Battery Point at Portishead is one of those places I’ve known about for years but never actually photographed as its so close to home. Partly due to Covid travel restrictions I made it a bit of a mission recently.
For those not familiar; Portishead, not to be confused with the 90’s/naughties music band – of whom I’m a great fan :-), sits on the coast just South of the entrance to the Avonmouth / Bristol docks. Battery Point is a channel / navigation marker for the ships, which are pretty large, entering and departing the docks. As the tidal range is large the sea height can vary from well below or totally surrounding its lower parts.
As any landscape photographer will know, a good photograph often requires many visits to a location before light and conditions align with the minds eye. The photograph above is no exception; I’d been at least five times previously, coming away with ok images but not what I was looking for. On this particular occasion I very nearly didn’t visit as the clouds looked a little heavy at home and I thought the tide may be a little high. But I did go and conditions were just about perfect! Persistence, pays 🙂
But there is more at Portishead than just Battery Point and I’ve now got a couple of other ideas on the go. I’m now waiting for the gods to smile again.
It’s been a strange year. Covid-19 Lock-downs didn’t really come to an end until July by which time the great clouds and light associated with Winter and Spring had passed. Summer is not my favourite season and not the favourite season of many landscape photographers due to the often harsh light, the ridiculously early starts and the late finishes necessary to capture the early/late light. But summer has now passed and Autumn with its shorter days is very much here. Trees are loosing their green’s and starting to reveal their yellow. As it’s been a dry year we may not get the orange colours that sometimes follow but the next few weeks will tell. Fingers crossed!
The Wiltshire Downs are known for their white horses; not the living, breathing type but those carved into the chalky hillsides. One of the famous horses is near Uffington on White Horse Hill. The horse is carved high on a hillside and is best photographed from the air. What drew me to the location one July evening was the feature called The Manger just below the horse. It’s a steep sided, elongated valley that cuts into the chalky hillside. In days past the hillside was the location of a Cheese rolling competition something that possibly still only continues at Coopers Hill in Gloucestershire.
Leaving home there was a little high-level cloud that could have made a nice sunset, however, The Manger is just over an hour’s drive East and inland from Bristol where the weather can often be different. It was on this occasion; clear blue skies with distant cloud towards the horizon and a light breeze moving the grasses. Not what I hoped for! Not awful though!
This was one of the early outings this year with the new Fujifilm GFX100S. Using greater than ISO 400 on my previous landscape camera would have resulted in significant noise, however, the GFX100S is a monster. The above photograph was made at ISO 1250 and has little noise. Its Dynamic range is also significantly wider making this high contrast image possible with a single exposure.
A quick check of tides and a peek out the window identified yesterday as a great evening to be at my favourite local location. Yes, you got it, full-marks; its the Prince of Wales bridge aka the Second Severn Crossing.
In an age where image manipulation is so prevalent the statement ‘A photograph never lies’ has, unfortunetly, lost its meaning. But whilst this photograph is pretty much how it was, I can tell you that those nice warm colours lie! They really don’t convey how cold it felt! The air temperature was about 7 Celsius with a gusty 20MPH wind coming from the direction of the sun. So, actually it felt about 3 to 4 Celsius!
Yesterday I was reading about ‘skills fade’ in ‘Summit’ the magazine of the British Mountaineering Council. The message was that climbers/mountaineers shouldn’t just assume they are as skilled in their sport as they were prior to the coronavirus lockdowns. Basically, their skills are likely to have got ‘rusty’ or faded through lack of use. Having fumbled-about making this photograph I can absolutely confirm I’m suffering from a photographic skills fade! There were times when I felt like a complete noob! Skills that seem to have faded are ‘seeing’ – that ability to compose photographs in the mind – and just basic workflow stuff. Stuff that used to be second-nature; stuff I wasn’t even aware I was doing. I’m sure those skills will grow again but it was a bit depressing. Despite that I’m pretty happy with the result 🙂
It’s not often it snows at home and thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic we currently are not allow to travel outside our local area here in England. In more normal times I would have travelled to other, more interesting, locations such as Dartmoor. But, this opportunity couldn’t be ignored so, my local woodland area was what it had to be.
