Light and Land Discovery Day
Light and Land are a company who many of you will know that specialise in photographic holidays, mostly landscape, in the UK and beyond. I took part in a Hebrides special in April of this year which I thoroughly enjoyed which resulted in my foray into the world of LF. They held a ‘discovery’ day this month where many photographers attend to meet the tour guides and watch presentations on photography.
I went down to the hotel in Reading a day early because of the long drive and also because I was hoping to have a chance to talk to other photographers, generally an enjoyable if obsessive bunch.
On the Saturday I spent most of the afternoon in the lobby of the hotel making the most of the free wireless access in order to catch up with some web development work on the This World website (which is just launching – check out http://www.this-world.com) and also to make a couple of tweaks to David Ward’s website. Whilst I was doing this I saw Baxter Bradford and had a good chat about websites (he’s currently developing his new site), using reversal film to increase dynamic range (some great example shots he has) and digital raw conversion programs (and a company that specialising in removing 5D antialiasing filters).
Later on I had a chat with Nigel Halliwell, whose photography I admire, and Paul Gallagher, a black and white photographer that I had only just found out about through seeing his pictures in Developing Vision and Style (a light and land book in association with David Ward, Joe Cornish and Charlie Waite – plus lots of great contributions from other photographers). The conversations were suitably geekily photographic as expected. I also had the opportunity to introduce myself to Charlie Waite, who graciously agreed to chat about a project I have in mind.
The night ended late and the morning wasn’t far behind. The day itself was a wonderful mix of old faces (most of the Hebrides course were their, Gerry Gavigan, Phil Staff, Jane Goodall, Melanie Foster) and people whose names I’d only seen in print (Roger Longdin at lunch) and some of the ‘glitterati’ (Joe Cornish, Ben Osborne, Niall Benvie, etc etc – most of the Light and Land tour guides apart from Duncan McEwan in fact). I said hello to Eddie Ephraums whose talk on book publishing made me realise that this could be the most effective way of reaching a wider audience and potentially selling pictures – a home made book or even a digitally published one should be straightforward but I think the appropriate project is needed first.
The talks that most moved me were Joe’s and David’s .. Their search for a path even at their stage in their development is something that is both reassuring and humbling in some ways. They are very different photographers in many ways but I get the feeling that Joe admires David’s persistent focus and I imagine that he feels tethered by his ability to create instantly attractive pictures where sometimes this instant beauty clouds the consistent depth in his compositions.. What is certain though is that they both strive to make their photography mean something to themselves and are not happy to just create pretty pictures. I love to see both of their repertoire develop and feel privileged if I can help one of them reach a wider audience.
Charlie’s talk was also about the uncertainty that photography brings and the fact that progression/change is more important that achievement. Satisfaction seems to come from responding to challenges, either external or more importantly internal.
Looking around the stands was certainly interesting and I was most impressed by the Paramo gear and will probably be making a purchase of a new waterproof and possibly a gilet.
Finally, I got to meet with Charlie Waite who was the gentleman you would expect. I would highly recommend getting his ‘art of seeing’ DVD, the man is just as you see him.
Overall, I was very impressed and would like to thank David and Jenny Ward and the Light and Land crew for putting in so much effort.
