunlight through and play over the land as just reward for the effort and perseverance, it helps offset the days when things didn't quite go to plan. It was heartening and refreshing to see Mark Littlejohn's image of Glencoe awarded the LPOTY title, which captured the nature of that Glen well.

Average annual rainfall exceeds 4 metres on the higher hills in Wales, England's Lake District and the North West Highlands of Scotland. The summit of Ben Nevis reportedly clocks up on average,  250+ days annually with gale force winds over 50 mph and even down at 400m asl on lower hills and upland areas, there's still over 2.5 metres of rainfall annually and winds over 50 mph are not uncommon. The true nature of the UK's hills and uplands is a wet and windy one, as anyone who takes an interest in the Mountain Weather Forecast will attest.



The prime reason for monitoring the weather forecast is the hostility of the UK's weather, the only historic data I could find was from the Cairngorms automated weather station data which gives an indication of the weather severity in the hills.

Caingorm AWS

From the wind chill table above, an increase in windspeed and drop in temperature, changes the weather in July on the Cairngorm summit from pleasant to something potentially serious, if clothing is wet. It seems surprising that mountain hypothermia or the Cold Wet Killer was a phenomenon little understood until relatively recently from research precipitated by a tragic incidents. Two incidents come immediately to mind, in 1951 4 mountaineering club members died walking along the Uisge Labhair to the Ben Alder Cottage and in 1964 the deaths of 3 walkers on the Four Inns walk in the Peak District. The Four Inns Walk tragedy initiated medical research into the physiology of hill walking exposure. The risk of exposure, emphasises that in upland environments, outdoor gear is worn and carried that is proven fit for purpose and kit also packed to deal with an emergency, which with camera gear makes for a heavy backpack. A piece of kit that differentiates the upland landscape photographer, is the use of a technical backpack, instead of the frankly lame and marketing hyped, expensive, PoS, dedicated camera backpack.

There's also some pragmatism needed with upland weather, as there will be trips where all that results is an enhanced respect for the ability of native fauna to cope with the elements, the performance of outdoor gear given a field test and the joy of navigation with compass bearings. When deciding on what outdoor wet weather clothing to buy, an excellent starting point would be that used by unsponsored mountain guides or better still Mountain Rescue Team members as to the brands that actually perform in the hills. It's also interesting to note the choices by MRTs operating in different seasons and areas. If you ever get the opportunity, gamekeepers are well worth engaging in conversation, once you get past their dour exterior, they're really quite friendly and possess a wealth of practical knowledge of the outdoors and particularly of 'their' hills and moors.

My preference for camera gear is similar to my outdoor gear and is biased to weather sealing and build quality, which carry a weight penalty. Before wasting time and effort expended in the hills, it is well worth testing new gear at low levels in strong wind/rain to identify any weaknesses and/or establish the limits of the field performance. If you consider that a tripod is an essential component of your kit for composition and enabling long exposures at stopped down apertures and low iso, then tripod legs and heads are definitely worth investigating to ascertain the optimal weight/stability/ruggedness/height ratio.

It might just be me, but for a few years now,  I have been more interested in landscape photography emanating from hill walkers, backpackers and other outdoor communities, part of the reason is their empathy with the landscape and weather which manifests itself in some compelling work.

Landscape photography aesthetics - wet rock surfaces

There's a natural optical phenomenon where the colours of rock are more vibrant and subtle nuances of texture revealed. The phenomena is usually associated with a weather forecast of sustained rainfall, shower or drizzle, it is the effect of a wet surfaces on colour saturation and luminosity.

Temperature, pressure and time. NW Highalnds

The scientific explanation of the effect of wet surfaces on light and colour saturation, gets 'deep' quickly with terminology such as surface reflectance, albedo, roughness profiles, water film thickness, absorption, material porosity ...  It is much simpler to conduct an empirical test, by collecting a smooth surfaced rock and a rough piece of rock, examine them dry, then apply water and observe the colour change between wet and dry surfaces and light reflectance from different view points in relation to differing natural lighting regimes.

Erratics and glacial scouring, NW Highlands

The curious landscape photographer should make a point of picking up the odd rock on their travels and then at their leisure photograph the rock collection when wet/dry with blue sky and cloud overhead to observe the effect of colour saturation and light reflection and draw their own conclusions.  My own aesthetic preference is from wet, damp and lastly bone dry rock, which probably explains the popularity of polarising filers for photographing desert scenery and why overnight rain or dew contributes to the vibrant colours of dawn.

