This page is dedicated to a little extra information about the why and how I have made a few of my images, maybe it will provide a little insight how I make some of my images.

Please scroll down the page to view the descriptions.

Contents

Wild Maiden


Food for Thought


Rope and Rust


Buachaille Etive Beag


Red Estuary


Autumn Arrives


Crummock Water III


Guardians of the Glens



Wild Maiden

  Click to Enlarge

Nikon D300, Sigma 17-70 @ 17mm, Lee 0.9 ND Grad.
ISO 200
f/11
1/250 second

(1) CONTEXT
This view is regarded as one of the remotest in the UK. The mountain is A' Mhaighdean in the heart of the Fisherfield and Letterewe wilderness in the far north west of Scotland. The name translated from gaelic means The Maiden hence the titIe, although the gaelic pronounciation is more like a' Vy-t-chien. I had planned to capture this view for quite a while now as it will form part of a project I am currently working on. I hadn't ventured into this area prior to taking this shot and the walk in is about 15 miles from any direction so I had to plan this trip very well and have some luck on my side. I spent a long time gathering information about this trip from walking websites, maps and information from my brother who had climbed these hills a few weeks before I made my trip. It became very clear that I would not be able to get my shots or maximise my chances of achieving my aims with just a day visit so I decided that an overnight camp would be the best way of utilising the time best. I also learnt that I would be able to ride my mountain bike about half way along the loch that you see in the image which would reduce my walking time considerably.
Riding a mountain bike along a well made and gentle sloping path sounds like a pleasant way to start and end a few hard days in the hills, you'd be very much wrong to think this when carrying a very large and heavy rucsac full of camping and camera gear. The weight and unbalanced centre of gravity make riding on all but the smoothest surface a nightmare and quite frankly bloody dangerous, I nearly managed permanent self-inflicted birth control on several occasions!
I eventually made it to the loch where I made my camp and spent an enjoyable evening exploring and taking some photos, well it would have been if the midges hadn't of decided to eat me alive for supper. The next day would be the walk up a couple of the mountains to reach my objective.

(2) THE PICTURE
I had originally planned to either be at my vantage point at sunrise or sunset to photograph this scene but there was no way I was going to make it from my camp in time for sunrise as it is still a 4 hour walk to the top so I decided to have a leisurely breakfast and saunter up another mountain before reaching this vantage point. It was a long walk and quite a bit of climbing in hot conditions and I was very relieved to reach A' Mhaighdean summit around 1pm. Initially I was quite disappointed with the weather conditions so I sat and ate my lunch, whilst sitting and enjoying the view I noticed that there was subtle light shading and the sky was fairly interesting even though heavily clouded. I decided that I should make an effort to capture the view at least considering the effort I had put in and the pain endured sleeping in a tent overnight, I took a few hand-held snaps whilst eating my sandwiches.

(3) PROCESSING
I didn't really know how well I had captured this scene as it is very hard to evaluate shots on an LCD screen in bright daylight. It wasn't until I got home the next day that I thought there was quite a bit of potential in this shot, I only took 2 or 3 other shots but this composition and light shading was the best.
I just did my usual processing which was to gently coax out the contrasts in the sky and accentuate the shading over the mountain ridges. I did this by selecting areas with the lasso tool and creating a Levels layer then adding contrast very gently in small amounts until satisfied that there was a good balance between punchy contrast and believability - I can say that the scene looked very much like this, I think.. !
I may have done a very small crop and I would have cloned out a few dust spots in the sky but that is it, no sharpening, curves, doging/burning or anything complicated.

(4) OUTCOME
Well, I had a previsualised image in my head before I set off, I always have and its just a case of whether the reality of what I capture matches my expectations. I hadn't got to my intended vantage point for sunrise or sunset, this was partly to do with the weather conditions I was monitoring but mostly because my committment was a bit lacking, I blame sleeping in a tent when middle aged has an adverse effect on my bones.... and temperament.
The weather conditions and arriving at midday in the middle of summer are perhaps not conducive to great landscape photography but I reckon the view and the remote feel to this image make up for any shortfalls in light quality.
Overall I am very pleased with the outcome, it could have been a total washed out trip if the rain or cloud had moved in so I must count my blessings and accept that some shots will be what they will be, at least I have made my best attempt under the circumstances.


