From time to time during the winter, we get inundated with Starlings. Not just a few, thousands at a time. Our area seems to be a gathering place before they flock off to their final roosting area further east. Occasionally, the numbers swell from their already impressive level because conditions are perfect for feeding as well.
They aren’t hard to spot, they move in waves across the fields and are mesmeric to watch. They don’t seem bothered if I step outside and then I’m rewarded with the sounds too. I have countless iPhone videos of them, chattering as they eat whatever bugs they’re finding in the muddy soil. They then go silent almost as one which is the signal for mass movement. It’s the trigger for my favourite part, the sound of thousands of wings beating the air. It’s hard to describe and sounds like nothing else but it’s beautiful. A raw, natural, collective power.
On one late cloudy afternoon, just before sunset, I decided I’d try to photograph this phenomenon properly. The idea hit me, I leapt up and grabbed my Canon 7D Mark ii and massive 400mm f2.8 prime and hastily mounted it onto my monopod.
I carefully crept out of the house and to our field gate and grabbed what action I could. It’s years since I photographed any action and to say I was rusty was an understatement. The light was fading fast and I knew they’d soon be gone. I whacked the aperture wide open and blasted away. No finesse or real plan, just pointing and shooting, unsure what I was really after. I’ve no idea how to count how many birds there were but definitely thousands. The noise was incredible and I’m so happy I bothered to go out just for the experience of that alone. Here are a couple of other of the images I got but I know there’s better shots to be had, I just need to be clear what I want.
Incidentally, at sunrise (or just before) a constant stream of starlings flood back west over our home. Presumably returning to their normal daytime hangouts before repeating the cycle every evening. I’ve vowed to try to follow them one night, to find out where they finally roost. That must be an incredible murmuration!
I wanted to keep the momentum going with my B&W portrait project. I’d wanted to work with Ria for a while, in fact since moving to Devon. While looking at Purpleport I saw a ‘casting call’ from Ria asking for photographers looking to work in December.
I immediately applied asking if she’d be interested in a portrait shoot here. After a few messages we’d set a time and date. I was excited to work again and especially with Ria. All the normal pre-shoot nervousness surfaced, would I be able to do her justice, will I still be able to work the camera properly and would she be able to relax? The last question is perhaps the most important aspect of a portrait shoot. It’s the hardest to achieve and the ‘thing’ that you can’t predict.
If the model feels uncomfortable, the images will look awkward and not have that special ‘feel’ to them. It’s something you can’t demand, can’t predict and can’t force. It either happens or it doesn’t. Bear in mind that in this case, Ria drove for 2 hours (in the midst of Storm Bran!), had to find our barn in the middle of nowhere, had to spend 4 hours with somebody who’s a lot older than her, someone she’s never met before, on their territory! It’s always worth noting and appreciating the level of trust she places in me. Yes there are many ways she’s checked and made sure I’m sane and professional, however, that doesn’t mean she’s going to feel relaxed and calm.
I do my level best to try to make sure my muse for the day feels respected, safe and as happy as anyone can in this situation. In reality it means I try to do the small things that I hope make a difference. Yes I’m paying for the model’s time and skill but that doesn’t help make her feel ‘at home’.
I think and hope my ‘style’ and process during a shoot has morphed over time into one that’s conducive to creating the right atmosphere. The rest, I guess, is up to Ria. When you both feel happy, images just flow out of the camera. I never over shoot. I’d way rather fewer shots of much better quality than thousands of mediocre ones that ‘hope’ to capture something cool. This means I talk and talk a lot, with plenty of breaks. Is this the best way to shoot? I’m not sure but it seems to work and I’m happy with the results.
As it transpired, I loved spending time with Ria who is simply a stunning person, both inside and out. She’s a strong, caring soul who exudes class and serenity. I’m proud to say that she arrived a stranger and left a friend. I love these interactions and it’s rare to connect so well during a relatively short time. The resulting images are testament to this. I processed 50 shots which is very unusual. Normally I’m happy to get 10-15 that I love enough to work on. Genuinely, trying to select the final shots for showcasing was a happy problem!
