a big thanks to Squarespace for
sponsoring this week's video everybody
fantastic to see you all again so I have
been looking at all my photos from in
the past just to see if I could just
come up with an idea for a video to be
honest and then I just thought actually
I've come on quite a bit in my
photography and then that's a bit of a
bold statement to make but I've
definitely improved there's no doubt
about it
so I thought if I looked at my photos
would I be able to see how I improve why
I improved were there little moments
that could trigger where I could share
those ideas and things that I learned
going right back to the very beginning
that would help you guys out so I will
start with my black and white prints
sorry I first started photography in the
darkroom my mom and dad's house when I
was about 14 something like that in the
80s long time ago and I did black and
white prints and I didn't actually quite
well we sort of these but looking at
them now I don't know how but they're
not bad they're not bad but I wanted to
tell you about these and I'm just going
to go through some other photos as well
and give you some tips for how I
improved and those sort of light bulb
moments I suppose okay so these are my
these are my photos from my darkroom in
the early years sort of I first started
an exposure guidebook so this book here
so this was an exposure guidebook and
you can see that I wrote down grasmere
island which I think was this shot here
and you know I said eff number 8 this
with the enlarger what was the F number
in their larger what exposure was it
what high do they have the enlarger etc
and yeah you can you can see that this
was a reasonable shot this was my
favorite shot that I took for a few
years really and I think had a bit of
atmosphere I probably could have done it
with a little bit more contrast but I
actually think this is a pretty good
shot this is another one
that I took in in in the early 90s and I
really remember taking this believe it
or not I never remember thinking these
raindrops were nice on here but I think
this is okay as a shot but it falls down
in a number of areas I think it's got
lots of things going on in the shot you
know I've got these bushes behind I've
got this fence a lot of grass down here
the wall these ferns coming out and then
that the sky as well and I think what I
should have done is maybe just
concentrated on a certain element in
there and also the balance isn't great
but generally that was quite good I feel
like because I was doing black and white
I was trying to look for texture and
contrast and that's something that I got
quite good at doing from a
black-and-white perspective this is a
good example here when I first went to
cemetery so this is with am who's my
wife now we went here before we were
married I think it was in about 1994
something like that maybe 95 and I took
this shot with the long lens with Fuji
FP for film I think and yeah I mean I
was quite quite quite pleased with this
I think for a contrast point-of-view a
simplicity point of view that was that
was good but when I got into woodland
shots like this one not so good so you
can see that you can see that this this
shot was you know there's just so much
going on
I only just actually focus at the front
here but it is at the back so I probably
had quite a long lens on didn't really
know where to focus and I saw this light
coming through and thought oh that would
be good
and just took the scene rather than
composed the scene and I think there was
a lot of shots like that this is another
example of that I mean it's turned out
to be not a bad shot this but you can
see that you know what what I'm doing
here is is taking the the scene you know
I've seen this river I've seen these
snow-capped mountains and I'm not trying
to tweak it so what I should have done
is move around a little bit and have
some balance to this scene having said
that I've took a almost identical shot
to this recently which I didn't realize
of the same scene
and I did improve it I did get the
composition a little bit better so I
think I've definitely improved in that
aspect I also took some slide films so
these are my slide phones but that was
few and far between it was far too
expensive to do I did a bit of color
developing but I really did stalled with
color at the time because I felt like it
was better at just funny textures and
shapes and things like that anyway come
2002 and I got myself a Nick on d100
camera I thought this is amazing it was
one of the first digital cameras you
could get I've had a previous one - that
was just a cannon just point and shoot
in 2001 I went to the Sydney Olympics
but I think it was 2 megapixels this was
the d100 and it was 6 megapixels and
that was super excited so I got out a
little bit more having this new camera
and I started to shoot more landscapes
but as you can see by these shots I
really stood although I was shooting
color a lot more for the first time and
I think the problem was that I was
seeing these scenes and just seeing it
as a scene rather than the elements
within the scene how I could build those
elements up so I was taking shots not
really in great light either of just
hills and mountains like these these
shots here that didn't really add up to
anything that was you know that there
was any thought gone into I suppose you
know there wasn't a story or there
wasn't a way of leading your eye around
those occasional successes like this
shot here of these skiers where I was
shooting with the long lens but it
tended to be more with my long lens
where I could just simplify the scene
and I've said that a lot you know if you
are struggling with composition then get
a long lens because that's a much easier