Dawn colour, Snowdonia NP

Landscape aesthetics and philosophy

One upside of sharing digs with humanities students was the window into a different outlook on the world from an engineering students, where ‘Laws’ and ‘First principles’ frame the subjects.  There would be idealistic and ‘lively’ discussions on the brain and human perception of the world, nature vs nurture, what is reality, the great artists creative works etc. The 'conversations' on right and left brain characteristics were less polarising as everyone seemed to some extent, to have both right and left brain characteristic traits. The perception of order and disorder was one area where everyone could find common ground, usually in a visual context, music was invariably too polarising and the sciences too complicated. The works of Rothko, Dali, Turner, Pollock, DaVinci, Picasso, Hepworth, Lascaux cave paintings, aboriginal art, architecture et al, were appropriated for argument heated discussions. Which essentially boiled down to subjectivity, everyone has their own visual preferences, some artist's are definitely 'marmite', others 'vanilla', none garnered universal approbation. Principle reasons for liking/disliking an artwork was the degree of visual complexity, balance and subject. This was in the time before Wiki or Google, so books and papers were used to reinforce/undermine an opinion or stance, it is surprising how far someone will go to, to passionately defend an artwork. There were also the insights into art history; the value of patronage in raising a profile and gaining wider recognition; artists whose work was feted postmortem and artists whose work was denigrated postmortem; the influence of the establishment, curriculum, teachers and acolytes; the critics, envy, jealousies and egos of artists; the differing art schools movements and not least being in the right place at the right time. On reflection the history of landscape photography is reminiscent of the history of art.

Horizontal layers of moor, trees, hills and sky

Years later I was left to reflect again on visual perception, when a presentation of isometric drawings and elevation plans of a proposed facility met with blank incomprehension from some end users. Back to the drawing board, or in this case an easel, artistic renderings were produced to illustrate the proposed facility, which allowed the end users to critique and buy into the project, which they did. I was left to reflect on how peoples perception of images differ. 

Glacial scouring and erratics

A few years ago I raised the issue of left and right brain characteristics commenting on an article in an online Landscape photography magazine, the context of my comment was that some photographers have a visual stylistic compositional template that is applied to their landscape compositions. The response was a deafening silence and I was left to ponder if my comments were too gauche for the sensibilities of the readership or if I had just inadvertently offended a large section of the community.  

Gneiss terrain 

This 'visual stylistic compositional template' I was referring to, minimises the elements in an image to reduce visual complexity and impose a compositional order on the scene. A prime examples is the layering of distinct horizontal elements in an image i.e  field, hedgerow, sky; salt flat, mountain range, sky; sand, sea, sky; river, moorland, hillside; moorland, distant hills and sky. Low relief landscapes lend themselves to these compositions and lenses can exploit this flattening and layering through their field of view and perspective. Oftentimes there is a single anchor point or element included in the composition be it a boulder, grass tussock, driftwood, tree, lighthouse, tower, building, sign, pier, ice berg, standing stone, jetty etc juxtaposing against horizontal layers and according to art critics 'invites the viewer to look more closely and ask questions of the photographers intent'.  Given the endless compositional potential, there are many landscape photographers who devote themselves exclusively to making images that fall within the aforementioned remit. The resulting images are visually clean, a high degree of order and easy on the eye, what's not to like?  

Interlocking spurs

Well framing the discussion from an alternative viewpoint that has a preference to more visually complex images; there are an endless number of images invariably marketed as fine art with very little interesting content; bland scenery and subject matter; compositionally cliched; soulless; the juxtaposition of a boulder, grass tussock, driftwood, tree, lighthouse, tower, building, sign, pier, ice berg, standing stone, jetty etc is so contrived and according to art critics 'invites the viewer to look more closely and examine the image to see what has been cloned out'. What's there not to dislike? 

Visually complex terrain, weather and lighting

I recollect when starting out on my journey in landscape photography reading articles listing the 'Greatest landscape photographers'  or bestowing the rather grand accolade of 'Master of landscape photography' and feeling perplexed as many of the said Greatest or Master landscape photographers images, whilst demonstrating great technique, understanding of light etc in my subjective opinion, the images held very little subject interest and were devoid of inspiration.  I was drawn to more visually complex terrain, to make images that convey the landscape complexity and visually impart my curiosity on geology and the environment. Which to a certain degree underpins my landscape photography aesthetic and philosophy.

Note - the images in this post were made on a trip to Senja, Norway. September 2014. 

Bluebell woodland landscapes - aesthetics and a philosophy.

Bluebells under a woodland canopy of trees in newly emergent leaves, is one of nature's more appealing floral displays and a challenging one for making an image that does justice to the scene. It is said that there are three types of aesthetic interest in a photograph: composition, the knowledge imparted on the subject and the photograph itself. I'm also tempted to add that the aesthetics of lens bokeh and rendition is the only aesthetic interest for some photographers.

 Mature oak underplanted with oak and beech.

Bluebells are slow colonisers and to establish a bluebell carpet requires time, undisturbed soil and a long period of woodland cover to form the requisite habitat for bluebells to spread and flourish.  This slow colonising rate make bluebells an indicator species for ancient woodland, which is defined as a wood with continuous tree cover since 1600 AD.
It's always interesting and informative viewing other photographers' images of bluebell woodland, noting the preference of woodland type, weather, lighting and seeing how the structure of woodland is incorporated in the composition of a landscape view.

