Join the conversationon Joe Cornish – Reader’s Questions
These interviews and Q&A podcasts are not only very enjoyable in their own right (like listening to a radio discussion), but also excellent to listen to while scanning or post-processing images. Thanks Joe for introducing the two wildlife photographers you mentioned: they produce different but equally inspiring and unusual work. Adam [...]
- Adam Pierzchala, 22:12 11th Febon Put Your Questions to Hans Strand
Yes, medium format will have a tough future. Though there are still people (including myself) who think it is worth the extra cost to get an extra edge. The difference is more obvious when you make large prints. A one meter wide print from medium format will convince you about [...]
- Hans Strand, 20:37 1st Febon Samantha Gibbons
Hi Samantha, it was great to see your images and to read how you feel about photography! I like what you say, "how beautiful the landscape around us really is.. It’s almost religious", as I feel almost the same! Your vistas have this subtle but intriguing light but I also like [...]
- Beata Moore, 10:09 30th Jan
Featured photographer
Tim Parkin
Your humble editor, ex-mathematician, A&R for U2, web developer to the Queen, guitarist and general geek-boy.
Other articles by Tim Parkin
We’re featuring another digital photographer this month** who is from Yorkshire and came to my attention with his wonderful image of an old railway fence above Dent station. His flickr stream contains some classic compositions and I hope you enjoy his work and comments as much as I did
In most photographer’s lives there are ‘epiphanic’ moments where things become clear, or new directions are formed. What were your two main moments and how did they change your photography?
I’ve only been doing photography ‘seriously’ for a little under two years, so there’s been little time for epiphanies as yet! The two items I’ve chosen to claim as such may seem obvious, or at least minor, to many readers, but in a short photographic ‘career’, they’re my best offering.
Firstly, after having spent several months photographing the landscape around my home and making what might be called ‘advanced holiday snaps’ in Bolivia and on Easter Island, I wasn’t happy with the results. I was happy with some of the results, but not most. As you might guess, I was mostly going out during the day and thinking ‘sunny is good’. I thought I needed some help, so I booked myself onto one of Bruce Percy’s workshops, on the Isle of Harris .The idea of photographing when the sun was below the horizon had never really occurred to me, but the workshop concentrated on the radically different colours and effects of doing just that. This was epiphanic; not solely for the specific idea of twilight photography, but also in the simple notion of how significantly different landscapes can appear throughout the day. 
That’s entirely obvious now, but it made me think very differently about what I could do in a photograph, and it certainly expanded my ability to imagine compositions under different lighting conditions. Before then, I think I was composing shots moderately well, but I didn’t have much understanding of how light varied during the day, so that was certainly a major moment. It led me to see that, broadly speaking, I don’t like capturing obvious shadows: I’d rather capture as much as possible of the shapes and textures in the RAW file, and then dodge/burn the image a little later on to produce what I imagined when I captured it.
Secondly, I bought a tilt-shift lens in February of this year after reading about camera movements in various places. That really was a revelation in terms of flexibility and in the ability to construct images which I’d only been able to visualise before. ‘Talon’ – the photograph of the claw-like limestone formation, with Pen-y-ghent way off in the distance – was something I couldn’t do when I tried well over a year ago, and the lens enabled that. I now see the potential in things which I had written off as impossible before. The trouble with this is that what I’d really like is to have full camera movements – at least I think I would – but I don’t want to go to film [yet] due to hassle, marginal cost of each capture, and the need for scanning. That pretty much means medium format digital as far as I know; and I can’t afford that. Ah well!
You are local to the southern Yorkshire Dales, what parts of this area would you recommend to someone who didn’t know the area.?
I find the Dales one of the most difficult landscapes to photograph well, despite living here on the side of Ingleborough. That’s perhaps down to what I want to create though. I think the whole of the Dales is a wonderful landscape for making ‘pretty’ pictures, but for me it’s rather too green for much of the year. So, as a starting point, I’d recommend coming here in autumn and winter, up to early spring. At those times of year the grass becomes a more interesting colour, or it’s covered in snow, and the lower angle of the sunlight is a big benefit to making limestone pavement images. Without low-angled light, the pavements, which look fabulous and alien in three dimensional, human vision, can easily look quite flat.
