Twelve months, twelve photographs; a summary of 2013

​The first time I’ve taken a little look at the previous year and compiled a set of ‘favourite’ photographs. It was my intention to do so last year but my new website was being built and, in the end, time ran out. So now, as I embark upon what I hope will be an exciting and fulfilling year ahead, I thought I’d share twelve of my favourite photographs from last year. I imposed a couple of restrictions on myself - I had to choose one photo from every calendar month and I could only choose photos taken in the UK (apologies to Venice and Ladakh!). I chose these images several days ago and, were I to go through the same process today, there’s every chance I would choose a slightly different set. It’s rare one has many ‘absolute’ favourites - but I will explain a little behind the thinking of my choice for each month. Overall they represent a year in which I was very keen to devote more time to creating what I’d term slightly less commercial images. When I was featured in On Landscape magazine at the start of the year, I referred to the difficulty of finding that balance between producing work that is commercial and producing work that is more about pleasing yourself and developing your creativity. I think I may just have tipped the scales in favour of the latter during 2013 - but it was something I felt I needed to do to ensure I keep moving forwards as a photographer and for my own satisfaction.

January was a wonderful month for photography last year - plenty of snow and some lovely light at times. Another of the goals I set myself for 2013 was to make more of my local patch and the image above was a perfect example. Although busy with office work on this particular day, I allowed myself a couple of hours to go out for a little exploration and to enjoy the falling snow. I set out on foot with no particular plan other than to open my eyes and to see what I could find - after about 20 minutes walking down the lane I noticed this group of trees, branches laden with snow and felt I had found my subject. The snow had given definition to the trunks and to some of the larger branches, making visual sense out of what might otherwise have been too chaotic a scene.

When we moved house a couple of years ago, I soon clocked this little copse growing on top of a mound - just a couple of miles away. It struck me as having great photographic potential but, for some reason, it was over a year before I did anything about it. I was told by a local friend that the mound on which it sits is a ‘drumlin’ - rather a lovely word in itself and worth checking out its meaning on Google! ;) As a location, it is somewhat dependent on the state of the field surrounding the drumlin but here, on this frosty morning, the plough lines were beautifully enhanced by the dawn light. I made a series of images of the copse during the year - this is certainly one of my favourites.

March saw yet more snow - this is in fact late March! I had previously photographed Guisecliff woods and tarn from above but never ventured into the woods themselves. The combination of snow and branches held much the same attraction as in my first image from January, but with the added ingredient of water and reflections, with that slight rippling a key factor. Finding a successful composition was somewhat challenging due to the overhanging branches on my side of the tarn - in the end I’m rather glad I was somewhat forced into the 2:1 ratio.

You’d be forgiven for not immediately recognising April’s choice as being a photograph of the recently restored Cutty Sark in Greenwich! ;) It is a vast and impressive structure, beautifully made (and restored) and the hull offers no end of opportunities for various levels of abstraction. Something quite art nouveau about this one?

May’s choice was one of my favourite morning’s of photography all year, yet it started so unpromisingly. I arrived at Blubberhouses in the dark, weather looking far more gloomy than the forecast had suggested and, being a little wimpish about woods in the dark, waited a while before I ventured to my intended destination. It’s an area I’d walked in a few times and always felt had a wealth of opportunities but, to date, I’d not really managed to make much of them. Perhaps all that walking and looking paid off because, as I wandered around once more, getting my eye in, suddenly I found things starting to take shape. Firstly there was some super, soft early light, with a touch of drizzle - perfect for woodland. Secondly the trees were at that rewarding stage of displaying plenty of colour but still revealing their overall structure. I came back with a handful of images I was really pleased with - I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who would choose this one as my favourite of the bunch, but that’s my prerogative! ;) The other thing that really pleased me about my morning’s work was that I knew I was happy with my results no matter what anyone else felt about them - that may sound a little strange to some, but I think many of you will know what I mean.

June’s offering is from a damp walk with my husband and friends near Crinan in Argyll. A short weekend visit and only a certain amount of time I could dedicate to photography but I loved the minimalism of this one - and it very much needed the somewhat dreich weather to make it work!

July’s image was one I took during a workshop - I take very few images when teaching photography but, at times, there’s no doubt it’s the best way to demonstrate a compositional idea, a technique, and so on. This was an evening when the conditions were offering very little for more classically scenic landscapes but, thankfully, Saltwick Bay has far more to offer than just superb views. I doubt it would be possible to exhaust the opportunities for abstract images. I loved the colours and shapes on this little section of rock face but, most of all, I enjoyed the ebony like quality of the rock itself.

2013 definitely featured a fair amount of grass - it’s something I have increasingly come to enjoy photographing. I’d also often attempted to photograph burnt heather but, to date, had not succeeded in creating what I was after. On this evening in late August I was able to combine both and to make what I feel is quite a graphic image, despite a certain amount of chaos in its components. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find it also seems to appeal to a wide number of people - a print of it sold at a recent exhibition and it’s a photo that has attracted a lot of positive comment.

In September I finally made it to the Howgill Fells. It was a place I’d been keen to visit ever since seeing Mike Green’s stunning photos of the area (I think in On Landscape a couple of years ago). My husband and I and our two dogs did a super circular walk there one weekend - great conditions for photography with a good mix of sun and cloud, although very strong winds made keeping the camera steady quite a challenge. It’s an extraordinary landscape - the hills really do seem to be draped in folds of velvet and then, at a more micro level, there is an almost corrugated texture on the folds themselves. With a lovely play of light on the land, this image really encapsulated that look.

I’ll go out on a limb and say that October’s image is my favourite of the whole year. It was my first ever visit to Bolehill Quarry and towards the end of the 2 or 3 hours I spent there that morning. As much as anything, I was trying to get a feel for the place but, as I headed back towards the edge of the quarry, I was treated to a wonderful display of light on the trees below. I knew there had to be some fabulous images in amongst those trees but, initially I could find nothing that even came close to being a workable composition. I kept wandering, slowly, looking all the time for what I was sure must be there somewhere. At last I found the right combination of trees, on a similar enough focal plane to get the kind of composition I was after. The light did the rest and there was a real sense of excitement when I looked at the resulting image on the back of the camera. I’ve since made a large print of this and had it framed for display at the Joe Cornish gallery.

November saw another rediscovery of a favourite local haunt - a few miles from me and somewhere I’d often walked but had not properly explored photographically. I had a couple of very productive visits to the Reserve, the highlight of which was seeing my first murmuration of starlings - not a very large group gathered but what an amazing sight and sound - magical! The murmuration interrupted my photographing a small pond I’d noted a couple of days earlier, surrounded by willow sapling and grasses. I returned to the same pond the following morning, now covered in a slushy layer of ice and still offering some wonderful abstract patterns.

December was another fairly easy choice. This is definitely my favourite image of our week in Scotland, on the shores of Loch Sunart. I have to thank Tim Parkin for alerting me to this little area of woodland - it was perhaps not as obviously photogenic as some of the areas we explored, with some of the trees a little sparse after recent gales brought an abrupt end to our late Autumn. A group of lichen covered trees caught my eye and I scrambled down to have a closer look. I couldn’t find what I was after whilst down amongst them but a little later, heading up the path above the same trees, I soon found the combination of elements I was looking for. The weather gods were kind to me - although it was windier than I’d have chosen (I had to increase the ISO to 800 to avoid unwanted blur), that same wind brought a momentary glow of soft, overcast light. I’d love to have gone back in the rain a few days later but the opportunity didn’t arise. Next time! Perhaps 2014…?