My recent photographic work explores ways to use the beauty that is inherent in nature and to transform the images captured, using a process of visual evolution to create a new subjective meaning. This is done through the digital photographic process by capturing images that are not seen within the context of the place where they have existed. This exclusion of the context is achieved by such techniques as macro photography, the movement of the camera during exposure, or by natural transformation such as a reflected image on water distorted by surface movement and photographed in isolation. The source material is driven initially by an objective response to abstract qualities such as line, tone, colour, shape and texture, and how visually exciting the image is, whether it be passive, active, or somewhere between the two

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The images in this series were taken in the Salix Woodland in Gunpowder Park, part of the Lee Valley Regional Park, and is the same location where I took many of the pictures of tree bark, lichens and mosses.  I wanted to take images that moved away from a conventional woodland setting to a more abstract form, whilst at the same time retaining qualities that were inherent in the scene.  The technique I used was to set a slow shutter speed and moved the camera vertically during exposure.  This had the effect of simplifying the image by smoothing out specific detail, leaving only the basic components of light, colour and form allowing a more open interpretation.

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The images in the reflection series were taken at two different locations; one was from a boat as I sailed out of Aberdeen Harbour and on Tottenham Marshes.  Those from Aberdeen Harbour were taken on a single journey as I set sail for the Scottish Islands on a bright sunny morning in May during 2008.  The harbour is quite extensive, with many boats moored alongside and painted in many bright colours that throw a myriad of reflections onto the surface of the water.  As the boats sail past, their wakes flow across the reflections and then bounce back of the boats and harbour walls forming exciting patterns and images losing their original identity.  Those from Tottenham Marshes, (which is part of the Lee Valley Regional Park), were taken along the Lee Navigation, which is a canal that passes through the area.  Weeping Willows and Black Poplar trees grow along the west bank, and on bright still mornings throw stunning reflections onto the flat water’s surface which in turn is often disturbed by water birds, such as Moorhens, Coots and Mallards.  The activity of the birds animates the waters surface, and breaks up the reflection transforming it into a dancing abstract pattern.

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Monfrague is a natural park in the northern part of Extremadura, and was founded in 1979, and in 2003 the title of ‘biosphere’ was added.  Peñafalcon, is the heart of the natural reserve and is, with the surrounding countryside, an area unequalled in Europe for birds of prey.  Overlooking Peñafalcon is the Castillo de Monfrague, separated by the drowned valley of the Rio Tajo, Over 450 pairs of Vultures breed in the Monfrague Natural Park with a large number nesting on the cliff face of Peñafalcon – these massive birds often fly past very close and this is wonderful to experience.   Like Cabanas del Castillo, the Castillo de Monfrague is surrounded by rocks and cliff faces adorned with a great variety of lichens suffused with the colours of metallic oxides.

Further on in the northern part of the park is the Porto del Tiétar where another flooded river valley, in this case the Rio Tiétar, has cut through the ridge to reveal the rock strata.  This has created another area of exposed rock where lichens have thrived and, as with Peñafalcon, only the rocks along the roadside are accessible. 

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Cabaňas del Castillo is a small village tucked away in the Sierra de las Villuercas in the eastern part of the Caceres Province in Spain.  The mountain ridges rise up above the village and the cliff faces are set by a church at the foot and an old castle turret that catches the eye as it sits on top of the highest point.  Lichens adorn the cliff faces and the rocks around them, and this, plus the metallic oxides that colour them, creates images that are serenely beautiful.  There is a track that leads around to the far side of the ridge which is accessed through a narrow gap and on emerging on the other side the scenery of a valley edged by more ridges is spectacular.  Then turn your head towards the cliff face and more lichens and coloured rocks paint images whose beauty will take your breath away.   I have spent many days taking pictures here, and just when I think my work is done, I am drawn back, my inspiration is rekindled, and I am drawn to the words of T.S.Eliot when in East Coker he wrote:

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The Salix Wood is situated in Gunpowder Park, near to Waltham Abbey in Essex, and is part of the Lee Valley Regional Park.  The wood and surrounding area for most of the twentieth Century belonged to the Ministry of Defence and was closed to the public, but in 2000 it was acquired by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and so Gunpowder Park was formed.  As a result of its Twentieth Century history the woodland has remained untouched for over a hundred years and as a result a process of growth and decay has continued unchanged during that period.  The wood is often flooded in parts during the winter and this has enhanced this growth and decay and created an environment in which mosses and lichens have thrived.  The name Salix is derived from the generic scientific name for willow which is salix of which there are a number of Crack Willow trees growing in the wood, but it is the delicate and beautiful Silver Birch, which grows there in abundance, from which most of the images have been made.  The choice of which trees to work on are based initially on their visual appeal and are discovered by my walking around the woodland and being drawn to a particular area on a tree.  The attraction will be generated by such features as the colour, the surface texture and the play of light and shadow across the tree trunk or branch.