That leads on to where I’d recommend. I like the limestone scars and pavements which surround Ingleborough very much; it’s actually why I moved here as they have extensive cave systems beneath them and I used to go underground a lot. For anyone coming to the Dales, I’d strongly recommend spending time walking on the various scars: White Scar, Keld Head Scar, and Twisleton Scar are possibly the best, but pretty much anything on the north, east and west of Ingleborough has this obvious, karst landscape. There’s a real wealth of compositions to be made with limestone foreground and distant hawthorn trees and hills. There are also several great waterfalls around here, such as Scaleber Force, near Settle, Hardraw Force, near Hawes, and the whole of the Ingleton waterfalls walk (though visit that very early or very late since it’s more than slightly popular with tourists, and they don’t generally enhance photographs). 
Anyone who’s looking for ‘classic’ shots of stone barns, walls and green fields dotted with sheep can just pick any footpath near a village around here and head upwards; you’re soon rewarded with excellent views over glacier-formed landscapes criss-crossed with dry stone walls, whose look now is near-entirely the result of sheep farming.
Finally, I’ll put in a bid for the Howgill Fells. They’re wonderfully distinctive, rounded shape is unusual and they have the admirable feature of having no walls at all. They’re also highly accessible from the M6, which helps. In the right light, their surface, which is rough, variegated grass, can look like a velvet blanket, folded into humps, and is very graphic in a way that landscapes in the UK usually aren’t. I’ve started a project photographing them and have several locations for what I think are unusual views planned.
I notice from your website that you have been a mountaineer for some time, do you see yourself working in a similar way to Colin Prior at any time?
I don’t know exactly how Colin Prior works, but given that much of his work is from high up on mountains, I’m guessing that he sleeps up high with some regularity. In short, yes! I’ve spent a lot of time starting the day at altitude, mostly in alpine huts, but quite often in a bivvy bag on various glaciers. When getting fit for alpine trips, I have frequently driven to the Lakes or Scotland in the evening, headed most of the way up a hill, and bivouacked on or near the summit; it’s both really convenient and provides for a great starting point in the morning, and often a beautiful opening to the day too. I definitely intend to do exactly this for the purpose of photography sometime in the near future.
As with many people reading the magazine, I love the north west of Scotland, Assynt in particular. I’ve been up there numerous times, but never specifically for photography, so I now have some ideas of where I’d like to make images. I’m intending to spend a week or two up in that part of the country in winter at some point, finding good compositions during the day and then spending the night up on the hill to capture both evening and morning light. I’m profoundly not a morning person, so this is actually going to be a much easier way for me to make dawn photographs than staying in the valley and deluding myself that I might get up early! There’s also something very special about sleeping alone high up on mountains; it’s a great way of really developing a feel for the landscape, and I hope that it will provide some deeper inspiration for images, both large vistas and more intimate views of details. 
It also seems a very efficient way to ‘work’: reconnoitring during the day will probably produce some good light and images in itself, and then I’ll have both ends of the day at the ‘cost’ of just one night out. In the worst case, even if I don’t make any worthwhile photographs, I’ll have had a great, overnight experience in the landscape!
What sorts of experiences have you had when mountaineering that you would have loved to have captured on film?
This has two aspects: it needs to be answered in terms of the difficulty of capturing good images in a mountaineering context, irrespective of whether I’d have liked to. Most of my mountaineering has been in the European Alps, with a lot of ice climbing in various places – neither of those situations is particularly conducive to considered photography. That said, I’d certainly love to have really good photographs from all the major mountains I’ve climbed, and there are a few incidents I’d particularly like to have been recorded, as distinct from me recording them.
