Blog
Occasionally, I like to write to complement my photography (primarily for myself but also with the outdoor community in mind). If I’m fortunate enough, and I’ve put the effort in, my thoughts make their way into print.
Wild camping and photography - Beinn an Aodainn
Sunrise from a wild camp on the summit of Beinn an Aodainn in the Knoydart peninsula of Scotland.
Part of a Wild camping and photography series.
Beinn an Aodainn (also known as Ben Aden) is a Corbett in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. It’s located in Knoydart which is roughly 25 miles north-west of Fort William as the crow flies. A typically rugged landscape, it’s a long way from the nearest road.
Scotland’s Knoydart peninsula is commonly promoted as a ‘Last Great Wilderness’. I don’t believe this to be true (you can reach it by ferry, there’s a public house and there’s many man-made tracks and paths that aid your travel) but I do believe that another term for it - ‘The Rough Bounds’ - is highly accurate. The prevailing rocky or tussocky ground, and relentlessly steep slopes, makes for taxing hillwalking, especially with a heavy backpack (or - on two occasions where I’d initially thought I was fortunate to have blue skies - when you’re being baked under a relentless sun). Add to this a long walk from the nearest entry points to get to the foot of the peak - the shortest for Beinn an Aodainn is three hours - and you’re faced with some of the toughest hillwalking in Scotland. It’s a gold mine though for backpacking and camping.
This was my fifth time visiting Knoydart, having previously walked in from both Kinloch Hourn and Glen Shiel, taken the ferry in from Inverie and sea kayaked in along Loch Hourn. My friend had four hills left to do on his Corbett round - having completed all his Munros - and I’m slowly ticking off all my Munros. Garbh Chioch Mhor and Sgurr nan Coireachan are two of just three I’ve not done in these parts with the other being Meall Buidhe, which I’d bypassed back in 2011 due to nerve issues in my foot.
On that 2011 trip, we ticked off most of Knoydart’s Munros and Corbetts, including Beinn na Caillich, Ladhar Bheinn, Luinne Bheinn, Beinn an Aodainn and Sgurr na Ciche. On another trip I climbed Beinn Bhuidhe and on a different visit, we ascended Sgurr nan Eugallt and the Graham, Slat Bheinn, before topping out on Sgurr a'Choire-bheithe. Our plan that day was to do Beinn an Aodainn as well, negating the need for this current trip, but the length of our route, heat exhaustion, the late time of day and a plague of horse-flies all tallied up to us choosing to miss it out. The best things though, as is said, often come to those who wait.
Getting there
Our starting point for Beinn an Aodainn was near Kinloch Hourn, which is around 1h 40 mins travel from Fort William by car, or perhaps a taxi if you’re doing a through-route (see this Weekend Wonder: Ladhar Bheinn feature for more options). We walked along the shores of Loch Cuaich / Loch Quoich on a mostly boggy and very overgrown track, for approximately 3 hours, before heading first towards Lochan nam Breac and then into the corrie, following Allt Coire na Cruaiche to reach Bealach na h Eangair (following the route as described by Walk Highlands). We were on the summit of Beinn an Aodainn in just under six hours.
Camping-wise, there’s relatively few spaces I saw to put a tent on the summit of Beinn an Aodainn but we easily got two pitches and there looked to be places off to the north-west as well. I’d recommend taking a soft flask with a filter as there are numerous small lochans near the summit you can take advantage of. Otherwise (and probably also in drought conditions) you’ll need to carry all your water up the hill.
Camera equipment
Sony RX100 Mark V - I considered taking my full-frame camera but we had three Munros to do after this summit so I decided that the lighter the equipment I carried the better. (View more of my Sony RX100 images here).
The walk in along Loch Cuaich
Looking back to Loch Cuaich from the ascent of Beinn an Aodainn. Our starting point was the far shoreline, out of sight to the left.
Bealach na h Eangair, with Loch Nevis visible between Sgurr na Ciche and Beinn an Aodainn (Click to view larger)
Loch Nevis from the summit of Beinn an Aodainn
Rock towers near the summit of Beinn an Aodainn
The rising sun behind a cloud-covered Loch Cuaich from the summit of Beinn an Aodainn (Click to view larger)
Early morning clouds dispersing from the shores of Loch Cuaich
Business books for photographers - Setting yourself up for success
Five books that I've relied upon and would recommend to understand the business of photography.
Although photography for me is part-time endeavour (a considered decision on my part), I manage and operate it as a commercial business and adopt professional practices. How I approach my work is the same as any full-time photographer, a key element for me being I can seek out clients whose values align with my mine and I can choose who I would like to partner with.
What’s important for me as a photographer is to understand the business and to understand it well. Learning all the facets of the commercial aspects of photography (e.g. brand and marketing, advertising, human resources, finance, etc.) and up-skilling myself on these as well as my creative and technical skills.
The following is a list of business-related books and resources that have helped me to learn as a photographer and to grow my outdoor and adventure sports photography business. I’ve chosen one from each aspect - setting up a business, engaging with clients, marketing yourself offline (see this series for digital marketing for photographers), photo editing and backup plus knowing your camera.
Lisa Pritchard - Setting Up a Successful Photography Business - A great resource for new photographers, Lisa's book covers everything from business plans to marketing and promotion to producing a photoshoot. It includes a set of business templates, which helped me form the basis of the ones I use today.
Richard Weisgrau - The Real Business of Photography - A book with no images may not hold much interest for creative folk but Richard's 200+ page book is packed full of essential advice for photographers looking to understand and optimise their business practices and engage professionally with clients. (See also Richard's follow up book, The Photographer's Guide to Negotiating).
Elyse Weissberg: Successful Self-Promotion for Photographers: Expose Yourself Properly - Elyse's book was written before the maturity of digital marketing (sadly, she passed away before her book was finished). Her focus is on solid photography marketing techniques - print mailers, portfolio drop-offs, etc.
Michael Clark - A Professional Photographer's Workflow: Using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop - It’s hard to mention instruction books for adventure sports photography without mentioning Michael Clark. (See also his Adventure Sports Photography and Location Lighting books). The first of Michael's books I owned was this comprehensive manual for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Michael's knowledge of this photo organising and editing software is excellent and I picked up lots of hints and tips for how best to organise, process and archive my images, many of which I still take advantage of today.
Product / equipment manuals - I'm possibly in a minority of people who enjoys reading photography equipment manuals from cover to cover. Which I rationalise for myself on the basis that if I know how things work and what they're capable of, it helps me to focus on being more creative.
Wild camping and photography - Beinn Laoigh
Photography from a summit camp on Beinn Laoigh, a Munro in the West Highlands of Scotland.
Part of a Wild camping and photography series.
Looking over to Ben Laoigh's rocky east ridge and Coire Goathach from Ben Oss
Beinn Laoigh, commonly known as Ben Lui, is a Munro in the West Highlands of Scotland. Located c.8km from the village of Tyndrum, the peak is seen often from the A85 roadside, it’s fine horseshoe-shaped northern corrie, Coire Goathach, providing a commanding view for passing traffic, especially so in when it’s in full winter conditions.
A winter ascent of Beinn Laoigh from the east, up the classic Central Gully, had long been my plan but my only previous ascent of Beinn Laigh was in 2001, from Glen Lochy in the west due to an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in the United Kingdom. I’ve not climbed Central Gully - and likely won’t as my appetite for winter climbing has waned as I’ve got older - but on this occasion it wasn’t possible as a winter climb as there was no snow of note, despite being December. What had piqued my interest was a temperature differential of greater than twelve degrees, with the forecast for Tyndrum at 232m being below freezing conditions and Beinn Laoigh’s summit (at 1130m) forecast for plus 12 degrees Celsius - a classic recipe for a cloud inversion.
Cloud inversions, or more accurately temperature inversions, I understand are relatively rare. Most common in the colder months of the year, they’re caused - in my super simple terms - when the air temperature at lower altitudes is colder than the air at higher altitudes, which causes a layer of fog to form beneath you as you climb a mountain. I’ve popped out of the fog before on a Munro to find myself above a cloud inversion, which is great, but I much prefer waking up on the summit of a peak with the clouds beneath me.
Getting there
I travelled from Edinburgh to Glasgow Queen Street by train (Scotrail) and then took an onwards connection from Glasgow Central to Tyndrum on the Fort William line. From Tyndrum, the common route to Beinn Laoigh is a long (c.9km) but straight-forward walk from Dalrigh up Glen Cononish, home of a gold mine, to the foot of Coire Goathach, which I followed for a while but, because I was ticking off Munros on my Munro round, I broke off early up the steep south-west slopes of Beinn Dubhcraig to climb Ben Oss first. Heading south-west from Ben Oss and then north-north-west up the flanks of Beinn Laoigh to its summit felt somewhat adventurous but it was mainly a lot of hard work, especially with camping and photography gear. I arrived at the summit at 4pm, just as the sun was going down, and I pitched my tent just off the summit, at a small area of grass which I imagine is the only possible place on this fine rocky mountain to put a tent.
Camera equipment
Nikon D810
Nikon 24-70mm F2.8
Lowepro Toploader AW 75
The moon rising above the waters of Glen Cononish, which eventually flow into Loch Tay
Wild camping on the summit of Beinn Laoigh
The view south from Beinn Laoigh summit towards the Arrochar Alps, as the sun sets
Ben Cruachan and Stob Daimh from the summit of Beinn Laoigh
Looking over Beinn a' Chleibh towards the Paps of Jura
A cloud inversion fills Glen Cononish beneath the east ridge of Beinn Laoigh
A cloud inversion fills Glen Cononish as seen from the rocky summit of Beinn Laoigh
The slopes of Beinn Chuirn, a Corbett above the gold mine in Glen Cononish, and beyond towards Glen Lochy
A large split rock on the summit of Beinn Laoigh gives a commanding view down a cloud-filled Glen Cononish
Descending into the clouds on the return to Tyndrum
Wild camping and photography - Màm Sodhail
Overnight on Màm Sodhail, a Munro above Glen Affric in the North-West Highlands of Scotland.
Part of a Wild camping and photography series. (View more images from this Glen Affric backpacking trip in my portfolio)
The moon rises behind the ridge leading out from Mam Sodhail to Sgùrr na Lapaich
As I’d packed for a weekend’s backpacking with a friend in November, in Glen Affric in the North-West Highlands of Scotland, I realised that I hadn’t missed the weight of a DSLR camera, especially on top of the 12kg of hillwalking and camping equipment I was planning to carry.