Food for Thought

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Introduction

I had no pre-conceived ideas about the capture of this image. I work in Aberdeen through the week away from home and during the summer often have a wander down to the harbour with the camera as a way to pass time. I had been down to this location a few times before as there is often a spectacular sunset behind the harbour and water but this particular evening the cloud was too heavy preventing a good light show so I adjusted my criteria and looked for something else to capture. The tide was coming in quickly and I noticed the old abandoned shopping trolley getting surrounded by the waves and water leaving it stranded. The sun hadn't set yet when I first decided to use the trolley so I set up a pleasing composition with the trolley taking a prominent role but the light was still too much and contrasty to achieve a slow shutter speed. I actually waited until about 45 minutes after sunset to allow the sky brightness to fade away to allow a much more even contrast throughout the scene, it also ensured that I could use a long shutter speed to flatten out the waves on the water as I intended a smooth appearance.

Equipment

Nikon D300 with a Sigma 10-20mm lens @10mm, Lee 0.6 ND graduated filter to balance the exposure, mounted on a tripod, spirit level and remote release.

Settings

ISO 200, f/16, 30 second exposure at focal length of 10mm but I had to correct the converging verticals of the harbour buildings quite a lot which lost some width to the image.

Processing

The RAW file was converted into a TIFF file in Capture NX2 without any significant alterations then exported into Elements 5 for final tweaking.

I follow a very basic and efficient post processing method which would have been as follows:
1. Select a few areas with the lasso tool then tweak local contrast with a levels layer. Typically I may do the sky a couple of times then select certain aspects of the foreground and trolley.
2. View at 100% and clone out any dust spots of very slight distracting objects, I may have cleaned up a stray light or piece of seaweed in this image.
3. Corrected the lens distortion and verticals that is apparent with this lens at 10mm.
4. Final crop of the image to exclude distortion correction and for aesthetic reasons.
5. Save as Master TIFF.

Summary

I had no intention to say anything or portray it as a kind of environmental statement but this is perfectly feasible if viewers want to draw any conclusions from it. I did give it a title that perhaps alludes to some kind of statement but this was chosen more for it's connection being a shopping trolley to push food around. Perhaps subconsciously though I am nudging the viewers to see some sort of connection with discarding things in the sea.
In all honesty, at the time, I just thought it made a different foreground element to a rock or jetty that is usually associated with smooth water coastal scenes.

I think most reactions to it would be from the connection with discarding things into the sea (although not my primary intention when I took it). I'm quite pleased it has had this reaction because now I think it is quite a strong image in this respect.


Rope and Rust

  Click to enlarge.


Introduction

This is an image that was a bit of an afterthought as I had already got my intended image and was a bit experimental as I was in relaxed mode after making my primary image.

I was stood on a temporary metal jetty on Loch Etive that was recently built to load timber onto boats to extract the harvest out by sea, I used the jetty to get an image of Ben Starav as if I was standing in the water itself.

Click to enlarge.

Ben Starav from the Loch Etive jetty.

Once I had this image in the bag then I looked around for different perspectives and noticed that the jetty itself could provide interest and contrast to the mountains.

The Composition

On one corner of the jetty there was the bollard and rope that would secure the boats for timber loading, I decided that these would make the foreground elements against the distant mountains. I had to hurry as the Sun was setting and had left a last strip of light down the glen so I set a composition to concentrate on the jetty elements and distant light. I was using a 10-20mm lens and chose 20mm focal length but this meant some unsightly plates on the jetty and a bit of dull unlit hill on the left side of the frame, at the time of taking I made a mental note to somehow crop this image later.

 

This is the original in camera shot compared to the finished square image, I think the composition looks a little vague and unfocused plus the rather unsightly metal plates on the jetty make four bold foreground areas and by cropping out I'm left with three more concentrated areas.
The unlit hill on the left is a bit dull compared to the rightside where it is lit.

The Processing

Well, a pretty straight forward square crop using all the height of the frame and shuffling along the horizontal until I cropped out the metal plates and left an even space on each side of the foreground elements.

A few small levels adjustments in certain areas to boost local contrast for the sky, mountain and jetty. I left the water alone as this I think takes a back seat to the jetty and the mountains and needs to play a subdued role.

The Shot

D300 and Sigma 10-20mm lens on a Manfrotto tripod.
ISO 100
Aperture f/22
2.5 second exposure
Polariser, reduced reflections a bit but primarily used to increase shutter speed.
Lee ND grad, probably 3 stop soft.
Cable release
Spirit level
Auto White Balance
Focused on the rope about 2 or 3 metres in front of camera.

Summary

A bit of an afterthought image and wasn't too convinced it would work when I took it as there were a few distracting things in the composition that bothered me but an image that I think is greatly improved and much more appealing for the square crop. I also hope I have created a contrast between man made things and the more natural appearance of the distant mountains.


Buachaille Etive Beag

  Click to enlarge.

