I have just realised that I haven’t written a blog all year , partly I’ve been busy but also partly the way FB works has changed and the posts don’t get out to the same numbers that they used to but I felt I had to do a blog about the Extreme Scotland book that is now in the shops.
It’s 6 years since the idea first came to me, I was lying on my sofa in my then house in Essex , probably napping in the afternoon as is my want, and it struck me that a photographic book of Scottish adventure sports didn’t exist. I had been struck by how rich the visual experience of the Landscape Photographer of the Year books had been and I wondered if something similar to that could be done with adventure sports .
I spoke to Mike Pescod, mountain guide and leader of Abacus mountain guides and he was immediately positive about it and suggested some key people to speak to develop the idea.
The first shoot was in July 2012 and this was shot on that first evening and really summed up what the idea of the book was about , great landscape, great light and great athletes doing something cool in the landscape.
I would then spend sometime every month in Scotland working on images , at the time I was still living in Essex and it was a big commitment every month to be flying up North , hiring a car and getting accommodation , all on the off chance that I’d get something worthy of the book.
The next main milestone image for me was the Hunting the Pow image, this particular image won a place in the LPOTY book and then brought my work to the attention of Visit Britain who then commissioned a number of photoshoots and licensed a number of my adventure sport images to promote Scotland abroad.
I had contacted Glenmore Lodge asking if any of their team would be interested in working with me to get images and they invited me to photograph one of their ice climbing courses on the Ben , staying at the CIC hut for 4 days . To me this was like a dream come true, Derek Bain was my guide and we got ourselves into the bast positions to get the shots of the teams climbing on the N face . The unexpected spin off from this shoot was that The North Face UK , who are marketing partners with the Lodge and Ellis Brigham, then used one of the images as part of their in store marketing for winter climbing and that was really cool .
It then also put my work in front of the marketing team at Ellis Brigham who then asked me to start shooting their campaigns as their photographer had recently retired and they were keen to find a new long term photographer to work with.
I can honestly say that had I not started the Extreme Scotland project , that I wouldn’t have developed my career in the way that it has done . I do consider myself to be very lucky to have had the opportunities and openings that have come my way .
Extreme Scotland is in shops and on line outlets and I’ve got a number of speaking engagements around the country talking about making the book so if you do read the blog or follow my page , do come and say hi.
Thanks again for reading