Throughout the summer season I’d been illustrating my outdoor activities with a light-weight Sony RX100 compact camera, photographing trail running routes in Edinburgh’s Pentland Hills plus some attempts I’d made on Tranter's round in Glen Nevis. It was a change therefore to be carrying a professional DSLR up and down hills again. The image quality and usability of my work models - a Nikon D810 in this case - is streets ahead compared to my Sony and I was banking on the photographic opportunities a favourable high pressure forecast, squeezed in between two periods of low, looked to offer. Old-school DSLRs and professional lenses however aren’t light and I was conscious I was adding an extra 2kg to the weight of my pack for a trip that we'd mapped out as 40km distance over two days, with 2100m ascent.
The weight penalty of professional camera equipment I felt was worth it on this occasion. Glen Affric is often referred to as one of Scotland’s most scenic glens and the Walk Highlands website describes two of the peaks we'd chosen for our backpacking trip - Càrn Eige and Màm Sodhail - as the "highest mountains north of the Great Glen and spectacular viewpoints". Both mountains are Munros, two of the 282 Scottish peaks over 3,000ft high that are listed in Hugh Munro’s tables, with Mam Sodhail, or the ‘Hill of the Barns’, being the smaller of the two by just two metres, standing 1181m tall.
We’d started our trip the previous day at a car park in Glen Affric, camping c.6km from the car on what I imagined were the only two pieces of dry ground that day in Gleann nam Fiadh. The terrain was drier higher up and, in the morning, as we admired the golden colours of the landscape - it was abnormally autumnal weather for November - we ascended Coire Mhic Fhearchair and headed for Sròn Garbh and the rocky ridge that leads from Stob Coire Dhomhnuill onto Càrn Eige. From there we summited Beinn Fhionnlaidh and retraced our steps, our plan being to continue over Màm Sodhail towards another nearby Munro, An Socach, and camp on a bealach beneath that peak, ascending An Socach for our fourth Munro of the trip the following morning.
I distinctly recall standing beside Màm Sodhail's huge summit cairn, pondering the views Càrn Eige and Màm Sodhail were said to offer. We couldn’t see much at all but neither of us were even remotely disappointed. Since lunchtime, a thick blanket of cloud had filled the glens beneath us, 360 degrees around. It stretched as far as our eyes could see - at least all the way to Fort William in one direction, almost 100km away. Camping above a cloud inversion is not something I’ll ever turn down and we easily made the decision to stop for the day, much earlier than planned, pitching our tents about 3.30pm as the sun started to dip towards the horizon. Settling in to take in the glorious view we had above the clouds, I thought of the many times I had walked and camped in poor weather. These were special moments indeed. (If it’s any consolation, on exiting our tents the following morning, we found ourselves to be completely within these clouds, with absolutely no views at all).
Getting there
For Glen Affric, head south out of Inverness on the A82 toward Drumnadrochit. Take the A831 towards Cannich and then continue south-west along Glen Affric to reach the car park at grid reference NH215242. For Càrn Eige and Màm Sodhail, take the track through the woods which leads you first west and then north into Gleann nam Fiadh. Alternatively, drive further up Glen Affric and park at GR N201234, follow the track along the northern side of Loch Affric and ascend via Coire Leachavie.
Camera equipment
Nikon D810
Nikon 24-70mm F2.8
Lowepro Toploader AW 75
Mam Sodhail's large summit cairn
Wild camping on the summit of Màm Sodhail
Sgurr na Lapaich peaks out above the clouds
Clouds lap over the bealach between Màm Sodhail and Càrn Eige
Gleann nam Fiadh filled with clouds between Carn Eige and Sgurr na Lapaich
Looking over the Glen Shiel peaks towards Ben Nevis on the far horizon
Digital marketing for outdoor and adventure sports photographers (Part 3) - Driving additional traffic to your website
The third in a series of articles on digital marketing for outdoor and adventure sports photographers, covering different ways you can drive traffic to your website, aside from SEO.
Part three in a series on digital marketing for outdoor and adventure sports photographers, with hints and tips for how to help photography buyers find you online.
Think about the clients you’d like to work with and find out what they require from their photography. Tailor your approach to meet their needs.
If you build it, will they come?
Possibly. The minimum I’d suggest photographers do when setting up a website is to optimise it for organic search traffic. You’ll put yourself in a decent position to be found online but there’s no guarantee of numbers and you’ve no control over who your visitors are. It all depends on the keywords people choose. Whether you choose to spend more time driving organic traffic to your website is purely a business choice, which you’ll have made when you created your marketing strategy and decided how much of your time you wish to devote to it (you may have decided it makes more sense to do the minimum for your website and focus your efforts on offline marketing, valuing human interaction as a way to build up relationships over online communications, or building up your engagement using social media instead). I’d imagine most photographers will include at least two of these different approaches in their digital marketing strategy, keen not to put all their eggs in the proverbial single basket.
Additional ways to drive traffic to your photography website
Let’s say that you’ve made the decision to maximise traffic to your website. What tools are available to the photographer who wants to use digital marketing to increase their brand awareness and help them secure more income? Before you look at your options, it’s important to understand clearly the purpose of your website. Is it;
Purely for brand awareness
Brand awareness and product (You’ve got something that you sell, on top of your creative services)
Brand awareness and education (You’ve got information of value you like to share, on top of your creative services)
A combination of the above
Once you’re clear on the service your website provides for your business, you can consider your objectives and tailor them accordingly. For example, let’s say you’re selling a product (e.g. fine art prints or an online training course direct to a client). You’re below your monthly targets. You do some calculations and you know you need x numbers of visits per month to make £y in sales. Your objective therefore is purely to increase numbers and what might make sense is a paid search advertisement (see below) which you conduct on certain keywords to increase your monthly visitors. But what if you have new commercial work that you want to share? You also want to increase eyeballs on that but it’s likely your audience isn’t the same type of people who will buy your fine art prints. So your approach instead may be to issue an email campaign (personalised to individual art buyers or shared more widely using an email distribution list which you’ve collated online) which showcases your work and encourages people to hire you. Or you could run a social media campaign. What’s key is to understand what your audience wants or needs from you, so you can drive them to appropriate, engaging content, tailor your calls to action and maximise your desired result.
a.) Paid search on top of organic search
Organic search is visits to your website purely off the back of search engine traffic, with no input by yourself other than the efforts you put into search engine optimisation. It’s a default approach I’d highly recommend all photographers adopt if they have a website (see ‘Do I need a website?’). Paid search is where Google and other search engines allow you to bid on search keywords and you pay them to have your business advertised when those keywords are used.
The majority of photographers I’d imagine will rely on organic search traffic (appreciating that SEO is free to work with once you’ve purchased your website). If you play in the paid search marketing space you’ll perhaps have a specific thing you’re wishing to sell (e.g. a course or a book), done a lot of research as to what you think will work and you’ll have an established plan for measuring and establishing what return you’re getting on your investment. If not, I’d suggest employing an agency to review your strategy for you. Effective paid search can have a positive effect on your bottom line (think selling fine arts landscape prints for clients buying office art) but it is easy to spend a lot of money for little tangible benefit.
b.) Blogging
Blogging is an effective way of generating interest and increasing your site traffic (especially so because the amount of content you can generate but also because frequency of site updates is a ranking factor for Google and other search engines). You just need to be keen to write content and have a plan or content strategy for what you want to say and how often you say it. If not, I’d suggest to consider whether it’s best to even start - a stale blog is a surefire way to lose the interest of your clients.
Some things to think about -
Don't underestimate how much work it is to maintain a blog. There’s a fair amount of effort in writing regularly, e.g. continual idea generation, researching, drafting, editing and fact-checking.
Don’t think you have to write every day, or even every week or month. Choose a timetable that suits you and be consistent.
Choose a topic you’re confident your clients will be interested in and write naturally and enthusiastically about it (Google recognises quality content, as do humans). Be sure to include your keywords in your copy.
What do you want a person to do after they’ve read your blog? (Does it make sense to include a call to action at the end? For example, ‘Visit page x’ or ‘Read blog y’?). If it is useful to provide your clients with more information, you could link to content on the web and on your website (Google uses internal links to help it identify what it thinks is the most important content on your website)
How are you going to measure if you’ve met your goals? Consider key performance indicators (KPIs) and use analytics tools to see if you’ve been successful (for example, if you use Google Analytics, use Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder to append tracking data to your hypertext links).
Once you’ve written your content, share it far and wide. You’ve put a lot of effort into it so aim to get it seen by as many people as possible,
Tip - Consider other publishing mediums. Why not approach a popular third party website and offer to write a blog for them? This could an editorial publication or a corporate blog. Just be sure the reward is worth your while (it doesn’t have to be monetary, the extra brand awareness may be valuable enough but do ensure you get some value and don’t give your work away for free).
c.) Email marketing
If your content is compelling and you have the ability to include an online form on your website that correlates to a database (e.g. using a supplier such as Mailchimp), you can persuade clients to share their contact details and permit you to communicate with them offline. These ‘warm’ leads need continually nurtured and you’ll need to produce regular content if you wish to keep them engaged.
Email marketing I find to be similar to blogs. The focus is on producing interesting, engaging content that people wish to hear about. You could, in theory, simply summarise your blog posts in your email and send those but if your clients have already visited your website, they’re seeing the same information again. Is this a bad thing? Perhaps not, as it can reinforce your name and your work in their mind. But what if you produced specific content just for clients who had signed up to your email newsletter? There is a skill to encouraging people to sign up and stay signed up and it’s wise to think outside the box but primarily it’s about your great, engaging content. You’ll quickly realise people will soon leave if you’re not holding their attention.
Three standard approaches to email marketing are;
Email ‘blasts’ - Where you sign up to a company who manages large databases of email addresses and then you ‘blast’ those lists with your content (‘Dear Sir/Madam’ style), hoping that the email addresses are still up-to-date and people find it of interest. (Typically, I experienced a tiny open rate - less than 1% - when I trialled this for my business)
Personalised email - You research individual clients you wish to work with and tailor a personalised message for them, addressing them by their name and referencing recent work (I experienced a 50% open rate when I adopted this approach instead)
Email newsletters - You have a form on your page and the quality of your content encourages people to sign up to find out more about you and be contacted by you when you publish new work
If you were your client, which would you rather receive? I’m fairly certain it’s going to be either of the latter two emails. For the second option, yes, it takes much longer to find someone and ensure you have the right contact, research the work they’ve been responsible for and then create a communication that references that and demonstrates why you feel you can do similar work for them and why they should choose you over the photographers they’ve already hired. But if you don’t gather email addresses for an email newsletter (and even if you do), I’d highly recommend you consider it as the difference in open rates is dramatic.
