RPS Landscape Magazine Spring 2024

Landscape

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY LANDSCAPE GROUP

Issue 13

Spring 2024

THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

RPS House, 337 Paintworks, Arnos Vale, Bristol, BS4 3AR, UK rps.org

Incorporated by Royal Charter

Patron

HRH THE PRINCESS OF WALES

President and Chair of Trustees

SIMON HILL FRPS

Chief Executive Officer

DAN JONES

Hon Treasurer

CHARLOTTE FRAIBERG

RPS LANDSCAPE GROUP

Magazine Editor: Candia Peterson ARPS

Assistant Editor: Gaynor Davies ARPS

Magazine Production: Paul Cayton LRPS

Committee

Colin Balfour LRPS: Chair (Officer)

Viv Cotton ARPS: Secretary (Officer)

Mark Edwards LRPS: Treasurer (Officer)

Mark Reeves FRPS: Vice Chair

Chris McIntosh LRPS: Professionally-Led Events Manager

Howard Klein LRPS: Exhibition and Member-Led Events

Candia Peterson ARPS: Magazine Editor

Peter Fortune: Newsletter Editor

Elliot Banks: Website Editor

David Travis ARPS: Circles Co-ordinator

Please send contributions to landscapemagazine@rps.org

COVER IMAGES:

Front Cover: Sycamore Gap by Mark Hetherington LRPS Back Cover: Decisive Moment at Sycamore Gap by Roger Styles

Landscape is the magazine of the RPS Landscape Group and is provided as part of the annual subscription to the Group. © 2023 The Royal Photographic Society All rights reserved on behalf of the contributors and authors. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for such permission must be addressed to the Editor.

The Royal Photographic Society, RPS Landscape Group and the Editor accept no liability for any misuse or breach of copyright by a contributor. The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the policies of the Royal Photographic Society or of the Landscape group.

Printed on behalf of The Royal Photographic Society by Fretwell Print and Direct Mail, Healey Works, Goulbourne Street, Keighley, West Yorkshire, BD21 1PX

In this issue

Regulars

4. Welcome

24. The Post Processing Page

Celia Henderson LRPS looks at the ethical application of AI in Photoshop.

48. Webb Watch

Stunning images from the Webb Telescope - the ultimate landscape.

62. Inspiration

Watch, follow, read and listen – some ideas to keep your landscape photography fresh.

Professional Photographers

28. The Nature of Landscape

Joe Cornish HonFRPS continues his series on different themes in landscape photography by looking at Metaphor and Memory in photography.

34. Artificial Intelligence

Tim Parkin takes a look at what AI means for landscape photography.

50. An Alternative View

An interview with Pep Ventosa, master of “in the round”.

Member Contributions

6. Where in the World? I - Viv Cotton ARPS

Viv describes her travel in Japan.

12. Aerial Photography - Robert Bolton ARPS

Robert shares his stunning photos of the Carmargue taken from the vantage point of a helicopter.

18. The Human Landscape – Peter Benson FRPS

Nocturnal photographer Peter takes us on a tour of London by night.

40. Competition Winners 2023

12 monthly winners with an introduction from Robert Harvey ARPS.

56. Where in the World II - Jill Taylor ARPS

Jill describes the pastoral countryside around her home in Switzerland.

Welcome

Welcome from the Editor

to the magazine of the RPS Landscape Group.

Welcome to the Spring Edition of the RPS Landscape Group Magazine. This is an issue packed with interesting reads and beautiful photography and I hope that its pages will contain something to inspire all our members.

Shortly after our last edition came out in Autumn 2023, the landscape photography world was shocked and saddened by the illegal felling of the tree that identified the Sycamore Gap. I decided to mark this unfortunate event with member images of the great tree on our front and back covers. Photographers Mark Hetherington, Roger Styles and Anthony Wright have given us three very different takes on the tree and I hope you will enjoy all of them.

As a regular feature of the first edition of the year, we are delighted to publish the twelve monthly winners of the on-line competition. Many congratulations to all the successful photographers, particularly those who won in multiple months – Mark Hetherington twice and Ashley Franklin for the three consecutive summer months. We were thrilled that Robert Harvey agreed to pick a winner and runner up. Read on to see who he chose.

A great friend both to the RPS and the Landscape Group, Joe Cornish continues his series of different aspects of landscape. This time, rather than looking at a particular genre, he is tackling a more philosophical approach to

the photography of Memory and Metaphor. In recognition of Joe’s current, on-going and long-term support of the Landscape Group and this magazine, the group’s committee is delighted to donate to two charities of his choice – the Woodland Trust and The World Land Trust.

For this edition’s “Alternative View”, I was absolutely delighted that the great Pep Ventosa agreed to be interviewed. Pep is one of my photographic heroes and I hope that you will enjoy learning a little bit about his background and approach to producing his lovely ethereal multiple exposure images.

The thorny issue of AI is looked at in depth through two articles. Tim Parkin takes a deep dive into the “art” of artificially creating landscape photographs and, in our Post Processing Page, Celia Henderson provides the antidote with a look at the ethical use of AI in processing your images – i.e. How to apply the power of AI tools utilising only those pixels that you have created in your camera.

But this edition is dominated by you, our members. Our Human Landscape feature comes from night photographer Peter Benson. Our two Where in the World contributions come from Jill Taylor and Viv Cotton, with studies respectively of countries as diverse as Switzerland and Japan and Robert Bolton will delight you with some very different images taken from the air.

In our shorter reads, we have the Webb Watch in which I have again picked two images from the fabulous Webb Telescope website which is showing photos of what is, arguably, the “infinite landscape” and, towards the back of the magazine, you will find some ideas and inspiration to take with you on your photographic journey.

Ultimately, this is your magazine, members of the RPS Landscape Group, and it is my intention to feature as many of you as is practical within these pages over the coming few editions. You may notice that Mark Hetherington, not only twice winner of the monthly competition, also features on our front cover and is the author of the image facing this page. Why? Because he sent me images in response to call outs in the newsletter and on Facebook. Send your own images in; send me your ideas for articles and inspiration and read on to look at the challenge set by the Pep Ventosa interview and then inundate me with those too.

I hope you will enjoy reading this edition as much as Gaynor Davies, Paul Cayton and I have enjoyed putting it together. Without their fabulous and constructive help as Assistant Editor and Publication Manager, I could not have managed to achieve what you are now reading and I’d like to offer huge thanks to them.

Candia Peterson ARPS Magazine Editor, RPS Landscape Group

landscapemagazine@rps.org

Fishgarth Woods by Mark Hetherington LRPS

Where in the World? I

Viv

Cotton ARPS

Secretary to the Landscape Group and enthusiastic Taiko drummer, Viv Cotton ARPS describes an impromptu trip to Japan and the almost three weeks she spent on the island of Honshu and its principal cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.

Viv’s work can be found at https://saturatedcolours.com

Shinjuku.

Japanese Experience

In April 2023 I was unexpectedly presented with an opportunity to realise a long-held dream; that of travelling almost 6000 miles and visiting Japan. At school I had a Japanese penfriend called Kumiko and, for the last 10 years, I have been learning to play Japanese taiko drums so the desire to experience Japan first hand had been on my mind for some time. This was just too good a chance to miss so I booked my flight tickets, dug out my suitcase and loaded the translation apps on my phone!

It was a 15-hour flight from Heathrow to Haneda, one of the two airports servicing Tokyo. The plan was to spend a couple of days in Tokyo, the next 18 days travelling from Tokyo to Osaka via Takayama and Kyoto and then back to Tokyo.

Tokyo is as manic a place as you might expect. We explored Shinjuku, an area known for its bustling nightlife, especially Kabuki-cho, where neon signs of every size, shape, and colour festoon the buildings. The timing of the trip coincided with the peak of the cherry blossoms so we took the opportunity to visit the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. The gardens were extremely busy, full of

locals and tourists alike having their photos taken amongst the blossom.

The next few days were spent exploring the scenic lakes around the iconic Mount Fuji. The volcano is just over 12,300 ft and spends two-thirds of the year hidden from view in cloud. It is a sacred symbol to many Japanese and each year many thousands trek to the top and pay their respects at Japan’s highest shrine. Although the last eruption was in 1707, it is still classified as active and some experts think Mount Fuji will erupt again. Whilst in the area, we climbed the 398 steps to the Chureito Pagoda for the sunset surrounded by cherry blossoms with a beautiful view over Fujiyoshida City towards Mount Fuji.

Japan used to have a large number of castles; however, the passage of time saw many damaged or destroyed in old feudal skirmishes. Many were torn down after the end of the feudal age (1868) as unwelcome reminders of the past and the Second World War saw others destroyed, including Hiroshima Castle. We visited three of Japan’s best castles:

Mount Fuji.

• Matsumoto Castle dates from 1594 and is also known as the “Crow Castle” due to its stained black exterior. The castle has a large moat which is stocked with the largest Koi fish I’ve ever seen!