The trouble with alpine routes and ice-climbing is that what’s needed, ideally, is a third person, or another two people, moving independently. You need to be photographing someone else in the context of the mountain, rather than your climbing partner, who will almost always be at the end of a rope and above or below you, which doesn’t generally make for great images. I have lot of shots on mountains and ice-falls which show the top of my partner’s head, or unflattering shots of crampons and legs from below; it’s rare to be traversing horizontally and be able to get one of the classic ‘sheer ice wall / climber / very large drop / distant mountains’ type of images.
The experience I would most like to have captured is not strictly alpine; it’s better than that. It was a traverse of the Cuillin Ridge on Skye in winter conditions, which is one of those ‘big tick’ routes for mountaineers. I had a small camera with me then, but only took two slides, over three days, as I was rather absorbed in the traverse of what is quite a major undertaking in winter. Looking back, had I seen myself as ‘A Photographer’ at the time, I could easily have made some potentially good images: much of the route is broadly horizontal along the ridge, and we were expecting to take three or four days over it anyway, so a little time spent in photography could have been accommodated. I do regret the lack of photos from that very much: the Cuillin are rarely in winter condition, and I don’t expect to be repeating the experience – we just ‘got lucky with the weather’ on that occasion.
Could you tell us a little about the cameras and lenses you typically take on a trip and how they affect your photography ?
At the moment, ‘typically’ is a close synonym to ‘invariably’ for me! I only have one camera that I use for going out to make landscape photos, and that’s a Nikon D300s. I started off with a D90 and quickly realised that I needed something I could happily use in all weather and with controls I had some chance of operating with gloves on. I have 10-24mm, 24mm PC-E, 35mm and 55-200mm lenses and I often take all four, though increasingly I’m leaving the 10-24mm behind as, after my initial excitement with really wide angles, I’m growing to be less enthused by that look. More pertinently, I’m very taken with the tilt-shift lens, mainly for the tilt movement, but I do use shift a fair bit too. What I’m really hoping is that Nikon will bring out the rumoured 17mm PC-E, in which case I’ll be selling the 10-24 to help buy it. I find that I can usually get by with the 24mm PC-E, but it’s certainly true that something wider would be very useful indeed. 
As I said above, under my second epiphanic moment, the flexibility of movements – albeit limited ones of course, compared to a fully-flexible camera system – is giving me much more scope for creativity in what I make. I was never fully happy with using just far-to-near depth of field, and being able to pick and choose where I place the plane of focus and the associated, wedge-shaped depth of field is definitely making me think differently about what I could do in some situations. In terms of the specific effect on my approach: I take my time in examining a site and setting up, so the added discipline of using tilt-shift is a benefit – it slows me down even more and makes me think carefully about what I’m trying to create in the photograph.
The other really significant piece of kit I always carry is a set of seven Singh-Ray ND and ND grad filters, including a reverse ND grad, which is invaluable when the conditions for it occur, such as in the shot of the Twisleton Scar hawthorn tree with the sun star through it (looking at that now, I would not take it so wide – just goes to show how the novelty of wide angle images has worn off over the last year or so!). The grads are great as I’m not keen on getting into blending exposures; not because of any inherent objection to it, I’d just rather have as little post-processing to do as I can get away with!
You have a very neutral look to your images, contrary to the general direction in which saturation seems to be going. Is this a self conscious attempt to buck the trend or just the way you see?
That’s not something I’d been consciously aware of until you mentioned it. I think it’s very much the way I see. I collect abstract art and, looking around me, it’s quite muted for the most part; there are few bright colours – presumably this is what I like and I’m tending to create images with a similar look. I can certainly see that there is a tendency on Flickr and the like to turn up the saturation, but many of the results looks to me just like what they are: normal colours made more intense by software. I’m interested in structure and texture in my images, and over-use of colour seems to me to detract from that aspect. Of course, if those colours are there in reality, I have no problem with it, but I still might knock it back a little bit if I think it’s distracting or takes away from the structural aspects of the finished image. Having said that, I do use bright colours: the twin volcanoes image you’ve included is certainly quite saturated – though I’ll admit that it’s less so than it was in reality, come to think of it!