Introduction

A winter mountain scene taken at sunrise, this wasn't actually my intended image I wanted to make for this particular trip as I had specific intentions of photographing the range of mountains on the opposite side of the glen.

  Click to enlarge.

I did get my intended image above and am equally happy with both.

Planning

I had planned this shot for a while now, I wanted it in winter with a covering of snow but not so heavy that the scene was totally white, this can lead to images being limited in contrast and looking a little one dimensional. The Sunrise would be at an optimum angle in November/December so all I had to do was wait for a day when I was off work, the right snow covering and the right cloud coverage to provide interest and colour in the sky but not to obscure the Sun at the horizon - pretty tall order for it all to come together and luck played its part I guess.

I travelled the night before to Glen Coe youth hostel after much deliberation of the preceeding weather forecasts, it was very cold with clear skies and a forecast of cloud above the summits for next day. The sunrise would be at 08:30am so I woke early and travelled the short distance to the car park, to my excitement there had been a few snow showers overnight down to road level and still fairly clear skies with many stars twinkling. I set off giving myself an hour and a half to be on top in time for sunrise and made it fairly easily but stopped to put on crampons as conditions became very icy higher up.

The Composition

My main intention was the Bidean range of mountains as these are the principle ones of Argyll and the mountain I was on (Buachaille Etive Beag) offers the best sunrise views of them. After taking my intended image I then relaxed a bit and scouted for alternative scenes. I chose this composition as I wanted to include the ridge I was on and the surrounding supplementary mountains to add some depth. The Sun had just illuminated the foreground so I couldn't resist placing a bit of sunlit snow into the bottom frame as well. The Sun had fortunately risen above the horizon with a thin strip of clear sky and a heavier cloud cover above it - absolutely perfect circumstances and I feel very lucky to be able to achieve my intended images.

The Shot

The scene was exactly 90 degrees to sunrise so I used a polariser at full polarisation to enhance saturation and contrasts.

D300
Sigma 17-70mm @ 17mm
ISO 200
f/16
1/15 sec
Lee 0.9ND Grad filter
Polariser.
Cable release
Spirit level
Tripod

Focused on the sunlit snow about 3 metres in front of me.

A slight breeze and very cold conditions for standing around taking photos, spent about an hour on top before descending in time for a hot soup before the next destination.

Summary

A lot of vision and planning went into this one and I have to say the results for once match and exceed my expectations. I just wish more trips turned out like this....


Red Estuary

  Click to enlarge.

Introduction

An image I made a year or so ago and without any preconceived ideas what I wanted to achieve when I set out. This estuary and the small boats are close to home and a place that I have neglected in the past in favour of always travelling to the hills and moutains to photograph. This particular morning I woke with intentions to drive into the hills but decided at the last minute to just have a look at some local locations for once. I drove down to the estuary, a place I used to dig worms and find crabs for fishing when I was young, I was taken with this little red boat and soon realised that the sunrise would be quite interesting so I concentrated on this scene.

The Composition

I'm a fan of water and knew it had to feature prominently in this scene, I placed the boat roughly on a third in the scene and used the edge of the water to lead you to it. A bonus was the anchor chain that also lead the same way, I got low down and included it as foreground interest and a leading line to the boat as well. The sky line was simply placed on a third portion and there is also another boat in semi darkness roughly in a third intersection but much smaller and less prominent but still an interest if time is spent studying the image, more luck than anything else though....

The shot

It turned out to be a spectacular sunrise that lasted for about 2 or 3 minutes and which few people would have witnessed, the Sun simply turned the clouds a stunning bright red as it broke the hidden horizon. The intensity was quite tricky to capture and I had to use 6 stops of ND grad that was angled along the water line but even this could not stop the red channel from blowing out in the highlights, I had to compromise and slightly underexpose the whole scene including the boat but knew I could do a few tricks in the RAW convertor to even the exposure up again.

Tripod mounted Nikon D300
Sigma 17-70mm @ 20mm
0.9 + 0.9 Lee ND grads at a funny angle along the waterline
Cable release and spirit level.

ISO 200
f/22, used so I could get a long exposure of the flowing water.
3 seconds exposure, enough to smooth out the water and eliminate the ripples.
Focused on the boat.

The Colours and Light

I had to do a little extra in processing to get an acceptable result from this one as the exposure was quite hard to balance between the very intense red clouds and quite dark mud and shadows in the boat.
From one RAW file in Capture NX2 I selected the Colour Control points and reduced the exposure in the sky only, this is a fantastic tool as it only adjusts similar colour pixels as the area you have selected without altering others in the image. I also raised the exposure of the shadows in the boat to give an overall better balanced exposure.

