Using a traditional darkroom is a revelation for me. I’ve spent the last four days in a darkroom with developer, stop bath and fixer making contact prints from my Indian and Nepal images that I shot earlier this year.

What I didn’t expect was to fall in love with the black and white photographic print. I also didn’t expect to have my head turned from thinking about images in colour and appreciating them in their monochromatic form.

Take this image for example. Firstly, I can’t even specifically remember shooting it, which is a revelation in it’s own right as I often have the most memorable images imprinted in my mind when I come home. So it was great to discover this little treasure. It was shot in a UNESCO heritage site called Baktapur, which is in the Kathmandu valley, perhaps an hour away from central Kathmandu.

I love the composition although it’s flawed in some ways. I’d have liked to have had the silver jug at the bottom of the frame removed, or burned in so much that it’s less distracting, but that’s not easy in something like Photoshop without really screwing up the image. But I’m not too precious. It’s the girls pose that works for me, combined with her dress. It’s rather candid yet I was standing a few feet away from her, down at her level. I’m a bit foreward at times, not in a demaning way - i’m quite discreet and will just find myself in the middle of the action while in this case there was preparation for some festival going on. I have to get in close…. that’s the only way to get decent impact or presence.

Ah but then again, as much as I loved the shot in colour, it was really something else to make a black and white print of it on Monday. There’s something lovely in the texture of the girls dress that draws me in. The above image is just a desaturated version of the file above - I don’t have the means to reproduce a real black and white print here, but suffice to say that it has a quality and impact that’s hard to convey.  Regardless of this small issue, I feel the image has now transformed into something else. It has an ‘old world’ element to it, and I bet that most folks would think it was shot a few decades ago at the very least or perhaps early last century.

Which do you prefer, if you discount my own feelings on the matter?

I love both (naturally, I have that invested emotional connection with my own images).

Well I did say I was going to be away this week, but as usual, my plans changed.

So while I’m stuck at my computer today, I thought I’d upload this portrait.

Shot in Pushkar, a sacred city in Rajasthan, in January of this year, I made a black and white print of it this week which I felt was very beautiful. So this spurred me onto loading the negative into my trusty Coolscan 9000 to see what it looked like in colour. It was a complete shock to see all those vibrant colours in the lady’s clothing. Such a different interpretation from a black and white print. If I can manage it at some point, I’d love to scan the black and white print - there’s hints of silver in the highlights which I feel are not possible with inkjet prints.

I feel I’m moving into the realms of traditional black and white printing. There’s something organic about this process and many friends who have seen the results so far have commented that there’s ’something special about a real black and white print’. I agree.

Shot on 645 Contax with 80mm lens at f4, it has a nice shalow depth of field - the background is nicely isolated. I love Portra film, it does tend to have a warm tone to it - slightly reddish, but hey - that’s the beauty of film, each one has its own character and it would be folly to fight it.

A friend of mine has just published his own book and this week I finally got round to getting a copy of it and having a read. The book in question is ‘Within the Frame’, by David DuChemin. I’m sure some of you will know David’s work from his site the pixelatedimage.com.

I met David pretty much by chance. He’d stumbled upon my site and had written a very kind review of my work and we got talking. He’s very enthusiastic but I didn’t really get a chance to meet him until I was in Nepal this year. I’ve since kept up correspondence with him and I find him to be very inspiring: when you’re busy trying to make a go of being 100% professional, it’s always good to surround yourself with people who are positive, forward thinking and inspiring.

So David has published his first book, and although he is predominantly a ‘people photographer’, what I found striking about his book was that I feel the contents apply to anyone be it a landscape photographer or a street photographer. The text is engaging and if I didn’t know better, I’d say that David is a very talented writer - end of story. But his images are very beautiful too. He’s got an innocent charm in how he approaches subjects and I personally felt I could draw a lot of parallels to how he approaches his photography to my own.

This book is not a technical book. And I’m grateful for it. The last good read I had was Galen Rowell’s ‘Mountain Light’, an inspiring book about being out there and ‘connecting’ with what you see. David’s book is similar in that respect, but it’s more aimed at the enthusiast who wants to improve his skills. he talks about ‘Vision’ - something that the late Galen Rowell brought up, as did Ansel Adams, but what David does is break vision down into it’s integral parts. It’s a nice book which makes you *think* more about what it is you are trying to do with your photography, rather than what gear you want to buy. And for that, It’s rather refreshing.

