I hear it so often…..”it must be great being a professional landscape photographer – taking photographs every day”.
Well, half of that is true. It is great being a professional landscape photographer. It’s the taking of photographs every day that isn’t quite true.
The truth is, I probably only take photographs about 20% of the time, if that.
Therefore, I wanted to publish a journal, a record of my week as a professional photographer. I won’t hide anything, I will divulge my anxieties, my frustrations, my worries, the laughter, the joy, the failures, the successes, my disappointments and my achievements. This really is a “fly on the wall” account of who I am.
Therefore, I want to give you the “Inside Track” of a week in the life of a professional photographer.
This is Day 1 ….. enjoy …..
The alarm goes off in my Cairngorms home. It’s 5am, dark and the central heating hasn’t come on, so it’s also a bit cold. A quick look at my phone tells me it’s -4°C outside. But, I have to get up because this is the first day of my first workshop in 2022. A total of 18 have been arranged for 2022 with possibly more to follow. However, it is this one I am looking forward to today. This workshop was first arranged for December 2020, but had to be re-arranged because of COVID-19 and the reintroduction of restrictions which made it impossible for it to run then.
But despite being 13 months further on, this workshop has also felt the effects of the virus. One of my guests emailed to advise he had tested positive 2 days before he was due to arrive and would have to self-isolate. It was too late to advertise this place and I would have to go one person short. I have never cancelled a workshop due to a shortage of numbers, especially in the early years. Thankfully, it’s much less of an issue these days.
By 6am, I had dealt with the several emails that had come in overnight including the dreaded accountants letter confirming my tax return. It’s always a nervous moment when opening emails from him especially when its still -4°C outside and the central heating has only just come on.
Isle of Harris
The rest of the morning was taken up by packing my suitcase, charging my camera gear and dealing with a host of other emails relating to future workshops. Several enquiries had also come in, one from a lady who wanted to buy her husband a place on one of my photography workshops for his birthday – how nice is that. What a responsibility placed upon me. It is moments like this that makes everything worthwhile as was the next email I read.
I led a Photography Workshop to the Isles of Harris & Lewis in late November 2021….it was a fantastic workshop, one of the more enjoyable ones of the year and one of the guests had just sent me 20 photographs which he had edited from his time in the Outer Hebrides. They were outstanding and I told him so. I was so proud of him and honoured that he took the time to show me his work. It was a truly humbling moment, a moment when you feel everything was worth it and a moment I will always remember.
I left home at midday because I needed to drop in at Tesco in Dingwall. The reason? To buy food. This is the one and only self catering workshop I have for 2022. I have rented a cottage in Lochinver for 7 days and I don’t mind admitting to you, I am nervous. Not the cooking, well that as well. But nervous partly because it’s the first workshop of the year. It’s been 3 weeks since my last workshop finished in Glencoe just before Christmas and I haven’t picked up my camera since.
I’m nervous and anxious for other reasons too. I love Assynt, it’s my favourite part of the Highlands. Actually, I adore Assynt. But Assynt is a difficult mistress, because I’m not sure she loves me as much. Sometimes she does, but mostly she doesn’t. Assynt can be extremely badly behaved as she demonstrated this afternoon. In fact, at one stage I thought my windscreen wipers were going to pass out due to the shift they were putting in. Wow…was it torrential. Not only that, the wind was brutal. Oh, and it hailed as well.
Assynt
The fact is, I have seen Assynt when it is at it’s magical best, it’s my favourite place on earth and I want my guests to see her when she’s like that. I know I can’t control the weather but it doesn’t stop me from wanting the best for my workshop guests. I love Assynt and I want them to love it as well. When the storm subsided, the true glory of Assynt revealed itself. Snow capped mountains and a deserted landscape. Wow…it’s so wild up here, raw natural beauty like nothing else I have seen. My love for this place almost breaks my heart. Quintessential highland country such as this, with breathtaking emptiness, a wild, fragile beauty and single-track roads, is a rarity on the modern, crowded, highly urbanised island of Britain. You could get lost up here for weeks – and that still wouldn’t be enough time.
My guests – I haven’t mentioned them have I? Where are they?
Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten them. I pick them up from Inverness tomorrow – I’ve arrived a day early to check the cottage out. So back to Inverness in the morning to bring them to Lochinver and all being well we’ll arrive back to base just in time to spend an hour or 2 photographing the beach at Achmelvich.
When I finally arrived at the cottage this afternoon and after 10 minutes arguing with the key safe contraption which finally let me win, I decide to facetime my wife. It’s the only way and therefore the best way to find out whether the cottage is any good. Now I’m there, I can see it in 360° but my wife will be able to have a much better opinion of the cottage looking at a blurred tiny facetime screen. Some pregnant pauses from her doesn’t exactly fill me with great confidence. What I have rented, I thought waiting for her response. Finally, she says it’s fine. Phew…..
Achmelvich Beach
A further 4 emails land on my computer requesting information on possible workshops and one from my accountant asking whether I’d read his earlier email. A phone call to a friend to see whether he’d like come to the Isle of Harris next month is followed by a text from the owner of the cottage…..was everything ok? I said my wife loves it!!!
This evening I will spend my time checking forecasts and trying to piece together an itinerary worthy of Assynt. A glass or two of Aberlour 15yr old malt will help me relax tonight as I prepare for my first workshop of 2022 to officially begin tomorrow.
I know Assynt like the back of my hand but there’s something different about organising it into a structured well managed workshop. I want my guests to have the greatest time, I want them to go home, not only with fantastic photographs but I want them to go home having fallen in love with the place. The landscape is world class but it doesn’t necessarily follow the photographs will be amazing. We have to work at it.
I’m looking forward to this week. I hope my guests are as well and I hope you can join me on my journey through Assynt this week. You never know, I might even take a photograph.
2 Responses
This Deano has the beginnings of a book…… ❤️
I enjoyed your first day!