• Osaka Castle is set on a huge plot of land with inner and outer moats and many layers of walls to protect the main tower. The main tower is beautifully lit at night.

• Himeji Castle occupies a prominent hilltop position and is some 700 years old. It is known as the “White Heron Castle” due to the very white exterior. The castle is huge but it is possible to appreciate its size and position by climbing to the top of a nearby hill.

Shinto and Buddhism are Japan’s two major religions. Shinto temples can be found all over Japan as well as Torii, a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of, or within, a Shinto shrine. We visited the 2000-year-old Shirahige Shrine Torii located in Lake Biwa (Japan’s largest lake) at sunrise. We also visited Fushimi Inari Taisha, an important Shinto shrine in southern Kyoto dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. Thousands of vermilion torii gates have been installed, effectively creating a network of tunnels

into the forest and up the sacred Mount Inari. Meoto Iwa “Wedded Rocks” are sacred rocks in the ocean at the Futami Okitama Shrine near Futami. Both rocks are connected by a “shimenawa” rope which acts as the connection between the spiritual and earthly realms. The impressively heavy-looking rope is ceremonially replaced 3 times a year.

The ancient city of Kyoto is considered the cultural centre of Japan. It is one of the best-preserved cities in Japan, surviving WW2 (it was at the top of the list of targets for the atomic bomb but it was removed at the insistence of Henry Stimson, US Secretary of War, to be replaced by Nagasaki). Gion is a popular and historic area of the city, a place where tourists can dress up in Kimonos and stroll around the narrow streets surrounded by traditional Japanese buildings. There are a number of popular tourist attractions in and around Kyoto. Kinkakuji, a Zen Buddhist shrine is at the top of the list, famous because the top two floors are covered in real gold leaf. The shrine itself is not hugely old; it was rebuilt in 1955 after a monk deliberately set fire to it but the draw of gold brings in bus loads of tourists who walk around the beautifully landscaped lakeside temple.

Matsumoto Castle

Himeji Castle

Futami Okitama Shrine - Wedded Rocks

No visit to Kyoto would be complete without a visit to Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. Heading there for sunrise meant we had the place to ourselves as nobody else was mad enough to get out of bed at 4:30am! The intensely green, almost 100-foottall bamboo forest is a surreal sight. Paths are bounded by brown twig fences which contain the tourists and prevent damage to the forest. To the Japanese, bamboo is said to repel the forces of evil as well as representing strength and prosperity; therefore bamboo is respected and protected by the government and locals.

One interesting hotel was the Chion-in-Wajun Hotel in Kyoto. It is associated with the Chion-in Buddhist Temple complex. There is a 5:20am wakeup gong and the option for guests to attend the 6am Buddhist ceremony. It was fascinating to see the extremely ornate and lavish interior of the main temple and to experience the ceremony. It was all in Japanese which hindered my understanding of the proceedings; however, there was a lot of chanting and some throat singing and a certain phrase sung or spoken so often that it became quite an earworm!

The Twin Arch 138 Tower in Ichinomiya City grabbed our attention as we drove through the city on the Japanese equivalent of a motorway. The very modern architecture made an unmissable feature on the otherwise uniformly low skyline. The 138 Tower Park occupies 20.4 ha of the Kiso Sansen National Government Park, Japan’s largest national park. It is beautifully laid out with feature paths through small areas of plantings, very peaceful and quiet. It made a lovely counterpoint to all the historic buildings we had been visiting.

Overall, I’m even more of a fan of Japan. The Japanese are a lovely people, noted for their polite and respectful approach to life. I loved the cleanliness in the cities and on the underground. Regardless of where we went (or when!) it felt safe. Language can be a barrier as very few speak English but the apps, whilst not perfect, did help with having some conversations.

The flight home was just short of 16 hours, which is a long time to sit in one place. That said, it was made much better due to the free upgrade to business class, my first upgrade ever!

I produced a short AV/slideshow of the triphttps://tinyurl.com/3tcv4txc

Fisherman in front of Mount Fuji

138 Tower

Kinkaku-ji.

Fushimi Inari Taisha - Paths of Torii

Chureito Pagoda 1

Aerial Photography

Robert Bolton ARPS

Aerial Inspiration

Group member Robert Bolton shares some extraordinary aerial views of the Carmargue in Southern France.

www.quietlandscapes.net

Making Tracks

It’s

all up in the air

When I started out in landscape photography I concentrated on seascapes. The sea is often the element that has remained constant. In my early days I could be found at sunset in places like Nash Point near Bridgend and my photographs were what might be called “classic.” Colourful and instantly recognisable as to what and where it was. Now I find myself increasingly drawn to both very minimal compositions as well as abstract and otherworldly images. I don’t, so much, take pictures of locations but of ideas, moods, impressions, shapes and abstractions. All of which are found in landscape photography, particularly in intimate landscapes. Similarly, I would suggest that most people, looking at these photographs, would find it difficult to say where they were taken. Aerial photography has provided me the opportunity to explore this abstract genre more purposefully.

I first had a go last year in 2022 when on a photography workshop photographing the coast and lighthouses around Brittany. I had the opportunity of an afternoon taking photos around St. Malo. Sat on the side of an open-sided helicopter, with my feet resting on the skids, I don’t mind admitting that I was a bit scared. There was a strap holding me in place but we were also encouraged to lean forward. This was a challenge because the camera is in the downdraught of the rotor blades. A high ISO is necessary so that a shutter speed of 1600th or 2000th is possible. Image stabilisation is also necessary. The experience was a revelation, once my heart rate calmed down! It was possible to take highly abstract images, some of which might have been the surface of a moon of Jupiter rather than the coast of France.

Big Bend

In May this year I took to the air again but this time above the Camargue, near Montpellier, in the South of France. Once again it was an open-sided helicopter. To my mind the photographs I took were even more abstract and otherworldly than Brittany. The colours are unbelievable, owing to salt-loving algae that give flamingos their colour. Parts of the Camargue are used for the sea salt industry and the salt pans provide some man-made structures in amongst the more natural shapes, textures and colours.

I had to go again so arranged my own trip at the beginning of October 2023. Each trip delivered over 1000 images and yes, some are rubbish. There is not much time to frame the composition but I found that one learns to see where a picture may be about to appear and it helps to have a pilot that has an understanding of aerial photography. With the Camargue, I was taking photos at about 1000’, sometimes up to 2000’, with some wispy clouds below us. It is a location that is not easy to access on the ground owing to the salt industry so a helicopter, rather than a drone, is probably the only way to photograph it.

I know these images won’t be to everyone’s taste because it is difficult to work out what it is one is looking at, or indeed, the scale involved. One person said to me that some of the photos look like macro photography as opposed to aerial. I like that ambiguity and abstraction. I suppose I am trying to do abstract ‘modern art’ painting but with a camera. I find the images satisfying as a result and they seem to work well as large prints; at least, that’s what some friends and acquaintances have told me.

I think I have the making of perhaps a new project/ book/distinction and I am anxious to build my body of work but that comes at a cost. I don’t have a helicopter and I have just retired. I do wonder if a drone is something I now need to research. Regardless, I know that my journey into the abstract and otherworldly is only just beginning.

Corner at the end of the world

The Pink Sea and Pink Pond

Right Turn Highway

Arcing

Face Brush Strokes

White Horse of the Camargue

Chaos Rules The Hook

Isolation Breach

The Human Landscape

Peter Benson FRPS

In the section of the magazine devoted to urban and city landscapes, night owl group member Peter Benson has produced a remarkable portfolio of London cityscapes, many of them over water but all demonstrating a dramatic feeling for colour and space.

www.peterfbenson.co.uk

I am an Urban Nightscape photographer, which is a bit different from what some may say is the norm. I normally start my photography when the sun is below the horizon. Night photography is not new for it’s been around since 1895-96 in the form we know and understand. During the winter of 189596 amateur photographer Paul Martin took a series of images around London that are noted to be pioneering for night photography. Martin’s night exposures ranged from 10 to 60 minutes long which is a far cry from what I take at some of his locations. From that winter Martin put together a set of 12 of his night photographs which he called “London by Gaslight”. These he entered in the annual RPS Exhibition in September of 1896 and Martin was awarded the Royal Photographic Society’s Royal Medal for that set. It was said that his images set the standard for Night photography. Martin’s “London by Gaslight” set inspired the influential Alfred Stieglitz in New York who, in the winter of 1897-8, developed his own technique and took his own night series of Manhattan.

I first got into night photography around nine years ago after I won the novice section of the annual competition of a camera club that I had just joined in Suffolk. I had entered two night time prints in their competition that I had taken one cold December evening whilst out with my wife in London. One was placed third and the other was placed first. Ever since that result I set out to up my game to improve and, with that, I also quickly developed a passion for Urban Nightscape photography. That passion grew quickly, so much so that I was often to be found along the banks of the Thames with my tripod and camera gear taking photos. After spending many years walking around at night around urban environments honing my skills, I am now able to share my knowledge. I do this by presenting an urban nightscape talk about my passion, “Photography on the Darkside”, to camera clubs and societies.