Tell me what your favourite two or three photographs are and a little bit about them.
‘Twisleton Scar End hawthorn’
I had some trouble picking these. The first one, however, has to be the one I use as the headline on my blog, mainly because it’s the first photo I took with the dSLR and which I actually thought was good. I’d heard that storms made for drama in images, so I was up on Twisleton Scar End in unsettled weather, trying to make something from what I think of as the tree up there. I’d just about given up when the light suddenly changed radically in a few seconds. I’d already packed up, wanting to avoid getting wet (there was a good learning point – I need to accept getting wet!) so I practically ripped the camera out of the bag, swung round and took three frames before the light reverted, one of which became this image. I think, now, I’d do better, but in the circumstances I was very happy with the shot. It could be sharper, and I’d be capturing RAW now and be able to improve it more, whereas I wasn’t then. Nonetheless, I love the light on the hawthorn tree against the dark sky and the pale limestone pavement.
‘Zip’
The second one is a toss-up between two images I made recently of the Howgill Fells. As I said above, these hills are wonderfully velvety and have great, rounded shapes, uncluttered by any walls or fences. I was out for a strictly-no-camera (my choice) walk with my girlfriend and I saw the composition I’ve chosen, or the potential for it, at midday on a hot day in April. A couple of weeks later, we were back there at 0500. It felt like an alpine start, getting up at 0230, driving to Sedbergh, and then a walk of an hour or so, but it was worth it as there was a fabulous frost on the ground which gave an even more emphatic velvet look than usual. This is looking west, so I had a decent window of opportunity before direct sunlight touched the interlocking spurs and I had ample time to compose quite carefully as I waited for some reflected light in the valley. This was probably the first image I’d made a ‘big effort’ to capture, so it’s memorable in that respect, but I’m also very pleased with the result.
‘Forceful mist’
The third I’ve chosen is of the base of Hardraw Force, the highest single drop waterfall in England (or, as some people disparagingly refer to it, ‘the biggest waterfall – in a pub – near Hawes’). I like this since it validated a choice of composition. I chose to use just a couple of metres of its height and I think the result is vastly more interesting than using the whole fall in the shot. I like the texture in the water and the rich colours in the rock. Essentially, this is another first for me: choosing to use just a small detail of an obvious feature rather than the whole thing. I’ve cropped photos before, but in this case actively choosing to capture a detail view felt like a good choice to have made and, I think, makes a much better image than just another long, thin waterfall would.
What sort of post processing do you undertake on your pictures? Give me an idea of your work-flow?
I’ll not talk about the initial stages of my work-flow, other than to say that I have a rather rigorous process for ingesting, tagging with metadata and extensively backing up all my files, followed by a weeding process to choose the best of a given composition before I do any actual processing. A lot of that is fairly automated, so doesn’t take long, but I delete anything which is technically flawed. The next stage is using DxO Optics Pro to produce the initial output TIFFs from my RAW files. This software is where I do the majority of my adjustments. Typically, I run all the ‘worth looking at’ files, in a batch, through DxO on my default settings. I have the camera set to capture everything as neutrally as possible, so the embedded JPEGs in the RAW files are very dull and soft indeed, hence the first pass through DxO gives me a better idea of whether an image is worth working on individually.
For those that are worth pursuing, I go back and play with most of DxO’s options for each image. Firstly, I crop to whatever I envisaged during composition. I’m not at all a fan of 3:2 aspect ratio, particularly for portraits, so I usually intend a crop when composing. After that, I mostly adjust global lighting, local contrast and experiment with DxO’s numerous ‘film-look’ options, usually ending up with Provia 160 NC or desaturated Velvia, but sometimes Astia or Provia. I sometimes desaturate a colour channel or two at this stage if I perceive them as too dominant compared to the shapes in the image – nothing too radical as I’m hoping for the result to be ‘credible, but not loud’. Oh, and I do a little bit of sharpening; not much, but enough to look reasonable on-screen.
