Over the past couple of years, I have become increasingly disenchanted with landscape photography. Landscape photography locations are increasingly well-known so there is an inevitable sameness about the photographs be they in Scotland, Iceland or elsewhere. Wide views of landscape, taken in good weather, in the ‘golden hours’ around sunrise or sunset or sometimes, with the Milky Way. If there’s water in the picture, it’s often blurred by the use of long exposures to give a milky effect. The photographs produced are often striking but, for me, they are somehow lacking - they capture the beauty of the landscape but are impersonal and formulaic.
I recently attended a talk by a Dutch landscape photographer called Theo Bosboom, and I was really impressed by his work. He introduced me to the term ‘intimate landscapes’ where, instead of focusing on the breadth of a landscape, we look more closely at an aspect of the landscape - the shape of a rock, lichen on a bridge, leaves in a stream and so on. I subsequently discovered that my disenchantment with conventional landscape photography is shared by lots of photographers who are focusing on these intimate landscapes.
So, although I won't stop taking wide-ranging landscapes, I've decided to spend more time looking more closely at the places and concentrating on 'landscapes in the small' rather than 'landscapes in the large'.
Another beach pebble shot with the focus this time on the ligh-coloured rock.
Very little grows on Iceland volcanic beaches but I was lucky to find this small plant that contrasted with the harshness of the rocks.
As a naturally fairly unobservant person, one of the things I like about photography is that it makes me look more carefully at the world around me when I'm walking around. I suspect very few people have noticed this rowan that has seeded in the form of a tree.
Reflections in the Dee, I think, make good subjects for intimate landscapes, enhanced here with a wee bit of ICM. Surprisingly, the patterns and colours here came from containers and machinery from bridge-building works.
I found a single quartz boulder on the edge of the river which had a wonderful texture. Here, I liked the softness of the moss against the hard stone.
Zooming in to a detail on the bridge, I was lucky to catch a beetle on the leaf. The strange background shape is in out of focus, metal reinforcing bat that runs along the bridge.
An abstract landscape that looks a bit like a drone shot but which is actually lichens and mosses on an old bridge.
The black beaches in Iceland offer lots of opportunities for interesting compositions. Here, I liked the softness of the feather against the hardness of the subtle colours of the pebbles.