London at Night

As a young adult I worked in the West End for 12 years and, when I go into the area and take images near places where I once worked or spent time, it invokes so many memories for me going back to those days. This invoking of memories is one of the joys of my photography, capturing a scene that has a meaning for me. In the image taken from the Regent Street entrance to Piccadilly Circus tube station of the Circus, when I see the famous hoarding, I recall that back in the early 1970s there was a well-known boutique below which sold Victorian military uniforms as fashion items: “I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet”. I also recall going around the Circus around 1972 in my Morris Mini Minor and, just as I reached the area coming from the right and just below the Underground sign, the sports exhaust I had fitted came away from the back mounting and dragged along the road till I got into Shaftesbury Avenue, where I secured it. Every time I go there this memory and the feeling that I would now be stopped by the police comes back like it was yesterday. As the area is ablaze with light coming from all directions, I had to take quite a number of exposures in order to make sure I captured the wide dynamic range of the light, which included the hoarding. I work on the principal that if I think I might need it for the final image I’ll take it. With careful editing, I ended up using four of the twenty exposures for the image. 20 exposures 4 to 1/10 Sec , F9, ISO 100, 17 mm.

Piccadilly Circus at Night

From those early days eight or so years ago, I have enjoyed the learning curve on my quest to improve my skills, which is still ongoing. That learning curve has taken me along the distinctions’ routes of both the Royal Photographic Society and the Welsh Photographic Federation, for which I have been awarded Associateships for my urban nightscapes in 2020 and, more recently, I became a Fellow of the RPS and a Master Craftsman of the Guild of Photographers. Along the recent stage of my distinction journey, one of the things I have learnt is to be a lot more critical of my work and look much closer at it. If I find something I am not happy with I carry out the necessary remedial work. In some

cases a solution has to be found, which I can find at times frustrating but, when I find a solution, it’s very rewarding.

When I look at an urban scene during daylight hours it looks mundane. However, later at night the same scene changes to something totally different that’s exciting and colourful. I am not the only one who has felt this, for in a letter dated 8th September 1888 to his brother Theo, Vincent Van Gogh said ‘I often think that the night is more alive and more richly coloured than the day’. That for me is the magic of the night, making the ordinary extraordinary.

Made famous worldwide by the cover of the Pink Floyd album ‘Animals’, Battersea Power Station has been going through a transformation into apartments. I went there in 2018 to photograph the Power Station as it was surrounded by in excess of eighteen cranes which I wanted to capture. From my viewpoint, which was lower to where the famous cover was shot, the trains could be seen coming in and out of Victoria Station. Early in 2022 I returned to the area to take this image as the cranes, all except for two, were gone. I intend to revisit the location when the apartments are occupied, which will show another stage of the transformation. I was there for just over 1 hr 20 mins taking 45 exposures to get what I had in my mind. I ended up using images representing 45 minutes of trains going in and out of Victoria Station. The final image has a total of 15 image layers, 10 of which are for the trains’ light trails plus 4 adjustment layers and editing layers. 15 exposures 40 to 2.5 secs , F9, ISO 100, 75 mm.

Battersea Reborn

Vauxhall Bridge and Nine Elms

The Vauxhall and Nine Elms waterfront is another area along the Thames that is going through massive redevelopment. In the near future the building that has the bottom part of its facade constructed is One Nine Elms, which will have the record for being the tallest residential block in Europe, although, judging from recent holders, that record might be short lived. The building on the left was featured in the James Bond films ‘Skyfall’, where it exploded, and in ‘The World Is Not Enough’, where Bond came out of a secret door in the wall of the building in a speed boat landing on the Thames. The building in question is the real MI6 building. In front of MI6 in the river is a construction site for one of the new Tideway pumping stations for the new super sewage system coming from Acton in the west, going along the Thames, then to Becton in East London. This construction site proved very difficult to capture as the lighting near the Vauxhall Bridge was pointing straight at me and was very powerful so I had to go down 5 stops to get any detail in that area and along the frontage. 7 exposures 50 to 1 secs, F9, ISO 100, 24 mm.

Most of my night photography is based in Central London along the banks of the Thames, in the West End as well as out towards the east and west. As a photographer, I am constantly looking for different compositions of some of the iconic scenes and, of course, new locations, which in some cases means going further afield, especially when I am abroad or in the UK on holiday. This has had me going out at night to take nightscapes in New York, Croatia, Germany, and Spain, to name a few places. I often go back to the same location and always come back with different images to the last visit, even though the subject matter is the same. Whilst I have listed some settings with my images when I go back to that location there may well be different camera settings, such as the length of the exposures. Many factors play a part in this, for example the amount of available ambient light, the sky with city lights reflecting off the clouds or not

and when, by the waterways, the height of the tides and the lights for the city reflecting in the water. The flow of the water also plays its part as, around the change of the tides, slack water can be a good opportunity for mirror-like reflections, whereas when the water is flowing fast the reflections are blurry.

Working at night can be quite challenging with the light coming from all directions and, like Paul Martin all those years ago, I am capturing artificial light which could be in abundance, quite scarce or somewhere in between. When I am taking my night shots my aim is to end up with an image with little or no noise, with detail in the shadow and highlights. To achieve this, I have my camera set to Raw, ISO 100, LNR on, and I take a set of bracketed exposures that are one stop apart to get the detail I require. This could result in taking a set of around 4, 5 or more bracketed exposures. I edit the bracketed

exposures in Lightroom, then I blend some or all of them in Photoshop with luminosity masks.

A good example of scarcity of light is local to me, in some of the locations I go to in Cambridge. Whereas the West End has an abundance of artificial light with the retail shops, street lighting and, of course, the traffic, I have found that some areas of a scene are a lot darker or lighter than another are, or even different from the last time I was there. There is one location on the Thames where, if there is a vessel moored on the jetty, the lighting is on at the jetty and the supports of a nearby pier are illuminated and the need to overexpose for the shadow area of the pier is diminished. In addition, I am mindful of what processing I need to do to get the final image that I want to achieve and compose accordingly. It will probably be of no surprise that my favourite locations are usually along waterways with the reflections in the water from the lights of the surrounding city buildings. Just as the camera absorbs the light it also absorbs the colours of those lights. This brings another challenge for

me, the challenge of the intensity of the light’s reflections, especially some of the colours in those reflections which have to be controlled. This I do during post processing, otherwise the intensity of that light can get blocky and flat, with no detail or texture.

As I have just mentioned, my favourite locations are usually along waterways but I also enjoy photographing when I am away from waterways. This includes places like the West End and Cambridge as they offer me something different to the reflections in the water, be it the movement of people, streaking lights of the traffic or historical settings. These also need care during post processing as too much of the movement of people or too many people can ruin an image, not enough can become lost and adds nothing. The same would apply with light trails; with light trials in the main I do find that very often less is more.

Not too far from Oxford Circus, tucked away in Soho, is Carnaby Street. Its history probably goes back to the late 17th century but it became more famous in the 1960s as a retail fashion area with many independent boutiques such as Ravel and Mary Quant. Today the street is still a fashion centre but all of the independent boutiques of the sixties’ era have long gone. This image was taken near midnight in late November 2021 in the lead up to Christmas with the street’s Christmas decorations. When I used to frequent the area on a daily basis there were still independent boutiques with some small chains in the street. Going back to the 1970s I can remember boutiques like John Stephens, Lord John, Take Six, Mates and Lady Jane. It had quite a vibe back then and was an exciting place to be in, which may have more to do with being young and of the age that Carnaby Street catered for.

5 exposures 2.5 to 1/6 secs, F9, ISO 100, 17 mm.

Christmas at Carnaby Street

St Paul’s and the River at Two AM

The Millennium Bridge and St Paul’s is one of those areas I tend to go back to time and time again to take images; every time is a case of a different image. This image was taken in September 2020. I returned a few weeks later in October and the interior lights in the buildings were turned off, which was probably due to many office workers working from home due to the Covid pandemic. The view has changed again as the building to the right of the Bridge, Millennium Bridge House, was featured in Stan Lee’s TV series ‘Lucky Man’, staring James Nesbitt. The building has now lost its roof and sides, leaving the floors, as it is undergoing a massive redevelopment. When finished it will look a lot airier and will have a roof top terrace, which I understand the public may have access to. This, to me, is another good reason to revisit this location. 5 exposures 100 to 6 secs, F9, ISO 100, 47 mm.