Last week I got back to my ongoing long-term project of docu style B&W portraits. I’ve had to remind myself of the details I’d set myself for the whole thing. Ultimately, I want to produce a coffee table book with a handful of images from each shoot.
Having run out of excuses for not picking up my camera again, I created a casting on “Purpleport“, the photographer/model site. Through this, I arranged a shoot with Alice (‘Bunny Moonshine’) here at my home. This is always an exciting thing to do with someone I haven’t worked with before. A shoot set up like this has the full wide range of potential results, from total disaster to incredibly brilliant. It’s an odd situation really, we’ve never met each other before and we’re trying to get great results in a few hours, as if we’ve been lifelong friends!
Well, I can only say that from my perspective, the shoot was an amazing success. We shot 3 different looks with Alice wearing a casual jumper, a lovely summer dress and a sorta business blouse and jacket. It always interests me how different the shots can look. It’s a combination of how the model reacts to what she’s wearing (a fascinating one), the environment or setting we’re in and of course, the lighting. It never ceases to amaze me how different someone can look between sets. I guess it’s what drives me/them to keep going and keep exploring.
Alice is just a lovely person to work with. She’s confident in a quietly assured way. Nothing brash, almost gentle and that comes across so well in her work. Of course it helps that she’s beautiful too but in a way, that is secondary to her talent at what she does. Poses, looks, styles, shapes and attitude all effortlessly came together as we shot. I like to work in short sharp bursts. The results are always so much better that way. I want my subject to make suggestions too, add to the process. The real beauty of this work is that there are no rules. I love experimenting with movement, focus and the imperfect shot.
My processing is also (hopefully) reflective of that. I like to push the contrast, push myself in how far I’m prepared to go. Tread that line between naff and artistic. Do I manage to tread it well? It’s not really for me to say but it’s the process I love and enjoy. The thing that puts fire in my belly. Often I look at a shot and it’s perfect. Perfectly in focus, lit well, model looks stunning, colours are gorgeous. I then put it through my workflow and it ends up devoid of colour, a bit grungy, blacks crunched, whites blown (or close to it), grain added to give the shot texture. Does it work? For me, yes. There’s a gorgeous contrast at play between glossy gorgeous image with zero feeling and one’s like these with natural beauty shining through a harshly treated shot. There’s an honesty about them.
I try to select the shots that I think capture the model as themselves. Obviously, I barely know them so that’s not easy but I try to pick the images I consider show them as I know them. It doesn’t have to be accurate or right. After all, often, the viewer doesn’t know them at all! By adopting this approach, it forces me to look hard at those with expression, with a slightly altered face shape from their ‘normal’ shots. In reality, I probably end up with a mixture of fully posed and some unguarded moments. Often the posed are better, sometimes not. It’s those aspects I find fascinating, challenging and enjoyable.
My previous post on this topic demonstrated how an image can be transformed into something it isn’t with just a few prompts. Given the relative ‘success’ of that effort I decided to try to push the AI machine, Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5) in Photoshop Beta, a bit harder to see what I could get from it.
For some time now I’ve been stuck with a vague project idea that’s been in my head. I’ve struggled to picture the end result and what mood I wanted to create. I had thoughts on small details but not a sole comprehensive vision. Using Nano Banana, I again took one of my existing test shots taken earlier in the year (in the wrong weather conditions) with Lucy on Dartmoor, and decided to push the boundaries a bit.
I started to build up the base image by trying to get the atmosphere right, the mood. So I asked it to give me a foggy/rain soaked landscape. It took a few attempts and changes to the prompts to come up with something close to what was in my head. This was mostly me having to learn prompts and how they work. The software struggled to get rid of the shadows that were present in the original but almost managed it in the end.
Next I asked it to add in a reference or two to time which also produced some random results. However, eventually, it came up with a concept I liked and I made it stick with that.
I then asked it to make the path a flooded stream which it understood and produced almost instantly, adding detailed rain drops into the surface. Pretty impressive for a concept.
Finally, I decided I’d make the image a tryptic and have Lucy (the lovely model in the shot) walking away, down the flooded path. Again, I had various degrees of success trying to get the system to understand what I meant and via trial and error, eventually got somewhere near my idea.