David used to be a stand up comedian. I only bring this up because each time I pick a paragraph to read, I can’t help being reeled in. It’s nice writing, humourous, humble and engaging.

I’m going to be going off the radar for the next week or so. Heading back up north to Skye to do some research for some future workshops for my business, but in the meantime, thought I’d leave you all with one of the new images I’ve been working on.

Shot in Jaisamler in Rajasthan, earlier this year. I took this with a Contax 645 and standard lens shot at f2. Sadhus are holly men, but I often felt that they had become so used to generating a nice income from the local tourist trade. I will put it another way, often I didn’t have to approach Sadhu’s for pictures, rather they would approach me whether I wanted to take their photo or not.

But they do make excellent subjects. I had made some more black and white contact sheets today and this shot was just so gorgeous I had to make a large black and white print of it. I had no idea just how it looked in colour until I chose the same negative to scan when I got back to my home.

I feel I’ve hit the tip of the iceberg in terms of potential images. Somehow, I think I needed time away from these images when I got home from India. The entire trip was so overwhelming. Space, a little bit of distance and all of a sudden I’m ready to take the task of working on 100 rolls of film on board. I feel very wary - I’ve got to becareful I don’t rush, as I may pass an image which has great potential. I think it’s just going to take a lot of time.

The latest edition of Scotland Outdoors magazine has one of my Sandwood bay images on it’s front cover.

If you don’t know the magazine well, it’s a pretty nice read - full of articles about people doing alternative activities in Scotland and has a nice green slant on most ventures that people are getting into.

I’ve had over 100 rolls of processed negatives sitting in my filing cabinet in my home studio since February. The images in question are from India and Nepal. I’ve been too swamped with things to do as well as going full time with my photography workshop business to get round to working on them.

Pushkar

Part of the issue for me is that negatives are hard to review (I’d have to load them into the scanner 2 at a time) and contact sheets cost a bomb to get done at the time of processing. I really don’t mind paying to get film processed. Sure it’s costly, but the results are always worth it, but contact sheets at £5 on top of the cost of processing the film - is out of the question for me.

But here’s the thing, I joined a local camera club last year - Midlothian Camera Club. I do lots of talks around Scotland so I’m lucky to get to observe a lot of clubs and in general, I think most clubs are great. They’re all different, but the great thing is that you’re surrounded by folk who love photography. I just loved this little club because they were all so sociable and I was feeling that I needed to get out and meet some new friends etc. I think my reason for joining wasn’t really anything to do with learning anything, it was more about just being able to spend time around folks who like to talk about photography and ‘get it’. If you know what I mean.

Anyway, my little club has their own premises and dark room facilities.  So there I was last night at the back of the club doing my first contact prints (colour negative film onto black and white paper), aided by a long time member of the club (thanks Adam!). It was just such great fun being back in a dark room and before I knew it, I wanted to do some large prints.

Anyway, this photo is one of the images on the first contact sheet I processed last night. It’s cropped a bit, because the Indian in the scene was a very tricky customer to photograph. I couldn’t get near him and he was taunting me…. yet he was just so incredibly photogenic (in my mind anyway). This was shot on my Contax 645 with 140mm lens. I now have a 210mm lens for the kit which would have suited this subject better). He was a ‘rascal’ as we say here in Scotland.

So I don’t really know what the aim of this post is. Perhaps I’m suggesting that getting in touch with your local photo club is a good way to enhance your photography. I’ve met so many great people over the year in the club and I think I may be on the verge of entering the domain of trad dark room printing. But I also wanted to show you this shot, taken in Pushkar, a very religious place (similar to Varanassi). I’ve only just begun to dig into the negatives and will spend some time at my club this weekend developing more contact sheets, so I can decide on which images I need to load into the scanner tray……

A few days ago, I was asked  if I photoshop my images. It did stirr up some rather strong feelings I have on the matter about manipulation, but perhaps not in the way you may think I mean.

Before reading the rest of my post, I encourage you to watch this video first.

Ok, so you watched it? I’d love to know what your feelings are on the matter. But before you rush off to post an entry to me, I’ll tell you mine, straight to the point.