way of just trying to find a little part
of that scene in front of you and
composing that rather than trying to fit
everything into a wide-angle lens which
is a little bit more difficult so I
might use my wide-angle lens I still did
texture as well and I still couldn't get
away from the texture that I was
shooting but you know what was finding
is that a shot that look brilliant in
black away and I could see it looked
brilliant in black and white I couldn't
quite understand why didn't look so
in color like this shot here of this
corn or wheat why is that some of y'all
know comments below anyway look gray in
black white didn't look so good in color
I was seen in black away and I couldn't
get that out of my head and then the
other problem I had with color in the
earlier days of shooting it and then
doing all my edits in Photoshop is
although a new Photoshop quite well I'd
used it for doing all sorts of other
things I felt like I was struggling to
understand how to edit a photo
you know I'd done things again in black
and white in the darkroom where I was
good at controlling contrast and dodging
and burning but I couldn't quite get it
right and I made the mistake looking at
this shot here this was a shot that I
was really proud of at the time I can
look back at it now and I can see the
sky is just way too / darkened and it's
come it's brought in these colors in the
sky which aren't realistic and to me
that was a really good shot at that time
because it seemed dramatic but you know
I was failing to connect with the mood
of the scene I think and trying to
visualize what I want to when I took to
that image and if somebody told me that
I think it would have helped either
because it was just difficult what I was
really strong struggling to understand
not just you know how to shoot something
on how to edit it but what I wanted to
shoe so I was trash you all sorts of
different things then I went to Iceland
and I did a tour of Iceland for two
weeks in in 2004 and this was amazing I
still was so quiet there that was like
gravel gravel tracks it wasn't tarmac
all the way and I got some good shots
this was gold foss but again it was just
drab light I didn't go to one place
again again in better light so I think I
should go there at sunset or sunrise and
and again I did better with my
black-and-white shots like this this
image here and then we had kids so that
that was tricky because we had kids but
I thought I photographed my kids so I
took lots of photos like this one here
of Sam being scared by a bug and I did
quite a lot of comedy photos of my kids
which was quite good fun and never liked
them
didn't really improve my landscape
photography so there was a period where
I went through not much improvement as
I'm sure everyone's done that as well
you take pictures you'd be kids and the
things around you rather than going out
far I think I in the autumn and shoe
because that seemed like the best time
and I got shots like this which was
really pleased of and I said again I
seem to have more success when I shoot
in longer not having foregrounds I've
over edited this again though you know
I've strolled with it I should have have
had the most softly look to this autumn
scene here rather than you know just
increasing the contrast and saturation
which is what tended to do at the time
what I should have tried to do is just
soften it down a little bit and again
you know on this shot here was beautiful
reflections I think this was Riedel
water in the Lake District and I've got
there a lot and I remember thinking it's
just beautiful there's a nice color
palette but again your eye doesn't
really know where to go on the shot you
don't really know whether to you know
look at the trees and in a bunch on the
left or a bunch on the right so although
it's sort of balanced it's not great
your eye doesn't know where to go
where's you know if I look at a shot now
I'm using reflections I feel like the
more thought about I'm thinking about
the elements within the shot the
reflection is just part of the whole
elements that go together to make that
final image so in 2005 I went back to
Iceland I feel like I've got a little
bit bad then I started to think more
about light you know this was a really
good example so this was these lupins in
Iceland on the Snaith and less Peninsula
we went there in the day just sort of
scout it out and then I went back at
midnight because we went in the summer
and got this shot and that was really
good but it was the first time when I
fought actually my camera isn't quite
good enough so the dynamic range was
really struggling on the camera I did
use nd grad filters I don't think I had
one on this particular shot and I
started to burn out the clouds a little
bit I started to shoot for grounds and
that got me excited those four grounds
were really really interested in these
lupins were amazing and I thought that's
a sort of photography that I really
liked and this shot from 2005 is
probably the first shot that I've taken
where I thought
that's what I want to shoot and then the
Revolution was 2050 and I got a D and
Nikon d200 and it's the first time that
I think technology helped me in helping
two ways it helped me because it gave me
an impetus to go out and shoot more is
12 megapixels and that made such a big
change to the quality of my photos going
from a 6 to 12 megapixels I think 12s
and off 6 not quite enough anything
above 12 to bonus but that 12 megapixels
them and the bigger dynamic range on
that on that on that sensor was just
amazing so that was good I had this
impetus to get out and I took this shot
Suntory and and this one quite a lot of
wards online did well in lots of
competitions and I felt like I just done
