Ooo..ooo..Snow..Snow!

"Hooray, the snow is here!", I thought a couple of weeks ago, which in hindsight seems a tad masochistic. It snowed, and snowed here in Central Scotland, we got the deepest snow in decades and all traffic and transport cmae to a standstill for about 10 days.

Beautiful it was though! Wonderful for landscape photography (if I could have travelled past the end of my street). When the snow falls, landscapes that were previously cluttered and busy are wonderfully simplified. Shapes become apparent and colour is removed from the scene -you have to think about your landscapes in an entirely different way. However, good lessons are learned, we should always to try to see the simplified compositions and then work to make them simple in the frame. Last year I took this image (I'm sure I've shared it before). It was of a rather boring scene that became full of simplicity and balance once the snow fell - and it's won or done well in several competitions to back that up.

But shooting in the snow is not easy - modern camears that work out exposures for you get muddled by all the white and underexpose terribly. This is because cameras try to balance every image to 18% grey and when all the scene is white, anything other than white becomes very dark . This is a very simplistic explanation but trust me, auto focus gets it wrong in the snow. You need to lengthen your exposure times from that which the camera tells you (which seems back to front to my mind) - but by how much? Well there are three methods I know of, here they are:

1) Buy an 18% grey photographers card and take your exposure from that. It reflects 18% grey back to your camear in whatever lighting you are in and should equalise your exposure nicely. Personally I find this a bit of a faff (ie too fiddly).

2) Take the picture but note what your cameras reading is. Then take it again with a higher ISO, larger aperture or slower shutter speed. Review in the viewfinders histogram (note that looking at the display will be difficult as you are outdoors in bright reflected light, so the histogram is essential). repeat, untill you happen upon the correct exposure. It's hit or miss and can take some time to get it right. Which is a bother if the snow fox has tun off by the time you get the exposure right.

3) This is my favourite. Because it's easy. And I'm a lazy person. Set your camera to spot focus. zoom in (or go close to), a subject that is in the same light as your target, fill the frame with this and take an exposure reading off it. so if you have a person to photograph, you can take a reading from your own hand, so long as both are in the same light. Dial that setting into the camera on manual and start snapping away. It works a treat, you don't have to think or take anything with you and your exposure will beperfect every time.

Of course you can cheat a bit too. Take it in RAW and you can adjust it on the PC afterwards. but try to get it as close as possible in camera - it will save you work and it will avoid you bringing noise into the image.

Here's an image of young Oscar closing in on his prey (the treat in my hand) - he's moving at high speed and I needed to be quick. The only way to do this was to have set the exposure in advance. I had zoomed in on his fur earlier on our walk and noted the exposure reading and set them in the camera. It worked well and let me adjust for a high shutter speed (by raising the ISO as I sped up the shutter speed or by widening the aperture)

Finally, sometimes it's fun to play with the electric lights of winter or the "incorrect" settings of your camera. I took this (fairly uninspiring compositionally) image, with just the default camera settings, but see how the blue tint of evening on snow and the yellow tint of the sodium lights gave me a fantastic lighting contrast of orange and blue (jsut like CSI Miami does in nearly every frame - had you noticed that? Even carrot-top Horatio Cane nearly always wears blue to fit into the shows colour schemes.)

Photography in the snow can be challenging with lighting and exposure and even getting to your subjects but it can also be very rewarding and reshapes the landscape. Thsi last image is of a churned up muddy field near my house that normally has absolutely no focal point or interest (in my view) - snow and lighting makes all the difference.

Everyone should have a pet.

As I was growing up I had, goldfish (one from a fair that lived 14 years), pigeons (they decided to adopt us and stayed for years) and eventually a hamster (a mutant from a genetics engineering lab experiment that went wrong I think - it was 2 or 3 times the size it should have been),... but I always wanted a dog.

