Outdoor Photography

February 2018 Outdoor Photography 25

ONE MONTH ONE PICTURE

The most elusive challenge for any landscape

photographer is the successful translation of

the way a place makes us feel, in order that

it carries all the way through to the person

viewing our carefully crafted fi nal print.

Mastery of this process provides the ultimate

photographic alchemy, because it imbues our

image with a human connection.

In our quest to visually encapsulate a

location’s spirit of place, the fi rst step is

understanding the concept. Aesthetically

speaking, we can think of places as having

a unique spiritual feel or – if that idea

challenges your religious beliefs – identity.

Even if we restrict our perceptions to just

those relating to a place’s appearance, we will

all see any given place very diff erently. What

we see is perceived by our brain depending on

how it relates to a vast mental repository of

previous visual experiences, which are unique

for each of us: our cultural background also

profoundly aff ects these perceptions.

So far, that just relates to vision, but we

have four other senses, each of which is

tuned very diff erently in every individual.

Furthermore, some photographers believe

they can feel more than just that relating to

the known physical world: but regardless of

which camp you fall into, to fully sense the

feel of a place, we need to be in a creatively

sensitive frame of mind. Many years ago,

I was having a conversation about this

with Charlie Waite and he recommended

a ‘carefree’ disposition whenever possible to

optimise creativity. Like a growing number

of creatives, I can personally vouch for the

power of mindful meditation in achieving

Charlie’s suggested carefree state when

out in the landscape: how we achieve our

personal nirvana will be diff erent for each

of us, but it is a profoundly worthwhile goal.

Once we have our digitised image fi les,

there are millions of potential further

combinations of changes we can make

in post-processing. It is also important to

note that there are no rules to say that we

have to remain true to our initial visual

interpretation on location. My personal

mantra is that emotional honesty is always

paramount: when processing an image, the

overall emotive fl avour of the fi nal print in

conveying my intended image-feel is always

more important than documenting visual

honesty – the actual appearance – of the

location when it was photographed.

There are occasional magical moments,

such as the breathtakingly beautiful

Scandinavian scene in my photograph above,

when the emotionally honest and visually

honest versions coincide; but of course, that

might just be my personal perception.

In pursuit of imagery that can move not only the photographer but also those who view the fi nal photograph,

Pete Bridgwood suggests that emotional honesty can play a signifi cant role in achieving success

Lofoten Islands, Norway.

Fujifi lm X-Pro1 with XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM

OIS lens at 26mm, ISO 200, 1/125sec at f/8,

Lee Seven5 2-st op ND grad, handheld

25_ONE_MONTH_227_SW.indd 25 18/12/2017 14:52