Overall, I went through a number of detailed iterations to get this end product but given the starting reference image, it’s quite stunning. Yes there are quite a few ‘flaws’ that would need to be ironed out* but as a very sophisticated tool for creating ideas and mood boards, it’s incredible. As I progressed, it threw random ideas at me that I hadn’t considered but helped make up the final piece. One aspect that’s really clever and shows the depth to the AI, is in the hour glass. As Lucy ‘walks away’, the AI realised the sands would flow through the glass so show a reduced amount in the final image!
*Note:- Flaws include Lucy’s bag switching shoulders as she walks away, the grasses on the far bank have lost a lot of definition, the rain looks too fake, etc
A huge amount has been going on in the world of photography processing that for a while, I’ve only been dabbling in. As an Adobe subscriber, I’ve been using the tools provided via Lightroom Classic and Photoshop as they’ve been launched.
Generative fill and that kind of tool has been good generally but with limitations that need to be watched carefully while working an image. The remove tools have been going through a revolution over the past couple of years and are now almost unrecognisable from their starting points. Now, we have a full suite including masking, remove and fill to name a few. Precise targeting of editing is now easily achieved and a breeze compared to a few years ago. The tools are intuitive, accurate and a lot of fun to play around with. The results can be stunning and exciting.
Adobe’s AI Fill tool has been quirky to say the least but the inclusion of Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5) in the current Beta version of Photoshop is truly jaw dropping. Yes there is still a way to go to be perfect but I could waste hours and hours of time playing with the endless opportunities that can be created with this tool. I’ll leave the moral questions of it all for now and just look at the results achievable.
I created this ‘photograph’ of a tornado from an image I shot in 2019 whilst storm chasing in the USA. I have always loved the image as it is, the colours, the mood, the drama of the storm. However, with just a couple of prompts, a liberal use of the AI remove tool and this is what the end result produced. Viewing on a screen, you’d be hard pushed to know the funnel wasn’t real.
The original shot
The AI produced tornado
I’m not kidding that although not perfect, this took me 5-10 minutes to produce from my original processed first image above. I find the results both scary and alluring at the same time. Personally, I’d never claim this was genuine but in the real world, many will. As the quality improves, as it’s bound to do, few will ever be able to tell what’s real and what’s fake and that’s only if we ever bother to try to discern.
I’m reminded of a podcast I heard a few years ago all about AI. The ‘expert’ raised the point that AI was never really developed to replace the arts and creative worlds, however, that’s where it will start to have the biggest impact.
Given our efforts to get around as much as possible and the good weather we’d unexpectedly encountered, we opted to spend the next couple of days relaxing and enjoying our cabin. Hels visited the spa just down the road at Forest Lagoon and really enjoyed the few hours chilling in the various pools. We popped into Akureyri town and sampled a couple of restaurants and sauntered around the shopping mall. We took a short drive back along Road 1 to take some pics of the mountains but other than that, we didn’t do much more sightseeing.
Our journey back to Keflavik was long but fun and the flight home was straightforward with no drama.
Iceland is a stunning island. We weren’t expecting to see the Aurora but were lucky enough to get two brilliant evening shows. The snow added to the landscape and although care needed to be taken on the roads, they were easily navigable, apart from a couple of isolated places.
Photographically, it’s a place of wonder and magic. The main problem is there’s just too much to shoot. My advice to anyone wanting to make the most of it is to try to have a theme or style you want to concentrate on. Be it buildings, roads, the enormity of the landscape, details within the landscape, literally whatever you want. Trying to do it all is too much and can leave you feeling unsatisfied you’ve captured anything that did the place any justice!
The solar activity forecast wasn’t wrong, the northern lights were gonna play, big time. Our main task was to try to find a place without any cloud cover and that wasn’t going to be over Akureyri. Due to the mountainous area of north Iceland, cloud can be a bit of a problem as it tends to be localised. One area can be free of cloud, while the next valley might have thick cloud. The only option we had was to carefully watch the local Icelandic met office app and trust it had some accuracy. Around 9pm we decided to hightail it out of the cabin and head east (as the apps told us that was our best option) as quickly as possible to try to find a cloudless sky. It was exciting stuff. We knew the lights were playing but we couldn’t see them from the cabin. We were officially chasing the northern lights!