Earlier this year we bought Oscar, the Soft Coated Irish Wheaten Terrier. A bundle of fluffy fur, from which occassionally a long thin pink tongue emerges and proceeds to soak your fingers. We had never had a dog before and were nervous that we wouldn't be able to look after him as well as we hoped, that he would wreck the house and that he would terrorise the children. Our youngest is 6 and we worried she was too young for a medium sized dog with enormous fangs and sharp scimiter like claws. But... we needn't have worried, they have become great friends and can often be seen, cuddling in the hall in greeting every morning, mini MacD with her arms out, Oscar on his hind legs resting his head on her shoulder. Neither prepared to let the other one go. This is the sight that greeted me yesterday as she chilled out watching some TV before our slap up weekend breakfast. So long as Oscar thinks he is human I think we should be OK. I'm just concerened that Daughter No.3 starts to think she's a puppy!

It's not a great photograph, it was snapped with a little point and shoot but it IS a great subject and it reminds me to use photography to record memories. It's not always about the art.

So if you are a dog lover, here are a few more images of Oscar Mild, and more importantly for me, a few memories of some happy walks we've had together lately (some of these were taken by daughter number one, she's getting quite good at the togging!).

This is a photography blog however, not just Oscars vanity page, so i should talk a little about pet photography here. The key thing in Pet photography, to my mind, is not so much exposure, focus and composition, (although of course they are important), but rather, character. The character of an animal must come out in a pet image otherwise it;'s just a picture of an animal, rather tahn a family member. With Oscar, these images have shown his love for the outdoors, the exuberance he greets every walk with and his love of water (at least I hope they do), lying on the sofa with daughter No.3, it aslo shows his soft side, that he is comfortable in our family environment and that he is a well adjusted wee pooch. I think that is more important than the slightly dodgy focus and lighting in that shot.

How do you capture all this - the answer lies in getting down to eye level, catching the dog in candid moments doing what he loves best and (in most cases) getting eye contact. Altogether like photographing humans really!

Quoting Success

It's been a successful few weeks. First of all I won the "Photo of the Month" at one of the biggest Scotland focussed online forums (Scotland by the Roadside) , next I received a request from my employer to use one of my images on their internal literature (Lubnaig Reflections) (alas, unpaid) and then I got my first critique back from my NYIP correspondence course and was told that I had been given a merit award for my echinacea flower image - an honour that is only given to less than one in one thousand course work submissions. I was pleased with some of the images I made this month and posted them on my website (PhotoForMyWall.com) which has experienced a 40% growth in traffic this month.

Now none of this sound momentous, but it doesn't have to be. I am trying to build momentum through small successes hoping this will lead to greater things. The learned 18th century dramatist and politician, Joseph Addison, who contributed to the direction of the Tatler and the Spectator periodicals, once said "If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counsellor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius". In other words keep trying, learn from experience and believe in yourself. Trying to make a name for yourself in an artistic field, especially one so over subscribed as photography, requires great self-belief and perseverance. To be a success you need to be happy with your own work but you also have to bend to the dictates of fashion and ensure others are admire your work on their own terms.

Above all, you need to get your work out there and be seen. There are many great photographers who's images are stored on hard drives or in cupboards and equally there are many very successful photographers whose images remain average but grace the pages of magazines that each and every one of us reads regularly. These photographers are the guys with a name, the editors "go-to guy", the guy with a reputation for reliability even if not for flair. As Woody Allan said "Eighty percent of success is showing up." and he wasn't wrong. If you consider that a big chunk of photographic success comes down to luck (either in being in the right place at the right time to make the image, or in getting your work noticed by the right people), that only leaves a tiny percentage to attribute success to talent and skill. So my take on this is that you need to put your work forward all the time to satisfy Woody, and pitch it in the right way to give Lady Luck a hand. I may or may not have talent and skill, depending on your perception, but I'll have a damn good try at getting what I have got, noticed.

But these minor triumphs are not enough, after all American author Christian Nestell Bovee stated that "Small successes suffice for small souls" and while it sounds harsh, it's a valuable lesson. If you want to be great at what you do, you need to aim high. So my next steps are what? I continue to enter as many competitions as I can, to learn from the masters and to promote my work in the hope that those with similar tastes stumble across it. The other day I had the pleasure of chatting with Peter Paterson FRPS EFIAP MPAGB ie a very qualified gentleman and picked his brains on aspects of photography that have had me stumped for while. For the second time in a year I was told by a luminarie that my basic technique is essentially the same as theirs, but the minor differences in technique are where their quality really shines through. I continue to learn from them. To treat each failure as an opportunity for learning and growing and each success, as an opportunity for learning and growing.