Caution - In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), dictates what data you can capture from your clients and the essential controls you need to ensure are in place to manage their information and keep it secure. My legal page outlines how I manage my GDPR obligations. I’d recommend you consult a lawyer to ensure you’re compliant.
d.) Social media
You may, like me, find it’s very easy to get distracted with social media, spending time admiring the (apparently) amazing lifestyles of those around you and forgetting the value it can add to your own business. Social media marketing is a subset of digital marketing, and a highly effective method of finding and engaging with clients online. How you act and the content you produce will all contribute to increasing your brand awareness. In most cases, the higher the number of followers you have, the greater you’re seen to be performing (which I’d suggest isn’t always the case) but, even if your numbers aren’t as high as your peers, there’s a few things you can do that will give you a baseline level of optimisation in your channels overall that could increase the number of visitors to your website (and, regardless, will help clients’ impressions of you overall).
Instagram - Instagram’s strength comes in its ability to engage your clients with visual content. Publish strong images and content with a consistent theme plus commentary that stands out and demonstrates your worth. Treat it like your blog and post regularly and consistently (using Reels for engagement and Stories for sharing fun things about you and behind the scenes). From an SEO perspective, Instagram is not a great application (Facebook, who owns Instagram, blocks access for Google to your images) but it’s worthwhile considering a few things. Match your username to your domain name and include keywords and your website URL in your profile.
Twitter - Much better for SEO than Instagram but still limited by the number of characters you can use. Key considerations are to include keywords in your profile and link to your website and regularly provide links in your posts back to your website (Google ranks inbound links very highly).
LinkedIn - Optimal I’d suggest for SEO out of all the social media platforms (perhaps on a par with Facebook) as you can write long-form articles but, based on some trials I performed, not as beneficial as blogging on your website (I published an article on both at different times and my website post ranked better).
Facebook - As with the others, match your username to your domain name, put keywords in your biography and link to your website. There’s also the option, like LinkedIn, to use their paid advertising tool, similar to Google’s paid search, which you can use to target your communications and increase your engagement.
There are other social media platforms, e.g. TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr or Snapchat (which Cory Richards and Adrian Ballinger took much advantage off on an ascent of Everest) but what’s key I’d suggest is finding out where your clients spend their time and focusing your efforts there. (Plus, I’d recommend, using platforms you enjoy. I stopped using Facebook because, although it may have advantages to me as a business, using it overall simply makes me annoyed). I do think you’ll enjoy a much better return on your investment by targeting just a few social media platforms and customising your approach in each, rather than trying to use all of them (posting on one platform and copying it across to the others isn’t an optimal social media strategy). However you use social media, make sure you talk about yourself consistently and be sure to give out the same message regardless of the platforms you use. Follow others, especially photography buyers and interact with them. Build up a relationship online so when you do get some work you’re not brand new to them and they have confidence in how you conduct yourself as a business. Above all, keep trying new things and be sure to measure (and celebrate) your success. Don’t be afraid to adapt.
More information
Consult the experts. Useful digital marketing and search engine optimisation information and services can be found online, for example;
There’s many others.
Digital marketing for outdoor and adventure sports photographers (Part 2) - Search engine optimisation
Part two in a series of articles related to digital marketing for outdoor and adventure sports photographers. This one is focused on optimising your website for organic traffic.
Part two in a series of articles related to digital marketing for outdoor and adventure sports photographers. This one is focused on optimising your website for organic traffic.
Considered use of search engine optimisation techniques will enable you to maximise your search engine page rankings, drive organic search and help you to rise above your competition.
But I’m a photographer, not a web developer!
Brian Dean at Backlinko shares that Google has 200 page ranking factors it uses to measure a web page before it positions you within its search engine page rankings (SERPs). As a photographer, unless you’re also a web developer, you’re likely not able to concern yourself with, or even care, what many of these are (some will be driven by the content management system that you choose to host your website) but there are some simple things you can do at content level which can aid your success. The key thing I’d suggest is to always think about your client. If you aim to make it easy for them and optimise their user experience, you should, in theory, be rewarded as a result by search engines.
Optimising your website for search
As photographers, there’s a number of things we can do to customise our website and maximise our presence online. These techniques, under the umbrella term ‘search engine optimisation’ (SEO), apply regardless if you are building your website yourself or commissioning an agency to build one for you. The content that follows is targeted at photographers who are building a website themselves, using templated solutions from a supplier. If you’re commissioning someone to build your website for you, you can use the content as a means to help you choose an appropriate web development agency. (If your intended supplier doesn’t ask you questions related to the below, I’d question their suitability for your needs).
a.) Defining keywords
Keywords are simply the words your clients type into Google (or other search engines) when they are seeking something of interest. Simply put, the more relevant the keywords you choose are to the keywords your client uses, the higher the chance you have that your website will be ranked in search and be found by your clients. A focus for photographers looking to improve their search engine page rankings is therefore to understand your client base and establish what keywords your clients use when they browse the internet and are seeking to find photographers online. You can then tailor your content to include these keywords and match their needs. If you agree your keyword strategy up front, it’s really fairly easy afterwards to ensure your content always aligns to it.
Depending how considered your approach is to SEO, there are tools that can help you identify keywords, including Google’s KeyWord Planner and ahrefs Keyword Explorer. Both of these tools, plus other solutions, are paid-for applications and will give you lots of detail (e.g. the price you’d pay to advertise on those keywords). The stripped-down functionality of Google’s search field may be of use instead (simply type in a keyword into the search box on Google.com and it will tell you via a drop-down menu what other people have been searching for related to those keywords). Alternatively, if you’re simply looking to generate some keywords you want to use on your web pages and your blog to drive traffic to your website, a suitable tool I’d suggest is your brain. Establish the keywords you most want to be recognised for and then think about other topics that are related to those words.
Example keywords I use as an outdoor sports photographer based in Scotland, UK;
UK, Scotland, photographer, Edinburgh, commercial, advertising, editorial, photography, outdoor sports, outdoor, adventure, adventure sports, active lifestyle, outdoors, athlete, mountaineering, hiking, trekking, running, trail running, mountain running, surfing, cycling, mountain biking, landscape, travel, tourism, fitness, health, environment, etc.
b.) Choosing a domain name
If you’ve followed the advice I shared about choosing a web hosting company from an SEO perspective, the technical aspects of your domain name will be optimised for search, working without the www prefix and being presented to your clients via a secure connection, i.e. HTTPs. A steer for what to call your domain name would be to choose something that is short and memorable and, if you wish, contains a keyword related to photography. Aim for a domain name that is easy to remember and shy away from using multiple keywords in your name, which Google could class as spammy, plus hyphens or underscores, as they could make it more difficult for your clients to recall or type your address.
You may wish to choose what you do for your domain name, or to use a company slogan, for example;
ukoutdoorsportsphotographer.com
bestoutdoorsportsphotographer.com
The choice is yours but there’s a risk that search engines (and your clients) class this keyword-targeted approach as spam-like and related to poor quality content (think of similar sites in other industries with lots of adverts). I’d recommend instead choosing a simple domain name, e.g. firstnamelastname.com or firstnamelastnamephoto.com and using the content itself on your website to generate your SEO. (The value being you can get much more breadth with your content - customising individual web pages for targeted search - than you can with just your domain name).
c.) Structuring your website
A good way to start thinking about how to structure your website is to research other photography websites. There’s only so many options to categorise your content when you’re presenting photographs and you’ll likely find the majority of the sites you visit are structured around a variation of a theme (Homepage, Portfolio, Galleries, Projects, About, Blog, Contact).
You may be tempted to try something different to stand out, and people do, but most photography buyers will expect some standardisation across websites and you may make it difficult for them if you break from ‘the norm’. I’d recommend to focus on wowing clients with the quality of your photographs rather than a fancy website and keep it simple as possible.
Tips for creating a site map
Have an overview or portfolio page so buyers short of time can clearly see what you offer
Aim for three clicks max for a client to find lower-level content (ideally two clicks). For example, if they’re on your homepage, Galleries (1 click), Adventure sports (2 clicks).
Make your labels clear and concise and relevant to the page you’re sending your clients to (Labels are the words your client clicks on. Depending on your CMS, these can be different to the labels you provide for search engines - see adding page meta data below)
Have an ‘About’ page that clearly describes who you are and what you do
Consider a biography if you have an interesting back story that supports or adds to your brand
Ensure your contact details are easily accessible (name, location, phone number and email address)
Should you have one website or multiple websites? Research I’ve conducted would suggest that photographers are best to focus their business on a speciality rather than being a jack of all trades, the rationale being that photography buyers are more likely to hire someone who has high-quality images only of, e.g. outdoor sports and related topics on their website, rather than a photographer who has diluted their approach by mixing in outdoor sports along with their pet, wedding and baby photography. There’s nothing to stop you presenting a multi-faceted approach for your clients, and, if you’ve chosen a CMS that supports it, optimising each page from an SEO point of view, but industry commentary would suggest that the best practice is to specialise. On that basis, I’d recommend you create a separate website for each genre of your photography (or instead, put all your efforts into one genre).
c.) Adding page meta data
Once you know how many pages you’re going to create for your website, think about how you’re going to describe each page for search engines. This is valuable because when Google or other search engines crawl your website, they attribute value to it and you build up this value over time as more people visit or link to your content. (The more value your site has for a specific topic, the higher you will rank in search engine page rankings for searches related to that topic). Meta data is simply information you’re able to add to your web pages which enables search engines to understand better what you offer
Page URLs - If you can tell from a page URL what is going to be on a page before you visit, then it’s highly likely a search engine will be able to as well. Aim to keep your page URLs clear and concise and ensure they are relative to the content of your page. Unlike domain names, do use hyphens to separate keywords, which help search engines and will aid usability.