As we left the long tunnel with our aurora apps sending us red alerts, we kept the car windows open so we could look up and see if we could see anything. As we neared Ljosavatn Lake, around 20 mins later, we thought we could see some green with our naked eyes and more importantly, we could see stars, meaning little to no cloud. We dived into the car park next to the frozen lake we’d briefly stopped at a few days earlier to see what was happening.
We were in full excitement mode but knew how briefly they may appear and go again, so we quickly got prepped. The temps were well below freezing so wrapping up warm was essential. The girls were already iPhone snapping and cooing while I was desperately trying not to fall over on the thick ice and set up my tripod, this time with my remote release hooked up to my 5D. I’d pre-set all of the general settings, iso, lens etc but the fiddly, time consuming thing, is always the manual focus. Zooming in on the small screen and focussing on stars is not easy or quick and I know through bitter experience that getting it wrong is both tragic and hugely frustrating.
NB: It’s also worth checking every 30 mins or so as the lens focus ring can easily get unwittingly knocked and very slightly turned as you reposition and move the tripod.
Time stood still for us at this moment. We kept shooting pictures for all we were worth, from one side of the small car park to the other. The sky was changing and alive with colour, altering shape and intensity, minute by minute. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. Despite the bright, high moon (not ideal) the lights kept going for us. We couldn’t believe our luck, the mostly cloud free sky, the perfect viewing spot and intense aurora. I had a constant feeling I was shooting the wrong angle and that they looked better over there, directly above, to the left, to the right! They filled the sky, everywhere.
I mostly used my Sigma Art 14mm but did switch for a time to my Canon 8-15mm L fisheye just for fun and because I could.
After and hour and 10 minutes, the show started to die down and we headed happily back towards our cabin and back through the tunnel. We headed north briefly as the clouds had cleared on our side of the tunnel and stopped on Road 83 a few miles up, just to check if they were going to come out again. They were there but the intensity and the brightness had gone. We reluctantly headed back to warm up and get very excited about our amazing photographs and not too late at 1am.
NB: It was very cold with a biting cold wind while we were out and despite full winter coats, many layers, gloves and thermals, we still got very cold. Working a camera is difficult with gloves but a remote and tripod ensure hands are in gloves and pockets most of the time after initial set up.
The forecast for solar activity and therefore excitement was extremely good for this evening so we decided to trust it and take it easy with a shorter drive up north again, this time to Dalvik. It’s fair to say that although it was gorgeous, maybe we’d become a bit immune to seeing lovely mountain after lovely snow covered mountain. Dalvik itself as much like Husavik and a working sea village so not pretty as such. We carried on a bit further north but hit a snow storm that immediately made the road treacherous so we turned around (with difficulty) and headed back the 30 odd miles to the safety of our cabin.
Determined to make the most of our time in Iceland, we decided on another road trip, this time north up to Husavik, a similar 100 mile round trip but one we could take our time with and enjoy the scenery.
We took a quick detour on Road 83 to Svalbardseyri where I knew there was a cute lighthouse and church that might be worth seeing.
It is a cool looking building with its bright colour standing proud in the white snowy landscape.
We rejoined Road 1 and went through the tunnel and picked up the 85 heading north. The drive was flat and uneventful until we reached the large bay of the north coast. The view around there was again spectacular and ‘layers’ within the photograph entered my mind again.
The bay south of Husavik
Husavik itself, we felt, was a bit uninspiring but we stopped, stretched our legs and wandered around the centre a bit. Some of the buildings in Iceland are worth a photograph themselves and whole book of images could have been made just from what we saw on our travels.
We continued north on the 85 and continued to be wowed by the scenery. We stopped for lunch in a lay-by area looking out across the sea before heading back along the road we’d come along, stopping off from time to time to take some snap shots.
Having had our day of rest, we planned a trip to Myvatn and it’s very different landscape and volcanic surrounds. The weather was going to be overcast but we didn’t let that deter us and set off around 10am. There are plenty of stop off points around the area that would be very different from what we’re used to.