So, having gained my successes in the last few weeks, I keep in mind that "Success is full of promise till a man gets it; and then it is last year's nest from which the birds have flown." - Henry Ward Beecher (politician, clergyman, social reformer and abolitionist) and I keep my eyes open for the next success to build upon the last one. Which leads me to my final quote, reminding us of the importance of taking one step at a time and enjoying the journey. While it is unattributed, it is as valid as these others, "Do not let big ambitions overshadow small successes."

Portknockie's Other Rock

I felt pretty defeated about my night shoot, so next day I went out to cheer myself up. Oscar and I went for a climb down to the shore at Quineland to see the amusingly called "Shitten Craig". I can only guess at the name - it is a rock that has been turned white by the sea birds guano and is called in the guidebooks "White Craig". The more colourful name seems to be the local variant. Not as unusual as Bow Fiddle Rock, Shitten Craig is still a striking lump of stone. Huge, triangular like a sharks fin, white and covered in sea birds, the waves crash and break on it protecting the Portknockie natural harbour at Quineland . In the area a Quine is Doric for a girl, so I assume this was where the women worked at mending nets, gutting fish etc. I think only a lunatic would go out to sea around that wild coast so maybe it is appropriate that young lads are called "Loons". Oscar louped about the area and although he had great fun lying in the rock pools and climbing the cliffs, thankfully he stayed out of the big waves while I took a series of shots of the jagged coast. I got a few good ones as well, there is something about water, rocks and a lack of people that makes photography great fun.

What did I learn on this shoot - the local tourist attraction may not always be the most photogenic, explore the quiet places and when a 3 stone dog runs over a grassy area, it doesn't mean that a 15 stone man can do the same without getting ankle deep in the bog.

Night Time Adventures at the Coast

With changeable weather the photography in Banffshire was not easy, but I persevered throughout the holiday, visiting Bow Fiddle at all hours and spending time climbing down to Quineland and the rocky beach at Portknockie. On the second last night I went for a night shot of Bow Fiddle. Tripod, mirror lockup, bulb exposure, and torch to play on the rock and light my way home. All set for the picture in my mind of the rock on a misty calm sea (through a long exposure) with star trails above. Wrong. It was cloudy, darkness fell quickly, I misjudged the exposure very badly. Time to go back, except it was pitch dark by this time, I was cold and my torch would only let me see the grassy slope of the cliff behind me. In the dark, even with a torch, a grassy path looks exactly like a grassy slope. And a shallow slope looks awfully lie a steep slope. I hadn't expected that, but OK , going up should be the answer. With the waves crashing at my back and the slope in front of me off I set. The grass got longer, the ground boggier and my heart was starting to race. I felt really stupid and could see myself having to sit till dawn or call for help - far too embarrassing to do either. On I went, climbing a little in places until finally, my foot hit a firmer bit of ground and I could see it was the path. My second scary time of the holiday. It does you good to have wee adventures though :-)

On my way home, walking through the quaint streets of the old town , I decided to salvage the evening and get some shots by street light. Setting up my tripod I didn't reckon on Highland Living. Almost immediately as I set up, an old lady, dressed very smartly and clutching a bible (no doubt to ward off heathen southerners) came beetling up to me - "Can I ask what your doing?". So I explained that the streets were very different from my home town and I thought there could be a nice photograph of the gable ends. "Hmm, one of these gable ends is mine!" she said pointedly. "Oh I'm sorry, I do hope you don't mind", I said, "I'm an amateur photographer and I think this town is beautiful". "Hmm", she replied, "Are you a church goer!". What to say… I reckoned the truth was probably best, I suspected she would see through any lies, "Not very often I'm afraid, just now and then" (mainly then I thought). "And what do you want to take a photograph for? Do you enjoy it?" (dripping scorn). "Yes" I replied trying to look as simple as she obviously thought I was. "Well, so long as you enjoy it", and off she went. I had been scrutinised, deemed as a an ungodly simpleton and she was probably away off to type up her report on me for the towns next municipal meeting.