Examples from my website;
Page titles and description - A page title and description is a simple summary of your web page that describes what it contains. The goal from a technical perspective is you’re telling search engines up front what they can expect to find in your website but, as the information is displayed publicly in search engine page results, a good title and description can help clients clearly understand your speciality when they come across your name (and can also help your name to be front of their mind when they think of, or search for, your speciality).
An example from my website;
Page title - Outdoor photography | Sports, adventure, lifestyle - Colin Henderson Photography
Description - Photographer based in Scotland, UK. specialised in a variety of subjects such as sports, outdoor recreation and employment, adventure tourism, travel and landscapes.Tip - Your page title is also displayed on a browser tab so it will be visible to your clients when they’re on your website. Ensure your page titles are easily readable and place your most important keywords (i.e. those most relevant to the content) at the start. Page descriptions apparently contribute little in regard to search engine rankings but have clear usability benefits as they help to pique your clients’ interest.
d.) Writing page copy
You’ve set up your web pages, labelled them so they make sense to your clients and appended meta data so they’re optimised for search. Your next step is to add relevant content to your web pages which you’ve researched and you’re confident will interest and engage your client.
My simple advice for writing online copy is to find something you care about, write naturally and don’t stuff your text full of the same keywords. Decide up front what your primary keywords are for each of your web pages and mention these on the page. Avoid repetition, as far as possible, and use synonyms where appropriate to help round out your writing and give search engines a broader view of the message you’re trying to get across.
e.) Formatting your web pages
Formatting your web pages (using bold text, italics, margins, tables, etc.) makes it easier for clients to view your content and understand what you’re trying to say. Categorising your content using headers helps search engines and makes it easy for clients to scan your web pages and identify key information. Keywords in your page headings is an SEO ranking factor (especially H1) and bear in mind that search engines (and humans) like order and structure.
For example;
H1 - Outdoor sports photography hints and tips
H2 - Essential camera gear
H3 - Camera bodies
H3 - Camera lenses
H2 - What to photograph
H3 - Athletes
H3 - Landscapes
f.) Describing your images
The need for image search first materialised back in 2000, when Google began to support people searching for photographs (the instigator its said being multiple searches people made for ‘Jennifer Lopez’s green dress’). Google developed image search and you can use keywords to help your images rank in search as well as your web pages.
Image descriptions (also known as 'Alt text’ or 'Alt attributes') are used by search engines and also by visually-impaired users who use screen-readers. They allow you to describe what is in your image. As with page titles, keep them short and descriptive and aim to include your keywords.
An example of an image description on my website;
Athlete Donnie Campbell mountain running at Desert de Platé near Chamonix, with Mont Blanc in the background
g.) Considering page weight
Finally, but just as importantly as all the above (potentially more so but it’s at the foot of the page), keep in mind that the more images you add on a page the greater your page weight. Google and other search engines will very likely penalise your website if it loads too slowly. Bear this in mind when you’re creating your site map and consider breaking content into two or more pages if you wish to share lots of images. Aim to keep your image file size as small as possible (say between 500KB and 1MB per image) but note there may be a trade off because, if the image isn’t big enough and your web template has a full screen option, it may not render very well on larger screens. My advice would be to know your target audience - if they always use fast internet connections and larger desktops it may make business sense to optimise the experience for them. (Not many clients will have this luxury, especially when they’re on the move - think mobile). Alternatively, you may wish to choose a web template where your images are presented in a smaller size if page speed will become an issue. As ever, it’s a consideration of all of the above that will help you to be most successful. I’d recommend making use of Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to get a feel for how weighty your page is overall and Chrome DevTools to get more detailed information.
Digital marketing for outdoor and adventure sports photographers (Part 1) - Choosing a web hosting supplier
Kicking off a series of articles on digital marketing for outdoor and adventure sports photographers. Starting with choosing a web hosting supplier for your website.
The first of a series of articles providing a high-level steer related to digital marketing for outdoor and adventure sports photographers. Starting with choosing a web hosting supplier for your website.
A very rough metaphor for the situation photographers find themselves in online. How do you stand out within a big and competitive landscape? Like these climbers, climbing in the Aiguille Rouges range above Chamonix in France, you take advantage of the tools available to you and use them to help you rise to the top.
My background outside photography includes many years working with digital marketing resource, supporting a FTSE 100 company to produce high-quality digital solutions for their customers. I’m sharing some high-level information from my experience in that field as I feel it can benefit photographers plus others in the industry (for example, photographers adopting a good online approach makes it easier for e.g. Art Directors and other photography buyers to find the right people for their needs).
Do I really need a website?
Despite the current popularity of Instagram and other widely-used social media applications, at the time of writing, accepted wisdom should still steer photographers towards the need for a stand-alone portfolio website. Whether your business approach is to sell direct to customers (D2C) or to a corporate client or via an agency (B2B), interested parties may want to find out more about you than what you’re able to share on social media and, at the time of writing, a website is still the best platform to do this. By mapping out the approach you take to building to your website, optimising it for search and producing consistent, regular, high-quality content that represents what you can offer, you’ll drive the right traffic to your business and put yourself in the best possible position to find work and retain clients.
Web hosting for your photography website
From a digital marketing perspective, choosing a web hosting company that enables you to customise the content you publish online and optimise it for search is key. Important aspects to consider are;
Domain name services (DNS) - Google considers security a ranking factor so check that your domain name come with an HTTPs prefix and the HTTP version automatically forwards to the HTTPs version. In addition, you may find that your clients don’t type in the www when they enter website addresses so you’ll want confidence in your DNS that your domain will work both with and without the ‘www’ prefix (e.g. www.colinhendersonphoto.com and colinhendersonphoto.com both point to https://www.colinhendersonphoto.com).
Meta data - Page meta data is a key consideration for Google and other search engines as to how and where they rank your content. Look for a solution that will let you customise your page titles, page descriptions and URLs.
URL rewrites - URL rewrites are related to DNS. They’re not an essential feature when you’re choosing a web hosting solution but if you move content around in your website structure (or change a page name) and still want to retain your SEO value, the functionality enables you to tell search engines when they land on the old page to go to the new page. The common options are a 301 redirect (permanent move) or a 302 (temporary move).
Content management system - If you’re adding content regularly to your website, you’ll appreciate a content management system that makes it easy and efficient for you to create, edit and update pages, one which has a simple (WYSIWYG) content editor so you can format your text and add HTML markup such as headers, italics and bold text to aid online viewing.
Blog - The advantages of blogging for SEO can’t be over-stated. Blogs enable you to cover the peripheral aspects that are relevant to your business and which may be of interest to your clients and they strongly support your efforts to build up brand awareness. Be aware that the ability to present your blog using Google’s AMP functionality may make your blogs rank better but check what your pages will look like to your client (Tip – perhaps nothing like your nicely branded website).
Analytics - Understanding how many people are viewing your content and what they do next is key if you want to maximise the return on your investment. Looks for solutions that enable you to integrate a third-party product such as Google Analytic or Matomo but also check if your desired web hosting provider has their own analytics solutions built within.
Tools - Does the solution enable you to add in marketing solutions such as online forms, which you can use to gather email addresses from existing clients? Do you need the ability to include shopping functionality? Or schedule posts for specific periods? Check what options are available to you before you buy.
Note - I use Squarespace for my content management solutions, specifically for their SEO capabilities (fully customisable meta data, advanced DNS capability and blogging functionality) but also because they had a web template I wanted to use. Photoshelter had a similar web template and great database functionality plus sharing tools but I didn’t rate their their SEO capabilities (e.g. random parameters added to your database images) and their mobile functionality is behind the times (no pinch and zoom for example on mobile devices and generally a poor mobile experience overall). Up front, Photofolio were my first choice (I like the work that owner Rob Haggart does on aphotoeditor.com) and using their CMS was very easy but I couldn’t find a template I liked and the effort involved in customising the ones they offered outweighed the value I saw in it. I have also used Wordpress in the past, which comes with SEO plugins such as Yoast that makes things easier, but, overall, I’d almost always recommend Squarespace unless you need an out-the-box searchable image library, which is where Photoshelter excels (it’s possible to create one in Squarespace but it’s hugely time consuming). Your mileage of course may vary and I’d encourage you to trial them all.
Web hosting solutions for photographers
(There will be more).
Tip - Consider choosing a web hosting company that also hosts your domain name. Not for SEO advantages but for ease of administration (the less suppliers you have, the easier it is to keep track of who you’re paying for what and in this instance you’re not at great risk of putting all your eggs in too few baskets). There may also be cost benefits for your business, e.g. if you’re in the UK and you use a US supplier, your bank likely charges you transaction fees on each overseas payment.
Adventure Medic interview - Outdoor and adventure sports photography
Hints and tips for the Adventure Medic community on capturing outdoor and adventure sports photography.
A long time ago, I was asked by Matt Wilkes, an Edinburgh doctor and expedition medic, to contribute some thoughts for the ‘Adventure Medic’ community on outdoor and adventure sports photography We discussed the below, plus Matt’s future expedition plans, over a pint of beer in an Edinburgh bar. You can see it in its proper context on the Adventure Medic website.
Donnie Campbell, former Scotland 282 Munro Round record holder on Beinn Alligin in Torridon
Colin Henderson is a mountain and adventure sports photographer from Edinburgh. A digital project manager by trade, he took up photography fairly late in life, at first teaching himself the basics then perfecting his craft shooting friends and athletes at play in the mountains. His website is inspiring to anyone who loves the outdoors. We caught up with Colin to ask about his work, and to get some tips on improving our own adventure photography. We covered location, lighting, shooting angles, equipment, editing and resources – all you could need to shoot your next expedition in style.
Being an Adventure Sports Photographer sounds pretty good! What are the best parts of your job?
The best parts? I love being outside, especially at the start and end of the day when the light can be so magical. Visiting new places is always exciting (although I’ve realised you don’t have to go far to document adventure – there’s plenty gems in Scotland that I’m still discovering, despite travelling extensively over the country for years).
I do like seeing athletes perform well in their chosen environment, be it a runner in the mountains or a kayaker going down white water. There’s something very pleasing about seeing people who are really good at things do them really well. Being there to capture it on camera is a privilege.
Before I even get to a shoot, I enjoy the preparation that’s required. I love the process of marketing myself, pitching for work, researching ideas, scouting out locations and considering what equipment I’ll need to meet a brief (though see below). I also enjoy creating or reviewing production sheets, agreeing shot lists with the client, thinking about the digital tech, etc. Very often I’ll do all this myself but I will employ people to do parts of the process – I really like working with other creatives.
