Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2019
The results of the Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2019 have just been announced and I am pleased to say my image “Forest Floor” has been awarded 1st Place in the Natural Abstract Category. The image is part of an ongoing project I am working on called Growth and Decay. I am using in-camera double exposures to produce a series of impressionistic, sometimes semi-abstract images of the natural world, depicting the cycle of life as organisms grow, struggle to survive, thrive and eventually decay. More information and images from this project can be seen under the Projects menu or by clicking here.
This particular image was taken on a not particularly promising day for photography as my wife and I were walking at Monadh Mor, a popular woodland on the Black Isle not far from my home in Inverness. Monadh Mor is a large area of over 100 hectares of rare bog woodland, the largest area of forest bog in Scotland. I am always on the look out for interesting shapes and perfect circles are not that common in nature unless you seek them out. This is a view directly down onto the top of a mushroom (sorry, my fungi identification skills are not that well developed), combined in camera with a second exposure of the texture of a nearby rock.
I always carry a camera when out for a walk, you never know what you might see or what ideas may come to mind.