24 6 July 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
LYNNE Douglas has only been
taking pictures for the past seven or
eight years, but what started out as a
hobby quickly became an obsession.
In her previous job as a scientist,
she managed major projects and
was in charge of big budgets, but
had been looking for a new path
for a while. Once photography took
over, she knew she had found a way
to give up her day job. At the time,
she lived in Glasgow, but in order to
pursue her landscape photography
and increase the print sales that
were starting to come in, she and
her husband moved to Dunoon on
the Argyll coast. From here, they
headed to the Isle of Skye, where,
in August 2018, they opened the
Skye Blue Gallery on the island’s
Trotternish peninsula.
‘It might sound like a bit of a pipe
dream, but it was something I was
building up behind the scenes for
three years before I was confident
that we could make the switch,’
Lynne explains. ‘Not long after I
started taking pictures, I invested
in a 44in printer, so I’ve been selling
big prints of my work for a number
of years. Once I started to get some
success with selling my prints
online, it became quite a reliable
second income.’ As such, the step
towards opening a physical gallery
wasn’t such a huge one.
Although Skye plays host to more
than 500,000 tourists every year,
they tend to visit during the peak
summer months. As a result,
opening at the tail-end of the season
meant a lean period for Lynne and
her husband. ‘Winter lasts for a
good four months on Skye, and
I did begin to wonder whether it was
going to work,’ she recalls. ‘When
you’re doing a build the size of this
one, it does suck all your money.’
The building is a modern one, with
two public rooms, four bedrooms
in the private area and what Lynne
says is a ‘huge, undeveloped area’
upstairs. ‘Initially, we knocked
together the two big public rooms
and hallways to make a decent-sized
gallery with a kitchen and a seating
area,’ she explains. ‘And now we’re
building a 12x8m extension on the
side. This will become the main
gallery, while the original area will
be mainly a café. In addition, we’re
building decking all along the
front to create an outdoor area.’
Ambitious, yes, but it helps that
Lynne’s husband is a builder.Food for thought
As for the café, it is, as Lynne puts
it, ‘vital’. Many of her clientele come
in for coffee, and end up leaving
with a print. She recently shipped
a £1,100 print to Tasmania, which
was bought by a couple who simply
popped in for a hot drink. However,
one of the first mistakes Lynne and
her husband made was in offering
hot food. ‘We’d been warned not to!’
Lynne laughs. ‘Print sales were down
because I was wiping tables and
washing dishes, and couldn’t talk to
anyone about the photography. So,
overnight, we cut back to coffee, tea
and cake. We learned our lesson.’
Lynne’s photography falls into
two distinct styles, which no doubt
contributes to her success so farin terms of print sales. Not only
does she photograph the iconic
views enjoyed by so many who
visit Skye, but she also produces
a range of more abstract images.
She tends to print up this latter
body of work very large, and often
as ChromaLuxe pieces. These are
aluminium nels that sit well in
contemporary homes. ‘People who
want a very big piece of art don’t
necessarily want a huge, highly
detailed seascape,’ she says. ‘TheyPHOTO GALLERIES
Blue-Skye thinking
Above: A version
of this image sells
as a 60x40in
ChromaLuxe panel
for £950Right: The Skye
Blue Gallery with
its ‘vital’ café areaBelow: This
Highland calf
picture has sold
in its hundredsA popular picture from the Cuillins, this is available in anything from 8x12in to 60x40in
ALL PICTURES ON PAGES 24-25 © LYNNE DOUGL AS