I have been writing a lot during Informing Contexts about getting to the essence of the subject, and in so doing, conveying my experience of The Road to Elgol to others.  I have also spoken about some of the techniques I planned to use to achieve this.  It is many weeks ago when I took this shot of the lone tree in the dark using torch light to paint the bare sense of its fragile frame, strength and resilience.

And here the black and white version:

My quest during the next few weeks as I finalise my Work in Progress Portfolio (WIPP) is to capture this ‘essence’ through a process of abstraction and reduction.  I had in mind to use the light painting techniques, along with negative images, twilight images and experiment with Sumi-E photography.  However, sometimes you have to go with the flow and see what materialises and I was dealt a stroke of luck today.

I arrived in the Isle of Skye yesterday welcomed by a northerly gale that was battering the house.  This morning, having planned to go out early to photograph the tree, it was clear that I was going nowhere, because of the strength of the wind.  So, I set up my tripod in the window, a bit like Todd Hido (except he was in his car and without a tripod!).

Through my window I wanted to capture the true essence of Skye.  After all, bad weather is a fact of life up here, and few seek to shoot the Island pummelled by strong winds and rain.

I was excited as I downloaded my first attempts – many did not work as I did not have the extent of the reduction right, had too wider view and had focused too much on the rain on the window.

As I experimented moving the focusing ring in and out to try to get the effect I was looking for, slowed down the shutter speed, moved position and changed my lens to a 70-200m my images began to improve.  For me, the following images capture better the real essence of Skye – the dramatic changes in mood and weather – the Skye I love.  Here are my efforts for today.

I would really like to hear your thoughts on which, if any, of these images work.  I have numbered the images so you can let me have your feedback.