Keld Head Scar and Cheese Press Stone with Nigel Halliwell
Going back a couple of weeks, I had a friend visit to take me out on a couple of days of workshop. Nigel Halliwell is a photographer whose work I have admired since browsing through his photographs online after looking at the Light and Land tutor list. He has a distinct and graphic vision and I was looking forward to working together to see how he interprets the landscape.
We went out on the Friday afternoon and explored the area on the West side of the Ingleton valley, an area known that looks over Twistleton Scar and Whernside. The particular area we explored was called Keld Head Scar and Cheese Press Stone. Nigel worked on a couple of shots, searching for repeating patterns in the landscape or distince graphical shapes. The Cheese press stone picture in particular is a very masculine shot and one that shows symmetry, repeating patterns, graphical shapes, etc.
It was really interesting to be out in the field with someone who knows what they want to find and who has a great deal of skill in getting it. As the day went on, we worked our way across quite an area and we both got pictures we were happy with. My picture from the Friday is very different, obviously a lot less graphical and ‘standard’ but I was trying to introduce some graphical structure through the lines in the grass curves at the bottom of the picture.
On the Saturday morning we got up early and went over to Brimham Rocks for first light. I couldn’t find anything I was happy with but explored the area with a more critical eye than I had previously which showed many more opportunities than I had originally thought of. It proved to me again that whatever the location, don’t be blinkered by expectations and spend longer looking at each aspect of an area.
After a brief rest (mornings are soo tiring) we drove back over to Keld Head Scar again and spent a little longer exploring. This time Nigel got the picture at the top of this article and I spent too long looking for something without seeing, writers block as it were.
Nigel showed me a lot about how to see in the landscape and I enjoyed every minute, even the breakfast in Woolworths 
