Author: Steve Gosling

Hero Rain Clouds Over The Cuillin

Steve Gosling reviews the IQ3 100MP Achromatic

Landscape photographer, Steve Gosling, recently took to the English and Scottish coast and countryside, with the IQ3 100MP Achromatic digital back in tow. He shares his thoughts on black and white photography and Phase One’s latest digital back. Back to the roots of my passion for photography I’ve been taking photographs since the age of 7 and when I started out B&W film was the only realistic option (colour film was expensive to buy and to process) so I grew up seeing the world as a B&W photograph. Now, I sometimes find colour to be a distraction that gets in the way of what I’m trying to say about my chosen subject. My natural preference for black & white photography has moved me towards a more abstract style which is very graphic and minimalist. I take a reductionist approach to composition – taking out elements to simplify the design of a photograph as much as I can (and that includes removing colour). And B&W suits the graphic nature of my work where the emphasis is …

Steve Gosling’s 3 P’s of landscape photography

This loch sits on the edge of Rannoch Moor – a vast expanse of open land that I frequently cross on my way to Glencoe and beyond to the Scottish highlands and islands. Adds to the challenge This area on the west of Scotland has become one of my favourite parts of the UK for landscape photography. It’s a rugged, wild landscape that I find very inspiring. It can also be an incredibly frustrating place to work – the weather is very changeable (as mentioned in a previous post, they say in Scotland that if you don’t like the prevailing weather then just wait twenty minutes as it will inevitably change). But that adds to the challenge and makes it all the more rewarding when everything comes together in a successful photograph. The three P’s of landscape photography When I am running photographic workshops or giving talks I often refer to the three P’s of landscape photography:   Planning – to work out the right time of day and year to be at a specific …

How to fine-tune your Black & White images

The first blog post I did was about converting a fairly simple image (processing wise) into a nice Black & White image.   This second post is based on a more complex image requiring more input and manipulation at the processing stage to achieve a beautiful result. “If you don’t like the weather, wait 20 minutes” I am known as a landscape photographer but a lot of the time I’m really a skyscape photographer. Frequently I look for dramatic skies and then find a suitable landscape to go underneath it. Perhaps it’s because I’m based in the UK and although we curse the changeable weather we experience, it does bring with it some wonderfully dramatic cloud formations. And nowhere is this more true than in Scotland (where the common saying is ‘if you don’t like the weather, then wait 20 minutes because it’ll change”!). A passion for the Scottish Highlands I love photographing in the Scottish Highlands. It’s a rugged landscape characterised by craggy mountains, open moorland and picturesque lochs. And one of my favourite …