How about the worst?
The worst parts? I don’t like travelling. I’m slightly OCD and packing for a trip is stressful for me as I’ll pack and re-pack things in the run up to leaving, for no real reason. Taking off and landing in a plane are also necessary evils I could do without. Photography equipment is heavy and carrying equipment, especially up and down hills is hard work. There are days when I long to go out with just a waterproof in my rucksack. I always regret though not having the ability to capture things in one way or another – I’ll need to buy a Go Pro.
What has been your favourite shoot so far?
I was invited to Southern Chilean Patagonia to photograph the Patagonian Expedition Race, a 700km mountain biking, kayaking, trekking and mountaineering challenge for teams of four. The media team was a mix of video and still photographers from around the world and I still keep in touch with many of them. Our brief was to follow the racers and document the arduous nature of the race. It was epic. The landscape in Chile is wild, like Scotland I’d imagine thousands of years ago, and it made for a huge adventure.
I’d been to Patagonia before – I’m the author of a trekking and travel Guidebook to Patagonia’s Los Glaciares National Park, which is home to peaks such as Cerro Torre and Monte Fitz Roy – but not to Chile.
I’d love to shoot, Iceland, Norway, the Lofoten Islands and Pakistan.
What makes a great adventure sports photo?
What someone defines as a “great” photograph is generally a very personal thing but when I see an image that really captures my attention, it’s usually because two or more of the following have taken place:
People / Someone’s captured a dynamic moment in a really creative way;
Place / They’ve used an inspiring location (either one I’ve not seen before or, if I have, it’s photographed in a unique way) that really connects me with the scene and helps me understand what’s going on;
Lighting / They’ve made great use of natural or artificial light to bring the image to life.
There’s lots of good photographers out there ticking these boxes. But if you can do all three, consistently, on trip after trip. shoot after shoot, or for client after client, then you’ll start to stand out from the crowd.
What should we focus on to improve our pics?
Take shots when it’s wet and stormy. Take shots when other expedition members are tired. Take shots when you’re tired. Get up before folk and go to bed after them.
The best advice I received when I was starting out was to always have my camera readily accessible (I use a Lowepro Toploader pack and carry it over my chest) and take lots of shots. The former was great advice because it’s difficult to take lots of shots when your camera is in your backpack and the latter was because it set me up to give myself the best chance of capturing the right postures and the most dynamic movements when shooting athletes. I quickly realised that the more shots I took, the easier it was to understand what worked in different scenarios and what didn’t. It greatly increased my learning curve.
If you’ve plans to document an expedition you’re on, I’d recommend thinking of the story you’d like tell with your photos and then build up your ideas from there. Consider wide angle shots showing the environment of the adventure, then look for details in the landscape that brings a viewer closer into the action. Don’t forget the detail shots – the packing and approach, the taped, bloodied hand of a rock climber, the portrait of a weathered face that portrays the impact of a life spent outdoors or the close-up view of a wrinkled, callused hand of a whitewater paddler.
Take shots when it’s wet and stormy (especially take shots when it’s stormy – the light can often be amazing). Take shots when other expedition members are tired. Take shots when you’re tired. Get up before folk and go to bed after them. Do everything you can to create images you’re proud of and want to share. Then share them as wide as you can – on a website or just on social media, it doesn’t matter. Think of ways you can solicit feedback and then see what you can do to improve. It’s a constant learning curve. One which can be hugely rewarding when you get home and realise you’ve got something you really can’t wait to share, both with those on the trip and the wider world.
How do we make the most of the place in our shots?
Backdrop / I’ll almost always start by thinking about the landscape first and then framing my images based on what I see in front of me. If I want the landscape to be a key element in a shot, say on a trekking or a mountain biking shoot, I’ll look for things that help bring depth to a scene (e.g. something in the front, middle and back of the image) and I like to have a strong horizon, e.g a jagged mountain ridge, that will help me offset an athlete in the frame). On a surfing shoot, where the landscape may be less of a priority, I may look instead to where the waves will break in a frame, so I can position the surfer accordingly, Whereas on a shoot with lots of graceful movement, say for a capoeira shoot, I may choose to ignore the landscape altogether and focus completely on the athlete.
Position / Once I’m happy with how I’ve framed the backdrop, I’ll consider how best to position a person or persons within it. When composing an image, I like simple backdrops, with no distractions around the athlete and really clean edges to the frame (which I think is super important – having things sticking into or out of your image can be very distracting when you’re trying to focus your viewer’s attention solely on a key element). To help you picture where I add people into my shots, think of an imaginary grid. My aim usually is to position folk on the horizontal and vertical intersections, either entering or exiting the frame. But I’m not averse to placing athletes right into the middle of a scene, if I feel it looks good.
Angle / There’s no specific position I’ll put myself in when taking a shot. I do though like being above a person so I will often look out e.g. rocky outcrops that I can climb upon and take in more of the scene. If there’s nothing suitable I’m not averse to bringing a step ladder with me, if the location accommodates it. Or standing on the roof of a Land Rover. One tip I’d share would be to try and get yourself into a position that someone taking a snapshot of the scene wouldn’t think of. Get up high or lie on the ground. Do both. And then try something else. Move around and concentrate your efforts on maximising the shot potential in every scene.
And how about light?
Very simply, get up early and stay out late. Then get up early again the next day. Maximise the time you’re out shooting when the light is good. Don’t discount days when it’s really cloudy, as the sun can break through and shine magical light onto your scene in seconds. Consider adding your own light if the weather, or your vision, warrants it: for example, using a reflector or a flash to call attention to a certain part of the image, such as an athlete’s face or clothing.
Technology-wise, mobile apps such as Sunseeker are indispensable. They show the trajectory of the sun through the day, and more. When you’re researching a location, or you’re on site, think about where the sun currently is and where it’s headed. At dawn and dusk, an obvious position to place yourself would be facing east or west. If you’re shooting then, or through the day, consider positioning yourself at right angles to the sun or even shooting right into it, and see what drama it adds. Do your shots look better? There’s no right or wrong. Try things and see what happens. And endeavour to learn from them.
How do you edit down your pictures to the best images?
I have what I find to be a very efficient workflow to go from 1000s of images down to the select few I’ll deliver to a client.
Downloading / It starts as soon as I return from a shoot, when I’ll download all the images from my memory cards onto my desktop computer (though I may possibly have already backed the images up on location to my laptop computer too – I like to have redundant copies as quickly as possible). Once the images are transferred to my main working drive, I have two copies. I don’t remove the images from the memory cards until I have at least three copies elsewhere. Then I can reformat the cards and they’re ready for me to start shooting again.
Editing / To start my editing process, I’ll copy all the images from a shoot into a folder on my computer. I’ll then import the images into Lightroom and use Lightroom’s filter capability to rate them 1, 2 or 3. Once I have highlighted the 1 star images (which I’ll reject because, e.g. an athlete’s eyes are shut or I’ve captured the wrong body posture and it doesn’t make for a very dynamic image, or the image isn’t perfectly in focus), I’ll remove these both from Lightroom and my hard drive and they’re gone for good. I do this very quickly – an image either stays or goes on first glance and I don’t tend to revisit my choices.
Processing / Once I have a library of rated images, I can go through these in more detail and identify which images most meet the brief. I’ll repeat the rating process, marking on-brief images as 3 star until I have a selection of images I am happy to do some basic processing on and share with the client. Once I have a client’s selects, I’ll rate these as 4 star, complete the processing of them to suit their requirements, keyword and caption them and share them to finish the job. (5 star images are rare – I’m very picky – and usually will make their way into my website portfolio).
I’ve written a blog post about my photo workflow process and shared it on my website – I’m happy to answer any questions about it.
Printing / For a long time, I’ve used a professional print shop in England, a small business I scouted out first online then used to print lots of test images to see the quality they provided. Recently, I’ve re-branded my portfolio book and used a printer in Edinburgh. I like the idea of being able to visit a supplier to see the print process and I think it’s valuable to support local businesses.
What equipment do you typically carry?
The camera gear I carry depends on the shoot but my basic kit (say for a trekking shoot when we’ll be travelling hut to hut) would look like this: professional camera body and lenses (wide angle / telephoto), memory cards (at least x100Gb), spare batteries, Sunseeker app, dry bag, lens cloths, lens blower and chamois leather.
To this, I’ll add additional or redundant gear, e.g. an extra camera body, extra lenses, speedlights or a strobe, pocket wizard transceivers, light modifiers (e.g. a reflector or a softbox), plus anything else I think I will need, as appropriate.
I shoot with Nikon equipment (for no reason other than I like the ergonomics). I find I use the 17-35mm f2.8, the 85mm f1.8 and the 70-200mm f2.8 lenses most often. If I want to travel lighter, I’ll take a 24mm f2.8 prime lens for wide angle shots and the 85mm f1.8 for close ups. I always miss not having the 70-200m lens with me though. I love that lens.
Other items of camera equipment I might take on a shoot include a Gorillapod Focus (if I don’t want to carry a full tripod) or a monopod (which is usually instead of a light stand but I’ll need an assistant to hold it), an underwater DSLR case if we’re swimming and a Macbook or iPad, so I can tether the camera and share shots immediately with the client. In short, I’ll bring anything I think I need to meet the requirements of the brief, and beyond.
I don’t mind carrying extra gear (I can always hire someone to carry it if need be) but if the job involves me moving with the athletes, e.g. along the Black Cuillin ridge on the Isle of Skye or on a trekking stage of the Patagonian Expedition Race, I’ll definitely pair my kit down to the minimum possible. It’s very hard to keep up with folk if I don’t.
What equipment would you recommend to those starting out?
I’d recommend investing in lenses over your camera body. I started out with a consumer camera and a kit lens. When I first added a ‘fast’ lens (Nikon 17-35mm f2.8) I was blown away by the improvement in quality. What to buy depends really on what you want to shoot and where you think your images will end up. A GoPro or mobile phone can give you awesome pictures these days if you’re just posting them on social media. If however you’re committed to your photography, and want to print and perhaps sell your images, I’d recommend buying the best equipment you can afford, learn its limitations and shoot as much as possible.
