Countryside
Here in the UK (and I’m sure elsewhere), the word Countryside usually conjures up images of farmyards, hedgerows, rolling fields dotted with cows and sheep - peaceful scenes of a pastoral or rural nature. Or perhaps - to up the ante slightly - rushing rivers, plunging lochs, tangled trees or even sweeping moorland vistas. Then there are the more overtly human entanglements, from towns and villages to parks and pylons; or grand country houses to enigmatic stone circles.
The more I think about it, the more I realise that it’s actually a pretty broad church. Indeed, in the context of these Portfolio pages, I’m basically using it as a catch-all for landscape shots which don’t neatly fit into my other categories. So if you’re expecting cow portraits, I hope you won’t be too disappointed (though as consolation, a Highland Coo does gatecrash my Wildlife section)!
The Bass
(Rural East Lothian)
Traprain Law
(Rural East Lothian)
(Ancient Arran)
Watercolour Landscapes - Mist and Reflection in the Countryside
When I contemplate the countryside, I don’t generally think of water… or if I do, I’m probably conjuring up mental images of muddy puddles and flooded fields. Yet closer consideration reveals that the best of our countryside is synonymous with water, with the finest of our landscapes - even if non-coastal - often harbouring lakes and rivers, lochs and burns. And if these bodies of fresh water are enhanced by early morning mist or starry-eyed reflections, so much the better! :-)
The sub-selection below is designed as a brief illustration of daybreak over Scotland’s inland waters, perhaps also serving as a quick reminder that I should rise early more often! They are mostly cribbed from a family trip to Moidart (Western Highlands) during September 2023, although with a couple of older (similarly themed) images included for posterity near the end…
(The Blue Lagoon - Deepest Moidart, Western Highlands)
(Fisherman's Pool - River Shiel, Western Highlands)
(Morning Mist - Loch Shiel, Western Highlands)
(Loch Shiel, Acharacle)
(Tranquil Acharacle)
(Loch Shiel Sunrise)
(Loch Shiel and Beinn Resipol)
(Hills of Moidart, Western Highlands)
River Shiel
(Moidart, Western Highlands)
Leafy Perthshire, Central Scotland
(Sept 2013)
Curiously, My First Ever Photographic Prizewinner!
(Passenger Landscape Photo of the Cruise; Sept/Oct 2019)
Closer to Home -
The Country Estates of Devon and Cornwall
The great thing about the theme of Countryside is that - unlike, say, Mountains or Coast - photos can be taken almost anywhere (outside of inner cities, at least). And since many of my photo opportunities occur on remote holidays (such as the above Scotland shots), it’s also nice to remember that my home county of Devon - plus neighbouring Cornwall - has a great deal to offer, even if we discount those iconic coastal vistas.
So please see below for a few shots of my local Devon and Cornwall countryside…
(Please note that some of these themes and locations are explored a little further in my Monochrome section.) :-)
Cornish Curves
(Across Stithians Lake from Mount Wise Farm)
(Roche Rock, Cornwall)
(Easter Dawn, Devon's Culm Vale)
(Lanyon Quoit Sunset, Cornwall)
(Deepest Dartmoor)
(Bellever Tor, Dartmoor)
(Killerton Estate, Devon)
(Bred and Buttercups)
(Taking a Bough)
(Great Garden Tree)
(House in the Country)
A Countryside Case Study - Devon Dawn at The Three Apostles
While I generally try to avoid repetition within these Portfolio pages, there are times when a sequence of photos can provide an effective means of developing a theme or telling a story. My ad-hoc Killerton Collection displayed above - essentially a Killerton House Quartet - represents one such grouping. A more deliberate case is presented below, in which I’ve depicted summer sunrise at a Devon ‘trio of trees’ dubbed The Three Apostles (a.k.a. Holy Trinity).
I’d originally spotted this pleasing line of trees from some miles away, and had spent a few weeks on reconnaissance before checking conditions and setting my alarm for daybreak. This, for me, is what it’s all about. For irrespective of how the images actually turn out, one of the primary joys of landscape photography is in the discovery and planning of exciting new locations such as this.
As an aside, an assorted night-time sequence of these same trees can be found under my Astro section. And if you prefer something less conventional, they even make a brief appearance (labelled False Dawn) within my Abstract collection! :-0
A Country Mile - Extending the ‘Rural Mural’
You might think of the following quickfire selection as Honourable Mentions (mostly rescued from the archives), rather than true Portfolio Pics. But it hopefully all helps to develop the vaguely rural theme, albeit more tenuously than some of the groupings referenced above…
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