Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.
Perched precariously above the North Sea on the edge of a crumbling, sandy cliff stands a small area of mixed woodland. The trees within are mainly sycamore, upright in stature and hardy in nature they stand together resilient in the face of salt laden winds and the ever present threat of erosion. The woodland is not ancient, it may not be remarkable but to me it is a haven of peace.
With my camera bag on my back I set off to follow the coastal path, the route looping and undulating to avoid the gap left by the latest cliff fall. A weak winter sun pushes its way through the canopy of bare branches as I reach the tranquility of the wood where I am greeted by a bright carpet of white. Thousands of tiny snowdrops nod their heads in the gentle morning breeze, while a woodpecker drums urgently on a distant tree trunk. In that small moment with the sun on my face it feels as if spring has finally arrived.
The woodland here is chaotic and messy and the carpet of white doesn’t quite cover all the distractions in the understory. Landscape images are difficult but I love coming here with my camera to spend some time quietly with the flowers, soaking up the atmosphere and experimenting with more intimate scenes. I am a landscape photographer but I will always find beauty in nature however small the subject. Shooting with my macro lens is not something I do that often and I would definitely not class myself as a macro photographer but I enjoy playing with detail and consider the whole process a learning experience.
This week while browsing YouTube I came across an advert for a photography channel boldly stating ‘Master Landscape Photography in weeks not years.’ I was intrigued, although not enough to watch the video! Can you really master something in weeks and what does that even mean?
I have been working as a landscape photographer for over 15 years now and I don’t considered I have fully mastered the subject. Like everything in life it changes and evolves and I think there is always more to learn. I may have got to grips with the aspects of photography that make my images what they are, but it has taken me years to perfect and refine my style. It has been a journey and it is not over, my work is still growing and evolving and I am sure it will never be fully mastered. To me mastery implies an end goal and I think the learning process is much more of a journey than a destination.
As part of my growth as a photographer I have been trying to get to grips with printing my own work. I have taken delivery of a new Canon 1000 Pro printer and have been enjoying the learning process associated with trying to get my images to appear in print as they do on the screen. After numerous false starts, much reading and many hours of YouTube I think I am beginning to get the hang of it. I have learnt so much about printing profiles and paper choices and the huge difference both these things make to the final look of the image. As someone who has never printed my own work before the printer has opened up a whole new range of possibilities that I am really excited about.
My snowdrop images from the wood are now sitting on my hard drive, some processed, some destined for the bin. Like all photography shoots there are good images and some very bad ones!
My style of flower photography is much like my landscapes - I love soft dreamy images that emphasise the beauty I see in the subject I am photographing. The reason for using a macro lens is that the plane of focus is really small, giving me huge scope to create that dreamy, soft focus look.
In the wood I shot many of my images directly into the light at a wide open aperture to give me some lovely bokeh in the background. When processing these I have lightened everything, reduced the clarity and dehaze and really tried to tone the background in with the subject. I didn’t want any dark shadow areas to dominate and tried to get all my tones to be similar. When I think of snowdrops I think of spring, light, fresh air and happiness and I want my images to reflect this.
As an experiment I have taken one of my images and processed it in two different ways - one light and one dark. I think both images look ok, but I definitely prefer the lighter shot because I feel it better portrays the qualities I associate with snowdrops.
To my mind flower portraits are the same as any other portrait, they should bring out the personality of the subject and I think this is why I am always drawn to process them in such a light and airy way. Most of the time I feel it is the background that is instrumental in creating the mood and emotion in these images.
Above are my favourite two images from my wander around the woods this week. I have worked on them in Lightroom to emphasise the mood that I feel suits their personality and printed them on some fine art paper. In the process I have learned a little more about photography and a lot more about printing and have taken a few more steps on my creative journey.
Hopefully the following quote sums up the message in this post
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered you will never grow.
If you are interested in learning more about flower photography I would encourage you to check out these photographers:
Thank you very much for reading and until next week, enjoy your photography.
Gill
Some lovely images of the more intimate landscape, which are complimented by your writing to give a sense of place.
Good luck with the printing. I really enjoy watching the image grow from the printer and I believe holding a physical version adds to the satisfaction of photography rather than viewing on screen. Perhaps it's creating something tangible that does this....or my age !
If you haven't already come across him I recommend Keith Cooper at Northlight https://youtube.com/@KeithCooper?si=tNXX5J4YpLSsAYNE
Keith has years of printing experience and I've found him very generous with his time in answering questions
I don't think we can ever truly say we have mastered photography as there's always something to learn. Without striving for improvement or new ways of doing things, boredom would soon set in. Perhaps a better title might be become a competent photographer...but that's not an attention grabbing strap line !
Beautiful images Gill. I have to agree photography is a journey to which there is no destination - there's always more to learn. Fay Godwin springs to mind with her amazing black and white work and then later in life switching to beautiful, abstract colour images in Glassworks and Secret Lives, I understand sometimes using a Diana plastic camera for the soft effects it produced.