Clearing Sea Fog

Clearing Sea Fog, originally uploaded by North Light.

A quiet day in the North of Scotland, the sun was shining this morning, but had disappeared by lunch time. Feels as though it is also getting colder, so no photography today. Forecast does not look promising for the weekend either, so my thoughts have roamed to how I started my photographic journey.

I didn't seriously start taking photographs until I was in my late twenties, I only remember two earlier forays into the world of photography, my parents gave me a Kodak Brownie 127 when I was about 8, I think the novelty soon wore off, and it was discarded to the bottom of a draw. In the 1970's my brother bought a Olympus OM-1, this sparked off an interest in cameras, with a mixture of envy and a strong desire to own such a beautiful object.
In the 1980's I purchased my first SLR camera, a Minolta X700, this being the beginning of a passion for photography.

My photography has evolved through the use of lots of film, learning to be self critical and the influence of other photographers. Through the 1980's and 1990's I went to as many photographic exhibitions as I could, the highlights of these exhibitions were Ansel Adams at the Barbican and Sebastiano Salgado at the RPS in Bath. Other photographers that made a lasting impression at this time were Don McCullin, Fay Goodwin, Bill Brandt,, Paul Strand and James Ravilious.

Another important influence was the Guardian Newspaper, during the 1990's when Eamonn McCabe was picture editor of The Guardian. During this period the Guardian consistently raised the quality of photography used in quality British newspapers.
During the 1980's Eamonn produced some of the most iconic sports photography, winning Sports Photographer of the Year four times between1978 and 1984.

As my love for landscape photography has developed I have continued to derive inspiration from the work of photographers, those that immediatly spring to mind are Charlie Waite, David Ward, Colin Prior and Joe Cornish.