5 Great Landscape Photography Books - On My Bookshelf S01E01
In the blog this week I tell you about a new video series I'm creating and what my 5 favourite landscape photography books are.
A New Video Series
For me, photography books are still very important in my development as a landscape photographer. I value the experience that a book gives me. Rather than simply just scrolling through an image feed on one of the popular photo sharing sites, reading a book gives me the time to really look at a photograph. It's a more involved experience and I like the way it forces me to take time away from the computer to look at an image in detail. Besides, looking at photographs in print is always a great experience.
So I've decided to create a new series of videos for my YouTube channel called On My Bookshelf. In each video will talk about a book (or even a few books) that are important to me and tell you why. I think we all should spend more time reading photography books, and hopefully, these videos will give you some ideas on what to read next.
5 Great Landscape Photography Books
For my first video in this series, I tell you about my 5 favourite landscape photography books.
I hope you enjoyed the video and that it has inspired you to grab your favourite photography book. If you are interested in picking up any of the books I mentioned in the video, you can use the following links:
The Causeway Coast by Steven Hanna (ISBN 978-0857043047) - Amazon or direct from Steven for signed copy
The Art of Landscape Photography by Ross Hoddinott and Mark Bauer (ISBN 978-1781450529) - Amazon
Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Portfolio 26 (ISBN 978-0565093952) - Amazon
Photographing Cornwall and Devon by Adam Burton (ISBN 978-0992905132) - Amazon
Landscape Photographer of the Year: Collection 1 (ISBN 978-0749552244) - Amazon
The links used above are Amazon affiliate links. By buying through the links I may receive a commission for the sale. This has no effect on the price for you.
There are a number of exciting landscape photography books coming out over the next few months so be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you get notified when I publish a new episode of On My Bookshelf!
So do you have a favourite photography book? Which photography book are looking forward to seeing next? Let me know in the comments below.
Glencoe Adventure - Part 1, The Workshop
In this first of two special Glencoe blog posts I'll share with you my images and stories from the Dawn 2 Dusk Glencoe workshop that I attended recently. It was a fantastic few days of photography. Though the weather was typically Scottish at times, the variable conditions resulted in some awesome images.
The Importance of Adventure
I have talked about the importance of practising the art of photography on this blog a number of times. For me, and I expect this is the same for many photographers, most of this practice will take place in your own back yard. Not literally of course, but most of the time you are out with a camera it will be in your local area. For me, this is Devon with the occasional visit across the border to Cornwall or Dorset.
While there are many benefits to shooting locally, such as time and familiarity, there is nothing quite like the challenge of pushing the boundaries of your photography by going on an adventure! Adventure means different things to different people, but for me, it's the excitement of travel, of meeting new people and of course photographing something new. All these elements can really push your photography in a way that you sometimes just can't get locally.
Though I have visited Glencoe a number of times and even grew up not far away, this will be my first time in the area as a dedicated photographer. So while the area might be familiar, the prospect of photographing it was exciting, to say the least. Well worth the 3 days off work (plus the weekend) and the 10 hours drive each way!
This week, in the first of two Glencoe blog posts, I will be sharing my memories, thoughts and photographs of the Dawn 2 Dusk Photography Glencoe photography workshop that I attended. Next week, in part 2, I will be sharing the images and video that I took with some of the extra time I had in Glencoe.
Why Workshops are Important
So why didn't I just spend all the time I had in Glencoe doing my own thing? Well, for me at least, workshops provide a number of unique benefits that I can't get by shooting on my own:
Practical and Artistic Development - Tuition is still a big part of my development as a landscape photographer and for the Glencoe workshop, I had access to two of the UK's leading landscape photographers, Ross Hoddinott and Adam Burton. Having access to this level of photographer not only helps with the artistic side of my photography but also with some of the more practical aspects of photography (read how later in the blog post).
Being Social - The life of a landscape photographer can be a solitary existence, especially if you favour early mornings like me. However, every now and again it's just good to be around like-minded individuals. Just by chatting during the day you can not only learn about how your photography looks to others, but also learn from their photography. At night, normally around the bar, it is a great chance to share those funny, odd, or disastrous trips out with the camera.