The big change for our journey is the ‘new’ 4.7 mile long, Vadlaheidi Tunnel carved through the hill north east of Akureyri. It wasn’t open on my previous visit and now saves 10 miles and around 15 minutes of journey time so is very useful for the locals. However, I found it way less attractive as the views and drive over the top were one of my favourites in this area. It costs about £13 each way but you can buy a block of 10 trips at a reduced price of £9.50 per trip. We chose the latter as we knew we’d be using it a few times. It’s worth noting that we did take the long road around once (Road 83) and it was quite tricky due to ice and snow at the higher elevations but was worth the effort for the view!
Our first very brief stop off was at Ljosavatn, a frozen lake in the winter that isn’t too inspiring but has a good little car park and was well worth the brief stop as; a) we unknowingly had found a perfect place to watch future northern lights and b) hearing the creaking and cracking ice on the lake is kinda mesmerizing and interesting!
Ljosavatn
Our next stop had to be Fossholl and the famous falls, Godafoss. We parked up and then tip-toed our way across a slippery short walk up the river to the horseshoe waterfall. It’s gorgeous and one of those landscapes where photo’s don’t really do it justice. By this time the clouds had lifted a bit and brighter light was streaming onto the snowy scene. We spent a bit of time snapping away but I’d have liked to have got down to river level (not really an option btw) to see how it all looked from down there.
Godafoss
Just a few miles further along Road 1 and we were met with the slightly other worldly views across Myvatn itself. The lake isn’t the main feature here, it’s the weird rock formations, the volcanic vents and volcanoes themselves that dominate the scene. I love them, photographically they naturally ‘layer’ top to bottom in each shot. It’s the place to experiment with angles, perspectives, crops and colour.
We branched off Road 1 to take the 848 around Myvatn to the east. We stopped off along the way, taking our time as almost every turn displays a new landscape unlike the previous one. It’s a truly magical spot and a photographers dream. A few random hours are definitely not long enough to do the area justice.
Across Myvatn from Road 1Myvatn at SkutustadirA small change in zoom to 70mmA cinematic crop and road inclusion helps create more atmosphereA totally different look and feel just a few miles north east on the 848 at the Myvatn panoramic point
Just a short drive off the 848 on the east side of Myvatn is Dimmuborgir. A field of unique lava formations that defy explanation. This is the second time I’ve visited this strange place and neither time have I been able to take a decent photograph of any of it! We wandered around the very icy pathway and although we felt they were interesting, we didn’t spend too long there.
Lava Fields at Dimmuborgir
Our next stop off point was Hverfjall, a volcanic crater that can be seen from almost anywhere in the area. It isn’t that it’s tall, but at almost 1km wide and being the most volcanic looking feature with it’s slate grey colour, it stands out. Up close it’s fair to say it looks more like a welsh mining slag heap but we didn’t make the steep climb up to look into the crater itself, which I’m sure would have been well worth it.
Hverfjall
Picking up Road 1 again at Reykjahlid we headed east a short distance to reach Hverir which is part of Namafjall, a geothermal area. Getting into the car park proved more exciting than intended as the car slid sideways on the ice towards a concrete bollard as we entered and I only just managed to grab it, millimetres from a big insurance bill! I was only going about 5mph at the time too!!
This area yet again is completely different from any other we’d seen so far even though it’s only a few miles away from Myvatn. Getting out of the car you’re immediately struck by the pungent stink of sulphur which only gets worse the closer you get to the crazy vents and formations. The ground is a strange orange, claggy mud and walking boots are essential. After wandering around for a few minutes though, your feet weigh twice as much and getting about is an experience as there’s nowhere to scrape the mud off!
The features are unusual and indescribable, best shown in photographs. The landscape is weird, smelly but strangely captivating and exciting. This place is a hint of the earth’s core and how little us mere mortals know about or exposed to it in our day to day lives. I find it slightly scary, toxic chemicals, boiling hot vents and odd bubbling mud flows. Well worth a visit for anyone in the area.
Road 1 snaking back towards Myvatn
View south east from Hverir
Leaving Hverir we retraced our route back to Reykjahlid but this time took Road 1 around the north of Myvatn before heading back the way we’d come to Akureyri and our cabin. We’d had a full day and were excited to have seen so much in such a relatively small area. Overall we covered around 110 miles so not a massive strain but well worth the journey.
Squash Imagery 