HMS Belfast During Covid

I have taken this scene of HMS Belfast more times than I can remember. Each image I have come back with is different from the others. This particular night (or I should say morning as I took the set of exposures around 01:15) the slack water period was happening and I was getting some good reflections. Looking back through the images I took on that trip there must have been a slight breeze from time to time as, in some of the exposures, the reflections went quite blurry. I took this at the end of March 2021, a few days after we had just come out of the covid `stay at home’ rules and the Belfast lights were minimal with just lights on inside. Normally at this time of the day the deck light would also be on. The very first time I took this from this position in March 2016 was quite memorable. The image I took taught me a good and valuable lesson. Had I looked at the weather forecast for that day and it said foggy/misty for London I might have not gone. The lesson was, deal with what weather you have been given, good, bad and the bit in between, for that image has done well in camera club competitions as it has gained a few awards, including winning the Monthly Landscape Group competition in May 2021. 6 exposures 40 to 2.5 secs, F9, ISO 100, 80 mm.

The Post Processing Page

Celia Henderson LRPS

Celia is a great friend to the wider RPS with her highly regarded series of on-line workshops on the many and various tools to be found in Photoshop. She is an IT trainer and lecturer in computing across many software packages and still finds time to be a highly regarded flower photographer who regularly exhibits at the Arundel Gallery.

For our regular look at post processing, Celia has given us the low down on how to use AI ethically, manipulating only your own pixels and not those of others.

www.celiahenderson.co.uk

I love my photography. I want other people to like and admire my images. I want them to know, when they look at my images, that my images are truthful, honest and are all my own work. The pixels I present are my pixels.

I’m also a lecturer in computer software applications, with Photoshop being right up there at the top and, combined with my love of photography, I enjoy exploring and pushing Photoshop to its limits to see what I can achieve with the range of tools that the program has provided since 1987 for both image editing and creativity.

When Artificial Intelligence (AI) became the latest news story I began to question whether I could continue to display my images with that same integrity. All the news surrounding AI is that it generates new pixels; are these then no longer my pixels?

So I set about researching the development and evolution of the Photoshop application and want now to share my findings with you.

Just a tiny bit of background that you might find interesting (and this really is a very broad set of definitions of a very complex subject). Computer programs achieve their results in a number of ways: Basic processes – “click this button and exactly the same steps are carried out” – e.g. Select an opacity property and the value of the opacity is applied.

Computer programs that use procedural languages do everything in the same way in the same order every time. These can be customised with conditions, such as if I make the brush smaller then do the same procedure but with a smaller brush, then I will get a customised result. Loops do this activity over and over again until it reaches a stop point or I run out of canvas.

But now we have to consider Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and deep learning – look at Wikipedia, for example, to learn more, where you will read that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the field of computer science that studies how to make computers good at new types of tasks, particularly tasks that, until recently, could only be done by human beings. Machine Learning (ML) is a sub-field of AI devoted to creating programs that improve their performance when you give them more data rather than requiring the improved performance to be programmed in by hand. Deep learning is a set of Machine Learning techniques that are loosely modelled on how neurons in the brain communicate with each other and adapt to new data. These technologies allow machines to perform tasks in seconds that can take humans hours.

So where is this article going with all this? Which Photoshop tools use AI but don’t generate new pixels? Or, if they do generate new pixels, are they based on the pixels from your image or from a library of other people’s images?

Artificial Intelligence and Post Processing

My understanding is the tools listed below have all been ‘trained’ using Adobe Sensei, artificial intelligence, machine learning etc. but, unlike the new Generative Fill and Neural Filters, the results analyse the pixels from your document and fill areas with pixels from your image. These are just a few from a much longer list:

Remove Background

Just like spot removal, patch tools and content-aware fill, where pixels selected are replaced with pixels from within your document, the Remove tool just uses a more intelligent method to do the job. In the example below the unwanted branch can easily be removed by brushing over the unwanted pixels with the Remove Tool and then confirming the selection with the tick. Meanwhile, I sit back and watch the pixels be replaced by pixels from the surrounding area, letting Adobe work its magic to ensure it has analysed those pixels that will create the best match for the replacement.

And the selected pixels are removed and replaced.

Subject Selection and Object Selection

Both use highly improved methods to detect and then select pixels so will you question your use of using these AI driven tools?

Will you question your use of the Refine Hair selections within Select and Mask, which is another sophisticated selection tool driven by AI, along with the edge refinement controls and Refine Edge Brush?

Subject Selection

Adobe offers the choice when making selections of using your own Device to analyse the subject area or allowing the image to be analysed on the cloud (thus expanding Adobe’s knowledge base of perfecting selections).

As you will see from the two selections both options require a little more attention but both give me a much better starting point than I could achieve with other less intelligent tools.

Object Selection

If we continue to look at the selection methods one of my favourite aids to speeding up image editing is the automatic layer masks that are now available. Just click the Layer menu and choose Mask All Layers. A layer group is automatically created with its own reveal/show mask.

These are very much part of Photoshop’s Object Finder analysis. Just click on the Object Finder to see quickly areas of a layer that can be selected.

And the purpose of these multiple selections is the ability to remove, enhance or modify areas in any way, with all the hard work of making individual selections done by an intelligent automated task working away in the background.

With the lamp automatically selected on the left of the image do I click the Generative Fill choice? By leaving the prompt box empty the pixels used to fill the selection will be those from my image. Only if I enter a prompt will pixels be used from other stock/author’s images.

The Remove, Selection and Object Selection tools are just three from a very much longer list that include:

• Curvature Pen Tool. Adobe published a blog in 2020 “Photoshop: Now the world’s most advanced AI application for creatives” in which they stated users already rely on AI to speed up our work including the Curvature Pen tool.

• Match Font is another great example of sophisticated and intelligent searching and analysis.

• Adobe Camera Raw is the engine that is present in Lightroom, Bridge and Photoshop that contains many examples of AI, all of which I love!

So, to go back to my objective; at what point do I stop feeling comfortable using tools that are driven by AI? My answer: Anywhere where I have to enter a prompt to generate new data. Although I will enjoy experimenting with the new Generative Fill feature, which I think is powerful, great fun and has huge benefits for the marketing and advertising world, I will not be using it on my own images.

I will continue to push my own pixels around with brushes, filters and smudging tools and feel comfortable that I have not introduced a pixel that was artificially generated.

The Nature of Landscape

Joe Cornish HonFRPS

We continue our series of articles by Joe Cornish. These articles were previously published in On Landscape Magazine (which Joe co-founded) and we are extremely grateful to Charlotte and Tim Parkin for allowing their inclusion. For this edition, we have taken two of his original pieces and merged them to give a sense of two different aspects of an emotional connection with the landscape, Metaphor and Memory.

www.joecornishphotographer.com www.onlandscape.co.uk

Metaphor and Memory

Perhaps the first point of this article is to assert that the landscape is capable of metaphor; that the landscape possesses characteristics that evoke something else. In most cases that ‘something else’ will be found within the human condition.

Art depends on metaphor for much of its power and meaning. As an abstract arrangement of sound that usually doesn’t reference anything directly, music engages our emotions and intellect; although it is rarely clear why or how it does this. Perhaps the fact that it is hard to understand the rich references and connections of music is what makes it so effective and affecting. Dance, the art of the human body, uses metaphor in a more direct and obvious way.

With the visible world as a starting point the descriptive arts (painting and sculpture) use metaphor confidently. In contrast, photography’s apparently faithful ability to reproduce appearances tends to mask its metaphoric potential. It may seem just too… real.

Yet a field as direct and apparently illustrative as landscape photography can still provide a rich seam of metaphoric potential.

I’ll admit to being nervous about using my own work to illustrate metaphor. Accusations of pretentiousness were a frequent put-down in the cultural conversations of my teenage years. Yet I am frustrated that photographers still seem unwilling to talk about the feelings and ideas that photographs evoke for them. Less focus on technique and more on artistic considerations and questions, including metaphor when appropriate, might help raise the bar for our medium.

It might be inevitable to start with trees. One well-understood landscape photography metaphor is the lone tree. This might represent aloofness, alienation, freedom, or sadness. In short, it is simple to appreciate that the tree, and its isolation in space, can stand for something else.

The metaphoric potential in a tree is inherent in its figure-like presence. It has a trunk, limbs, sometimes buttresses that evoke feet and a crown of needles or leaves, not totally unlike a hat, or a head of hair (bear with me here!). Whether few or many, a tree’s outstretched branches can express gesture, emotion and mood. Even pain or joy. It is no coincidence that a weeping willow or beech is so named. We talk of branches reaching out and some older trees that have grown in damp and shady spots (oaks, often) as ‘tortured’.

Together, trees express relationship, sometimes familial or supportive or humorous… or numerous other qualities that have a human equivalent. Some trees clearly enjoy dancing with their partners. In their unique way trees seem to be the foundation for the landscape’s human expression.

But other things, such as surfaces, qualities of light and unexpected relationships and forms can also carry the idea of metaphor.

Hawnby Hoar Frost

The iron-rich geological debris staining a retreating glacier in Svalbard suggests that the glacier is bleeding to death for the climate crimes of humanity. On a Hebridean beach the geology is as restless as the storm-driven sea crashing beyond it. The rock may be approaching three billion years old but still it represents the dynamic nature of our planet.