Second hand / Don’t discount second-hand. Nikon’s D700 is an awesome camera for adventure photography and can be found fairly cheap online. (Cheap I appreciate being a relative term in an industry where the tiniest bit of plastic can cost you £20.00). Add a ‘fast’ prime lens (e.g. a 24mm f2.8) and you have a great, fairly lightweight (again, relatively speaking) combination for documenting the action whilst you’re on an expedition. Consider adding another small prime lens, e.g an 85mm f1.8, to give a bit of variety to the look of your shots and for portraits (especially head-shots) and to help you capture a lot of the details.
Finally, any recommended resources for budding adventure photographers?
Competition-wise, Red Bull Illume is the most famous adventure photography competition at the moment. I love viewing the selects from the Maria Luisa Memorial. They are usually very inspiring.
Away from awards, US photographers Michael Clark, Tom Bol and Dan Bailey have all written books on adventure sports photography. Corey Rich freely shares his knowledge on his website or other channels, e.g. Adorama’s YouTube page and Seattle-based Chase Jarvis is renowned for sharing his and others’ thoughts on being creative and staying competitive in business. Chase is also responsible for Creative Live, an online educational resource. Michael Clark, Lucas Gilman and Corey Rich each have courses on Creative Live where they’ll teach you about adventure photography. More generally, there’s lots of information on the internet so I’d suggest you focus your education on the areas you want to improve most and keep putting things into practice.
I wish you the best of luck. I’d love to see what you shoot!
Buachaille Etive Mòr (The Great Herdsman of the Etive)
Photographs of the popular Scottish Munro, Buachaille Etive Mòr.
Buachaille Etive Mòr is a Munro, one of Scotland’s 282 hills over 3,000ft / 914.4m high. A common location for mountain landscape photographers is to position yourself on the lower slopes of Beinn a’Chrulaiste, a Corbett (a hill in Scotland over 2,500ft high), which has multiple options for wild camping and offers outstanding views of its more photogenic neighbour.
Although the slopes of Beinn a’Chrulaiste are by far not an original location for photographing Buachaille Etive Mòr (I’d imagine it’s the third most common view of the hill by photographers after the waterfall on the River Coupall and Blackrock Cottage), I was keen to see if I could capture the view without the A82 road or the river in view.
Buachaille Etive Mòr is a very popular hill with both hillwalkers and climbers. The most common ascent for walkers is via Coire Na Tulaich, a rocky amphitheatre on the northern slopes of the mountain (on the right in the photographs I’ve taken here). The corrie has a steep head wall and has been the scene of several avalanches over the years, sometimes fatal. The east and south-east faces of Buachaille Etive Mòr are a myriad of rocky ridges, gullies and steep buttresses which are popular with climbers and scramblers. An obvious waterslide slab, lit up by the sun in the fifth image below, is the starting point for Curved Ridge, a technical scramble (or low grade rock climb) I’ve enjoyed immensely in the past. It winds its way up the mountain just behind the left skyline before coming out at the notch beneath the top of the prominent Crowberry Tower. Other scrambles in view include North Buttress, Broad Buttress, Lagangarbh Buttress and the Northeast Ridge of Creag Coire na Tulaich, all to the left of Coire na Tulaich.
Mountain running - Location, location, location
Some detail about three different locations I chose for a mountain running photo shoot near Chamonix in France.
Sharing the detail behind my choices of location for a running photo shoot in the French Alps working with Donnie Campbell, assisted by Rachael Campbell and Alexis Basso. More images can be found on my feature page - Donnie Campbell - Mountain running.
Endurance athlete Donnie Campbell is one of Britain's top ultra trail & mountain runners. Owner of a coaching business (www.getactiverunning.com), Donnie's past achievements include GB international team membership, first place race finishes in both the UK and abroad (e.g. Highland Fling and Trail du Tour des Fiz) and, between August 2020 and July 2023, he was Scotland's 282 Munro Round Record Holder. Donnie's wife, Rachael Campbell, a nurse, is also a talented mountain runner and has placed 10th female in the Mont Blanc Marathon.
One of my first tasks was to research suitable places to take elite mountain athletes for a running photo shoot near Chamonix. Having visited the valley previously, I was fairly confident I knew of great places to go but I was keen to not just add to the large library of images from popular spots such as Lac Blanc. (Disclaimer - I did). Using tools such as Google Maps, Fatmap and the Sunseeker app enabled me to easily pinpoint a variety of potential places to visit and scope them out in great detail well in advance, investigating to see where and when the light would fall and whether the location met the needs of the brief.
Location 1 - Désert de Platé
On the day Donnie and Rachael welcomed us to Argentière and the campsite they'd been calling home for the Summer, my assistant Alexis remarked how we appeared to have brought the Scottish weather with us (a temperature of 3 degrees C was reported for the following day). Although the Chamonix valley was socked in with low cloud and drizzle, we had done our research and the weather was looking better a few days ahead so we headed north as planned to Plaine Joux and followed the route of Le Dérochoir (a fun, if initially sketchy-looking 'via ferrata' that follows a weak point up the dramatic cliffs of Rochers des Fiz and leads to Col de la Portette). Our plan was to stay overnight at Refuge de Platé and shoot sunrise shots of Donnie and Rachael playing on the amazing limestone rock landscape of Désert de Platé, with Mont Blanc in the background.
Désert de Platé was an area that had immediately sprung out when I did some location scouting online. Directly above the Chamonix valley was my first choice for trail and mountain running and when I googled possible locations, the north side of Chamonix (the Lac Blanc side) was clearly the photographer's location of choice. For good reason. The views are awesome. But I also wanted to find a location where I hadn’t seen athletes photographed so my plan for our shoot was to visit the balcony paths above in Chamonix but also to choose another location where I hadn't seen any running shots being posted. Désert de Platé, as it transpired, wasn't an entirely unique location for runners (whilst we were in Chamonix, Kilian Jornet posted a video of Seb Montaz and himself playing in the the rock crevasses) but I think we made a good choice. The cracked limestone rock offers huge potential for foreground interest in a photo shoot and the views of Mont Blanc are immense. We only had the time and the weather for a few hours shooting before heading back to Chamonix and I'd love to return and explore more.
Mountain athlete Donnie Campbell running at Desert de Platé near Chamonix in France with the glaciated Mont Blanc massif in the background.
Donnie Campbell running on the rocks of Désert de Platé in front of the Chamonix Aiguilles, France.
Donnie Campbell and Rachael Campbell running in front of Mont Blanc near Chamonix, France.
Donnie Campbell running at Désert de Platé with Mont Blanc as a backdrop.
Location 2 - Lac Blanc
When the sun became too bright for photographs at Désert de Platé, we descended via Le Dérochoir and returned to Chamonix for lunch. Two hours later, Alex and I were on our way to 2,352m high Lac Blanc, taking advantage of the chairlifts from Les Praz to Flégère to L'Index to help alleviate some of the weight of our camera and lighting gear. Donnie and Rachael chose to run up from Argentière. The location of Lac Blanc (the 'White Lake’) is, arguably, home to the most famous views in the Alps, with thousands of photos on the internet of the scenic lake and its mountain refuge, nestled beneath the Aiguilles Rouge, with its expansive views over the Chamonix valley to famous peaks such as Aiguille du Tour, Aiguille du Chardonnet, Aiguille Verte, Aiguille du Dru, Grandes Jorasses, the Chamonix Aiguilles and Mont Blanc.
Donnie and Rachael met us at Refuge Lac Blanc. By the time they'd arrived, I’d already decided that early Saturday evening in August wasn’t the best time for a photo shoot at this busy location. There was an awful lot of people around the lake and the light was poor. It was too crowded for the shots I had in mind so we descended to lower Lac Blanc and prepared to shoot there. There were already photographers set up (it's a popular lake for reflections) so I took the time to check they didn’t mind if we took some running shots and received a positive response (though, regrettably, I later learnt there was a photographer I had missed and we had spoiled their time lapse). As we wrapped up our shoot with an environmental portrait, I chatted with Salomon's social media manager about potential future collaborations. Donnie and Rachael then returned to Argentière but Alex and I bivvied out so we could shoot some mountain landscape images at dawn. We arranged to meet up with Donnie and Rachael later that day.
Donnie Campbell running at lower Lac Blanc in front of Aiguille des Grands Charmoz above Chamonix in France.
Portrait of Donnie Campbell near Lac Blanc with Mer De Glace and Mont Blanc in the background.
Location 3 - Le Brévent
Donnie and Rachael’s base in the Alps was their campervan at Camping du Glacier d’Argentière (www.campingchamonix.com). After Alex and I had descended from Lac Blanc (pleasingly, the trail popped out at a bakery in Argentière), it was nice to sit in the mid-day sun at the campsite with fresh bread and a chilled drink as we prepared for our last shoot of the trip. We had two locations in mind. A visit to Tête de Balme or Aiguillette des Posettes for a sunset view down the whole Chamonix valley or to head south-west to Brévent for a closer view of Chamonix’s aiguilles (needles) and the summit of Mont Blanc. The latter won, mainly because I love looking at Chamonix’s aiguilles (although I’ll admit not as much as nearby Aiguille du Dru which, alongside Cerro Torre and Torre Egger in Patagonia, is a mountain peak I'm confident I could happily photograph every single day).
Le Brévent is a popular destination in the Alps for Chamonix’s aerial specialists. Paragliders take off very close to the Plan Praz mid-station, taking advantage of thermals above the town, and BASE jumpers plunge from a pedestal not far from Le Brévent’s 2,525m high summit. We didn't see any BASE jumpers but we did see plenty of paragliders as we left the summit of Le Brévent and headed into a magnificent rocky playground that stretches out like one great, big, broken ridge into the distance towards Aiguilles Rouges. I was pleased with the photographs we created but also because it confirmed for me that there's huge potential for capturing adventure sports images beneath the peaks that rise above the Grand Balcon Sud, including running, hiking and scrambling photos, all with stunning views across to the big alpine peaks. I made a note to discuss the opportunities here for potential brand partnerships with other clients.
Donnie Campbell descending a rocky ridge near Le Brévent above Chamonix in France.
Donnie Campbell negotiating technical ground near Le Brévent, with the summit of Mont Blanc above the clouds in the background.
Donnie Campbell traversing a rocky ridge in front of Aiguilles Rouges above Chamonix in France.
Donnie Campbell descending technical ground on a ridge above Chamonix in France.
