Last week I went to listen to a well-known English landscape photographer, Charlie Waite, give a talk. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect; it was in a theatre and so although I knew he’d be showing his work I wasn’t sure how technical the material might be.
He started with a little philosophy, a really interesting snippet about Ansel Adams; did you know that he only expected to take 12 great images a year in the camera? I get so used to seeing his work condensed into books that I tend to forget that he must have had his off days too!
I love listening to other photographers in my field talk; I like hearing about their successes and their frustrations, in fact, I’m always charmed when they humbly confess that they’ve had those days where they’ve struggled to make anything work, weeks spent abroad praying to find that one moment that makes their time away worthwhile.
As we looked through his photos, me making notes from time to time in my beautiful new notebook, I came to realise how similar we all are in the way we connect with the environment, and how special that connection with the universe is for us even though we all work slightly differently.
Someone asked me the other day what is it that you feel when you are taking the photo and the emotion afterwards? I wish I could say I gave a polished answer, but I fumbled around with words trying to explain what it is that it does for me; unfortunately for them, I fell short of what they expected me to say, as they tried to put it into their own words. “It makes you feel like this….?” Well no not really it doesn’t.
It’s a tough gig to explain to one person let alone a theatre full of people what images mean to you, and I couldn’t help but notice that when we got to the really personal photos; images where Charlie had clearly felt an intense connection in the moment between him and the universe that took his breath away, he too was fumbling around for the words to convey the importance. Read More→
Living in the beautiful rural county of Yorkshire it was perhaps natural for Ruth to have an affinity with the countryside and its wildlife. Creativity is Ruth’s driving force finding an outlet in television & radio she worked for many years as producer for BBC & ITV.
However a love of photography and for being surrounded by nature called her to go back to her photography training and bring pleasure and joy to people through her connection with our planet.
Staying in the moment when taking her images allows her to experience the natural magnificence unfolding before her eyes. It is this moment of mediation, of gratitude, that she evocatively conveys through her images.