After that, I open the TIFFs in Photoshop and generally add 2-3 curves layers in which I use masks to adjust the luminosity of various selected parts of the image – dodge and burn essentially – often adding a small amount of vignetting. That’s all I use Photoshop for, but it’s a very important stage as I like to slightly tweak things to emphasise whatever pattern or structure I’ve seen in the image.
Do you print much of your work? If so how have you approached it and if not, why not?
I’ve printed fewer than ten images, and one of those was three copies of the same thing which I framed and gave to people as presents. Most of them are hanging in my house. In all cases, I had them done by Digitalab in Newcastle. I’ve not printed anything recently; partly since I don’t have much wall space that I want to lose, and partly since I’ve not yet investigated how to prepare files in order to produce really good prints! Having said that, I’ve created a couple of Blurb books, mainly as records of what I produced in a given year and, again, as presents.
Tell me about the photographers that inspire you most?
That’s difficult since I haven’t really studied photographers much as yet, or bought many books. Many of the people I’ve come into contact with on Flickr and through this magazine I find inspiring, in terms of the work they produce. More than results, however, I would say that I’m most inspired by approach. I feel that I have some ideas about how I’d like my images to look, so what inspires me is people whose approach, method and thoughts on the image-making process I think could help me. 
I’d have to cite Galen Rowell, largely for his determination and willingness to make a significant effort to get into situations for making photographs. I’ll also mention Bruce Percy again, since I think his philosophy of making images is a strong one that I can relate to, both in terms of travelling to places and using very low light, and in not necessarily seeking to totally represent reality. Michael Kenna, too: I don’t seek to emulate him, but I do like the reductionism in his images – that simplicity is something I aspire to.
What sorts of things do you think might challenge you in the future or do you have any photographs or styles that you want to investigate? Where do you see your photography going in terms of subject and style?
That’s a wide-ranging question! Starting with what I think are the easier aspects, I don’t see my subject matter changing much, and I think of that subject matter as mainly being patterns in the landscape, whether those are large vistas or details – I’m more interested in patterns than I am in representing reality. That’s not to say that I don’t want my images to be recognisably of landscapes, I certainly do, and I’d like them to be ‘credible’, but I’m much more enthused by the idea of seeing something geometric or abstract in a landscape – and making an image from it which features shape and texture – than I am in showing ‘what place X looks like’.
So that partially covers style too: I’m trying to simplify my images since the work I most admire tends to be structurally simple and elegant. Of course, there may be lots of complex detail within an image, but I usually see that as secondary to the overall compositional structure; something to add depth and interest to it.
The first part of the question seems rather clearer, now that I’ve thought through the above! I find simplification difficult, particularly with inland landscapes. I’m looking forward to winter again, and some snow and ice. I find it a great deal easier to make simple compositions in snow, and I prefer the low-angled sunlight of winter. So, I suppose my main challenges are the complex nature of the landscape where I live and the general abundance of green. Still, I’m addressing that by taking myself to northern Norway and Bolivia again next year, where the colours are anything but green and the scenery is in some cases so simple that it’s difficult in a different way.
Who do you think we should feature as our next photographer?
There are lots of people who I’d like to see interviewed, most of whom I’m aware of through this magazine. I think David Ward has been mentioned before but I’ll add a vote.
Thanks to Mike for a great interview and we’ll give David Ward a nudge from him… In the meantime if you want to see more of Mike Green’s work take a look at his website or his blog or his Flickr stream.
** – See! Digital! It’s not all large format film! although I might have to resort to type soon again as we have a wonderful female large format photographer to include 
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Some lovely work there Mike!
Thanks, Jason – much appreciated.
You are depressing me – I have made an offer on a house near Ingleton to get back to my roots and can’t wait to get th egear out – but I can’t sell down here in the flatlands of Cambridgeshire ! Great images and comments – I love the simplicity of “Zip”. Tim Hancock ( Cambrdige ! )
An excellent idea, Tim – I hope you manage to sell ‘in time’. And glad you like the images.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and comment – now I have to finish my Howgill Fells project!
