April 11th

Wow! So difficult to access my blog without my password. Help Carol!! E-mail my password to rosephoto. The password is on my gmail so check it out for me please...PRETTY PLEASE!

OK down to business. My last post (Last Post - that seems appropriate somehow) was done as a comment to my post of the 9th. I know that sounds odd, but there it is. We do what we must in difficult circumstances. If you read the comment you will know that I got shoved around by BA quite a bit before ending up back in the seat I had originally asked for! Heathrow was, of course, a horrible ordeal but by 8 pm yesterday I was at rest in my overnight hotel and taking it easy. Met a very nice young couple who took pity on me and invited me to share a table with them at dinner. So a good time was had by all (and that without a great deal of wine - an impressive achievement on my part). It rained most of last night so I was fearing the dreaded curse of the Roses and expected to be in for a solid week of it but lo and behold, the drive to Lochinver was quite fabulous. I had a great mixture of sharp heavy showers interspersed with bright sunshine and also cloudiness. At all times however, the conditions were great for photography, the light was occasionally superb (misty, ethereal  and sometimes just downright spectacular). Scotland did its best to make me a very happy camper today.

The Inverlodge Hotel is just as described on the website. The views over the bay (especially from the dining room) are spectacular so it will be early to rise tomorrow morning! The room are very nice and spacious and the staff seem to be outstanding. Food tonight was extremely good - quite a dining experience, although the french cheese souffle (er that's french not french cheese) was way too salty. Don't want to carp on too much however. For northern Scotland this place is amazing and is quite a step up from sandwiches in the pub.

I shot a lot of film today and a few videos. I will try to post one. Wish me luck. If the weather holds, tomorrows' walk could be to Sandwood Bay, referred to as the most beautiful stretch of coastline in Britain. Oooooh, sounds nice.

April 9th

It will be interesting to see how much I will need to use the lightmeter on this trip. In Iceland, the light was so steady that I could take a reading in the morning and, for the most part, that would be all I needed for the whole day. On a sunny day in Colorado I have enough experience to guesstimate the light by using the 'sunny 16' rule and then opening up as the light dictates. It's rare that I make a significant error. I think Scotland will be different. I foresee some hard metering work ahead.

I am just filling in the last few hours before heading to the airport so I may as well post a few recent pictures (see below). I also just bought an 8x10 camera - an old Kodak Empire State #2 with a 305mm Carle Meyer lens. I have a 600mm Nikkor-T that will also be perfect for this setup although I might have to rig up another lens board. Looking forward to making a few 8x10 negatives and also contact prints when I get back. Will probably use Lodima Fine Art azo style paper and Amidol developer using the Michael A Smith formulas (can't get better than that) - there you go Travel Pro - always thinking ahead! Any aspiring models out there willing to sit?

Devastation, Clear Creek, Lakewood

Fishing Pond, Clear Creek, Lakewood

Bare Tree in Howling Gale, Crown lake, Lakewood

Cracked Ice, Crown Lake, Lakewood

Interloper, Guanella Pass, CO

Red Rocks #30, Morrison, CO

Well, that's it. Adios for now. Will be in touch from the other side.

8th April

Leaving tomorrow and I am relieved to say that I am now packed and ready! The weather forecast for that part of Scotland is showery/rainy every day with maybe a bit of sunshine towards the end of the week. Temperatures in the 40's and low 50's. Well, what did I expect?
Here are a few more photographs of Scotland just to start things off:

Boats, Diabaig

Hesten Island, Dumfries and Galloway

Wigtown Bay, Dumfries and Galloway

Tree, Torridon

Clatteringshaws Loch, Dumfries and Galloway

April 5th

 To post on this blog click on 'comment' and then when the ID box pops up just post as 'anonymous' and put your name in the body of the post (so I know who you are). Clear?

April 5th

Since I will be departing Colorado for a short time I am posting a few photographs of my home state, just so that I don't get homesick while I am away. Here goes:

Tertiary #1, Green River Formation, CO (from 'Rockscapes' series)

Tertiary #3, CO (from 'Rockscapes' series)

Evening Aspen, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

Green Aspen (derivative), Telluride, CO 

The Grey Crepon, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

Homestead Ruin, San Luis Valley, CO

and just in case you have to have something in color:

Autumn Aspen Leaves

4th April

I have mentioned on my website (www,paulrosephotography.com) that “my portfolios are associated through geography, time, idea, subject matter, philosophy, process or a mixture of all of these. My images are sometimes attached to words in the form of allegorical poetry or prose. The words may strengthen the images by placing them in context but they may also explain my viewpoints on various aspects of life or photography”.

On this upcoming trip I hope to add to my ‘collection’ of images of Scotland so one could say that this particular portfolio is associated by geography and subject matter. However, I have a number of different portfolios at various stages of completion (some never will be completed and I should have dispensed with others some time ago!). Whenever I travel I always try to bear these other portfolios in mind and, if the opportunity presents itself, I will add to them. My ‘Seascapes’ portfolio comes readily to mind because this trip is based at the coast. here are a few of my seascape images:

Bermuda

Bjarnafjordur, Iceland

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

North of Hilo, Hawaii

Some of my older photographs of Scotland were paired with quotes or short poems. Time will tell if I decide to do that again.

The closer I get to departure the more I regret not taking my 4x5 large format camera. However, it’s a weight thing. I just cannot carry all the gear I would like so I have to make do with the smaller formats and use the larger ones at home. Life is always a compromise.

I went for a short walk yesterday here in Denver. It was snowing (we just had a week of 70 degree weather!) and the snow was wet and blowing horizontally. It made me realize just how hard it is to photograph in that weather and not cause damage to my camera. I am fervently hoping that the fickle Scottish weather does not do me in like it did several years ago in the Torridon area when it rained torrentially and none stop for 5 days, forcing my early departure from the place.

1st April

I may be a fool for posting today of all days but here goes:

As some of you may know I am always trying to show movement in my work. I suppose this dates back to the time when John Blakemore (a wonderful English photographer) was making the first time exposures that I had seen ('All Flows') and later created movement through his ‘Wind’ and 'Lila" series. Many of these photographs were printed very dark with deep expansive blacks and shadow tones and few sharp highlights, or were printed very light with no deep blacks in the image at all! The variation in printing style he used was meant to accentuate the feeling of light, wispiness, movement or power. I have always been influenced by Blakemore’s work and make no apologies for it. His work opened my eyes to the possibility that a photograph could be more than an instantaneous capture of a transient moment, reproduced as a sharp, still image. A long exposure photograph is almost like a video made still. We know that there is movement but the image is still so the movement has to imagined or extrapolated. A good photograph always stimulates the mind to question, imagine, extrapolate or wander off in another direction. ‘Movement’ photographs have become very popular today and I think this is mainly due to the work of another English photographer, Michael Kenna, who uses long exposures frequently in his work. A whole group of ‘Kenna clones’ have sprung up over the last half a decade and I won’t name names but I will say that none of them seem to do it as well as Kenna does. I also worry that we are coming to accept visual plagiarism as original, valuable work. It’s good to be influenced by another artist but at some point ones pathway has to branch off and go its own way. Not all photographers who show movement in their work are plagiarists. The work of Cole Thompson here in Colorado and Alexey Titarenko in Russia spring to mind. Here are some examples of my own work that shows movement. If you think it plagiarizes the work of others then write in and let me know but be sure to have your argument ready with good examples!

Young Growth and Wind, Scotland 2007

Geneva Creek #4b

Milos #21, Greece

Milos #6, Greece