The shore of a bay (in Svalbard) covered with thousands of whale bones is a reminder of the cost of whaling. It symbolises the unsustainable exploitation of nature, a metaphor of our times.

A droplet of rainwater is the expression of surface tension but its circular form echoes the universal form of the sphere, visible in our planetary and star systems.

And to return to trees, the rays of sunlight penetrating light mist in a spring woodland stand as a symbol of hope. The trees reach their aging limbs towards the light, as if seeking renewal.

In essence, the power of metaphor resides in the imagination of the individual. No commentator can impose an interpretation of a picture although they might try. Ultimately we all find our own ways of translating what we see in the world, in the landscape and in our own photographs; and with luck, hope that our way of seeing will find resonance for others. Metaphor is one of the ways that seeing can come to life and a landscape might represent more than the sum of its parts.

“Before it can ever be a repose for the senses, landscape is a work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock.” Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory.

The idea here is inspired by the title of Simon Schama’s 1995 book, Landscape and Memory. But what does this mean to the landscape photographer? Although this is an idea that might seem obscure or even controversial, I will do my best to explain…

Schama’s is the historian’s – and also the cultural philosopher’s –perspective. He illuminates how landscape – nature – remains a subject of veneration and spiritual renewal in almost all major cultures. This seems grossly at odds with the critical observation that, since the industrial revolution, human progress and technology has treated nature merely as a material resource to exploit. We (humans) are a selfevident contradiction.

My experience is that photography deepens engagement and connection with a place and the moment, binding us more closely to it. Memory may then be stimulated and extrapolated from the image at a later date. In the photographer’s actual experience surrounded by the light, colour, texture and space of reality, there is simply the moment; a living space/time continuum. But there is also the inner landscape, vividly coloured by the landscape of memory.

Like the First Morning

Kongsvegen, Svalbard

Beluga Requiem

Raindrops

Horgabost, Stormy Weather

Shotover Valley

In early 1976, prior to attending university, I spent 6 months in New Zealand, travelling and working in sheep shearing gangs. I saw fjords, mountains and glaciers on the South Island west coast and, in the North Island, thermal wonders and active volcanoes. In many ways this was the epic landscape that my youthful imagination would have

conjured up as an original Eden. I returned to the UK to the year of drought. As the train rattled its way through England’s southern counties, fields and woods yellowed from lack of rain, I was overcome with emotion. It was unusually dry and it was scenically not a patch on New Zealand’s alpine South Island. But it was England; it was home. It was the first realisation of my own landscape identity.

My brother Nick now lives in Dunedin and I have visited him a few times since that first journey. The Shotover valley picture made in 2018 epitomises the South Island’s charisma. My memories of New Zealand are almost all positive. But they are not as deep as those of home.

Shotover Valley

Granite Coast

Throughout childhood, my family usually took a late summer holiday cottage in north Cornwall, often with our cousins. Ten kids, four parents; a chaos of play and squabbles outside in the sun or the waves or hunting the rock pools at low tide. A Cornish coast Swallows and Amazons.

Cornwall remains home from home for me. On returning, I carry many memories. My name probably helps that sense of belonging. These monumental granite ramparts are a mile south of Land’s End. Framed on all sides except the east by the sea, Cornwall can seem a land apart. It epitomises Simon Schama’s reference to Britain’s ‘cliff-girt insularity’. But for me, these mosses, lichens and spring wildflowers evoke the sunlit, warm, life-affirming adventures of childhood.

Pordenack Sunrise

Derwent Water From Kings How

The first book for which I was commissioned photographer was about the Founders of the National Trust. Its cover picture was of Brandelhow, the National Trust’s first Lake District property, on Derwent Water. For all its overcrowded popularity I never tire of this unique synthesis of dramatic fells, sheltered valleys, rivers, lakes and woodlands.

I recall a picture book my mother read to me. Straddling two pages, an illustration showed a small girl sitting up in bed, absorbed in a picture book of her own. Her quilt changed from fabric into a patchwork of fields and the end of her bed became distant hills and woods, a river system and lake. I loved that picture; it reminds me that a feeling for landscape is embedded (no pun intended) in childhood. The view of Derwent Water from Kings How provokes my memory of that picture.

Bealach Na Gaoithe

In my book First Light, there is a chapter entitled, ‘Friends and Heroes’, which highlights those to whom I owe a particular debt. Photographer Paul Wakefield is one of those. A hero then, I am happy to count him a friend now.

This composition is a homage to Paul’s dark-yet-sunlit, preciselyseen large format film image from Scotland: The Place of Visions. It remains the iconic original, imprinted in memory.

As much as any nation can be, Scotland is more than territory. It is also an idea, a land of the imagination, a refuge for the soul. And for me, a deep well of memory. It is a paradox and a contradiction for, although the rain almost always seems to be falling somewhere, the colours are richer, the spaces more sculpted and the light more brilliant and elusive than anywhere else I know.

Castleton, Drifting Smoke

When out and about with my camera, I hope to be completely receptive, to respond to what I see and put myself “at the mercy of inspiration”, as the Zen mantra has it. The north of England is also the territory of a calendar that I used to publish each year and I always had that justification for going out with my camera. It is my backyard landscape, training ground, homeland.

In late summer heather blooms widely on the North York Moors. At its best for a few short weeks, it forms a defining signature of the landscape. Each August I used to seek an image useful for a future calendar. Over time, these wanderings have coloured my memory, reflecting a cultural memory of the Moors, shared by many.

Derwent Water from Kings How

Bealach Na Gaoithe

Eigg, Boulder Field

The first book of which I was the literary as well as photographic author was First Light, published in 2002. The cover photograph is from the coast at Elgol, Skye and its composition pivots around a beautiful, apparently spherical, boulder. It was shot only a year or two after I had started with a 5x4 inch film technical camera full-time. This picture was a confidence booster; technically and creatively, it seemed I was finding my way.

My next book was Scotland’s Coast, published a couple of years later. The cover photograph was shot on Eigg; interesting geology and cloudwreathed distant mountains again. But I was sure I could do better. I returned to Eigg in February of 2018, driven in part by memory. The charismatic geology may seem immutable but the scene changes minute by minute with the tidal ebb and flow and Hebridean weather. Memory will continue to tempt me back… to try again.

Aspen, Independence Pass

In 2013 I found myself in Colorado, co-leading a tour with Tony Spencer. In spite of epic Rocky Mountain perspectives and the vivid badlands we passed, the most memorable spot was a simple aspen grove in the Independence Pass.

I might have known the geographic location but, at that time, I was creatively lost. For the preceding five years I had been preoccupied with the new digital workflow, learning to stitch, improving my raw and Photoshop skills, printing my own work. And struggling with the camera. I had stopped making pictures that I liked.

Independence Pass gave me a photograph I loved. It might not have been a big deal; it wasn’t clever or original. It just distilled some feeling I needed to rediscover. Nothing technical or spectacular; just pure form and light.

On subsequent tours we have always stopped at the same spot, admiring and photographing these graceful trees. My gratitude and the memory of their ethereal beauty keeps me returning.

Castleton, Drifting Smoke

Eigg, Boulder Field

Aspen, Independence Pass

Artificial Intelligence

Tim Parkin

The Magic and Mastery of Artificial Intelligence

Tim Parkin of OnLandscape Magazine takes a look at the weird and wonderful world of AI; its uses, excuses, benefits and dangers.

Tim is the co-founder and editor of OnLandscape Magazine. He and his wife Charlotte also own a drum scanning business and offer workshops in alternative printing processes. Since moving to the highlands of Scotland six years ago, moments of climbing and mountaineering have become a major inspiration and photography a way of preserving and sharing some of these moments with others. Tim has also been a judge on various competitions including UK Landscape Photographer of the Year, the International Landscape Photographer of the Year and the Environmental Photographer of the Year. He has also started a landscape photography competition, the Natural Landscape Photography Awards.

naturallandscapeawards.com

By now, it’s difficult to find someone unfamiliar with the otherworldly “photographs” produced by various artificial intelligence-based image generation algorithms. These images, often falling into the ‘uncanny valley’ category, are nearly realistic but possess a certain fantastical quality, reminiscent of fantasy or science fiction book covers.

The evolution of these AI-generated images, from early small-scale curiosities to high-resolution, realistic compositions, has been nothing short of meteoric. Despite their capacity to create what some might call ‘award-winning images,’ the question is: What does the future hold for landscape photography in the wake of the AI image generation revolution?

Understanding AI Image Generation

To embark on this exploration, it’s crucial to understand what AI image generation entails. Contrary to common perception, these algorithms don’t scour the internet for image components to piece together; instead, the process is more enigmatic. The system analyses millions of

images associated with text, creating a ‘looks like’ database, a repository of fuzzy references that the computer can correlate with the stored text. It’s akin to a ‘savant’ child recognising resemblances without understanding the broader artistic or real-world context. I’ve written more about the technicalities in an extended OnLandscape magazine article; see the link in the footer (and more pretty pictures!)