Small leaved lime wood, with coppice shoots and suckers

At one extreme of woodland structure is what I'll term a highly structured or 'architectural' bluebell woodland which manifests itself as plantations of forest broadleaved dominants, grown and managed for prime grade timber. With uniformity of age and close spacing of planting encouraging straight growth, creating distinct verticals. Beech tree plantations form a closed canopy and cast a deep shade that starves the woodland below of light and sterilises the underwood and field layer of any flora that isn't shade tolerant, which in a maturing beech plantation is most flora, even beech saplings and epicormic growth are shaded out. The elimination of competition in the field layer, creates the habitat for bluebells to flourish, which they do with spectacular effect on the right soils.

20thC maturing beech plantation

Maturing beech plantations are a very clean woodland with smooth bark and for a wood on ground with low topographic relief, defined horizontal layering and lends itself to strong graphic compositions, even with the absence of sunlight, there's an inherent depth to a view.
Ecological interest is confined to a narrow range of shade tolerant specialists and what the dormant soil seed bank throws up when the wood is harvested or when the canopy opens up.

 Predominantly mature beech, with ash, underwood and natural regeneration in the field layer.

At the other extreme are unstructured woodlands with a mixture of natural tree species, from veteran trees, snags, derelict coppice to saplings and seedlings, a range of canopy light regimes, a diverse underwood including coppice shoots, varied field and ground layer with wind throw. In this type of woodland, there will be areas of the wood barren of bluebells through to dense bluebell carpets.  There's usually some topographic relief to contend with too, especially on the western side of the UK.
Photographers hoping for ordered verticals and horizontals in their compositions will be frustrated by he level of complexity and compositions will prove unrewarding when viewed retrospectively. There's no real compositional template and it's down to the experience gained from past failure to make a rewarding photograph.
Ecologists tend to use this type of woodland as an exemplar of biodiversity and these woods are owned/managed by Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust, RSPB etc

Mixed woodland and boulders 

Since this is a blog post on bluebell woodland photography aesthetics and not a discourse on bluebell woodland types, I'll only add there are a myriad types of bluebell woodland between the extremes of structured/architectural and unstructured/ecological. Generalising and if you prefer photographing  structured/architectural bluebell woods you'll end up visiting Forestry Commission plantation woodland and if you prefer the less structured/ecological woodlands you'll probably be in a nature reserve and whilst a delight to wander around in, it can be challenging to photograph.

A problematic area is wind and its effects with longer exposure times in woodlands on blurred foliage and flowers, raising ISO values and larger apertures to eliminate motion blur of foliage is not as effective as one would think or even desire.  My memory of a visit to a bluebell wood even in a gale, is a snapshot of still flora and not one of motion blurred leaves and flowers, although I'm conscious of the reality of wind and disturbed foliage, the effect of blurred foliage in an image I find aesthetically objectionable. Which doesn't mean abandoning a trip to bluebell woodland if wind is forecast, it means an adjustment to camera/lens settings, seeking out sheltered woods or a sheltered aspect of a wood and patiently waiting for an opportunity between wind gusts. It is worth heading out even in less than desirable weather as peak condition for a bluebell woodland lasts for a matter of days. I have enough experience of bluebell woodland photography to realise how dynamic an environment woodlands are, far more so than many other landscapes and the scene may not be there next year or even for the next decade.

A bluebell wood impacted by mechanised harvesting operations for some years to come

Whilst researching the online archive of articles and discussions on photographing bluebell woodland, I've stumbled upon some interesting commentary on photographing bluebell woods, some of it surprisingly honest in describing the challenges, some of it all so predictable. The issues of polarising filters and colour rendition were expected and easily remedied in the field by removing the filter. Getting bluebell colour right doesn't need advanced photoshop skills, only some thought, careful observation in the field and experience.

19thC oak plantation with emerging bracken

The surprising commentary was from the 'online cognoscenti' bemoaning bluebell woodland photographs 'it's all been done before' 'cliche subject' 'no originality' 'same old, same old' ...   Really?  Now, I've never been tempted to ask anyone to qualify their opinion, but would concede that rocking up at the tripod holed ground of Micheldever wood to photograph the beech and bluebells might qualify as a photographic cliche and the use of intentional camera movements certainly qualifies as a tiresome photographic cliche.  However, the highbrow nature of some commentary suggests the large and medium format film landscape aficionados are weighing in. I'm not being snarky, but I've seen enough images by LF/MF film users to know that normally they have no problem photographing cliches, so why the venting of spleens on bluebell woods? I suspect it may be due to film's colour rendition of a bluebell wood and high ISO incapability, oh and I've yet to see a convincing black and white photograph of a bluebell wood. I'm not trying to be too precious about photographing bluebell woodland landscapes, but given the demands on time in visiting and locating bluebell woods, the effort expended, long learning curve and the lottery of weather, it is perhaps no coincidence that it's easier to make condescending remarks than to show any appreciation or aptitude for it.