Landscapes

So the Scottish weather improved and lockdown restrictions eased, this is the best outcome for landscape photographers.

I love a good landscape picture as do most of us. A good image can make you feel a certain way, you can imagine being there in person and it can inspire you to go visit the location. Landscapes are pictures that you can hang on your wall and they look pretty within the home, even if they were captured by a complete stranger. Now imagine being the photographer of that beautiful picture??

All that said, I have decided to give it a go. This genre is far from what I capture, but I’m excited to explore it a little more and see how I get on. I mean it looks easy enough, right?? Lol. I know it’s not easy and I learned this through studying the genre briefly in college. There are many aspects to consider before even venturing out for example; the location, framing, point of interest, accessibility, angle, weather, sky, time of day, tide times if at sea and even where the sun is and how it effects anything within the frame. That’s not everything but a start, the biggest downfall for me is patience 🙈 I am not the most patient person and landscape photography requires patience.

I captured my first landscape in 2018. I had stumbled across a lovely picture of the cloch lighthouse, Gourock, Scotland and decided to go take a similar pic. I grabbed my camera bag one evening, a friend and a tripod and headed out to capture this image. On arriving the tide was out, the sun was directed towards the white lighthouse and the rain was close by (not ideal). I wanted a slow shutter speed shot and In order to achieve this, a filter was needed to restrict the amount of light entering the camera. Unfortunately at the time, none of the filters in my bag where good enough for this, and I was unable to get the shutter speed I would have liked. I didn’t fully explore angles or viewpoints and snapped a few shots regardless. 🙈 let’s just say… I was extremely unprepared and uneducated and it shows, as you can see for yourself…

I wasn’t impressed by this and decided landscapes weren’t for me lol. Regardless of how I felt or my poor attempt I still had a brief to fulfil, so I turned to research and lots of it. Research is dreaded within the college course as its intense, tedious and hardcore throughout but I soon learned that it was necessary. I came across some beautiful places, but it’s impossible to find a lovely location in Scotland that hasn’t already been captured 100 times over. Eager to complete my course and push myself, I visited a few more beauty spots, and even managed a sunrise at 5am…

The lone tree, Milarrochy Bay, Loch Lomond

To date I am in the process of planning my next landscape and I have chosen my location, went and seen exactly what I want. I’m just waiting for that perfect day, you’ll need to keep an eye out for that ☺️

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1st May 2021 0

Achievements

It’s been a few weeks since my last blog. I don’t know about you, but Lockdown is starting to take its toll. As a photographer I have no inspiration these days and the camera is beginning to collect dust 🙈 I’m hoping it won’t be too long before I can venture outside the five mile radius in order to capture something that excites me.

On a brighter more positive note, last week and this week have brought some exciting news 😁 I recently sent some of my work into my local papers and they were selected to print. Friday seen the first of my images chosen by the glasgow camera club to be printed in the Glasgow times. The image printed was my first ever newborn shoot featuring little baby Sofia Irvine…

I was chuffed to bits that my work was chosen to be printed in this paper and that a wider audience would see it ☺️ first time for me.

Then while browsing the Scottish Daily record on Saturday evening I was blown away to see that another of my images was chosen as a £100 winning image ☺️ totally buzzing. This is a great achievement for me and it fair cheered me up. The winning picture was a long exposure shot of Charing Cross in Glasgow…

And if that wasn’t enough yesterday this image was also chosen as picture of the week in my local newspaper the Hamilton advertiser 😁

So you could say it’s been a good week for publicity ☺️ I wonder what’s next… stay tuned to find out.

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16th Mar 2021 1

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn

2020, the year the world stood still yet surprisingly the quickest year ever. Autumn has arrived and the colours outdoors are changing. I love Autumn, the air feels cleaner, it’s not too cold nor too warm and the world becomes colourful.

Autumn is always a busy time of the year for me socially and 2020 seen my son turn 16. I still can’t believe I’m a mum to a 16 year old 😂 we celebrated his big day with a family gathering outdoors and a movie night. Happy 16th to my baby boy 🥳

Autumn also seen out the last of my outdoor shoots as the dry days became less. This shoot was captured in the clients gorgeous garden and included mum, dad, daughter and gran. The family were fantastic and we had some fun and laughs throughout, even got a postman involved 😂 (needs must). Obviously I’ve included a few images from the day, a good end to my photography year.

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12th Oct 2020 0

Back to school

With the schools returning after five months off and some schools unable to accommodate a school photographer, gave me an opportunity to capture a few school images.

Now… under normal circumstances school shoots are pretty straight forward, mums want nice tidy images shot within the studio. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? Well… I don’t have the use of a studio and unable to enter anyone’s home under government guidelines meant it had to be carried out, outdoors.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely had my doubts regarding all the things that could go wrong using studio equipment outside, but it was worth a try. I also had to work in a safe way for both myself and the client, keeping a 2 metre social distance, wearing a mask where necessary and cleaning hands and equipment before and after the shoot. I’ve included some behind the scene pictures of the setup that show how I achieved my final images, and the final results. This shoot was for the McCluskey girls, Caoimhe and Madelyn.

I was happy with the result and the girls mum was over the moon. Always nice when everything works out ☺️ “happy client, happy photographer”. I was asked to do another two school shoots because that one went so well and both clients were soo happy that they will be coming back for more. First set of images are of Brother and Sister Erin and Shay.

And lastly we have Sisters Mia and Kara.

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27th Sep 2020 3

Preparation

At last I was able to get out to capture images. It is the middle of Summer 2020, restrictions lifted slightly and the weather is not too bad. The first shoot I had planned was an outdoor sitter shoot. My baby step granddaughter had just turned six months and I wanted to capture that milestone.

The shoot itself was hard work, the little madam decided she did want her photo taken lol, but I managed to get a few shots before she threw the towel in. I decided to try something a little different in post production with this set of images, I wanted to try and create an oil painting effect without them actually looking like they had been painted. Im still not 100% sure about the edit but it was nice to try something different.

“Outdoor sitter shoot” with Sofia Irvine

I enjoyed the outdoor shoot and was happy to have my camera back in my hand, so I decided to do some promotion work for outdoor shoots. I used the images I captured from the above shoot, and designed a promotion leaflet offering clients an outdoor shoot at a discounted price. The promotion leaflet was displayed on my social media platforms in order to grab peoples attention.

To my surprise there were loads of people interested in this shoot but unfortunately the weather changed quickly and I was only able to get one more done that year (will post the shoot in a blog post soon). Preparing promotions and eye catching leaflets definitely pays off and i will be preparing a few different promotions for 2021 (praying for the better weather). until the next time 😘

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31st Aug 2020 0