So I continued to set up and reckoned I needed a 4 minute exposure of the deserted street. 2 minutes into it, along came an older man, looking at the tripod and camera, looking at me… "I won't ask" he said. I figured this was exactly the sort of glib attitude that would have had the old lady crossing herself. I decided I like this one. "you can if you want, I'll only tell you" I said. But he didn't break stride and strode past calling "I'm off to the harbour, I'll ask if you're here when I come back". He returned about a minute later with a "Well?". So I told him about the shot, told him about competition photography and showed him what the results were like. In return he told me he had live there for 60 years and gave me the history of Portknockie. These are the people that are a joy to meet when you are out taking pictures. In the end the shot wasn't great (too many distractions I think) but it was an amusing end to my night shoot.

Banffshire Weather

We had a great time exploring the area and just ignored the rain and the wind (and the snow, sleet and hailstones - really). Most of the time we managed to coincide our activities with dry weather. On one of the days we visited Crovie (or "Crivvy") as the locals say, in a howling coastal gale. Crovie is a tiny hamlet at the foot of a sea cliff, perched on a rocky ledge that some eedgit thought would make a handy place to build their house. The houses are 6 feet from the sea and are built gable end on to the water so that the waves crash against the walls instead of the windows. You can't drive into the village as the road is too narrow. Well you can, but you would have to reverse back out again. We arrived at the car park situated on the cliffs above Crovie in driving rain and 70mph winds and got out for a quick look. Then we got back in again sharpish. The car was rocking in the wind and I was suddenly very aware of the roof box on top of it - visions of our cars wing being grabbed by the gale and the us being flipped out to sea ran through our minds. Of course you cant drive all that way and then sit in the car, so the intrepid Mrs MacD jumped out and walked to the viewpoint. Walked as in leaning into the gale while being drenched by buckets of rain water. As she stood there squinting, while the car rocked alarmingly and the kids were screaming and crying in the back, I decided enough was enough, the camera would not be getting out of it's bag. I honked the horn, repeatedly to tell her to get back in but due to the massive distance separating the car from my wife (20 feet) and the mad wind, she didn't hear. We rocked a bit more. Sometime suddenly and sickeningly. Children cried. Father tried to look calm and reassuring. Eventually she go back in and off we sped for a drive about inland. When the wind died down back we went and actually managed a couple of pics. I could not live there. Hats off to the people of Crivvy (probably through a gale flinging those hats 3 miles out to sea).