Examples of AI Landscape Photographs

We’ve seen a lot of examples of AI art already (whether you know it or not) and it’s disturbing just how amazing it has become at generating believable images, considering the technology is about as young as aircraft were during the First World War. I challenged the software to generate some familiar landscape photography tropes at the start of last year and I’ve repeated the exercise this year so you can see the differences.

The following set of images used a unique location name (Buachaille Etive Mor with Waterfall) with a few modifiers (JMW Turner, Monet, Breughel) to see how AI could handle ‘style’ differences. Interestingly, the mountain shows a lot of variation

The Magic and Mystery of Artificial Intelligence

A Look at AI Image Generation and what it means for landscape photography

Turner

Monet

but often picks out some of the characteristic features (curved ridge, etc). The waterfall looks similar to the real thing in terms of the rock type, vegetation, etc., but I had to force it to show a tree (which is ubiquitous in most images). The ‘painterly’ versions showed some characteristics correctly - the Breughel was definitely ‘world-painting’esque - but the Monet and Turner looked more like modern artists interpreting them than the actual originals.

The Copyright Conundrum

If we look at all the articles and posts about AI image generation, questions about copyright are the most common. Are AI-generated images copyrightable, are they already copyrighted etc? While this remains uncertain, legal battles will undoubtedly unfold as the industry grapples with defining the boundary between human intervention and automated generation. The larger concern revolves around AI algorithms potentially infringing on the copyrights of source images scraped from the internet.

Examining legal precedents and the transformative nature of AI-generated images, it becomes apparent that drawing a clear line between influence and plagiarism remains challenging. For example, most design agencies create ‘mood boards’ of existing work and generate their projects based on these to a greater or lesser extent (depending on the ethics of the agency). AI is only going through a similar process, just without human intervention.

Regardless of legal outcomes, the fact remains that AI engines will be programmed on anything available, copyright or not (if not in the West, then other countries will make them available). The real goal for photographers should be to produce work that AI can’t do well, just like painters did when photography was discovered. My take on this is that we would be better off accepting that the landscape has changed (sorry about the pun) and learning to live with it.

Breughel

The Influence Question

Critics often label AI-generated images as overblown, gaudy or cheesy, forgetting that these systems lack a taste filter. Trained on the entirety of the internet, AI reflects the prevailing visual language found online. However, the prospect of training these systems on curated datasets, including high-quality art and photography, opens avenues for refining the output for more interesting purposes.

Impact on Photographers

A recurring theme in technological advancements is the fear of obsolescence for existing industries. History attests to industries adapting and evolving in the face of technological change. The introduction of photography itself initially alarmed painters but eventually led to an era of unprecedented artistic development. Similarly, landscape photography may benefit from AI in distinctive ways. The inherent lack of knowledge about subjects in AI-generated images makes it challenging to replicate the authenticity and emotional depth of humanconceived photographic series. Photographers rooted in capturing real-world scenes have a unique advantage, provided they find an audience appreciating their work.

AI Image Generation: A Useful Tool

Having established that AI image generation probably won’t threaten the livelihood of most photographers, the question shifts to its practical utility. One significant application lies in leveraging AI as a source of inspiration. Experimentation with prompts reveals the system’s ability to generate images influenced by renowned artists, potentially offering compositional or tonal insights. Visual artists, especially those working in abstract or mixed media, may find AI-generated creations as rich sources of novel ideas. The unpredictability of AI in producing never-before-seen compositions could spark creative projects, providing a fertile ground for exploration.

Future Possibilities

The trajectory of AI image generation holds intriguing possibilities. Currently drawing from an uncurated pool of images (random stuff from the internet), future iterations might allow users to select curated libraries, refining the quality of source material. Improved interaction with AI systems could include specifying image layout, texture variations and even incorporating virtual reality tools for dynamic manipulation (exploring a 3D generated scene perhaps).

Epilogue: The Unfolding Story

The narrative of AI image generation is just beginning and its trajectory remains uncertain. Intriguingly, at the current rate of source material usage, AIs could exhaust their image repositories within a decade. The interplay between AI, image captioning and commercial interests further complicates the landscape, echoing the challenges posed by capitalism’s impact on AI’s creative outputs.

In conclusion, the future relationship between AI and landscape photography holds both promise and uncertainty. As AI continues to evolve, photographers and the broader artistic community will grapple with defining the boundaries of creativity, authorship and the impact of technology on the ever-evolving canvas of visual expression.

Photographer of the Year

The final set (Pages 37 and 38) shows an attempt to produce images using the phrase ‘Landscape Photographer of the Year’ to see if we could trick it into winning a competition for us. There’s definitely something interesting about the results and they are fairly ‘well composed’. In an attempt to generate a classic Durdle Door photo that might win a competition, the engine produced a juxtaposition of the famous arch with an aurora, something I could definitely see winning a few competitions! A much longer version of this article can be found here: OnLandscape - An Extended Look at AI (free) www.onlandscape.co.uk/2023/02/a-look-at-ai-image-generation/

Competition Winners 2023

I was delighted to be asked to judge the Landscape Group competition. It was a pleasure to view these 12 outstanding images chosen by Group members.

In critiquing landscape photographs, I consider technical aspects, composition and artistry and there was little to choose between the entries as they are all excellent.

I have chosen Mark Hetherington’s portrayal of Fairy Glen as the winner. It stands out as a really good composition thanks to its tight framing, well-defined subject matter and use of sinuous leading lines to draw the eye into the picture. Mark’s angle and perspective have successfully framed the image left, right and bottom with rocks. Artistically, the autumn colours are really pleasing and the choice of shutter speed has made best use of texture and foam in the water.

My close runner up is Perthshire Snowday by Morag Forbes for its originality, strong pattern and the use of adverse weather to create a compelling image.

Robert Harvey ARPS

www.naturalworldphotography.net

January - Perthshire Snowday by Morag Forbes LRPS (Runner Up)

February - Lake District Storm Brewing by Steve Miles ARPS

March - Lusbah Landscape by Mohammed Arfan Asif FRPS

April - Crummock Water Milky Way and Lyrid Meteors by Mark Hetherington LRPS

May - Light Through The Beech Trees by Richard Inwood

June - Little Tree in The Mist, Tuscany by Ashley Franklin ARPS

July - On the Beach by Ashley Franklin ARPS

August - Misty Glade, Chevin Wood by Ashley Franklin ARPS

September - Islandeady Lough Reeds by Steve Gledhill ARPS

October - Moody North Wales by Atul Kshirsagar LRPS

November - Fairy Glen by Mark Hetherington LRPS (Overall Winner)

December - Wharfside by Alex Stratis

January

Perthshire Snowday by Morag Forbes LRPS (Runner Up)

I took this image last December when we woke up to a blizzard, the heavy snow causing havoc on the roads but rendering the old Roman Fort in Braco and its trees particularly pretty.

February

This image was taken mid-January 2023, walking above Grasmere on the side of Heron Pike at Alcock Tarn. A 200mm lens and a slight crop allowed details of Lingmoor Fell, covered in recent snow, to be isolated. The breaking light in the threatening clouds has a hint of a stage spotlight about it!

Lake District Storm Brewing by Steve Miles ARPS

March

Lusbah Landscape by Mohammed Arfan Asif FRPS

The dunes are closest to my heart and whenever I interact with them, I try to spend time deciding on interesting compositions and perspectives that would present their stature, their indomitable spirit, their grandeur, as well as their sensuousness.

April

Crummock Water Milky Way and Lyrid Meteors by Mark Hetherington LRPS

With clear skies forecast on the night of 19th/20th April, I headed out to Crummock Water in the Lake District under a galaxy of stars. With the Milky Way core rising on the right of Grasmoor, I was really pleased to also capture a couple of Lyrid Meteors.

May

During an annual pilgrimage to this Sussex bluebell wood, just towards the end of the sunrise golden hour, I took three shots showing the golden hour effect in the beautiful colour of the sun streaming through the trees.

June

Belvedere, in my opinion, is one of the most breathtaking sights on earth, especially in mid-May when the mists swirl in captivating shapes across the hills. It is on mornings like this that my long lens always gravitates towards this lone tree sitting on a hilltop.

Light Through the Beech Trees by Richard Inwood

Little Tree in The Mist, Tuscany by Ashley Franklin ARPS

July

On my inaugural visit to Scotland (as a photographer) at the end of May, this was my first sight ever of Luskentyre Bay on the Isle of Harris. The serenity and the silence inspired me to take this abstracted shore and sea landscape, the people adding scale and grounding in reality this fantastical scene.

