I’m just back from a nice workshop. Photo-workshop, for a change. Up to the Highlands of Scotland. Wonderful.
Ok, that’s the short version. To make it a bit longer: I went up to the small town of Glencoe, which is located in the western parts of the Scottish highlands, in order to participate in a workshop run by Ian Cameron (see his website here and his PBase collection here). I had been enjoying his photos for quite a while and I couldn’t resist the temptation of being taught a thing or two by him – in an absolutely gorgeous area, in which I already had been hiking before.
I underestimated a bit how long it might take took to actually go up there – roughly 14 hours door-to-door, starting at 4.30 in the morning, with a tram. Then another tram, a bus, first flight, second flight, overland bus, local bus. Yawn…The hotel that Ian selected was nice and cozy, close to some nice scenery and the food was good. Although I will never understand how people can cope with bacon, baked beans, blood pudding and kipper in the morning!.
Major problem during the workshop itself: the weather. Don’t get me wrong, I’m used to Swedish autumns (wet!) – but handling a lot of gear is somewhat problematic in a constant downpour or hailstorm. I actually managed to have a brand new B&W polarizer ruined by a passing lorry (sprayed with a nice mixture of water, gravel and diesel). Thanks for that. And my super-high tech wipes for my lenses didn’t cope. Mpf.
The area itself is simply wonderful: wide open, moors and hills. A landscape that takes some time of getting used to. But then: absolutely wonderful.
Getting to know Ian and his approach to photography was really a rewarding experience that I enjoyed a lot. He is approaching photography from a very goal-oriented perspective: carefully selected, highly specialized and completed set of gear (build around the Pentax 6×7) . And no time wasted on any unimportant side-tracks, such as regularly buying new cameras or lenses. Instead investing the time to do photography. Just take a look at his sites – his strategy certainly seems to work.
We were six people participating in the workshop, which I first thought as a comparatively small group. But during the course of the workshop I realized that it is actually somewhere near the upper limit. Maybe I’ll go for a 1-2-1 tuition next time. We’ll see.
Photos. Oh yes, I managed to get some. Please find the whole gallery over at SmugMug. And of course the head image of this post was also taken during the workshop.