Rugged Coastal Adventures

This blog may be riddled with spelling typos - I'm only just getting the feeling back in my fingers. For the last week I have been clambering about the cliffs of the Moray Firth in the snow, hail and rain, while being buffeted by 70mph winds. I've been up at dawn hoping for just a wee hint of colour in the sky and stumbling about in the dark trying to get slow exposures shots. Oscar the dog has learned to climb (he's sickeningly good at it) and he's repeatedly helped me by sticking his furry wee head into the corners of otherwise well composed shots. On the plus side, when he leans against me it keeps my legs a wee bit warmer and, being a handsome wee brute, he's great for starting conversations with the locals to get a few wee location tips!
Always on the look out for a cracking location and a bargain, the family MacD was dragged (only partially willingly) to the ancient wee fishing village of Portknockie for the school break. "Is there anything to do in Banffshire in October" they innocently enquired. "Of course!" I replied enthusiastically. After all I thought (but didn't voice) there is Bow Fiddle Rock (an incredible sea arch), there's wind and big waves, there are freezing cold beaches with interesting sand patterns, there would be ramshackle tumble down buildings and rusty wee boats and maybe even some weather beaten fishermen mending nets and lifeboats fighting their way out the harbour! But instead I said "There are endless deserted beaches, we might see dolphins, there are seals, all the swing parks will be quiet, the comfort food is brilliant up there (mmmmm Cullen skink and butteries) and the fish and chips will be superb. Anyway I've found this cheap wee self catering cottage at a last minute bargain price." The words "cheap" or "bargain" always appeal to Mrs MacD and that was that, off we went. Kids crammed into the back of the car with the tripod at their feet, camera bag being carefully cradled in the lap of the well instructed and incredibly tolerant Mrs MacD, the dog in the boot and the cases in the new rooftop luggage box (or "wing" as it was shortly to become known). Just a quick wee jaunt up the A9, four and a half hours of 3 kids under 12 "playing in the back" and a sing along to the one CD we'd remembered to take. I have now learned that 6 year olds never tire of hearing the same CD over and over and over again. And again and again.
But after fixing our usual holiday flat tyre, and despite starting off late and having a wee break at Carrbridge to stretch our legs - mine were stretched in the direction of the bridge itself for a quick few snaps of a wedding party who were trying to walk over it in high heels (madness) - we made it to Portknockie in good time just as darkness fell and we settled into our wee cottage. I grabbed the dog and daughter number 1 for a quick walk around the area and made a beeline for Bow Fiddle Rock - which we would have oohed and ahhed at had we been able to see it in the dark. But the route and time to the rock were noted and the dog was walked so it was straight back to the cottage for pizza (yum).
I had great intentions of dawn starts every day but was knackered and decided to lie in the first day. And would have too if Mrs MacD hadn't woken early, muttered what a beautiful pink sky it was and then rolled over back to sleep again. A beautiful pink sky, eh? What if it rains for the rest of the week (remember Glencoe this time last year)? Damn. Up I got, ran down the stairs and walked briskly to Bow Fiddle. I was there by 7:30am and snapping away. It really is superb. By the time the pink had left the sky and the rock was just rock coloured again, it was 9am and I was able to get back to the house in time for coffee and breakfast, with my shots in the can. Brilliant. And just as well. The next few days saw me ducking in and out of the house every time the weather stopped landing with force upon the town, and trying to get better shots of the rock and the harbour area. I never did get really good light for Bow Fiddle again, so another valuable lesson learned - never squander the light!

Photographers Rights

So, a quick update to my last post about Event Photography. Having taken my shots and having set up my sales site, I was almost instantly emailed by Pedal For Scotland's repreentatives telling me that as I had no licence to take images of their event, I was in in breach of copyright. They asked me to take my images down and wanted to know how much I had made ( I think they wanted recompense).

I was shocked. I had no idea I needed a licence. I couldn't see how my original images were a breach of copyright. But they are big and I am small, so rather than have a fight on my hands, I removed my images and let them know it was too early for me to get any sales - once removed though I got over 90 people visiting my site in the space of 9 hours, looking for images I could no longer sell them!!! How frustrating and professionally embarrassing!

So we came to an arrangement amicably and I was suddenly in a situation where my efforts had counted for nought. I have since been thinking about this and doing some research.

I did not copy anyones photos, I took images in a public place of a publicly available event. So no copyright breach. I did not have a license to take images for Photo For Scotland. No. But I did not need to have a licence to take photos for myself and market them as my photos of a public event. I was not claiming to have the official souvenir images. I did not NEED a licence. So in other words I have been bluffed and brow beaten. Am I going to do anything about it, I could conceivably sue for loss of earnings... but... this was a charity event. My hope is that the official photographer is at least giving some if not all of the proceeds to charity. I do not need battles like that this early in my attempts at event photography BUT I do want to put it out there that photographers do not NEED to back down to the big boys.As far as I can tell you are within your rights to take photos in any public area unless you are threatening national security or there is a specific legal reason prohibiting you.

I have included here a link to an excellent website run by the director of Photography for iStock, which is one of the worlds biggest Stock Photography companies ie a company that wishes to protect freelance photographers. The site has a Q&A section with legal advice. Excellent!

If you are looking to do Event photography, my advice is:
1) Know your rights!
2) Contact the organisers and get permission to photograph AND sell images of their event- you may have to pay a licence fee but if so you should get an official pass to the back stage areas. Communication is the key here, it is poilte and it keeps everyone on side.
3) Start small. Photograph events where the organisers will see you as a friend that will help them promote their event, not see you as a rival.
4) Foster good will - if you take images one year, give the organisers a few prints for their next years advertising. It costs you nothing and goes a long way to giving you the edge in future.
5) Go out and enjoy it - it's great fun!

