Sighting Land

There's something terribly romantic about open water. Reaching the end of land means a voyage must be undertaken to discover the as yet unknown. Until aeroplanes came along a few years back, that's how it had been for the rest of human history. Thousands of years of sea voyages, undertook by brave sailors seeking fortune and andventure. Many ending in untold disasters or the discovery of new lands, new plants, creatures and whole unseen cultures. Port cities have always held an enduring fascination for me. Jumping off points into the deep blue sea to who knows where. Exotic cargo and people from far off lands arrive, sailors and travellers, dipping in to replenish themselves after long voyages at sea as ships dock temporarily on their long journeys home or outward bound legs.

Series

Landscape photography is a difficult art to master. With a resonant connection to landscape painting, it seems that half the battle is finding a view worth capturing in the first place. To capture a view one often has to travel far to find a vantage point. Often that view can be found looking back from across the water. The following images are the result of travel and water offers the viewer a discrete break between horizon and foreground allowing space for the viewer to breathe as the skyline is framed ahead.

The Little Red Lighthouse offers us this misty view of Manhattan. The result of a long and eye- opening cycle ride up the towpath along the Hudson River where the bedrock glitters with silvery flecks and the river opens out into an almost Ocean like vista. 1/800th @F18 ISO 100

Looking back from Staten Island, a miniature man made Island concrete pontoon sits between the viewer and the bottom end of Manhattan with it's iconic movie set backdrop overlooking the Harbour. 1/2120th @f2.6 ISO 80

Staten Island graffitti forms the coastline as busy shipping lanes criss cross freight between the Islands. 1/3000 @f2/6 ISO 80

This view on the way to Philadelphia by train crossing a bridge is softened by mist on the banks as the river winds out of view in the distance. Unknown location. 1/40th @f3.5 ISO 100

On the North Wales Coast is the Great Orme headland which juts out into the sea as if an Island. This steep sided rock has a hotel at the top. A hotel reminiscent of the location in a Hitchcock thriller, Isolated, windswept and circled by seabirds high above the water, it's prone to disappear in the fog. 1/500th @f9 ISO 100

In the strong currents of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of La Palma in the Canary Isles, these black, geometric wavebreakers like standing sentinels provide shelter for swimmers in turbulent waters. 1/1600th @f6.3 ISO 200

Technical

Landscape technical varies and is often dictated by where the sun is. Some photographers meticulously plan a shot in advance studying weather patterns and daylight angles, taking tripod, wide angle lenses and graded filters, then performing complicated post production to produce stunning, unreal effects. For me Wolf Suschitzky nailed it in the 1930'- 1940's. Ostensibly a documentary photographer, I aspire to his sense of looking, seeing what is there and trying to capture the essence or the soul of a place. I'm not saying I've done it successfully here but it's always good to have something to aspire to.