There is a lot to be said for local photography especially in Winter. The sun doesn’t rise until 0800hrs and its quick and easy to roll out of bed, breakfast and arrive on-location in plenty of time. I arrived at my first location, before sunrise and, importantly, before anyone else came to see and play in the fresh snow. 🙂
Beneth some trees was a small patch of ice containing shapes which immedietly made me think: virus. Sad that it was the first thought that crossed my mind, but I guess, given the pandemic is shouldn’t have been a surprise. I could imagine them silently multiplying until they had consumed the ice like tiny preditors. The largest one seemed poised to devour a little patch of grass and snow near the base of the photograph.
Three hours later and the snow was well trodden, sledged and melting fast. But I had managed to get out and make some nice photographs. My favourites are below. Click on them to enlarge.
Andy
All images are Copyright Andy Gawthrope Photography.
Winter at the pondTree over the pondTree on the TumpIce and TreeIce
It seems an indeterminate time ago now – its early December 2020 as I write this – but over the Christmas 2019 period I spent a week near Lands End in Cornwall and returned with some nice colourful sunrise photographs. However, there were also some typically Cornish days when the fog rolled in from the sea. Some of the photographs from that trip can be found here.
Returning in September I expected different weather, weather that was warmer, drier and that produced more colourful sunsets. Mmm, let’s just say I was a little disappointed… There was, however, a day of fog that made for some interesting images – absolutely not what I’d expected to capture. I’ll also note that the temperature in that fog wasn’t much warner that it had been back in December/January. Chilly and wet.
The ground was much more alive with small red/purple flowers than it had been on my previous visit but the fog muted all colour and everything looked very flat in colour images. With the muted colours, shapes became the dominant feature and the just visible outline of the old chimney and ruined power house seemed to scream Cornwall!
Not far away is a derelict structure whose purpose is a mystery to me. It clearly required massive concrete columns to support something and had big concrete blocks surrounding circular shaped objects. Anyone know what this was? Please leave a message below.
What caught my eye was the regular shapes of the columns all reaching upwards into the fog and how they appeared to stand in isolation like the megaliths of a long forgotten stone age monument.
Andy
All images are Copyright Andy Gawthrope Photography
Strolling around Bristol during 2020 in search of more grunge and graffiti to photograph I found myself in the Stokes Croft area again. I’m not sure whether there was genuinely some event which I’d missed or whether some bright spark had spotted the scene and erected the sign. But whichever it made me giggle. 🙂
Both the images in this post were captured with my trusty old Canon 1D Mk 4. Calling it old makes me feel sad though as it’s a wonderful camera for this sort of work. Sure, it doesn’t have the dynamic range, high ISO performance or resolution of more modern cameras but it’s a joy to use. It feels wonderful in the hand and provides great haptic feedback each time the shutter ‘fires’ with the most gorgeous ‘clunk’. OK, so a ‘clunk’ may sound trivial but its really useful feedback when you are in a noisy environment like a concert or even walking around the streets of Brizzle where some scenes may require quick reactions!
“Community Art Space” was originally a colour photograph and you’d think that colour would have been a better way to communicate the colourful graffiti, litter and general mess but I found all those colours just too distracting. Even a contrasty black and white rendering didn’t workI Just too much black and white! My preference is this higher-key version; sufficient contrast without too much distraction. I’d love to hear what you think so, please leave a message below.
Montpellier adjoins Stokes Croft. It’s not an area I’m familiar with but a short while after leaving Stokes Croft aka the People Republic of Stokes Croft (PRSC) I found myself walking along Picton St. On turning a corner I found this delightful little shop with it’s Victorian-style signage, fronted by a block-paved area, overhanding tree and authentic lamppost. Yes, there was graffiti, grime etc in its immediate surroundings, but the shop itself looked great and especially with such colourful fruit and veg on display.
