Composition Challenge

Tim Parkin

Tim Parkin is a British landscape photographer, writer, and editor best known as the co-founder of On Landscape magazine, where he explores the art and practice of photographing the natural world. His work is thoughtful and carefully crafted, often focusing on subtle details and quiet moments in the landscape rather than dramatic vistas. Alongside his photography and writing, he co-founded the Natural Landscape Photography Awards, serves as a judge for other international competitions. Through all these projects, Parkin has become a respected and influential voice in contemporary landscape photography.

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Whilst planning the September board meeting for On Landscape and a planning meeting for the conference we decided that another office based discussion could be avoided by hiring a cottage in the Peak District for a few days and combining the event with a bit of photography, food and drink. On the final day we paid a visit to the top end of Padley Gorge and I challenged Joe Cornish, David Ward and myself to find three or four photographs but with the proviso that they all had to include a particular, famous Padley tree as a significant compositional element. How did we get on? Read about it below.

Joe Cornish at work by David Ward

David Ward

I often set participants on my workshops the task of only making one image in twenty minutes. Of course to a large format photographer this seems unduly hasty; indeed, four or five images in a day seems pretty rapid shooting to me. On this occasion I was using a Fuji XE-1, a camera that positively encourages faster working. Nevertheless I tried my best to avoid a reckless use of pixels. So, when Tim suggested that Joe, he and I spend one hour making four images of just one tree I felt quite at home. Although I did resist the urge to punch the air and cry, “Yes!”