August

Misty Glade, Chevin Wood by Ashley Franklin ARPS

This wondrous wooded walkway known as The Chevin is my Elysian Fields and is very close to my home in Derbyshire. On one morning in late November, I saw that the dramatic canopies of snaggly trees with their gnarled branches made this misty vista all the more atmospheric, giving the vista a Game of Thrones feel.

On the Beach by Ashley Franklin ARPS

September

Islandeady Lough Reeds by Steve Gledhill ARPS

‘Islandeady Lough Reeds’ was taken whilst on a trip around the counties of Mayo and Galway with a group of photography friends from the US. It was taken with my nolonger-used large format (5x4) film camera (digital won out) and was an example of my seeking intimate landscapes.

On this first visit to Snowdonia, during an Autumn morning at Llyn Ogwen, the weather showed its different moods while capturing this classic scene of Tryfan Peak, hiding in the clouds as the beautiful autumn light falls through the moving storm clouds on the surrounding landscape.

October

Moody North Wales by Atul Kshirsagar LRPS

Overall Winner

November

Fairy Glen by Mark Hetherington LRPS

I had always wanted to visit the secluded Fairy Glen near Betws Y Coed in North Wales and I finally got the opportunity in November 2023 at the height of the autumn colours. When I took this photograph, I aimed to show off the lovely ‘S’ curve of the water flowing through the narrow gorge.

December Wharfside by Alex Stratis

Shad Thames in Southwark, a place of weathered brick and oaken bone, with its cobbled streets and lamplight, is a location where the grand and the gritty find common ground, reflected in the fleeting grace of a puddle.

January 2024

Why not enter?

The Landscape Group’s monthly competition is in full flow for 2024. At the time of going to press only the January 2024 winner was known. Again Mark Hetherington LRPS took first place with the image ‘Ethereal’ above. For a chance to get an image in our winners’ roundup, make sure you enter every month - you get to judge and be judged by your peers in the group. rps.org/groups/landscape/competitions/monthly-competition/

Ethereal by Mark Hetherington LRPS

Webb Watch

Candia Peterson ARPS

Like many of us, I have been glued to images coming out of the Webb Telescope. Their website generously offers unlimited high-resolution downloads with the disclaimer that appears opposite. It is quite easy to get lost in the dozens of images on their site, although perhaps less easy to come to grips with the mind-boggling science of creating them. For an excellent read on how the images are created from start to finish, scan the QR code on the right with your phone or type this shortened link into your browser: shorturl.at/hlwFW

In this edition, we go from the infinitely large and distant presented in a distinction-worthy panel to the relative back garden of our own solar system. The descriptions come from the Webb website.

Candia Peterson ARPS, Editor.

Spiral Art

This collection of 19 face-on spiral galaxies from the James Webb Space Telescope in near- and midinfrared light is at once overwhelming and aweinspiring.

“Webb’s new images are extraordinary,” said Janice Lee, a project scientist for strategic initiatives at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. “They’re mind blowing even for researchers who have studied these same galaxies for decades. Bubbles and filaments are resolved down to the smallest scales ever observed, and tell a story about the star formation cycle.”

Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured millions of stars in these images. Older stars appear blue here and are clustered at the galaxies’ cores. The telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) observations highlight glowing dust, showing where it exists around and between stars – appearing in shades of red and orange. Stars that haven’t yet fully formed and are encased in gas and dust appear bright red.

Webb’s high-resolution images are the first to show large, spherical shells in the gas and dust in such exquisite detail. These holes may have been created by stars that exploded and carved out giant regions in the interstellar material.

Another eye-catching detail? Several galaxy cores are awash in pink-and-red diffraction spikes. These

are clear signs that these galaxies may have central active supermassive black holes or central star clusters.These spiral galaxies are Webb’s first big batch of contributions to the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program, that includes existing images and data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope’s Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), and the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA). With Webb’s images, researchers can now examine these galaxies in ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and radio light.

Jupiter

This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. In this image, brightness indicates high altitude. The numerous bright white “spots” and “streaks” are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms. Auroras, appearing in red in this image, extend to higher altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of the planet. By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover. In Webb’s images of Jupiter from July 2022, researchers recently discovered a narrow jet stream travelling 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour) sitting over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks.

Space – The Final Frontier and The Ultimate Landscape

Unless otherwise stated, all material on the Webb Telescope site was produced by NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). It was created, authored, and/or prepared for NASA under Contract NAS503127. Unless otherwise specifically stated, no claim to copyright is being asserted by STScI and material on this site may be freely used as in the public domain in accordance with NASA’s contract. However, it is requested that in any subsequent use of this work NASA and STScI be given appropriate acknowledgement.

Image; NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team

Designer: Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI)

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Ricardo Hueso (UPV), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Thierry Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

An Alternative View

Pep Ventosa

There are very many greats of landscape photography, including our own friends of the RPS Landscape Group; Joe Cornish, Charlie Waite and Robert Harvey and, let’s never forget, Ansel, though never a member of our community!

That said, there are very few pioneers of photographic technique in the landscape genre that have had one named after them. Yet the ‘Pep Ventosa Technique’ has become synonymous with those ethereal and slightly other-worldly multiple exposure images that many of us will both have enjoyed or wanted to dash out and try (fail?) to emulate. Speaking personally, I very much fall into the latter camp.

So I was thrilled when Pep Ventosa agreed to answer a few questions. Our interview took the form of a series of written questions from me and our Assistant Editor Gaynor and what follows is an interpolation of those questions and Pep’s replies.

Candia Peterson ARPS Editor

Website: www.pepventosa.com

Instagram @pep.ventosa

Facebook: PepVentosaPhotographs

Golden Gate Park

Interview with Pep Ventosa

Questions by Candia Peterson ARPS and Gaynor Davies ARPS

Pep Ventosa was born in the late 1950s in a rural community near Barcelona. We began by asking him about his earliest memories of photography. Like so many of us, his first camera was one he was given as a child – an Olympus Pen in 1967 –a compact half-frame film camera.

“I really enjoyed taking photographs with that camera and that initial discovery of the unique feeling of capturing and freezing moments in life. I began photographing my surroundings; my

parents’ farm, my pets, a school trip; all of which triggered my curiosity to look at other photographs - in magazines and books, editorial and street photography, landscapes, portraiture, black and white, photojournalism, advertising. I grew up fascinated by the photographic image. Looking at photographs became a way of looking at life and seeing the world, something magical, and that power completely caught my eye. I still believe all photographs are interesting; they all carry the illusion of reality.”

Arc De Triomf, Barcelona

Heywood Gardens

We moved on to ask him about his “light bulb moment”; what was the inspiration or idea that led him to develop the method that carries his name, how long did it take him to evolve and perfect his style and what were the pitfalls/pratfalls along the way.

“At the core of all my work is an exploration of the photographic image itself and the different ways it can take shape. I use photographs as raw material, like paint, combining them in different ways to find new visual experiences, new representations of my subject.

On a trip to Paris in 2008, I was standing in front of a beautiful carousel wondering how I might capture the whole of it. I began shooting it repeatedly as I walked around it. Back in my studio, I experimented with strategies to combine the images and ultimately began overlaying them to see what became of the orbit, the carousel and its environment. That’s how I hit on my “In The Round” style. I got hooked and quickly applied it to different subjects; primary among them was trees. My “Trees, In The Round” has remained one of my

fundamental and growing bodies of work. I went to art school to learn darkroom techniques in my 20s, though it was really the digital revolution in photography that brought me into the medium full time in the early 2000s. The potential of the digital darkroom sparked a renewed interest in my search for new ways to create pictures. I work at it most days and, with practice and repetition, my style began to emerge and deepen. It continues to evolve in a lot of ways, large and small. I have experiments cooking and am often discovering different combinations of tools to incorporate into my process.

It was an ongoing process of trial and error. Since my work involves the combining of many shots together to arrive at a new place, I don’t really know how it will look until I begin layering and compositing. While I’ve certainly learned to sense the potential of an idea for an image, the trial/ error strategy is still the only way for me to discover what happens when a group of photographs are combined; to discover what was hiding in there. I’m always looking for that surprise in my work, something I enjoy very much.”

Carousel de Jeanne d’Arc

We thought this was fascinating and a good point at which to move on to what are Pep’s favourite subjects, his planning and workflow.

“One thing I particularly like is representing familiar subjects in new ways. In the end, I’m interested in the subject matter that attracts the average person who enjoys taking snapshots. Conceptually though, my main subject, the essence of what interests me, is the photographic image itself; images that have been liberated from the illusion of reality that characterises a photograph. I think there’s a space between photography and painting and that’s where I like to play.

There may be a sketch of a plan but I feel more like a street photographer hunting for images. For instance, I may be generally looking for a tree or other subject to shoot but usually not a specific one in a specific place. I prefer to stroll the streets and during the process an interesting new subject, related or not, may present itself. Lots of ideas are found by chance.