I really deplore people who use the word ‘photoshop’ to imply cheating, like photoshop is bad. It’s not. I also don’t agree with people who feel that photography should be truthful. In their minds, they have this concept that when the shutter is clicked, the unmanipulated image contains truth. That is incorrect from the start because if it were true, the image would be 3-D. It would also have the same dynamic range that our eyes are able to record, but the simple matter is that cameras, sensors and film do not see the way we see. And in order to convey what we saw, we have to use things like Neutral Density filters and dark room techniques like the ones you saw Ansel doing in the video.

I use photoshop techniques all the time. I’m a big fan of layers and masks. I like to add localised contrast to elements of the scene. I also like to ’suggest’ to the viewer aspects of the image by controlling brighness and darkness.

But there is skill in what I do out in the field too. I cannot turn any old image into a good one. I have to have good light, good subject matter and above all else, a sense of strong vision.

I feel I am very much in tune with how Ansel approached his images. He was a master printer. But he had a strong sense of vision and when he saw a scene, he knew how he wanted it to be realised.

It’s pretty disparaging when people say ‘oh, you photoshopped that’, as if to say ‘you cheated’. It demeans the value of the work.

Let’s put it another way. If it’s as simple as just getting a copy of photoshop and playing around with images, we’d all be making great images, but we’re not. The subject is a whole lot more complex than just assuming that if you have a really expensive camera or a copy of photoshop, you’re going to get great results.

This has certainly turned out to be a year of productivity for me. I started January in India then moved onto Nepal in February. March saw me return to Patagonia for my annual photo workshop and just before leaving South America, I managed a non-stop tour of the Bolivian altiplano.

Tráigh Niosaboist Rocking Horse

But for years I’ve felt that I’ve neglected my own country too much. Scotland has a lot going for it and after all the traveling I’ve done, I have come to appreciate its beauty more so than I ever thought I could. We have such changeable weather here which has a direct impact on the quality of the light.

So in March I visited the north west of Scotland during a flurry of Snow and caught some rare shots of places in really wintry conditions.

Now this summer, I’ve managed to tick off a few islands that I’ve always wanted to visit : Orkney, Harris and Lewis. So this post is really about them. I now have a new collection of images from these islands as well as some shots from Knoydart - a remote peninsula on the north west of Scotland.

I hope you enjoy these images as much as I enjoyed making them.

Dusk on Borvemore Beach

What I love very much about photography is the surprises that are waiting for me. Sure I do a lot of planning and I’ll research maps to find places of interest, work out logistics such as travelling times between locations and I’ll often go to places middle of the day and make notes to return at 3am because the light is bland and I really think the place has potential later on. I seldom shoot middle of the day, but when the light is overcast, its softness is kind to the film I use. Harsh shadows are avoided and blown highlights don’t get a look in. I’m always studying the light and watching, waiting for the conditions I know my camera’s film can handle.

Shooting at 11pm in twilight and then back up at 3am to capture the light from the east does take its toll. It’s at times like these that I do question my motivations.

But there is something very contemplative and enjoyable about being on a deserted beach just listening to the waves and watching the colour temperature go from cold to warm. I think my private thoughts and lose myself in what I’m doing and I can’t really say there is any better way to disconnect from the pressures of life for a few hours.

I simply love it.

This summer I visited Knoydart peninsula and the islands of Orkney, Harris and Lewis. The last two islands are part of the Western Isles or more specifically the outer Hebrides. Orkney is at the very top east of Scotland.

Summer brings long evenings in which to shoot and early mornings which are torturous - a 3am start always makes me feel a little bit ‘wobbly’. It is at times like this that I start to feel rather ‘out of it’ and do question my motivations for making images.

Here is a contact sheet of the images that have made it to the final selection for my web site. I’ll be putting them up in a new portfolio titled ‘Summer Adventure’ to mirror my ‘Winter Adventure’ portfolio.

I’m always looking for concepts as I find it helps me focus my efforts when shooting and also helps me figure out how best to present the new images when I’m ready to publish them.

I’m tempted to head out to the Uists this Summer if time permits. They too are also part of the Hebrides, a long tail of islands joined by ferry or causeway, each stunning in their own right (I should be getting some money from the Scottish Tourism Board for this!). The downside is that it’s often expensive and very time consuming. I’ve lived in Scotland all my life and it’s only this summer that I’ve managed to venture out to these places. But what beauty I’ve encountered there…. I don’t feel it will be my last endevour there.

Just a quickie, the September Isle of Eigg workshop is now full, but if you wish to be kept informed of any cancellations, just drop me a line..

Bay of Laig, Eigg