Weather watching..........

I suppose we British (we Welsh even) have an obsession with the weather. The last two months of course have been appalling even by our usual winter standards. For a landscape photographer bad weather can be a curse and a blessing.  

Buttermere, Cumbria, 1991

Days that can seem auspicious turn into depressing trudges when nothing appears to excite the eye or raise a flicker of interest. The important thing, for me anyway, is to go out with little or no preconceived idea of what I might do that day. Besides of course an interest in a particular geographic area or adding to a body of 'work in progress' where the strategy and expected outcomes have already been defined by previous work. 

It's a tricky balance sometimes between the photographic gaze being led by the research and allowing the visuals that are encountered in the field to dictate the days work.

Serendipity plays such a huge part alongside the ever changing elemental conditions. The important thing is to be there but no amount of planning can guarantee a day will go well. My working methods may be slow by comparison with many photographers, (8" x 10" camera etc.) but sometimes the elements move quickly. This can result in 'lost' visualisations but can also reveal - very often during the slow, methodical camera set-up or even after an image has been taken - a new possibility. Judging when to make the image is never an exact science and that is something I am grateful for. The sense of excitement and expectation is till there and hopefully will never leave me. So as I pack my photographic burden for another day in the field I am still expectant, no matter what the weather..........