There are landscapes I enjoy photographing, and then there are landscapes that somehow become part of you.
This is one of those places for me.
I have always believed that my strongest photographs come when I feel some kind of emotional connection with the landscape in front of me. It is difficult to explain exactly why certain places affect us more than others, but I think that connection matters. Without it, I can still make a photograph that works, but I’m not sure it will ever mean quite as much.
This photograph does.
There is very little drama here, and that is one of the reasons I love it. The landscape feels wonderfully calm and uncomplicated. My eye follows that beautiful sweeping curve of the incoming tide, gently carrying me through the frame towards the distant hills.
The soft, warm pastel colours add to that sense of tranquility. Nothing shouts for attention. Nothing needs to.
But perhaps my favourite part of the photograph is that small area of sunlight in the distance, illuminating just a corner of the beach. It occupies such a tiny part of the frame, yet for me it changes everything. My eye is continually drawn towards it.
I’m proud of this photograph because it feels like more than a record of a beautiful landscape.
It reminds me why that connection with the landscape matters so much.
The longer I photograph landscapes, the less interested I become in simply showing what somewhere looks like.
I want my photographs to say something about what it feels like to stand there.
And when I look at this photograph, that feeling comes straight back.