Blog

As July comes to a close, I'm keenly aware that I haven't been very creative lately. That's ok. I've always found that high summer is the least inspiring time of year for me. It's a combination of factors. The heat for one thing. The uniformity of the landscape during 'peak green'. And also the fact that there are so many people around in the summer. I find my emotional reaction to a natural landscape is …

A certain euphoria came over me as I dashed back and forth. This was living. My heart was bursting with the joy of the mountain. My lungs breathed the clarity of the air. My blood flowed with the purity of the water that flowed and pooled in the rocks. My eyes sparkled with richness of the morning light. My body felt the coldness of the wind and stone, but met it with its own life …

For many years I've wanted to spend a night camped at the spectacular Coire Mhic Fhearchair in Torridon. This magnificent coire is one of the finest in Scotland, owing to its remote location and its incredible geology. The coire lies on the north side of Beinn Eighe, among some of the wildest terrain to be found anywhere in Scotland. A 7km walk with around 500m of ascent is the shortest way to reach it. Once …

I have always thought the waters of Loch Maree are one of those few places in Scotland that can only be described by one word: elemental. As if they came fresh from the forging of the world. Pure. Tempestuous. Wild. The long nose of the kayak rode up on a wave and slapped down hard, splashing water into the air. The wind snatched the spray and slapped me in the face with it, catching me …

"this journey (…) is not to be undertaken lightly. One walks among elementals, and elementals are not governable. There are awakened also in oneself by the contact elementals that are as unpredictable as wind or snow”Nan Shepherd, The living Mountain I don't know what it is, but there's just something about this place. These red rocks, these shining snows, these coires and carns. It's not like other mountains I know. White clouds are blending the …

Very often landscape photography feels like a chase; trying to read the signals of weather, light and landscape to put yourself in the right place and time to see something remarkable. Guessing, hoping, searching, trying, often failing. But it's not always like that. Sometimes photography happens much more gently. Like sleep, it comes when you aren't trying. The ifs and maybes of what could happen disappear, and you find yourself lost in the clarity of …

The recent spell of fine weather here in the Highlands was a great opportunity to enjoy a relatively easy night out in a tent. After several good hill days on Cairngorm and Creag Meagaidh, I was very keen and eager to spend some more time among the mountains with my camera. I chose a fairly easy option to ease back into things, and to polish up skills that have gone a little rusty during lockdown. …

I needed a moment to pause as I took in the ridge that I was about to climb. 'Oh boy. Here we go.' Sometimes I think it would be nice if these mountains would just stay the same size for once. But they seem to grow and they shrink. Tonight the ridge seems long. 'No rush' I told myself, as I set a foot forward into the heather and took the very first step up. …

Despite having spent over a decade exploring the Caledonian Forests of the Rothiemurchus estate, there are some areas of these woods where I have very rarely set foot. The higher reaches of the forest, where it fades and blends into the mountainsides of the northern Cairngorms, is an area of huge photographic and emotional potential that I have barely begun to explore. For the last several months, though, I've known that this is where the …

I've been trying to get my head in gear to write a new post for weeks now. This is the 5th draft I've started in ten minutes, but this is the one that's going to stick. When I sat down and started writing I thought I'd go with the prevalent mood that I see online today – the mood of fury and disaster. I even drafted something apologising for my tendency to always seek a …

A few days ago the first snows of winter arrived on the mountains. There was a hard edged clarity of light in the forest that I only know from winter – white edges and black shadows running along every branch. The remains of autumn colours clung to the tips of wind stripped birch trees, like the final tiny glow of a candle flame before it dies.The day was beautiful, but it seemed to signal a …

"Over the garden fence, behind the railway and the cherry trees, the Cairngorms are waiting. They should be more than a mere background to life."

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”“The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness.” John Muir A young deer was looking at me. I held the gaze of its dark and shiny eyes, its long eyelashes and dark snout. I was close enough to hear it breathing above the trickle of the burn, where it stood with both front legs …

https://youtu.be/RMsgNfXdcYA As soon as the man on the phone stopped shouting at me and hung up, I made up my mind about going away. A few minutes later I had a self catering cottage booked in the village of Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. I reasoned that besides being a place I'd wanted to spend time for ages, it was also the furthest I could possibly get away. A place no-one could find me, where …

It occurred to me the other day, while I was walking up a hill through long grass beneath shady birch trees, that the most important and enduring relationship we have in our lives is the one we have with the land we live on. It then occurred to me that this should always have been much more obvious. As individuals, and as a society, the landscape is the one presence in our lives that will …

On a cloudy October morning in 2008, I quietly opened the door of Ling Hut, where we had arrived in darkness the night before, stepped out into the damp air and looked on the mountains of Torridon for the first time in my life. Since I was such a cartophile I was already familiar with the names of the hills surrounding; I might even have been pompous enough to correct the pronunciation of their Gaelic …

One of the great joys that photography can bring you is the ability to notice things that other people can't see. I mean this fairly literally – until you learn to draw your attention to a particular thing; until you've learned to recognise it, you really can't see it at all. Seeing takes place in the mind at least as much as it does in the eye.Consider this. If you're a driver, then you've probably …