My approach

26th June 2018 at 18:55, that’s when it happened.

This is the image that started my current journey to create authentic images. Once I saw it everything changed for me.

Its not the best image I’ve ever taken by a long way, but taking it was a big learning exercise.

What has happened since has been both an enjoyable and liberating experience.

I was knelt amongst some cottongrass on Northern Dartmoor and had taken the image above of the view looking up towards West Mill Tor.

For a little while I’d been getting disenchanted with the images I saw shared either in a commercial setting or on social media. They felt a tad too lairy, a caricature of the subject in question with the saturation turned up to 11. At times they had false skies or entire elements of the scene that didn’t exist added in.

I appreciate that art is subjective, so I’m sure many people enjoy those style images and they’re perfectly entitled to. The issue for me was in my own head. I didn’t want to create images like that myself any more. I was growing tired of the time spent behind the computer ‘fixing’ minuscule things and I wanted to reduce that.

When I saw this image pop up on the screen I realised something. I didn’t always need to spend that time behind a screen and that there was potential to create images entirely ‘in camera’. From then on I decided I wanted to do more of my work in the field, not at a desk.

I really liked the sense of movement captured in the vegetation which reminds me of the gentle breeze on the day. The composition leads you up to the Tor and the colour of the summer day that my camera had captured. Even now this image transports me back to the feeling of sun on my skin, the sense of openness of this landscape and the gentle breeze passing me by.

I’m a perfectionist and, at times, I struggle with going round in loops trying to refine something until it’s as close to perfect as I can get. 'Perfection is the enemy of progress', as the old adage goes. So this approach of accepting that the unedited image I’d taken being good enough felt so liberating.

Since that date any images I’ve taken, shared, or sold, have been completely unedited, both those for myself or clients. The experience on that day, of this image, changed my approach to photography.

This way of working comes with some limitations, but in the intervening years I’ve learnt how to work around them. The challenge of only working with the tool I have with me at the time is a rewarding challenge and has taught me to be a better photographer.

Bog cotton has stuck with me as a subject I like to revisit, here’s an example of a more recent image of it, still using the same technique. Its fun to go back to this plant periodically to celebrate this day that changed my approach.

I’m happy that I’ve discovered that there’s a place in my life for authentic images of the natural world. Nature is beautiful, it doesn’t need photoshopping.