National Geographic Masters of Photography

Lessons 9–10: Jim Richardson—Landscape and Nature

Working the Shot

O

ne of those places I found doing a lot of research was the Isle of

Muck. ... It’s a little island out there in the small isles off the west

coast of Scotland in the Inner Hebrides. It’s only got 39 people. But I

just fell in love with the name. I fell in love with the place, the idea of

going out there, and so I went. And I knew that it was owned by the

0DF(ZHQIDPLO\DQGLWPLJKWPDNHVRPHJRRGSLFWXUHV

Sure enough, when we got there, out across the one road that goes a

PLOHDFURVVWKHLVODQGZHIRXQG/DZUHQFH0DF(ZHQ¶VIDUP)RXQG

the horses out there wandering down the road. You think, boy, you

know, if you can’t make a picture with horses on an island and another

island shrouded in clouds in the background, you’re a pretty poor

photographer.

So we stayed out there on the beach with the horses. Got to be real

good friends with them. They got to be a little obnoxious, and they

kept nudging around. But all of it was wonderful—wonderful pictures.

7KHHDV\WKLQJKDYLQJIRXQGLWZRXOGKDYHEHHQWRMXVWWDNHWKH¿UVW

picture. All of the pictures were good. All of the pictures were enough.

And yet, somehow, I just have this dogged sense that if I keep looking,

I can probably do something that even I didn’t think I could do,

something I didn’t expect I could do. So we followed the horses around

out on the beach. They went wandering out there toward the shore. The

clouds in the background were great. ...

And then somehow or another, I got this idea of getting down low,

just getting a piece of the horses that came by. So I’m crawling around

you want, keep asking yourself what else you can do. Convince yourself that

the world has more to reveal to you, that you have more to learn, and that the

landscape will tell you more stories that you can share with others.