This is my first day back in Patagonia in more than six years. My last trip here was in 2018. I’m staying in the lovely little town of Puerto Natales, and for the next four days I will be making photographs of gauchos (Chilean cowboys). Shot with my iPhone, Tuesday April 23rd 2024 I’ve been dreaming about making some portraits now for quite some time, and I remember talking to my good friend Sabine who lives here about doing a special trip as far back as 2016. It has taken this long to get round to doing it. So much got in the way, and the years just flew by. I have a week off between tours ..read more

I’m away for just over a month, and will be in Brazil, Chile and Bolivia. Lagoon shooting, Brazil 2024. Image courtesy of John Motzi. I’ve managed to get through all the airports so far without having my films scanned and I’ve found the best way to do this is to collect / un-box all the films and put them into sealable bags, so they can be seen easily. I have also chosen to make sure that there are a lot of 800 ISO films in the bags, as this seems to make the decision easier for the x-ray staff as to whether to scan or hand-search the films. For most of the staff, I found showing an ISO 800 ..read more

Just left Brazil after a very nice tour with a nice group of people. Thank you to everyone who came on this tour. It is an amazing landscape and I am very much looking forward to going back next year. Image courtesy of Bruno Vias. Many thanks Bruno ! I’m heading to Patagonia now. I will be based in the town of Puerto Natales for a week. My good friend and ex guide Sabine will be taking me into the national park each day to go and visit some of her Gaucho friends. I am hoping to do some portraiture and I’ve brought my Contax 645 system for this purpose alone. The Contax 645 system has some of ..read more

This past week I’ve been reminiscing on my recent trip to Argentina’s Puna region, that I have been photographing now for close on to a decade. It was interesting hearing the group’s opinion about the landscape. The biggest impression I heard from them was of the variety of different landscapes that they saw. For instance, we visited a really beautiful sand dune complex on one morning which yielded some very nice new images (if my films turn out to be as good as I hope they are). It was a reminder to me that my portfolios of what I end up showing from my travels are always going to be a subse ..read more

I’m just finishing up a workshop I ran this past week on the isle of Eigg here in Scotland. Below is a ‘portfolio’ example created by the participants work during this week’s workshop. As part of my Scottish workshops, I always take a high quality digital projector along, so we can review and edit participants work throughout the week. My aim in doing this is many: most photographers tend to undervalue what they shoot, and it is only in editing the work that I can often show that what may have appeared to be an average shot upon first review, is actually an image that holds great promise ..read more

My latest experience of going through airports with my film has made me decide to take ISO800 and above film with me now. Let me explain. At Edinburgh airport I was informed that all film below 800 ISO had to go through the scanner, and that the scanner was safe for any ISO below that number. I know for a fact that film is not safe below even 400 for regular old fashioned scanners, and for the new CT scanners (which are rapidly being rolled out everywhere) even one single pass is detrimental to the films. At Paris Charles de Gaulle, they have introduced CT scanners. I managed to get the film h ..read more

It’s taken me a while to realise that since I started to focus more on portfolio sets (as they convey, or help push you towards a style), that I’ve found myself including images that are more anonymous, or perhaps less obvious as contenders to help support the portfolio set. Portfolios in a way, although they may stipulate constraints so that the images conform to a look or a feel, have in a way allowed me to go looking for compositions in the landscape that might not feel immediately apparent as a strong contender as an individual image, but instead, help or be a supporting image in a set. I ..read more

There are two ways you can look at photography. One is to think that when you photograph something, you are recording it for posterity. Bundled into this is the belief that the photograph is a realistic impression of reality. Then there is the other way you can look at photography: as a personal expression where you are trying to show others what you saw and felt. I don’t think both can coexist as I think they are mutually exclusive or at the very least, contradictory from each other. I have this old friend of mine, Steven Feinstein, whom is probably nearing his late 90’s now. He came on a few ..read more

I spent a week around mount Fuji this January. I will refer to Mt `Fuji as ‘Fuji San’ for the rest of this post. For many years now, I have found that while away for a week or two making photographs, I often build up an impression in my mind as to how the work is progressing. This impression may be as vague as simply knowing that I have encountered enough scenes to produce a portfolio of maybe six to nine images. Or it may be more concrete. I may have two or three very strong compositions floating around my mind. I am a strong believer in trusting my impressions: if I find a scene that is stro ..read more

It’s just so nice to photograph a new place. This past January I spent a week around Fuji San (this is the Japanese name for mount Fuji. San being a word of respect, much like “mr” or “mrs”). The mountain is one of three sacred mountains in Japan, and there is reason to understand why so. It is a commanding presence when visible. But it is often hidden behind banks of clouds for days upon end. When it does appear, you feel as though you are with a great presence. It seems to have a commanding power over those who witness it. View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View full ..read more