For a relative newcomer to photography you have some wonderful work Mike. Look forward to more of the Howgill Fells images in the future especially.
Thanks very much Paul. I’m feeling newly-inspired regarding the Howgill Fells so I expect that project to progress soon. That said, I need winter to complete it, so nothing imminent!
Mike – some lovely work here but, in particular, your frosty Howgill fells image is quite stunning. I’ve been meaning to explore some of the hills over towards Cumbria and can see I will have to add these to the list! Incidentally I’m impressed your girlfriend accompanied you at such an early hour – I don’t think my husband would do the same!
Lizzie
Thank you, Lizzie. I was impressed that she came with me too, though she [wisely!] didn’t hang around for the couple of hours I was actually capturing images – she went for a walk along the main ridge to the top of the marvellously named high point ‘The Calf’
The range is well worth at least one visit. I’ve written a couple of blog articles about them if you’re interested in a few more location details.
Thanks Mike – I’ll definitely check out those articles – in the meantime I just had a quick read of your latest blog – which I also very much enjoyed. Making images for oneself is of course essential for one’s creativity, enjoyment, sanity even! But, as soon as a requirement to make money comes into it, I fear the wider audience has to dictate at least some of our photography!
I was also very pleased to see your ZIP image made it onto the LPOTY shortlist – funnily enough, I think the general perception is that it is the more full-on images that are typically chosen and not those that are more muted in tone – but perhaps that is changing a little… I have to say I do enjoy many of the more saturated images, so long as they are believable – but of course one person’s believable is not necessarily the next person’s! I know at times I have witnessed some outrageous colours in the landscape and tend to try to replicate these in the final image – that’s not to say I’d want it hanging on my wall but I can still enjoy it for what it is
Anyway, I will definitely check out your articles in due course and hope to get over there before too long. Keep the good work! Lizzie
Hi Lizzie,
I understand the commercial imperative entirely
In some ways, ‘amateur’ – so often used as a pejorative in many fields – is actually rather a good thing to be in creative work!
Thank you regarding ‘Zip’. Being new to all this, I’d picked up on the idea that colourful images were popular in competitions, so it was very nice to have a pretty ‘dull’ one short-listed. And I *do* enjoy /some/ colourful images myself: I just don’t feel very inspired to create them, and, as I think I said, I’d tend to reduce colour rather than increase it in most cases (within the bounds of credibility, I hope). As you say, credibility is very much in the eye of the beholder: I’ve seen sunrises at high altitude which are outrageous in their colours, and I’ve taken slide film snapshots of a few which my non-mountaineer friends refused, point blank, to believe, no matter how much I have insisted on their accuracy.
The Howgill Fells advocacy article is this one: http://wp.me/p1qcTt-bu and my article on using Google Earth and The Photographer’s Ephemeris is set in the Howgills too: http://wp.me/p1qcTt-iX .
Mike
A nice interview and some lovely work Mike, as I’ve said several times before. Also enjoyed reading your piece this morning about inspiration – I do look forward to more of your Howgill images.
You have, Tim – and thanks very much again
I am ALSO much looking forward to more of my Howgill images now… which means they will ‘get made’! Glad you enjoyed the blog piece on inspiration; it almost counts as another ‘epiphanic moment’, I feel.
Hi Mike
Are you waiting at home with the laptop open ready to pounce when somebody leaves a comment on this thread! (o: you are like Clint Eastwood with a smoking keyboard today!
Hehe….
Jason
Hi Jason,
Pretty much – though, annoyingly, this particular one has gone to well over half an hour I’m afraid (I was on the ‘phone) – must be slipping
I’m working at home, at the laptop near enough all the time, so I see the email notification close to immediately!