Event Photography - Pedal For Scotland

I had no idea how much hard work photography can be. I mean, physically.

On Friday I heard that Pedal for Scotland (a 51mile cycle run between Glasgow and Edinburgh) was taking place on the following sunday. I though, "why not go along, get a few snaps and see if any of the cyclists would like to buy them off me, it might be worth it for pin money towards my next lens" (I REALLY want that 100mm-400mm Canon L zoom - just a couple of grand!!!). Little did I know what I was getting myself in for!

It turns out that pedal for Scotland is the biggest mass cycle in Scotland - this year 9000 cyclists took part. I found this out on Friday afternoon and started to doubt how I could practically cover this. In the end I thought, "Just have a go, it might be fun". So Sunday morning off I set (missing my usual Sunday big breakfast, grrr!) and got to a spot just outside Kirkliston that one of my cycling mates had told me about. A nice shaded area (less contrasty shadows at the expense of a slower shutter ), at the top of a steep hill (slower cyclists, working hard, out of the saddle and nicely strung out), just past Kirliston (3o mins drive fro my house - yay!). I was there 45 mins ahead of the first cyclist and had time to scout out a good spot and even ask a local to pose for a couple of snaps while I worked out the exposure from a reflected light reading from him. The lighting was difficult though - contrasty, as the sun kept poking through gaps in the trees and I had to make the brave decision to shoot manual exposures.

About 10am I heard a "whoop!" as the first 3 cyclists - obviously comfortably miles ahead of everyone else - came battering up the hill. Big smiles from two of them and I got to talke my first shots. It was exciting! I knew this was thhe start of thousands of cyclists coming my way. And it was. in fact, over the next 3 hours 45 minutes, I took over 3800 images. That's one every 3.5 seconds, manually exposing, auto focussing, manually zooming in and out. It was frantic and full on for hours. The barrel of the zoom actually got hot to the touch. Several cyclists stopped beside me to rub cramped legs (theirs not mine!) and I was embarrassed that I too was cramping up. My back was sore, I had been holding my camera aloft (elbow above my head) and rotating the zoom continuously for hours. Doesn't sound like much. Go try it. My camera weighs 3.5 kilos, so get a bag, put two 1.5 litre bottles of water and a packet of butter in the bag and hold it up so the top of the water bottles are level with your eye. Stay that way for 3.5 hours. See what I mean? Twice my hand cramped, once enough to make me yelp, and three times my right arm cramped up. Exhausting. And my cheeks hurt. For some reason I was smiling at every single cyclist as I snapped away at them - I was having a blast. And oh, the Glasgow banter, as they struggled up the steepest climb of the course - "dinnae send me the photae, send it tae ma wife, she can put it oan the coaffin!".

About 1:45pm I couldn't physically do any more. Cyclists were streaming through but I had to go home (I'd also promised to be home by 12:30pm, oops). I actually felt awful that people were struggling on and I wasn't going to be there to give them the opportunity of a momento.

So that was that. Err... no... How would people find my photos? I had to look at each photo (!) remove the blurred ones (about 10%, not too bad) and then sort each one by bib number into a folder so that the cyclists could fine their images quickly, and then upload them to my sales site (www.PhotoForMyWall.com/events). 4 days. 4 days it took, including me taking time off work on Monday to do it, and the 32 hour image upload, with my wife starting off various batch jobs.

And then I realised I had a competitor, a big fancy company with loads of photographers. They took far more images than me, but not any better quality (I think). I actually got my images loaded up ahead of them, and I charge 65% of their price because I'm not looking for profit, just hobby money, but they can advertise. So I am up against it. I have tweeted, joined forums, facebooked and flickered. Now, I need to wait and see if I sell (m)any. Either way, one of my main targets was to boost traffic to my landscape photography website, and after 4 days, traffic is up about 1000% so that at least has made it worth it. I'm hoping for multi pound sales, if I'm lucky.

It's been an experience, and I will probably aim smaller next time, but I'm delighted - idea to shoot in 48 hours, to product available for sale and marketed 72 hours later. Not bad, and I've been able to compete with the big boys and hold my head up! Now, if I can just get the feeling back in my arms, all will be well again.

