Beginnings

My first year in landscape photography

Rainbow over Slemish

I can trace my adventures in landscape photography back to May 26th 2010, and to this specific photograph, for this was the first time I can remember packing my gear in the car and deliberately setting off with no other agenda - not even to buy milk at the local garage - than to try to create a landscape photograph.

It was an early Spring evening of dramatic showers. I headed for the most photogenic spot I knew within reasonable distance (we were not living near to the North Coast in those days), Slemish mountain. I well remember negotiating some unfamiliar narrow and twisting roads in driving rain, desperately searching for a composition that included Slemish, when the sudden appearance of a vivid rainbow made my quest even more urgent. Eventually I noticed a view of Slemish that involved going into a farmer’s yard, Thankfully the farmer was perfectly happy for me to take advantage of the viewpoint. and I came away soaked but with this photograph and very content!

I learned a lot from that one experience. That I should be better prepared the next time! That having a microfibre cloth is much more efficient than using the tail of my shirt to wipe the front of the lens. That light matters. That I needed to get to know my camera better. Most of all I learned about myself: that I loved being outdoors, with the camera.

The Garden of the Gods, Colorado

The Slemish experience was, of course, not the first time I had attempted some landscape photography. Over the years, with various cameras, I had made some half hearted attempts. Then, some months previously, I found myself in Colorado Springs with my eldest daughter and her husband. Despite the outside temperatures and having a heavy cold, Kristyn took me to visit the Garden of the Gods, where I made a few attempts to capture what I saw. So my interest had already been growing quietly in the background. Slemish made clear to me that this is what I really wanted to do.

Portstewart at sunset. The first landscape photograph that made it to the giddy heights of a canvas print!

This coincided with more frequent trips to the Causeway Coast, since my daughter now had a house there. And that renewed my love for the ragged edges of this island.

Ballintoy Parish Church, photographed with a long lens (at 240mm) so that the Rathlin Island lighthouse and bird observation station appear very close.

Possibly my first attempt to photograph the Giant’s Causeway, our only World Heritage Site. I deleted most of my photographs from my first year doing landscapes, but I kept this one as a memory of a glorious evening walk with one of my sons, Michael.

I’ve always loved snow. It doesn’t snow often in Northern Ireland, and when it does it tends not to last. But I was thrilled to have a snow day in December 2010 and used it to explore the Six Mile Water, not far from where we lived at the time.

I was beginning to appreciate the quality and colour of light at the end of the day, as the river and the tree covered bank turned gold in the low winter’s sun.

Snow, mist and the setting sun combined to transform this normally fussy and unremarkable scene a short walk from our front door.

These are among the few photographs from 2010 that have survived my regular process of ‘culling’. I can remember the circumstances of each one, and the feelings I had at the time as I pressed the shutter release. And that’s one of the many attractions of landscape photography. It makes you stop. observe, wonder, feel the moment. And taking the shot etches the moment into the memories that contribute to building life and a deepening appreciation of beauty.