Picton Stores, Montpellier, Bristol
Similar to the top image I thought the full-colour version a little too distracting, especially the graffiti on the right-hand building and the flowers by the upper windows. But unlike the top image a black and white render didn’t work either So, I chose to desaturate the area surrounding the shop whilst leaving the shop unchanged. My thinking is this draws the eye to the shop, its fruit and veg and away from the surrounding distractions. Let me know your thoughts below.
I’m aware a reoccurring subject in my photography is what is now named The Prince of Wales bridge otherwise and more commonly known as, the new Severn bridge or the Second Severn Crossing. In February 2019 I made one of my favourite square photographs but a few months ago I thought I’d have another go but from the opposite side (the North side).
The photograph was pre-visualised as colour and deliberately styled to match my earlier 2019 photograph and side-by-side they make a nice pair. But whilst the colour version is good I really like this black and white version as there are no colour distractions leaving the eye to absorb the bridge and its wonderful, bold shapes.
Below are the colour versions. The first from 2019 and the second from 2020. Clicking an image will open a larger version.
After the doldrums of Summer and its seemingly endless days we have the shorter, cooler and sometimes annoyingly wetter days of Autumn. It’s not just the time when nature again bursts into colour but the change also heralds a return to more variable weather. And here in the UK that equates to a more interesting time for landscape photography.
Now, if I’m honest I find Autumnal photography difficult. Partially as the weather can’t make up its mind what it should be doing, it can be very changeable, but also because I just never seem to be in the right place at the right time to capture those iconic Autumn landscapes that others seem to find so easily. This year I am more minded than ever that Autumn photography or to be a little more precise, Autumn woodland photography is hard and its really important to know of nearby locations.
Now, I like my work to be original; I like to avoid repeating what others have done. Yes, sometimes I have taken that classic but I’ve always tried to do something a little different and to not copy. So, whilst I know that arboretums around the country will have wonderfully colourful Maples I just don’t want to photograph what someone else has done that day, the day before and so on. Any quick look on social media will find literally hundreds of near identical photographs of the same tree from the same position. I need something more original, something a bit more wild! To me photographing at an arboretum feels…well, how I imagine a wildlife photographer would feel photographing big cats and elephants at a zoo rather than in the wilds of Kenya. I am merely expressing that we, as photographers, need to be cognisant that whilst a local arboretum visit may be quick, easy and result in wonderfully colourful images they are unlikely to be original.
Sticks and Trees
So, avoiding the temptation of arboretums, I made a concerted effort this year to explore somewhere not far away, somewhere I really should know much, much better. The Forest of Dean is about 15 miles away and sits between Chepstow and Ross-on-Wye on the Western side of the river Severn. I’ve been a few times before without success; I always seem to be in dense forest separated by forestry tracks where one can’t get enough distance from a subject and the ground is dark and uninteresting. So this year I started by thinking carefully about why previous trips hadn’t worked and what I could do better. Pretty soon it dawned on me that you have to find the right type of trees! Boom, there you have it!
Maps by the Ordnance Survey identify three different types of woodland: Coniferous wood, Mixed wood and Non-coniferous wood. It’s the latter two which will have nice colourful trees. Obvious really! Those little tree symbols are not just randomly placed on the map either…their spacing can be used to infer the density of the woodland and woodland that isn’t too dense is better I think. 😉 Depending on the age of the map it’s quite possible that what’s actually there and growing doesn’t match the map tho. This risk can be partially mitigated by using recent mapping and cross-checking with satellite imagery tools like Google Earth. But I don’t think you can be sure until you have boots on the ground!
The result of better preparation, was that with the exception of one, all the area’s visited were much more suitable and even had the right type of trees!
