Bio-Contact

The very photogenic Moray Firth coastal town of Lossiemouth in the North East of Scotland, where I live (and Moray, the county where Lossie sits, in general), has much to recommended it to the willing photographer, but where I really love to be is in the high hills and so I've been walking in and photographing the Scottish Highlands for most of my life, completing the round of the 3000 foot Highland summits (The Munro's) in 1994. That said, you'd think I'd have caught on sooner, but I'm really something of a late comer to serious landscape photography. Unfortunately when I was "bagging" the Munros, I only had a Practika MTL-50 and later an Olympus Trip - and not much of a clue - hence none of the photographs taken over that period are on this site. Added to that is the fact I had other things to do, being a serving member of the Royal Air Force Regiment for 22 years. It was only after leaving the Regiment where I'd most recently been a Ground Defence Training instructor at RAF Lossiemouth and following something of an epiphany while flicking through an old photo album of good hill shots but not good enough - that I decided to get serious about my photography. Self-taught, the learning curve has often been steep (sometimes so much so that ropes would have been useful!) and of-course, as with most who decide to take their photography seriously, the more that time wore on, the more it got under my skin, to the point where now (injuries allowing) it's my main focus (if you'll excuse the pun).

So where are all the new high-level hill pictures? Well, there's a downside. Above I mentioned injuries. Unfortunately, throughout my service in the RAF Regiment, I collected a few and consequently, I've been too often kept away from where I really want to be! By necessity, I've had to learn that planning a trip and actually getting away to do it are very different things.

All that aside, and however glacially slow the collection is growing, I think my work is evolving, though that's really for others to say. What has definitely evolved is my "eye" for a picture, such that I've recently removed many images from this site that no longer "grab" me. Now, I look more and take less, and try not to go for the more "documentary" stuff, regardless of the fact that I shoot digital. Being more discerning about what I shoot also means less computer time (I'm no Luddite but that suits me just fine), leaving more time to get out on the ground and record the wonders of my homeland.

One of those wonders, incidentally, is this land's native language. You may notice the regular use of Scots Gaelic (pronounced; gallic) in my image captions. An intrinsic part of Highland and Island culture, the language is rooted in this ancient land and in place names often describes it, though many hill names are no longer as native Highlanders and Islanders would have known them in the days when Gaelic was the only language spoken here (names were often altered to confuse various invaders!), many remain so descriptive that I think they warrant mention. Getting across how the spoken word sounds is a little more problematic, though! As Queen Victoria stated, the difficulty for those who don't have the Gaelic is that it's pronounced nothing like it looks. I should point out that I'm not a native speaker but more of a "returnee" since I was born in England where my father had been posted with the Royal Highland Regiment, the Black Watch. I am, unfortunately, only occasionally - to my shame - a studier of the "tongue of angels".

Having done a major revamp of many of my images and the site itself, and being one of the few who actually wants winter to arrive (along with skiiers and ice-climbers), trips are planned to the remoter spots, hopefully up hills (fingers crossed), so if you don't see anything that speaks to you yet...!

I hope you enjoy my work.

If you have any questions or comments about the images on this site feel free to get in touch at: iain@lightofgaeldom.com