View more images from this photo shoot on my feature page - Donnie Campbell - Mountain running.
Wild camping and photography - Bidean nam Bian
Mountain landscape photography from the summit of Bidean nam Bian, a Munro in the West Highlands of Scotland.
Part of a Wild camping and photography series.
My Hilleberg Akto tent pitched on perfect grassy ground near the summit of Bidean nam Bian, a Munro in the West Highlands of Scotland
An obvious key attribute for an outdoor photographer is good health. A few years back, after many other solutions had failed, I’d opted for surgery to address increasingly uncomfortable nerve pain I’d been experiencing in my feet when walking or running. A skilled surgeon had recommended that he fracture and re-adjust three metatarsal bones in my right foot to give the nerves a little more space. After 16 weeks recovery, I felt my foot was strong enough to cope with an easy hill walk. Keen to take advantage of a great spell of weather in Scotland, I decided to break up my first trip back with a wild camp on the summit of Bidean nam Bian, a Munro above Glen Coe in the West Highlands of Scotland.
My recollection is, as I’d prepared my camping gear and camera equipment, I was looking forward to heading back to Glen Coe. I’ve visited the area many times before, which includes the village of Glencoe, and I’d decided to return for good reason - the landscape in such a small place is incredibly varied. Past trips include bivvying on the summit of Stob Coire nan Lochan, watching beautiful clouds that filled the glens at dawn, and a bivvy on top of Am Bodach on Aonach Eagach across the glen, where I was treated to a lovely sunrise that turned the hills purple and lit up my previous sleeping spot on Stob Coire nan Lochan. (You can see these latter images in my Glen Coe and Lochaber photo essay).
My plans for this return trip were to ascend from Glen Coe into the corrie above Loch Achtriochtan, beneath Dinnertime Buttress, and continue upwards towards the steep crags of Stob Coire nam Beith before breaking off west onto the bealach beside An t-Sron. I’d then spend time creating mountain landscape before continuing up the ridge to camp for the night on the summit of Bidean nam Bian (which, at 1107m high, is the highest peak in the old county of Argyll).
The internet is the obvious valuable resource for a mountain landscape photographer. With many useful tools such as Google Maps, Google Images and the Sunseeker app (or alternatives such as Photographer’s Empheris), you can plan out in detail exactly which locations should be worth going to and when, with the huge advantage of knowing in advance where the light will fall. You can research up-front in the comfort of your home or office and, on the day, it's hopefully simply a case of being blessed with good weather.
On this occasion, I had the summits of both Stob Coire nam Beith and Bidean nam Bian all to myself. For a short while, there was two people on the summit of Stob Coire nan Lochan, over a kilometre away (I think they’d scrambled up a route on Dinnertime Buttress), but when they'd gone it was just me and an uninterrupted 360-degree view I had of many of the beautiful glens, lochs and mountains that make up the Glen Coe and Lochaber region in Scotland, plus nearby Glen Etive and more. I'd read there was good ground for camping just to the west of Bidean's rocky summit and this proved correct - there's a lovely lawn-like area with minimal rocks in the ground that is an ideal place to pitch a tent. (You could also take a bivvy bag but I’d opted this time for the additional protection a tent provides due to my anticipation that I’d be blighted by that scourge of Scottish summer camping, the Scottish midge (which thankfully never materialised). I did though manage to lose a bag of semi-frozen grapes to a crow, which I'd been HUGELY looking forward to because it was very warm. There was almost a murder.
By midnight, I’d stopped taking photographs and was settled down in my sleeping bag, my alarm set for 3.00am (plus, as a precaution, 3.20am, 3.30am and 3.45am). Sunrise on this day was at 4.30am but it never really got dark and at 2.30am I popped my head out my tent to find it relatively light and with a lot of colour still in the sky. I decided I’d just get up and I was glad I did, as I spent a very special few hours in beautiful silence picking out landscapes on the horizon as the sun slowly came up, which allowed me to capture a range of mountain landscape images that I was really happy with and was Iooking forward to sharing with clients.
As for my foot? Unfortunately, it wasn’t strong enough. An innocuous slip on the way down caused me to put all my weight through it and it didn’t cope well at all. After a painful and lengthy descent (and a recommended x-ray from the hospital - which thankfully showed I hadn't re-broken it and it was likely tissue damage) I was back on the mend, although highly mindful of a friend’s advice, which is to be careful and to 'remember, you need your feet forever”.
Camera equipment
Nikon D4S (My Nikon D810 was in for a service)
Nikon 24mm f1.4
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8
Calumet wireless transmitter/receiver
Manfrotto Carbon Fibre tripod
Filters (Circulariser polariser / Graduated ND filter)
F-Stop Satori camera backpack
(The above forms part of my photography equipment list)
View from the summit of Bidean nam Bian over the ridges of Bheinn Fhada and Buachaille Etive Beag, plus the summit of Buachaille Etive Mor, towards Schiehallion
Orange-tinged clouds at dusk looking north from the summit of Bidean nam Bian. In view is Aonach Eagach, Sgurr a’Mhaim and Am Bodach in the Mamores, plus the big 4,000+ft peaks above Glen Nevis - Ben Nevis, Carn Mor Dearg, Aonach Mor and Aonach Beag.
Rocks have been balanced near the summit cairn on Bidean nam Bian, one of which points towards Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest peak.
The small rocky cairn adorning the summit of Bidean nam Bian
The view down to Ballachulish bridge from the summit of Stob Coire nam Beith, as Loch Leven spills out into Loch Linnhe in the West Highlands of Scotland
Looking over Stob Dearg summit on Buachaille Etive Mor towards Schiehallion
Looking over Aonach Eagach to Na Gruagaichean and Binnein Mor, two Munros in the Mamores, from the summit of Bidean nam Bian
Afternoon light illustrates two hikers standing on top of the scree-covered summit of Stob Coire nan Lochan
The panoramic view north from the summit of Bidean nam Bian, looking over Stob Coire nan Lochan, Aonach Eagach plus most of the Mamores to Ben Nevis (the UK's highest peak). Carn Dearg, Aonach Mor, Aonach Beag, the Grey Corries, Stob Coire Easain and Stob a' Choire Mheadhoin are also in view.
Patagon Journal interview
An interview with Patagon Journal, Patagonia's magazine for nature, the environment, culture, travel and outdoors.
I was pleased to be invited by editor Jimmy Langman to be a judge in the annual Patagon Journal photo competition. This was after the relationship I built with Jimmy following the publication of a trekking guidebook I wrote on Patagonia’s Los Glaciares National Park. The book itself is long out of print but the experiences I had when visiting Patagonia, the challenges and rewards of researching and writing a book and having it published and the contacts I made throughout have long lasted. The thoughts I provided below for the competition were published on the Patagon Journal website.
1. You wrote a guidebook to Los Glaciares National Park. What are some of your favorite places in the park to photograph and why?
My single favourite place to photograph in Los Glaciares National Park has been Glacier Fitz Roy Norte. Access to the glacier is via Paso del Cuadrado, a small pass high above Piedra del Fraile that leads to the remote west face of Cerro Chaltén and the frankly awesome 1600m high Supercanaleta, or Super Couloir (the route of the second ascent of Chalten, by Argentinian climbers Carlos Comesaña and José Luis Fonrouge, in 1965). If you don’t have the technical skills to be on a glacier, just visiting the pass itself provides you with mighty views. The great rocks walls of Aguja Guillaumet, Aguja Mermoz and Cerro Chaltén to your left and the three Torres - Cerro Torre, Torre Egger and Cerro Standhardt - are in front of you, the glacier far below. Paso del Cuadrado was not difficult to access when I last visited (crossing a glacier and cramponing up a steep frozen snow slope) but with warmer temperatures globally and the effect this is having on mountain regions, current conditions may mean it is more dangerous or challenging. Be confident in your mountaineering skills or I’d recommend you hire a local guide.
Not far behind Paso del Cuadrado in terms of mountain views I’d propose is Circos de los Altares, an even more remote glacial cirque that is situated beneath the ice-encrusted west face of Cerro Torre. Unless you’re a climber, and an expert one at that, the cirque is accessible only via a demanding trek up Marconi Glacier out onto the Southern Patagonian Ice Cap, a great ocean of ice sweeping west from the southern coast of Chile to its border with Argentina. Up to 650 metres thick and almost 13,500 kilometres square, the ice cap is said to be one of the largest expanses of ice outside the Polar Regions.
Both of the locations above appeal to me because of the challenge required in getting there. Add to this the spectacular views and they tick two important boxes for me as regards to what I'm passionate about in photography.
2. In the current edition of Patagon Journal you have a photographic essay about travel opportunities in Scotland. What are some of the challenges to doing photography in Scotland, and how does it compare to doing photography in Patagonia?
The hardest part I’d propose about photographing outdoors in Scotland (which is parallel to photographing in Patagonia) is managing the weather. Our maritime climates are very similar and unfortunately I’m no stranger to cold, wet or windy weather (often all three). I don’t crave bright blue skies - meteorological drama in the landscape adds immeasurably to your images - but when you’ve spent many days or weeks (sometimes months) planning a photo shoot and the weather is forecast to be sideways rain and strong winds, it’s difficult to a.) manage the disappointment it’s a personal project or b.) meet the brief if it’s a client shoot. We have to either go to plan B (always have a plan B) or reschedule.
3. What are some of your favorite places or things to photograph in Patagonia, and any plans to visit Patagonia soon? Where else do you want to photograph in Patagonia?
Regrettably, I’ve no current plans to revisit Patagonia (a recent potential trip to help promote the Los Dientes de Navarino circuit on Isla Navarino unfortunately didn’t come to fruition). I’d love to come back though, either with the goal of delivering a respected brand’s advertising campaign - the potential in Patagonia for inspiring the outdoor market is superlative - but I'd also like to support conservation activity in Patagonia from a photography and story-telling perspective, helping to reduce the impact we’re having on the environment and encouraging change (although I appreciate the contradictory aspect of that statement, given I live over 8,000 miles away in Scotland).