Local Knowledge - There is only so much planning and preparation you can do on the computer. In order to maximise time with the camera when you arrive at a new location, it's sometimes useful to have access to some local knowledge. For me, workshops provide me with an introduction to the photographic possibilities of an area and while I could do this myself I don't always have the extra time.
So now that we've talked about the importance of adventure and the value in workshops, let's get into the most important aspects of this adventure, the photographs!
Day 1: Castle Stalker
The 2.5-day workshop started with a briefing at our base of the Clachaig Inn just outside Glencoe village. Adam and Ross managed to suitably embarrass me by remembering my birthday with a chocolate cake and singing happy birthday! After the very sociable start of coffee and cake, we all headed down for a sunset shoot at Castle Stalker on Loch Linnhe.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8, @ 200mm, f/8, 1/60th second, ISO 100, Lee Filters ND Grad, 16:9 crop.
As you can see from the shot above, the descending sun illuminates the side of the castle rather nicely. I was hoping to get a similar shot to this with water surrounding the island, but as the tide came in the light became flat thanks to some heavy cloud where the sun was setting.
It was still a good start to the workshop and we all headed back to the hotel for some well-earned food and drinks.
Day 2: Lochan na Fola and Stob nan Cabar
As you might expect with a landscape photography workshop it was an early start to the 2nd day. Fortunately, the drive to our next location of Lochan na Fola wasn't far from our hotel so the alarm call wasn't too early.
When we arrived at Lochan na Fola the water was beautifully still giving us some wonderful reflections of Stob nan Cabar. Just as we setup though some cloud rolled in blocking the view of the mountain. As we waited I decided to try out my new drone the DJI Mavic Pro. The arrival of the drone caused a bit of excitement amongst the group as I demonstrated some of its capabilities. While I couldn't get find a gap in the cloud to fly a little higher, I did get the chance to grab a quick group shot.
We didn't have to wait to long for the cloud to clear though and all of sudden it was battle stations as we were presented with some truly epic scenes!
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 18mm, f/11, 1/20th second, ISO 100, Lee Filters Circular Polariser.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 26mm, f/11, 1/20th second, ISO 100, Lee Filters Circular Polariser.
I can't decide which of the two images above I like the most. Both of them greatly appeal to me with their near perfect reflections and frosty reeds in the chilly lochan. It would have been so easy just to go back to the hotel and have an early breakfast when the cloud came in, but everyone was glad they stuck it out.
Day 2: Lochan na h-Achlaise and Loch Ba
After a very successful morning and a big Scottish breakfast, we headed up to Lochan na h-Achlaise. Shooting around midday is always challenging though and coupled with the bright blue sky I did struggle a little bit to get some images.
However, by exploring along the shore line of Lochan na h-Achlaise I did find this interesting composition.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 @ 34mm, f/13, 30 seconds, ISO 100, Lee Filters Circular Polariser and Big Stopper.
Exploring just a little further I found this scene just off the road at Loch Ba. This is a more pleasing image thanks to the horseshoe arrangement of the foreground rocks and the reflection of the mountain in the water.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 @ 40mm, f/13, 2.5 seconds, ISO 100, Lee Filters Circular Polariser and Little Stopper.
I also had just enough time to try and capture a panorama of the area using my DJI Mavic Pro.
DJI Mavic Pro - 7 images stitched and processed in Lightroom.
Day 2: Blackrock Cottage
Blackrock Cottage is probably one of the most photographed locations on Glencoe, but it would have somehow seemed rude not to photograph it. After all, we were passing it on our way to get coffee from the cafe at the ski centre.
I rarely convert to black and white but in this case, the image seemed to work better without colour. The texture on the mountain (Buachaille Etive Mor) really stands out.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62mm, f/11, 1/25th second, ISO 100.
Day 2: Glen Etive
Towards the end of day 2, we headed down the long and windy road of Glen Etive towards the head of Loch Etive. Here the stunning mountains reach right down into the sea loch and it's an ideal location for capturing the last light as it touches the tops of the mountains.
As I waited for the light I was still able to capture some striking images of the north east shore of Loch Etive.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 26mm, f/11, 198 seconds, ISO 100, Lee Filters Big Stopper, ND Grad and Circular Polariser.
As I've written on this blog before it's always important to see what is going on behind you. It appeared that the sun was shining on the mountains diretly behind me!
Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 150mm, f/8, 1/5th second, ISO 100, Lee Filters Big ND Grad.
In my hurry to get to the head of the loch to capture last night on the mountains I completely missed another great composition. It wasn't until I was heading back to the car that I found a few of my fellow photographers shooting this interesting scene.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 19mm, f/11, 20 seconds, ISO 100, Lee Filters Circular Polariser and ND Grad.
I had actually walked by this location in my hurry to get to the head of the loch. Perhaps I should have taken just a little more time to explore this area before settling into my chosen location.
Day 2 was certainly a busy one. Would day 3 be just as good?
Day 3: The Study
After the successes of day 2, the weather had a change of heart and went typically Scottish. Lots of low clouds, and lots of rain. Our initial plan was to do a pre-breakfast shoot of Buachaille Etive Mor. We would go down to the river Coupall to shoot the waterfalls with the mountain in the background. Only trouble was you couldn't see the mountain or anything really. Reluctantly we headed back for an early breakfast and discuss our next move.
With the weather forecast predicting a stop to the rain, our tutors suggested we shoot from The Study, a slightly elevated viewpoint with excellent views of the mountains (The Three Sisters). Sure enough, the rain stopped and we were back in business.
I don't often shoot panoramas but this viewpoint seemed like the ideal location to do so. Fortunately, Adam Burton was on hand to give me some excellent tuition on how to setup the tripod correctly and the best way to rotate the camera. Taking my new found knowledge I managed to capture this image of The Three Sisters.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm, f/11, 1/100th second, 10 vertical images stiched and processed in Lightroom CC.
I then decided to opt for a much tighter composition giving me one of my favourite images from the workshop.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 90mm, f/11, 1/40th second, ISO 100, Lee Filters ND Grad.
Day 3: Stob Dearg and the River Coupall
There is no doubt that this location has been photographed a lot. However, that doesn't make it any less worth shooting. There are always new compositions to be had, different weather conditions to manage and personal style to put into an image.
The key element for this location is a visible Stob Dearg (Buachaille Etive Mor), something that was missing that afternoon. This made my decision a couple of days earlier not to photograph this very scene because "I'll be back in a couple of days", even more heartbreaking.
However, with probably an unjustified amount of optimism, I put on my wellington boots, got into the river and set up my shot. All I needed was for the cloud to clear from the mountain. So I waited, and waited, and waited. It came so very close to being completely clear, but as the sky darkened I knew it wasn't going to happen.
Though you can't see the whole of the mountain in this image, I still like the end result.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 19mm, f/13, 0.8 seconds, ISO 100, Lee Filters Circular Polariser and 0.3 ND Grad.
Though it had been a challenging day with the weather, it was still a successful day out with the camera.
Workshop Summary
At the start of this blog post, I mentioned the three things that I look for on a workshop; personal development as a photographer, social interaction, and local knowledge.
There is no doubt that my artistic eye has developed a little bit more and that I'm now better prepared to shoot panoramas. I also got to spend a couple of days with a great group of people who shared my passion for landscape photography. We all shared some great stories in the bar! And finally, thanks to some excellent planning and local knowledge, the weather and conditions rarely caused a problem with the flexible itinerary.
I've come away with some great images and some even better memories, so it was definitely worth a few days off work and a very long drive!
In Part 2...
In part 2 of my Glencoe Adventure blog post, I will tell you about the images I took during the spare 24 hrs I had before the workshop started, including a video of my very early and snowy ascent of Beinn a'Chrulaiste!
Volunteering on Dartmoor National Park
In this blog post I discuss the day I spent volunteering with a ranger on Dartmoor National Park and why it was important as a photographer to give something back to one of my favourite locations.
All those locations...
I live in a wonderful part of Britain. Even if I wasn't a photographer, it would still be wonderful. Living in Devon I can access virtually any part of the South West Coast path in less than two hours, Dartmoor is on my doorstep, and Exmoor is a stones through away. I can't really complain that I don't have anywhere to shoot. In fact my two main enemies are time and the weather, but I suspect these are common complaints for most landscape photographers.
It's all too easy to take all these amazing locations for granted. Aside from the very rare car park charge it doesn't cost me a penny to roam the coast and moors. As if by magic there are convenient car parks, clear pathways, signposts, miles of litter free land and even the odd well placed café.
