Past Reveals Future

PART I

Where it all began…

It’s not common for a Photographer to have a strap line. When it came to building this website I took it upon myself to do a load of market research to see what other creators do well and, naturally, not so well. Something I always feel is missing is a sense of self; an identification with the art that’s being produced.

So, where to start explaining me as a creator than from the beginning…

Sunset Over Gourock

The image above was shot some 15 years ago on a point and shoot Olympus camera with 10 megapixels to its name. I would have been around 13 at the time.

This shot was taken from my grandparents house in Gourock, Scotland overlooking Ben Lomond and the lower Highlands . We were sat by a fire, talking and enjoying a bite to eat when the sun started bleeding through the bay windows of their living room. It’s a feeling I’ve had many times since, but this overwhelming urge to go out and try to capture the moment came over me. So, I grabbed the camera and snapped two frames, the first being the one above and later the one below. As you can imagine some time had passed between the two captures; every moment becoming more intense than the last… I just couldn’t take my eyes off of the sunset in front of me!

Looking at the back of the camera after clicking the shutter, I couldn’t believe the raw quality of the frames nor that the moment had been so perfectly summed up by them. Like I’d managed to capture a moment in time that would ripple throughout the years to come.

Neither images are breakthroughs in high quality imaging; however they show a trend that would continue throughout my entire career. My absolute adoration for a sunset and use of lighting. The way light gently highlights the sky and the bay below while creating deep blacks, adding a strong contrast only a photographic eye can capture.

Me being the unassuming artsy type I am, thought nothing of what I’d just captured. To me, it was just something I wanted to remember. To those I showed it to, it was the start of me being the family photographer; my father in particular handing me his Canon DSLR on our holidays for me to capture things along the way.

This has been a short intro to me and photography. I feel incredibly fortunate to have come from such a naturally beautiful country. There aren’t words outside of the usual cliches to describe the landscapes of the Highlands or the majesty of the cities. I just know it’s had a profound effect on how I see the world both personally and importantly, through my viewfinder.

I’ll use those cliche words when I return to the highlands as an older man with a few more years of photography under my belt. Next up I’ll cover my Paris body of work which, as anyone who’s followed me for a while will know, was a pivotol moment in what I was capable of capturing through a lens.