TIME AND TIDE

A long-term and ongoing project of over 15 years exploring tidal areas and inhabitants.  I concentrate on producing images that are not just descriptive but also create a feeling in the viewer – maybe of how it feels to be a wader or just one of contemplation and calm

Waders live in a fascinating niche.  The place they call home, that borderland between land and sea, never stops changing.  At first glance the flocks look to be of the same species but closer inspection reveals a mix of many. 

High tide brings danger.   As ‘safeland’ disappears the raptors strike.  Safer together, mixed species climb and pierce the air pushing the limits of flight to heights invisible.  Their speed and murmurations astound the viewer, creating unimaginable ‘paintings’. Then, as if someone has flicked a switch, the tide turns – wings slow, a calming is palpable, the little dots return to earth, each one an individual seeking safety, rest and sustenance.

YTHAN

Moving from the vast Morecambe Bay to the more enclosed Ythan estuary means working with fewer birds but with more colour and varied reflections. My palette comes from striped fields, various trees, dunes and even buildings. The light is special, I am sure, due to the North Sea and just like Morecambe Bay it changes by the second. It requires constant vigilance or the moment of capture is lost. Though generally seals would not attract me to photograph (though I love drawing them) I could not resist the sanderlings scuttling past with the lovely ‘airborne’ running that they do in ‘sneaking past the seals’

SEABIRD

Related to time and tide, seabird is perhaps more about the individuals who return from deep sea to the land to breed.  Hours of watching and absorbing the sounds and smells lead to a sense of immersion in their ways and nature.  I return to the sites year on year but the excitement and wonder never lessens, which I hope comes through in the images

SAND EEL

Famously the food of puffins, terns and other seabirds, sand eels, it turns out, are in fact fish.  I spotted a shoal in the crystal turquoise waters of the Isle of Gigha.  I spent two and a half days observing and mesmerised by the shape shifting.  Accepting that shooting into a depth of water with a moving surface and reflections would produce some unknown effects, I am fascinated by the results.  I see Chinese watercolours and Kandinsky’s! 

OUT OF THE BLUE

A series of images made during two six week periods staying in a cottage on the coast kindly loaned to me by friends.  Situated on the edge of Morecambe Bay the huge skies and strange tides gave rise to an obsessive inability to do anything but watch and catch as much as I could of the otherworldly light and colours, constantly changing. 

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LOCH CILLE CHROISD

Loch Cille Chriosd is a small loch on the Elgol peninsula on the Isle of Skye. It was to this loch that the inhabitants of the villages of Boreraig and Suisnish would walk, 9 miles, to collect the reeds that grow there.  A precious source as reeds were used for roofing, bedding, flooring and many other purposes.  Both the reeds and the loch were held in reverence.  Both villages have lain in ruins since the Clearances.  Columns of the villagers were seen and heard wailing in grief as they passed the church of Cille Chriosd and the adjacent loch when they were moved off the land (c.1853).

Images from this series were exhibited in the ‘Telling in Full’ exhibition at the Peter Scott Gallery at Lancaster University 2017 – part of the Lancaster Words Festival.  They were linked with the poem ‘Hallaig’ by Sorley Maclean.

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HIDDEN IN NATURE

A self-set project to capture autumn leaves in the National Nature Reserve of Gait Barrows in Lancashire.  3 days, minimum 5 hours each day whatever the weather.  First day grey, second day dark grey, last day drizzle!  However the shapes and arrangements were pleasing so I did a rare thing for me and played in Photoshop.  I would never say I had improved on nature but they certainly lighten the mood.

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BAYDREAMS

Strange trees that might come from the sub-conscience – don’t have nightmares!  (Originally exhibited in large scale hanging in a real woodland)

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