It's amazing, but it takes work
The problem is that it's not magic. All our national parks and AONB's (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) require a significant amount of effort and money to maintain. It's not just important to keep these places going for visitors, but a great many people live and work there, as well as it being home to a huge number of species of wildlife. It’s all very complex and expensive, and very easy to take for granted.
Volunteering
For those of you who read my first blog post you will know that photography isn't my primary source of income. I have a full time job in IT and when my employer told me that everyone in the company was entitled to take one day a year to go volunteering I jumped at the chance. The only slight problem I had was where to volunteer. There are no shortage of organisations looking for volunteers, but I wanted to do something that was related to the environment. After all, as a landscape photographer I have a great passion for the outdoors and the environment around me.
I made the decision to volunteer for Dartmoor National Park after speaking to one of their rangers. I was at a local village show and I spotted a Dartmoor National Park van. It really stood out as it had a wonderful Adam Burton image on the side of it. I got chatting to ranger Pete and soon we had exchanged contact details. As a regular user of Dartmoor, volunteering for the National Park seemed the right choice.
Getting Involved
So a few months later, on a beautiful autumn morning on Dartmoor, I met up with ranger Pete for my volunteering day. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect but I was fairly sure I'd have to put some effort in. Sure enough I was quickly put to work replacing a couple of old footpath signs. This involved a bit of digging and though I wasn't used this kind of work it was very satisfying. After all, I've followed a few of these signs before so I knew how useful they can be! Besides, the work didn't seem so hard when you are working in such a wonderful location.
Job done! Replacing a footpath post.
Next up we visited the iron age Cranbrook Castle site where we checked to see if any more work was required to clear the ground. Fortunately it didn't and I was rewarded with some stunning views of Dartmoor and beyond.
The Cranbrook Castle site.
Next up I helped clear some low hanging branches from Rushford Steps. Here I used a very interesting extendable branch cutting tool. Got to love the power tools!! Even though we only cleared a few branches it made a world of difference to the location.
Clearing branches at Rushford Steps.
Rushfords Steps are now a bit easier to cross.
Our next location was a woodland path just outside the village of Drewsteignton. The ranger had received reports that the path was difficult to pass through so we got to work cutting, raking and sawing. This was hard but satisfying working. I could really see the difference our work was making.
Clearing a walkers path.
It also highlighted the need for some lunch which we did by driving up a rough access road to get views of the stunning Teign valley at Fingle Bridge. Never had lunch tasted so good or been eaten from somewhere so scenic.
The Teign Valley - a place I love to photograph.
After lunch we completed the path clearance and headed off to clear some more overgrown bushes in the village of Drewsteignton and near Castle Drogo.
We drove some stunning autumn tracks.
Towards the end of the day we decided to take a drive up to Fernworty Reservoir where my eagle eyed ranger spotted a stranded 4x4 up on the moor. It was just as well we were in a Land Rover because the trip up to investigate the stranded vehicle certainly qualified as off road. Fortunately no one was in the vehicle and the owner was quickly identified.
High up on the moor. No problems for the Defender.
As the end of the day approached and we headed back we did a bit of litter collection. As you can see people seem to drop everything from slippers to crisp packets.
Leave nothing but foot prints!
When Pete finally dropped me at my car again I was tired but happy. What a day on Dartmoor!
What difference does a day make?
But can volunteering for one day really make any difference? If only one person, one day a year volunteered then yes the difference would be small, but if lots of people donated a day each year all of that can add up to a big difference.
In fact lots of people do volunteer on Dartmoor each year and I'm happy to say that now I'm one of them. I've already decided that I will do the same again next year and if I can I might try and make it two days. I have limited time but it is important for me to give something back to the area that I like to photograph the most.
Good for my photography?
While my day of volunteering might not impact my photography directly I do now have a better understanding of the land and the effort that goes into managing that land. It's all very well taking lovely pictures of places like Dartmoor but without really understanding a location can you get the most out of it? Perhaps a more detailed knowledge of Dartmoor will allow me to create images that are more personal or portray the land in a more intimate way. Only time will tell.
Do you do volunteering? Is it for your favourite photographic location? Does volunteering directly or indirectly impact your photography? Let me know in the comments.