I saved as a TIFF then exported to Elements 5. Here I wanted to concentrate on a two colour theme, red and silver. The reds were there in the sky/reflections and the boat so I gently coaxed a pleasing contrast out of them using levels only. The grey/silver look was more a manipulation by me, the darker clouds were already a dull grey colour but the mud was a dirty brown colour but had lighter areas were the light was reflecting from it. In levels I selected the various mud areas with a lasoo tool and gently altered the brown colour to a more grey/silvery colour, I did this by just altering the red, blue and green channels until I had the desired effect. This was done very gently on different areas, little and often is the idea.
Lastly, once the colours were set I increased the overall contrast of the mud area to give a shiny silvery effect from the reflections, some people have commented that it is snow, wasn't my intention this and sorry for deceiving you......

Summary

A pleasing image that makes it all the more satisfying that I didn't have to travel all that far to seek out an interesting location and fine sunrise.


Autumn Arrives

  Click to enlarge.

Introduction

This is a local location that is close to home and I have photographed it quite a few times. I was in the area and had a bit of spare time before going home, it was late afternoon but maybe a few hours before sunset, the clouds were moving through creating gaps with bright sunshine.

I had finished my run over the hills and decided to have a look to see if the colours around this small tarn were nice and Autumn looking, in the Summer the grasses in the water are very green as is the surrounding foliage.

Composition

This is a location I knew well and knowing that the Sun would be 90 degrees to my intended shot, I had a very good idea what composition I wanted before arriving. On arrival I just did a little micro compositional arrangement to include half the bank to act as a subtle leading line to take you into the picture, I actually have some images with only water in the foreground which work equally well as there is enough grasses and cloud formations reflected to add interest without a leading line. I balanced the trees with the mountain on the right so it fills the gap were the trees finish but just include a little more space to the right to include the sunlit grass bank. There is actually another tree just out of shot on the left but I left it out as the frame would have had to have been wider and so loosing a bit of magnification on the mountain and adding a little too much foreground bank perhaps.

Colours and light

The reason for the image really as I love this time of year, mid October. Once set up I had to wait about 15 minutes for a brief break in the clouds for the Sun to intensely light up the foreground and trees. The trees had to be lit in this image as I had ND grads covering the sky but also just touching the tree line, they would have been too dark if not illuminated. The Sun was not so low in the sky so it still cast light over the water and lit up the grasses and bracken, not every landscape has to be taken at sunrise or sunset, especially in hilly areas...... :)

I used a polariser for two reasons here, firstly to reduce the shiny blue reflections from the water and to render it to a nice matte sheen and secondly to enhance the red and yellow saturation in the foliage, as a by product it has also made the sky a bit more contrasty as well by darkening the brighter highlights. The focal length was around 17mm but I still used the polariser against recommended usage at short focal lengths, I can get away with this on an image like this as there are no large expanses of clear water or sky to see the detrimental effects of uneven shading when used at this focal length. The Sun was perpendicular to the camera which resulted in the strongest polarisation but I backed it off a little to just add a touch of brighter reflections in the water.

The Shot

Tripod mounted Nikon D300 with cable release and spirit level.
Sigma 17-70mm@ 17mm.
Lee 3 stops of ND soft grad, can't exactly remember as it was over a week ago...the sky might be a touch over darkened in certain places but it pleases me...
Heliopan Polariser.

ISO 200
f/16
about 1/4 second probably, polariser adds 2 stops of light reduction. No wind and stable conditions.
focused on the edge of the bank about 3 metres in front of me.

Summary

A location that I decided on at the time, no real pre-visualisation as I knew the layout and what to expect. Lucky with the brief intense light and satisfied with the Autumn atmosphere on this easily accessible picturesque small Lakeland tarn.


Crummock Water III

  Click to enlarge.

Introduction

A completely opposite approach to making this image than my "Guardians of the Glens" image, there was no long term planning or pre-visualisation with this one and it was fairly opportunistic and spontaneous.

It is a lake I know quite well, being quite close to home and I have ran and walked in this area over the years quite a lot but I was not familiar with this particular viewpoint and didn't know the immediate surroundings.

I was driving home from Scotland and knew I would be in the area at around sunset so was going through my list of possible areas that could provide a nice setting, I decided that I would try this lake, there is a car park close by and a ten minute stroll brings you to this small beach, I used the map to tell me this.

The Composition

I arrived with about 30 minutes of light left, the storm clouds had cleared and the Sun was now unobstructed out to the west and shinning down the valley with fast moving clouds overhead. The intense light was an important element to capture as well as the moving clouds but I wanted something in the foreground that was static to counteract the movement, luckily there was a convenient rock close to the stony beach. These would provide the foreground interest and possibly be enhanced by the isolation from the water if I used a long exposure.