Walking Season

The sun is shining, the sunsets have a warm glow, interesting shadows abound. At last, summer. Apparently we skipped spring after a 6 month winter this year (it snowed at some time in every month in West Lothian from November 2009 to April 2010!). I dont remember that happenning before.

But here we are, it's time to get the hiking boots on and start yomping about the countryside, looking for new locations. To make it even more fun, I bought a dog over the winter (for about the cost of two lenses - did I do the right thing!!). So, as I hadn't seen my trusty native guide, TB, in quite a while and she was keen to see the new pup, I asked her to show me a part of Edinburgh that I've always wanted to visit but had never found the way into - the Cammo Estate.

You've probably seen it if you've driven from Newbridge to Barnton. The big tower on the left with no apparent purpose. I've always found it curious and wondered if Rapunzel was up there waiting for me to give her hair a wee tug. So, font of all geographic and historical knowledge TB came to the rescue - she's been hiking round there for years.

Cammo is an ancient estate that was deliberately run down to ruins by the last owner before being set on fire by vandals in the 1970s. It was a huge estate with many ancient building, the grounds were the first landscaped gardens in Scotland and the great tower I had seen from the road was a water tower. Only the tower remains in it's former glory, the rest has been reclaimed by nature and dog walkers. We had a good walk around the place, with the wee pup, Oscar having a whale of a time bounding throughthe long grass an dpretending to be brave. TB told me that the place was supposed to be haunted buut would tell me no more. Consider my interest piqued! On the way round I spotted 3 angles that though would make good images (no camera with me!!!!) and decided I would return soon.

3 days later, having read up on the ghost stories (masochist!) off I set, sans dog, avec camera. No sign of the white lady, the man in the top hat or the phantom dogs, but I did jump at every rustle in the bushes and tried to laugh at myself. It can be a lonely and spooky feeling place! First up was the main shot the classic scene of the tower itself. I was lucky and found some tractor tyre lines through the crops to act as lead in lines and was torn between a slow shutter speed to blur the wind blown crops and clouds scudding in the sky or a fast shutter to freeze the detail of the foreground crop leaves. So, this is a digital world and shots are free - I took both. In the end I went somewhere in the middle and got a little movement in the crops and some pretty nice clouds. Very pleased with the shot in the end.

Next I struck out for the tree covered hill, aiming to use a couple of low hanging branches and tree trunks to frame the tower. Hmmm... didn't work out as I had envisaged it. Never mind. I reckon a summer early morning could be good though if you could get some mist shrouding the tower. On the way back I thought about an arty shot, using the wide angled lens to curve the tower round the trees on the hill. It needed to be HDR though to get the detail in the stone. It works quite well but I thought it was a wee bit cheesy. Still, a keeper.

Last shot was back down by the car park where there is a meadow with some ancient and impressive trees. The sun was nice and low by now, kissing the leaves of the trees with bright warm light and I rattled off quite a few shots from different angles. Finally, when I was happy with the composition, I decided to counteract the strong contrast of the late sun by taking another HDR shot (or seven shots to be precise). There was a little wind and this, combined with the movement of the clouds gave the whole seen a slightly soft but pleasing feel. I often use the minor movements between HDR shots to give a softened other-worldly feel to an image. Not what HDR is designed for, but I like it! another shot that I was pleased with.

So I went for three shots, got two of them and a new one and all good enough to sell on my website PhotoForMyWall.com. That's a pretty good strike rate and really brings home the value of walking the scene and envisaging your shots ahead of photographing them. In all, the whole shoot took less than an hour, which is incredibly fast work.

I liked Cammo. Me and the dog will be back, again, without the camera.

Inspirational Photography

I've mentioned it before, but I am a member of the New York Institute of Photography. In fact I am a student there (distance learning). I am woefully poor at getting on with the lessons and the hand ins but I DO like to take part in the forum. Recently, to celebrate 100 years of teaching Photography, all of us Forum members, were asked to take part on a project by selecting our best shot of 2009 and sending it in. The best 100 would be chosen and added to a slideshow to promote NYIP. I was delighted that my image was amongst the 100 - here is the video/slideshow.

Check out NYIP.com for more great photography tips!