Hi Mike
I guess to test the ‘smoking gun’ theory one of us should post a comment at 3am? A total contrast in style to me (away walking in the Dolomites – now there’s a dramatic landscape!)Nice to see you featured and I agree you’ve made a great start. I particularly like your ‘Forceful Mist’ photo, and have similarly found that what you exclude can be as important as what you include – less is often more. It’s interesting to see a growing number of us being inspired by the smaller details (again I think we have to acknowledge David Ward here and Joe’s detailed work too). Incidentally, I too found on moving to the Staffordshire / Derbyshire border that it was difficult to capture the wider landscape (good in as much as it does make us home in on the smaller details that others pass by). Using panoramic format has helped, and is worth a try.
All the best
Michela
Hi Michaela,
You’d have *far* more chance seeing a rapid return comment at 0300 than the time you posted
The Dolomites are excellent aren’t they! You aren’t doing the Alta Via Uno or Due are you, and/or some via ferrata?
Thanks for the suggestion – I can see how the panoramic aspect ratio lends itself to the scenery around here; something new for me to try too. I do very much like photographing details, or relatively small areas – they seem to fall more into the category of things that people don’t typically notice, which is attractive in itself I think.
Thanks very much for your encouragement,
Mike
p.s. Oops – apologies for misspelling your name – it’s early …
No offence taken! And no nothing that serious – just general walking but I can see with your interest in mountaineering how you would love the area.
Pingback: Musings on: ‘recognition’, inspiration and creativity | mikegreenimages
Great set of images Mike, and a really constructive interview.
About time a digital Photographer was featured
Not fair!
I’ve been trying to feature digital photographers (Joe Wright, Colin Campbell, Paul Moon, Doug Chinnery, Iain Sergeant, Pete Hyde, Chris Friel, Alex Taylor, Michael Marten) In fact think it’s time for a film photographer 
oops, I’ve just gone over to the ‘dark slide’!!!
Stop it now!! I can’t try to pick digital photographers only to have them start using film!!!
Ho ho – you’re safe for a while, Tim !
Not planning to give up digital anytime soon, nice to have the choice although it’s an extra decision to make now, which to shoot!
Camera angst – choosing between my 11 cameras is probably the hardest part of my photography
Thanks very much, Joe.
Am I the first solely digital photographer then – I could have sworn there were others…. ? I’m sure Tim will jump in and say so, if so
A pleasure Mike.
Ha ha, I thought that would get Tim going
Hi Mike,
A very interesting interview, nice to here how you approach your photography Mike… I must visit your blog more often. I particularly like the way you look for patterns in the landscape and ‘Zip’ is a great example of this. I am also pleased your shot of the Thirlmere Trees [Cul-de-sac] made it into the article. I look forward to the on going Howgills work and will await the results of your upcoming trip to the States with interest.
Cheers, Pete
Hi Pete,
Thanks, and good to hear that you enjoy the blog articles too. I’m pleased to hear that you like ‘Cul-de-sac’ – very much not a ‘wow’ image but I was very pleased with it.
The Utah trip may turn into more of a reccy than a real photography trip…. not quite sure yet.
Mike
An inspired moment on Tim’s part to feature you Mike, an excellent article and thoroughly deserved accolades. Am off up to Malham in a few weeks time and you’ve inspired me to explore the Ingleborough area… you never know I might bump into you like we did at the Callanish Stones!
Paul
P.S. Your avatar always reminds me of Agent Smith from the Matrix…;-)
Hi Paul,
Ho ho re the avatar image; I /do/ see what you mean! And thanks very much for the generous comment, much appreciated.
If I’m around, we could definitely bump into each other, yes!
Mike
Lovely diverse set of images Mike – you’ve got a great eye and a subtle hand on the processing front. The other thing about you is you always make time to comment on images too – sometimes it can be a bit of a one way street but not with you!
Thanks very much, Nigel. I only comment when I like images, and I like lots of yours very much!
Hi Mike,
Really enjoyed reading your interview & thoughts on your approach to photography. The Dales can be very green in the limestone areas,& it can be difficult to find a bit of other colour in Summer, so it makes good sense to look for those smaller details. Might meet you in a gryke some day, it’s a favorite area.
Hi Dave,
Good to hear that you found it interesting / entertaining / worth reading.