The Shot

I took a few normally exposed shots but soon decided that a long exposure would work quite well here especially isolating the rock a bit more.

Tripod mounted Nikon D300
Sigma 17-70mm @17mm
Lee ten stop filter
Lee 0.6 ND Grad across the horizontal skyline.
Heliopan 105mm polariser set to reduce all the reflections around the rock, subsequently darkened the sky a bit as well.
Cable Release
Spirit Level
Viewfinder cap when exposing to reduce stray light into camera.
WB set to 10,000K
Manually focused on the rock before attaching the 10 stop filter.

ISO 100
f/16 or 22, can't remember but aperture was set to achieve the long exposure, DOF was sufficient anyway.
2 minutes exposure.

There are a few tips and tricks that may help you if you are using long exposures and a link is provided for further reading if you require

The Big Stopper, the big question

Summary

This is not a shot that I anticipated but one where I used a bit of quick thinking, local knowledge and that all important ingredient of "Lets just give it a go and see what happens" kind of thing.


Guardians of the Glens

  Click to enlarge.

Introduction

This mountain has been photographed by me and many others thousands of times before, it is the definitive and most iconic mountain in Scotland, the subject of postcards, calendars and it seems to be on everyone's list of landscapes to photograph.
Here are more examples of it and perhaps the more usual view of it.

 

I had decided over a year before taking the image that I wanted a different perspective of it, something a little unusual and an image that doesn't isolate it too much but puts it into context of it's surroundings.

Planning

I have driven past it many times and always thought that a higher POV looking onto it would be best, after much studying of the terrain and map I decided on a location from the opposite hill at a height of about 600m looking across to it. I stayed in the glen overnight and woke early to see what the weather conditions were like. I was hoping for more snow over the tops but the skies were fairly clear even though still dark so I set off up the hill to get in position before sunrise.

The Composition

I spent 20 minutes or half an hour wandering along the edge of the hill trying to find the best vantage point, I wanted foreground to anchor the image, midground scale and then leave the rest to the main subject. I chose this particular location mainly because the small ledge I was on fell away very suddenly into the glen and left a sharp line between the foreground and the rest of the image, I like this distinct portioning of the image and I usually look for a strong foreground. I think the foreground colours are important here.

I tried to include as much scale in the midground as possible by use of the river that runs through the glen, although I think I have cut a little off one of the corners and it annoys me a little, the road is an important element as well I feel.

The main subject is self explanatory really, it is the reason for the shot but I did try and include the two other significant mountains as well to give a pleasing 3 item theme.

The light was not really as I envisaged as I was hoping for the Sun to rise a bit more eastwards and to have been able to shine down the glen a bit more but this was taken in January and the Sun rose further around behind the facing crags, although I am now happy with the results after my initial annoyance when stood there.

The Shot

Tripod mounted Nikon D300
Sigma 10-20mm lens @10mm
Lee 0.6 and 0.9 ND graduated filters
Polariser
Cable release
Spirit level

ISO 200
F/16
1/4 sec
Focused on the edge of the ledge about 2 or 3 metres from the camera.

A note about the Sigma 10-20mm lens: This lens can be a bit odd to use and has some strange characteristics. If you don't get close to an FG element or fill the frame with it then it can reduce most things to tiny sized objects. It has quite bad barrel distortion at its edges and has a wrap around effect of any lines in the foreground. However, it is indispensible for exactly this kind of image, a big scene with un-uniform foreground, I only just got all of my intended view into 10mm and considering that I couldn't go backwards as I would have ruined the view into the glen, then this is exactly what these ultra wide angle lenses are great for.

The Processing

Not much to report here as it was pretty much how it came out of the camera.

Shot in RAW, nothing done in convertor apart from save as TIFF.

In Elements 5 I used the lasso tool and selected the FG and increased the vibrancy of the colours and contrast with levels by moving the shadows slider into the histogram and doing the same for highlights. I would have moved the midtones to about 90 as well.

I selected the midground and did the same thing, increasing contrast with levels

For the sky I selected a few areas with the lasso and altered the contrast very subtly in certain areas to give more depth. I usually spend most of my time and attention to skies as these can often make or break the dramatic effects of an image.

I didn't alter any saturation or do any dodge/burn.

Summary

Initially I was a bit disappointed with this image as after over a year of planning and imagining what I wanted to capture, it turned out different, the amount of snow and angle of the light. I soon got over that though and regard it as one of my finest images to date. It is one of them images that has been thought about, imagined and planned for a long time before I attempted it and now as a result get a lot of satisfaction from it...I just wish they would all turn out like this.