Rooted, Tall trees
Still, significant exploration was required at each location but the more I explored the more positive I felt and the more I started to see the landscape around me differently. One afternoon I walked to the top of a rise to find a group of uniformly tall, straight trees and the sun streaming in from the side. It was a lovely scene (above). I also found I was seeing the smaller, intimate, landscapes such as the Oak Leaves (top) which were briefly lit by a shaft of sunlight.
In many places, the forest floor was also interesting and very different to that seen in previous years. It was almost as if the soils had been turned and separated. The ground was pleasant to walk on; it was soft and, well, spongy! In places the fallen branches and sticks where pushed together into what might be described as clusters or groups. It was not orderly enough to be the work of man but something appeared to be lowering the entropy of the forest floor. The area is known for its wild boar and I just wonder if it was them rooting through the soil, pushing sticks aside etc. I never did hear or see any boar tho. 🙁
The Forest of Dean aka The Forest covers a large area and I visited less than a handful of locations this Autumn, some locations a couple of times. The work to identify further locations can be done throughout the year, perhaps in the summer months when things are traditionally quiet. So, roll on Autumn 2021. I know where you are and I’ll be back 🙂
Below are eight photographs from the Forest of Dean this Autumn. Click on an image for a larger version.
All images are Copyright Andy Gawthrope Photography
Snowdonia is great as it has ‘real’ mountains! ‘Real’ because they are rugged, craggy, weather beaten peaks quite different from their rolling, greener English cousins. Like all mountains they influence their local weather and so despite visiting a few times since the late winter of 2019 I’ve not been too lucky with the weather. Some trips have had blue skies and zero cloud others total cloud cover. This time tho I was more lucky 🙂
My problem with Snowdonia is there are just too many big mountains packed into a small area separated by deep valleys. This inevitably seems to mean that gaining altitude is necessary to catch the best morning or evening light and to reach a location where a subject can be framed, placing it in context. What I’ve learnt is mountain photography is much harder than it looks! I’m convinced there is huge potential but I’ll admit to finding it challenging, in part, because of an unfamiliarity with the area that comes from living a couple of hundred miles away.
One of the most important things I’ve realised is that you don’t need to be on the top of a mountain. I guess, I knew that anyway but it’s especially pertinent when getting to the top may mean a further hours of hiking and several hundred metres of ascent with heavy camera gear. Locations at about half height seem to work well as there is terrain below and above to fill a frame. Another thing I’ve realised is that it helps to be some distance away from your subject as mountains are big things! So, locations around the periphery looking-in towards the mountains work well. That was the rationale I applied on my recent visit and it seemed to work.
It is said that success breeds success and whilst I’m pleased with the results – as they are nice photographs – they do underscore potential given the right conditions and further exploration. So, I’ve now got compositions in mind for my next visit which given good conditions should deliver even better results. 🙂 Unfortunately, that trip may be a little way off.
The four images in this post have a common component – Tryfan. It’s shape, it’s long serrated back, make it one of the iconic profiles of Snowdonia.
If you like the images or this post please share. Thank you.
Andy
All images are Copyright Andy Gawthrope Photography.
TryfanTryfan and Llyn OgwenTryfan and Llyn OgwenOgwen valley sunset
It had been a stinkingly hot early August Sunday with temperatures in the low to mid 30’s with little wind at home. Hot weather indeed for the UK 🙂 That’s the sort of heat that just saps energy so I’d stayed indoors most of the day catching-up with some processing which is where I hatched the plan to retreat to the coast where, hopefully, it would be cooler.