I love the Dales; it’s a beautiful landscape – in some ways, perhaps, the fact that it’s predominantly green is a nice challenge….
There are caves (small ones mostly) which emerge in grykes: point your lens down into one and you just might see a helmet emerging – could even be me, though that would be a bit of a wild coincidence!
Mike
Mike, I thought I’d leave it a while before commenting, checking to see how quick of the mark you are in responding!
Seriously though, a really great read, I do admit that when seeing you were featured I made myself a cup of tea as I knew I’d want to take my time with the article and revisiting some of your images.
It’s interesting to see that you process some images with a ‘film look’ in mind but have to date not gone down the road of shooting film. Perhaps it was this film look that appealed to me first with your photographs, not looking at all ‘digital’.
Looking forward to watching your portfolio grow and develop in the future.
All the best… Joe
Hi Joe,
Very kind – that’s much appreciated; thank you. I’m delighted to have inspired the making of tea
Looks like over two hours since you posted this, so I’m clearly failing :-\ In my defence, I was on a rather ancient train when you posted, then walking across London for nearly an hour, and now I’m on a very pleasant Pendolino heading back to civilisation and the right end of the country
Film….. hmmmm…. one day maybe. Meanwhile, I’ll stick with trying to avoid ‘looking digital’ in my processing!
Thanks again,
Mike
Hi Mike,
Am a bit behind the curve here. A very interesting interview with you and some very appealing photographs, particularly of rocks and coastline. They certainly made me stop and look at the structure of your images.
Am in need of a bit of inspiration at the moment as I am on the island of Unst in Shetland and am not quite into the rhythm of photography. Today was a total washout. First time that I have hooked up to the internet whilst on a photo mission. What better place to come to than Landscape GB to seek inspiration. Perhaps not such a good idea to look at fabulous photographs whilst trying to make sense of what can be photographed here – which is mainly coastline.
Anyway – Good, revealing interview.
Malcolm
Hi Malcolm,
‘Revealing’, hey? Perhaps alarming from my point of view then? … Just joking – glad you found it interesting.
Unst! Now that’s nice and remote. From my limited experience of the place, it’s often a wee bit dreich, to say the least; it certainly was when I was there, though the force 8-9 wind made it not boring. I trust you’ve been up to the two northerly points and gazed out upon Out Stack and Muckle Flugga – to see them was what compelled me to go there! As you say, it’s mostly coastline – or, at least, the inland bit is not the most inspiring tract of land on the planet. I’m sure there are some interesting, watery channels on all the bog and moorland though. There are definitely some worthwhile shots to be had of inland landscape and tracks up on/in Hermaness. That said, When I was there, I could barely stand up, even with poles, which sort of precluded photographing anything!
Good luck tomorrow and thanks for the comment.
Mike
Hello Mike,
It was revealing in the sense of trying to understand how you work and who or what inspires. Every photographer is different (or should be), but there seems to be a hook amongst landscape photographers into the usual suspects. Michael Kenna is one who you mentioned. Fantastic stuff. The simplicity of it.
In respect of Unst – yes I have done the muckle flugga and Out Stack photographed from Saxa Vord and the Noup area. Also Hermaness. The coastline is so immense and you tend to be looking down on it, which is different again. Almost like aerial photography. It is quite hellish for LF because of the wind and gusts. Even the Ward dark cloth is not really holding up. Anyway – end of whinge. I am jolly lucky to be here.
I think the better area is the north mainland where there is some very wild coastline and huge cliffs, with long treks into wild country. I am not sure how to handle the inland side, which as you say is not the most inspiring and my recce trips have revealed nothing of substance -yet.
Spent most of the day doing research – which of course I should have done before I got here….
Malcolm
Hmmm….. yes, I can imagine the wind being nightmarish with an LF camera. I was having enough difficulty staying upright to even consider getting a camera out
I hope you’ve seen ‘Bobby’s bus stop’? It’s the furnished bus stop somewhere in the middle of the island – bizarre and worth examining!
I think those boardwalks and paths at Hermaness have much potential, if the wind allows…
Mike