something quite special gain it was
taking away with my long lens but I went
out to take this shot and as purposely
had been passed it a lot of time I
thought about it in my head how can I
get this shot so it was a purpose-built
shot and and that was a massive step
change in my photography so everything
came together and then things sort of
went downhill because I had three kids
and that didn't shoot as many landscapes
but I felt like even sure my kids I was
starting to think more about composition
lighting and how things were working and
you know and things got a lot better
than with my photography I started
shooting mom tour and the Peak District
this was the first shot I took of it and
then I think I started thinking about
light and foreground and drama you know
with the mist and when could I go back
there to get the best conditions ok
these shots on the best but I was
starting to think about the right things
and failing more at doing one scene and
eventually I got this shot from am tall
which I absolutely love you know closer
to now so that was great those things
were fantastic the final thing that I
just want to say before I go onto this
or latter days of my photography was I
had another trip to Scotland I think it
was in about 2011 something like that
and I distinctly remember shooting and
thinking what's going wrong with these
shot
I shot these shots and I was trying to
get this foreground and I just couldn't
I couldn't work it out and I just
thought I know what I'm gonna forget
tragedy this big Vista foreground shots
and I just got my long lens which I felt
more comfortable with and I just tried
to hone that and I came back with this
shot which I really liked I thought it
was really good thinking about it now I
think I crop it into a portrait rather
than landscape but it was it was a
really good shot and then I went on over
the next couple of years to take these
two shots which would gain with long
lenses and then finally this other shot
which was one of my favorites of these
trees with the long lens and I felt like
I was good at picking out detail and
composition within the landscape that
was further away from me
but I knew deep down what I wanted to do
was shoot these big vistas and I knew to
do that I had to get these four grounds
now it's seen a lot of Joe Cornish his
work he was a landscape photographer in
the UK and he was really good at that
society to study his books I thought I'm
gonna crack this and in about 2014 I
started taking more for grounds and I
thought I could really crack this I
started taking bigger vistas a wider
angle shot so this one is a view
cemetary valley when I used to live in
California about four or five years ago
I thought I've got to up my game yeah
I've got to get better as shew in these
foreground so I was quite good at
shooting long long lens shots but not as
good as I wanted to be issuing for grams
so I just went out and shot a lot of
foregrounds this was one from Gummer's
hair which was one of the early ones
actually did a video really early on
about it then you can go and have a look
at it but I feel that this foreground
this tree tells a story of the mountain
so you know you can tell it on this
mountain it's windy trees windswept and
but then you can look at the tree and
then you can lead in through the image
and and and that's that's fantastic this
shot here but to me I camped out here
and our embassy in the stream leading
all the way down I thought how can I use
that as a foreground and I just had it
really dark in the foreground but it
worked fantastically well and it was all
about story and
leading your eye that's what I realized
was so important before ground it was
connecting the element from a foreground
to a mid ground to the distance and when
I had that lightbulb moment I thought I
can do anything with four grounds I can
do all sorts of things it wasn't so easy
and I had lots of failures but then I
realized there was things within four
grounds that could make your photo
better and things that don't make your
photo better and telling that story and
connecting those elements with two
things that were really important I got
this one of the rainbow here and the
water falling in the foreground and you
knew it was raining and it connected
with the rainbow I got one of the
grasses in Scotland where the mountains
in the background you know was
snow-capped but this grass just felt to
me like the valleys that I'd been
driving through in Scotland so sort of
connecting the landscape of Scotland
through that foreground which I fell
just look really really good I was
really pleased about and that was it you
know I've gone on to take lots more
photos of foregrounds and big vistas are
actually in my book vistas handy plug if
you haven't got a copy of vistas and you
can still get one there's a link in
description below but vistas are
something that I'm super super
passionate about
okay take Woodlands and seascapes as
well but vistas the thing that really
captured my imagination in it but it's
been such a long journey to get there I
feel like it means something quite
special to me before I go I just wanna
say something about the world landscape
photographer thanks but everybody that's
entered I think we're on then we've
raised about four four and a half
thousand pounds so so far so that's
amazing that means a your four hundred
five hundred people have entered but we
can get more we can get more so if you
haven't entered then please check out
the link below
I built the website specifically for it
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quite a long video today thanks for
sticking with me and until sometime in
the week bye
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