Coast at Sheigra #2, Sutherland, Scotland
Sunset light on the far north west coast of Scotland; a wilderness of windswept rock, clinging lichen and wild seas.

Rocks at sunset #1, Sutherland, Scotland
Painting with a water brush dipped in sunset colours.

Rocks at sunset #2, Sutherland, Scotland
Painting with a water brush dipped in sunset colours.

Coast at Sheigra #1, Sutherland, Scotland
The north west of Scotland is a rugged wilderness with a coastline to match. At the end of the road beyond Kinlochbervie lies the isolated crofting village of Sheigra which consists of just a few houses and a small graveyard. Five minutes' walk from here takes you to this view of rocky inlets and small sea cliffs. It's a hidden gem. Using a tripod, remote release and graduated neutral density filters to balance the intensity of light between upper and lower halves of the frame, I used a long exposure to build up the warm magenta light reflecting on the waves into a painting-like blend of sunset hues across the sea and wet rocks.

Bournemouth Beach, Dorset, England
A short but not instant shutter captures an impression of the rolling surf as flecks of reddening sunlight reflect on the cloudtips and wet foamy beach.

Gower Coast #1, South Wales
Precious Stones. The wet rocks glint like jewels inbetween crashes of sea spray.

Gower Coast #2, South Wales
Coastal Chaos: a curtain of water and light. Using a telephoto lens and tripod, I pointed my camera at some nearby rocks; I wanted to capture the chaos of the explosions of spray that followed each crash of wave. Shooting in a direction near to where the sun was sinking towards the horizon highlighted the seawater shards against the shaded rocks behind.

Ullswater in Autumn, Lake District, England
Timed exposures are great at building up colour onto the surface of water, but a normal snapshot can be equally effective if the palette of the scene is mixed and vibrant. In this shot of Ullswater lake in the Lake District of northern England, the vibrancy and contrast of the autumnal foilage were boosted by the backlight from the low-angled morning sunshine, giving it a watercolour-like palette. I stitched 6 photos together to create the panorama; the full image is over 13,000 pixels across!

Denali and the Chulitna River #1, Alaska, USA
(See #2.)

Denali and the Chulitna River #2, Alaska, USA
I spent a couple of days driving up the parks highway, which follows the Chulitna River northwards up towards the immense Denali National Park, searching for the best viewpoint of the mountain from which to photograph. The Denali Viewpoint South campsite isn't the closest view of the mountain but being able to frame the immense river bars of the Chulitna winding like silvery ribbons through swirling dust storms towards the looming mountains more than compensated! I used the gravel islands at bottom-right to 'anchor' the image; a long exposure helped to build up the post-sunset alpenglow of the clouds reflected by the water.

Denali and the Chulitna River #3, Alaska, USA
The sunset colours were beginning to fade and slip further behind Denali a short time after the previous images, and the sky overhead had begun to clear changing the hue of the river. Two small clouds drifted into the frame to echo the sand bar islands in the river below. This is probably my definitive version of the series.