I kind of look forward to this little trip down memory lane at the end of the year. I know I say and many others say that time seems to move faster as you get older. When I was a kid , a year would seem to last forever, now its a few trips here and an Alps hit there and bang , its christmas again and here we go again. But bizarrely , although the years seem to whizz by , I’m also surprised at what we manage to fit into one year and taking the time to look back , for me at least is a good time in the year to stop and be grateful,thankful etc for just how fortunate I am to be able to live the life I live at this moment in time with my family and friends
The first trip of the year was in the Ecrins shooting for Rab
For better or for worse I seem to be one of lifes malcontents, i.e., my cup is always half empty rather than half full. Whereas my wife’s cup is always full , even when its empty, bless her. Its not that I’m a depressive , far from it , but my friends do describe as me as being the most driven person they know. Now I’m not aware of that , i’m just me, but from the outside looking in it seems to my pals anyway that I’m driven. I kind of know what they mean; no matter how well a shoot has gone , or how happy a client is or front cover of this, that or the next thing , none of it makes me happy for any more than a few seconds before I’m off planning the next trip/shoot/project etc completely forgetting anything thats gone before. I am finding strategies to deal with it , taking time to be thankful, and live more in the moment rather than in the future and consider how lucky I/we are but I think its exhausting for my family dealing with my continual unease at being still for any length of time which is why I think I do Tai Chi to balance me a bit. It works … sort of.
The next trip was Iceland with Colin and John, two of the best guys in the world and funny as anything, we laugh from the minute we get together till the minute we get home, I love these guys and being with them is just a blast.
It was also an opportunity to make a film and David Canning wrote a poem to fit with the film
After this it was back up to Scotland shooting for Glenmore Lodge and The North faceUK. It was quite possibly some of the worst conditions I have ever tried to photograph in , high winds , zero vis, spindrift and fresh snow meant that we had to abandon the shoot and reschedule for a few weeks later . The only problem being that the few weeks later meant that conditions weren’t as wintery and it was touch and go I we would get anything resembling winter conditions. But , luckily , on the last day we had a good freeze overnight, hoar frost on the rocks and an image to save the day
In May , I was hooking up with Colin Meek and Paul Tattersall to make a film around An Teallach, the film was well received even though there’s some bits that I’m not happy with and it also gave me a film at Kendal which was great to be part of . Scotland is an amazing place to film and photograph , that is when its not pissing down and you’re not being midged to hell and back. Hopefully the film gives something of the feel for the place and if you’re into running then you should give the guys a call to take you out on some of the best trails in the country.
After this trip , I was shooting for Wild Country for their range of clothing that does look very cool. I’ve worked with the WC team before , they’re all as strong as anything and a photogenic bunch to. I was pleased that The Flash centre used one of the images for an Ad campaign and one of the images was part of this years Landscape Photographer of the Year competition and book
Summer saw Colin , Susan Jensen and myself out in the Alps for 3 weeks. The weather for all but one of the weeks was terrible. We had a good week in Switzerland around Handegg/grimsel pass area and also headed up the Albert Hiem hut for some amazing big granite routes, Definitely a place I would go back to. But then the weather crapped out again and we headed up to Font for some bouldering as if our fingertips weren’t shredded enough from the granite.
Then back home , Rab got in touch to say they wanted a film shot on the Cuillin ridge on Skye so I headed back up to meet with Paul Tattersall . Out of a five day time slot , only the first 2 days were good enough to be on the ridge but we were lucky with the conditions, dry rock ( I’ve been on the ridge when its wet and its slippery as hell , best avoided ), changing light , and atmospheric Scottish conditions.
One of the trips I was really looking forward to was a trip to India, I’ve been many times before but India is changing so fast that its hard to see authentic India in the big cities , apart from the crazy driving and hooting of horns , you could be anywhere. But not if you go to Varanasi. I had been inspired by the work of Joey L. and some of the great portraits he had taken of Saddhus and Agouris so I was keen to travel there and see for myself and hopefully get some images I was pleased with.
I also planned to make a film showing the colour , vibrancy and chaos of life that is India.
So that brings me to the end of the year, looking back I can see how lucky I’ve been with various things and I am really grateful to my pals that give of their time for little material reward.
I’m excited about 2015, and there are some cool projects lined up, again , thanks for taking the time to read and leave comments, appreciate it. Happy New Year
PS, if you and you’re pals have any cool ideas for adventures that you think would be good to make a film or photoshoot of , then drop me a line , I’m always keen to hear ideas and work with other creatives