My work is done in post-processing, which brings back one of the things I missed about the analogue camera days; the suspense: That little dream that rose between the shooting and the developing of the film. I look for ways to reintroduce that anticipation and surprise for my own amusement. The look of a multiple exposure photograph is a technique as old as photography itself; it is something that inspired some of my work. I reproduce the technique off-camera, layering my source material in the digital darkroom. That way I have total control over each individual shot. The number of images in a single work can vary from ten to two hundred”.

Pep’s parting words:

“We all have a lifetime of ideas blooming in us and the possibilities of photography are infinite.”

From Alamo Square

We concluded our discussion by asking Pep about what advice he might give to you, our readers. I found his answer intriguing; so much so that I am going to make this a call for submissions for the autumn edition of this magazine. This is not a competition and featured photographers will be chosen informally by the editorial team and Landscape Group committee.

• Choose five different bodies of work from your favourite photographers.

• Try and mimic the style.

• Make a list of the conceptual elements you like about it. These may include things such as: emotional, minimal, symmetry, patterns, mystery, calm, excitement, vibrant, ghosting and so on.

• Finally, develop a series and statement of your own, one that is unrelated to the bodies of work you studied but which has in common some of the elements on your ‘likes’ list. In other words, use the experimentation with the studied concepts as a point of departure, rather than as a destination, in order to create something that feels original and personal.

Please send submissions to landscapemagazine@rps.org

We don’t want to see the whole process of your development but we would like to see a series of 8 to 10 photographs plus a very short description/ statement of how you arrived at them, together with your list of five photographers and five conceptual key words. Please size to 1000 px on the long edge. Those chosen for inclusion will be asked for high resolution versions in due course.

Where in the World? II

Jill Taylor ARPS

Landscape Group member Jill Taylor has lived in Switzerland for many years. Between the shores of Lake Geneva and the rolling hills of the Jura lies the pastoral heartland of the Swiss landscape. Jill’s images formed part of her ARPS submission and described this agricultural countryside in a blanket of winter snow.

The rolling pastures of Switzerland in Winter

Being a life-long lover of hiking in the UK hills from my school days, I’ve continued the activity here in Switzerland where I’ve lived for almost 30 years. My home is on the north side of Lake Geneva (Lac Léman), about 15 kms outside the city. To the north, and clearly visible from my home, lies the string of mountains making up the Jura which are covered in snow as I’m typing this article. On the other side of the lake lie the Alps, always an impressive sight when they make themselves visible.

To add to my life in retirement, there is now the addition of a lovable, fairly large dog called Kobie who also appreciates our

woods and hills (maybe he had no choice in the matter). It’s always a pleasure to get into the less frequented Jura hills (altitude 1700m at their highest) and particularly so when the snow arrives. In winter this means carrying the usual rucksack and sticks, plus snow shoes as well as my camera kit. I have a Canon R5 and a well-used Olympus OM1. The latter camera is the obvious choice for snow-shoeing as it’s much lighter and smaller.

About 30 minutes from home the landscape is predominately agricultural at about the 900m mark and, being Switzerland, there are many trails to explore.

I started to notice how graphic this snowy landscape looked some two or three winters ago and started taking numerous shots without any thought as to whether they’d be any good for a potential ‘A’ panel. Over these recent winters I began to find myself using a certain style and method that I found the most pleasing.

The contrast between the various fences, trees and agricultural paraphernalia became a common occurrence, as did the landscape curves, textures and lighting on the bright but cloudy days. It was as though everything was simplified yet stark and monochrome. The wind patterns

of the snow revealed shapes and forms not noticed in the summer months. The bare tree branches looked almost black as they stood out against all that white; every feature of bush and branch was asking to be noticed. I began to feel there was a possible ‘A’ panel in there somewhere.

I knew it had to be monochrome so I started making small postcardsized low resolution prints just to see if there was a story or pattern coming through. I placed them on the bed in the guest room, trying to pair them up and put them in rows of similar images. I haven’t counted but there may have been well over a hundred or so such images, including some forest ones taken with my iPhone along snowy forest trails. After much swapping around and many prints later I’d narrowed my selection down to 30 or 40 images that I found the most pleasing and began to wonder if there was a potential panel emerging.

To this end, I asked for a one-toone assessment and was booked in with Tony Worobiec FRPS to be held on zoom a few weeks later.

This was during the pandemic when we all found ourselves using this form of communication more than ever before. I was told the project had potential and which images were the strongest and which needed to be replaced, plus one that he really liked for the central image. This meant back to the drawing board, more reshuffling and searching for replacements.

I’d become particularly attached to a couple of vertical forest shots taken with my iPhone which I imagined could be used as ‘bookend’ images at the end of a line in a panel. They had the full dynamic range of tones and the lighting was striking, as were the shapes of the trees. TW told me to ditch them in so many words as they didn’t fit with the rest, which were ‘whiter’ and of landscape format. This took a bit of absorbing and accepting. As it was now March and, if I was going to apply for the next available assessment in May, it was touch and go whether I was really ready and confident or not.

Luckily for me, we had more snow in the coming weeks before I had to have my panel ready. It wasn’t a particularly heavy snowfall and therefore showed the texture of the landscape more than my rejected ones and this proved to be an added dimension to my potential panel. So it was more postcard-sized images being swapped around on the guest bed until I settled on a 3, 5, 7 format for my hanging plan. I was happy as I felt the 15 images did work together and so it was now

a matter of creating the final 15 prints using Hahnemühle fine art smooth photo rag paper and my trusty printer. I was really happy with the results using this paper; I felt the pure blacks were wellrepresented and the snow, which is rarely particularly white, looked convincing too.

I had a bit of a wobbly moment when 2 of my final images were taken in overcast conditions and were therefore of less contrast but I was happy with

the consistent pure black shown. Another dilemma was a bunch of grass in the bottom right hand corner of another image. I hummed and haad about whether to keep it in or not as it’s generally best to keep boundaries ‘clean’ but as there was something similar higher up in the image I left it in to match it.

The assessment day came, which happened to be the first in-person assessment after the pandemic. I was able to attend

as, coincidentally, I was also in the UK for a reunion with some old mountaineering friends in the west country. I was allowed to hand the panel in en-route to this reunion, i.e. After the normal date for receiving it plus attend on my way home via Bristol, which allowed me to spend the night before the assessment in a nearby hotel.

I was the last of the five panels being assessed that morning and, as all four ahead of me had

been successful, I was mindful of the average pass rate and that someone must fail. The first judge up was very complimentary which was a great start and the second was also positive but did mention the 3 things I was concerned about but followed up by saying these were minor features and that it had reached the standard required for an ‘A’ panel. You can imagine how pleased I was!

Finally, I would highly recommend a final one-toone when you think there is a prospect of a suitable panel. Tony Worobiec was helpful, constructive and patient with me; I learnt a lot from the process, whether it led to success or not.

Inspiration

Wherever we are in our photographic journey, there is always room to learn, discover and take inspiration from the work of others. Here are a few ideas.

Read this:

Infrared Photography by Laurie Klein, Kyle Klein and Shelley Vanderift. Publisher: Amherst Media.

This is a really useful primer for anyone intrigued by the possibilities and potential of creating infrared images. Whilst covering more than landscape, the book takes a deep dive into the science, getting started, how things look in infrared and – most importantly – how to post process your images successfully.

Follow on Instagram: Five Instagrammers from around the world:

@patrick_lambertz – Swiss photographer Lambertz specialises in beautiful, ethereal and quite contemporary “portraits” of chalets in his homeland.

@icm_kaisasiren – Kaisa comes from Lapland (Finland), well inside the Arctic Circle. Her ICMs of her local landscapes are inspiring and colourful.

@oceancapture – if you’re interested in photographing water and looking for photography tours and workshops all over the world, check these guys out.

@boukou9_cityedition – Milwaukee-based Ian Dickman is an urban architecture specialist. His cityscapes and architectural details are usually taken from an unusual perspective and offer lots of inspiration.

@mattoliverphoto – From the Peak District, Matt’s woodland photographs are beautiful and his use of light and colour is exemplary.

Watch this on YouTube: Did you know that the great Ansel Adams was also an accomplished classical pianist? Watch this 20 minute film about his life and work from 1958. www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-BhJQqHXfQ&t=34s or scan the QR code on the right.

Listen to this PodCast Photographic Connections with Kim Grant

An engaging weekly listen, whose subjects for interviews have included landscape luminaries Nigel Danson, Alister Benn and Rachel Talibart. All the episodes contain an extra dimension in the discussion, usually to do with some aspect of mental wellbeing, connection with the subject and mindfulness.

For suggestions to be included in future editions of the magazine, please write to: Candia Peterson at landscapemagazine@rps.org.

The editorial team would like to apologise to Steve Gledhill ARPS. One of his Intimate Landscapes in the article featuring his work in Issue 12 was inadvertently cropped to be substantially more intimate than he intended.

We would like to make it up to Steve by showing here the image as he edited and produced it.

Sycamore Gap by Anthony Wright ARPS