On a personal level, mountains are my passion and anything particularly rocky or snowy piques my interest (with glaciers and small mountain lakes being an added bonus). Locations in Patagonia I’d love to visit for photography include Cordillera Darwin - for Monte Sarmiento and Monte Bove - plus Perito Moreno National Park, home of Cerro San Lorenzo (I read many years ago about an adventurous trek which circumnavigates the mountain and it regularly resurfaces in my memory). An exploratory boat trip photographing the landscape around the fjords on the western coast of Chile would be awesome, as would the opportunity to be on the crew again to photograph the Patagonian Expedition Race (the locations the race director takes competitors into are amazing). The crowning glory I’m imagining would be a in-depth photo essay on one specific area, where I could cover the mountain and coastal landscape, key flora and fauna, the people who work there and are involved in its protection, plus those that play. In that regard, Kawésqar National Park in southern Chile holds great personal appeal.
4. You have specialized in outdoor photography for many years. What are a few of your most memorable moments and images in your outdoor photography career and why (Also, please explain a little of the backstory in your answer on what was happening at the time and how you got the shot)
My most memorable photos aren’t always those I’d class as being my best work (the initial image I’ve chosen was actually before I started as a photographer).
a.) Cerro Torre, Torre Egger and Cerro Standhardt from Circos de los Altares
Aside from the ‘firsts’ (first payment, first magazine publication, first cover, first advertising campaign), a particularly memorable moment - given it led to me starting my photography business - was having eight pages of pictures of Cerro Torre, Torre Egger and Cerro Standhardt from Circos de los Altares in a UK magazine called High Mountain Sports. The editor had been wanting to publish a Patagonia climbing special but the capricious nature of the weather had thwarted his efforts up until that point. Fortuitously, on a trek across the Southern Patagonian Ice Cap to camp in Circos de los Altares, we had perfect weather and I was able to share images that met the magazine's needs.
A photograph which led to me starting my photography business - Cerro Standhardt, Torre Egger and Cerro Torre from Circos de los Altares on the Southern Patagonian Ice Cap.
b.) Kayaking with dolphins during the Patagonian Expedition Race
Team East Wind sea kayaking with dolphins on the Strait of Magellan during the Patagonian Expedition Race.
The Patagonian Expedition Race is an adventure race par excellence held in the wilderness of southern Chilean Patagonia. Teams of four are challenged to navigate a remote 700km+ course, with minimal support, that demands advanced skills in the disciplines of mountain biking, trekking, mountaineering and sea kayaking. I captured this image as Team East Wind from Japan kayaked the Straits of Magellan ahead of their final 100km mountain bike into Punta Arenas. I was aware dolphins swam in the waters, having researched the history, flora and fauna of Patagonia thoroughly for the book I’d written on trekking in Argentina’s Los Glaciares National Park. I also had a feeling they would follow boats on the water, based on my understanding that dolphins are naturally inquisitive. It was a combination of this knowledge and, likely, some luck that led me to drive down a dirt road in a 4x4 along the shore as I followed the kayakers and waited for a dolphin to emerge. Every time one did, and sometimes there was more than one, a cheer arose from the team, their enthusiasm buoyed as they battled their way to a second place finish.
c.) Celebrating the dawn in Scotland
Charlie Lees early in the morning running on the Grey Corries ridge in the West Highlands of Scotland
The image I'd pictured in my head before this shoot was of a mountain runner navigating a ridge that snaked into the distance as the sun set far in the west over Ben Nevis, the UK's highest peak. I'd roped in a friend, Charlie, to help and we’d hiked up the mountain the previous afternoon so we were in a perfect position for the shoot. Unfortunately, as is often the case in Scotland, the weather didn’t play ball. The forecast was good but the light at sunset was muted by low-lying cloud and so we improvised instead, shooting a variety of shots until it got too dark. I wasn’t too concerned as we’d had the foresight to bring sleeping gear with us and we planned to spend the night on the summit so we could shoot again the following day.
The following morning, I awoke well before sunrise. I was disappointed to find the clouds were still there but a wild mountain hare, stationary not five feet from my head, buoyed my spirits. The hare and I sat in silence for a while, perhaps both of us just admiring the view, before it hopped away out of sight. My intentions were still to shoot facing west, catching my subject as the sun caught the ridge lines out to Ben Nevis. The view to the east though caught my eye and as the sun rose we turned around and focused on the opposite direction. As Charlie crested the summit, he leapt in the air slightly and I knew I had my shot. After a few repeat takes, including some without the leap, I was happy.
Capturing this image reminded me that it's best to keep an open mind and consider all options available to me when I'm executing a shoot. It also reminded me to keep an eye on an athlete’s natural traits and take advantage of them, when it’s appropriate, to produce a compelling image.
d.) Scotland 282 Munro Round Record Holder
Donnie Campbell running on the Horns of Beinn Alligin, in the North-West Highlands of Scotland
Scotland has 282 hills over 914.4m high (3,000ft) that are designated as Munros. Many if not most people (including me) take years or a lifetime to complete them all. Donnie Campbell is a running coach and endurance athlete from Scotland who, in 2020, ran all 282 peaks in just under 32 days, covering a total of 833 miles and 126,143m ascent (not including the cycling and kayaking he did to travel in between) to break the record at the time for the fastest completion of the Munros. This image, taken after the fact, showcases Donnie on the Munro Beinn Alligin in Torridon in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. It summarises what I particularly enjoy about photography - having the opportunity to illustrate someone’s athletic ability in the mountains.
e.) Backpacking Scotland's Munros
Alex Haken backpacking in the Mamores in the West Highlands of Scotland
One of the joys I find in backpacking (aside from poring over maps as you plan a trip) is staying up high in the mountains and walking right to the very end of the day, knowing you'll very likely be the only folk left on the hill. Many times over my hill-walking career I've experienced the solitude of being the 'last person standing' on a mountain. Backpacking has enabled me to camp on a number of high bealachs and summits in superb regions of Scotland such as Glen Torridon, Glen Coe, the Cairngorms and Glen Affric, as well as further afield in the Alps and Patagonia.
One of my favourite backpacking locations is the Mamores in the West Highlands of Scotland. Totalling 10 Munros (Scottish mountains over 3,000ft/ 914m high), the Mamores are grouped into 3 sets of hills, all easily tackled by a number of different routes. The central Mamores are characterised by narrow ridges, including the rocky arete on An Gearanach and the ominously named Devil's Ridge on Sgurr a'Mhaim. Shown here is us descending off the sweeping ridge of Na Gruagaichean one November, headed for a wild camp up high between An Garbhanach and Stob Coire a'Chairn. We had started our trip the previous day in Glen Nevis, planning to climb only three of the Munros but good stable weather meant we were able to continue over a fourth and put ourselves into position the next day for an easier round of the more well-known Mamore peaks that make up the Ring of Steall.
f.) Last light on the Scottish hills
Footprints in the snow at dusk during a winter hillwalking day out on Braigh nan Uamhachan in the West Highlands of Scotland.
This photograph is of a friend of mine, David Hetherington, as we headed along the snowy ridge of the Corbett, Braigh nan Uamhachan, in the West Highlands of Scotland. For pure satisfaction, it’s right up there with others in my portfolio, captured during a weekend that ticked many boxes for what I look for in a hillwalking adventure;
A night in my sleeping bag - We’d stayed the evening before at Gleann Dubh-lighe bothy, a stone building with a fireplace that the Mountain Bothy Association renovated in 2013 after it was accidentally burnt down)
A bluebird winter’s day hiking entirely on our own up a striking peak with a narrow ridge – We'd climbed first the 909m high Corbett, Streap, which is located right across the glen
Pure and simple hard work - After we descended 650m to the waters of Allt Coire na Streap we had a relentlessly steep 400m ascent back up to the ridge where we are in this photograph
Add in a setting sun, which we just caught before it dipped below the horizon, the fine view we had across to Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest peak (top left), and a descent by head-torch down a steep gully in the dark (lured by the thought of hot food and whisky back in the bothy to finish the day) and it had all the ingredients I like to look for when I’m planning a trip away in Scotland’s hills.
g.) Celtman Extreme Triathlon
Competitors heading pre-dawn towards the swim start of the Celtman Extreme Scottish Triathlon.
An iron-distance triathlon, Celtman is part of the XTRI World Tour series of races, of which Patagonman is also a fixture. This demanding race in the Scottish Highlands challenges competitors to swim 3.4km across a tidal, jellyfish-infested sea loch, cycle 202km on scenic highlands roads and then run a marathon 42km distance over two Munros on Beinn Eighe, both over 990m high.
Photographing Celtman means being up at 3am for the 5am swim start, driving the 202km cycle route in a 4x4 vehicle and then ascending 860m to run after and photograph the triathletes on this 3km long mountain ridge.
5. What advice do you have for aspiring outdoor photographers?
The following is an excerpt from a separate article I wrote about ‘Hints and tips for capturing great outdoor sports photography’.
The six things I would suggest to focus on are;
Know your camera
Shoot sports you know
Choose great locations
Prioritise good light
Try different angles
Focus on composition
Key takeaway -
Practice and master the above until it becomes second nature so you can free yourself up to focus on your creativity, seeking out moments which can help you to stand out from the rest
Appreciate that, other than exposure, there’s no real right or wrong. Try different things and see what happens. Take lots of shots and share them widely. Gather feedback and keep learning and, above all, enjoy the process.
6. What will you be looking for when deciding the winning photos of the Patagonia Photo Contest? What for you is the difference between a great photo and a good photo, for example.
Why someone proclaims an outdoor sports photograph to be a ‘great photograph’ is usually a personal thing but when I see an image that really captures my attention, it’s usually because two or more things have taken place;
People — A dynamic moment has been captured, usually in a creative way.
Place — The photographer has used an inspiring location that really connects me with the scene and helps me understand what’s going on (either a location I’ve not seen before or, if I have, they’ve photographed it in a unique way).
Lighting — They’ve made great use of natural or artificial light to bring the image to life.
I’ll have these three things in mind when I'm reviewing the submissions, which I'm looking forward to.
7. What are some projects you are working on right now, and what projects do you hope to do in the future?
My most recent efforts have gone into re-designing my website, adding new work that I plan to use to interest new clients. I'm hoping to have this launched before the end of March.
In the Spring, I'm looking forward to continue a mountain landscape photography project focusing on the Glen Coe and Lochaber region in Scotland, rounding out what I have already with images from lower down in the glens to produce a more complete representation of the area.
Adventure sports-wise, I've got a three trail and mountain running projects on the horizon, plus a specific mountain bike photography shoot planned, where I'm planning to use strobes to make the athlete really stand out from the landscape.