Arriving in Clevedon, a couple of hours before sunset the temperature was still very warm but it was made bearable by a gentle sea breeze. I arrived with lots of time to spare as I wasn’t quite sure what the light would do although I had a strong suspicion that due to the heat and clouds sunset could be nice. About a 1/2 hour before sunset it started to look like something magical might occur, but it was only as the sun approached the horizon that the clouds started to turn a little orange. But over the distant horizon and Wales was a slightly thicker band of cloud – a band reminiscent to that in my previous sunset photograph of the pier. A few minutes after dropping behind that cloud and the horizon the clouds overhead were illuminated from below and turned the most magical yellow/orange colours. It was an awesome sight 🙂
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic photography opportunities this year have been limited so it was fantastic to witness such an amazing scene. Its just these sort of events that make Landscape a rewarding photographic genre – all the hard work and lows instantly forgotten! Printed this photograph is glorious. It’s almost minimalist; the soft pastel sea with its hint of orange transitions almost seamlessly into sky and plonked in the middle is the architecturally wonderful pier. I love it and for that reason I’ve made it available in my Limited Edition Prints shop.
Recently I was watching a 2016 Charlie Cramer talk hosted by Tim Parkin and the gang from On Landscape on YouTube. If you are a landscape photographer and don’t yet know of On Landscape Magazine go take a look; I can highly recommend it.
Charlie is scheduled to talk at the Photo Fest conference in Bath – organised by the folks at Fotospeed – in September this year. Whether that occurs as planned is unclear thanks to COVID-19. But I certainly hope it does as I would like to hear what Charlie has to say about printing.
The video reminded me of I photograph I made back in 2011 whilst on a Christmas/New year stay in Glen Affric and which has been languishing in my queue of photographs to print for some time. Freshly motivated I dug-out the raw file captured with an EOS 5D Mark 2 and redeveloped it using my modern digital darkroom tools (Capture One, Affinity Photo) and then printed it using ImagePrint.
I recall it was late one afternoon on a grey, damp day not long before sunset that I made this photograph. I had been photographing Caledonian Pine trees but had returned back to the truck. Not far from the truck was this group of Silver Birch trees. The trees and surrounding vegetation were wet with the light rain known as Scotch Mist and there was a georgeous purple light in the trees. Not a planned photograph. Some times it’s just about being out and about in the landscape at the right sort of time. 🙂
I’m really happy with how the print turned out. So, happy that it is now in the Unlimited Edition Prints section of my website were it is available as an A2 or A3 print.
Just up the road from Bridge of Orchy and the hotel where I was staying is a beautiful lochan on the South Eastern edge of Rannoch Moor. Lochan na h-Achlaise has been photographed by many photographers in many conditions and is probably most known for the small islands and little rocks that are dotted along its foreshore. I myself have been there numerous times over the years but I’ve always wanted a snowy or icy photograph. This year I was lucky enough to capture a snowy photograph.
Whether it was just pure chance or that the A82 was still being cleared by ploughs I’m not sure but I found myself alone on the shore of the lochan one morning with snow all around. I must have wandered along the whole of it’s Southern shore making photographs, but the one in this post is my favourite. It’s a composite of several images captured using my trusty EOS 5DSR using a Sigma 50mm Art lens.
Canon imageProGRAF PRO-2100
I started printing my own photographs in early 2019 and have since become a total convert to the print as the output medium. Seeing photographs on small mobile phones, tablets, even large computer monitors just doesn’t do them justice. Modern photographs can be packed full of detail and when printed in large format they can simply blow your mind! This is certainly the case with the above photograph and several of the others from my Bridge of Orchy trip. Seen large there is just so much more for the eye to see; trees change from simple dark shapes to something that recognisably has branches and leaves; even ducks on the distant water start to appear.
Since last year the largest I’ve been able to print is A2 sheet media. However, all that is about to change as the guys at Fotospeed are about to deliver a shiny new Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-2100 printer. This 24″ roll printer will dramatically change my output as it will then possible to produce much larger panoramic prints! I’m really excited and looking forward to it’s delivery as soon as the coronavirus lock-down comes to an end.
So, keep an eye on my shop larger prints will be arrving there in a few weeks. Coronavirus willing. 🙂
