The Highs and Lows of a Landscape Photographer

Cheryl Hamer

Photography is my passion. I turned pro 4 years ago and now run my own photography workshops company offering workshops at all levels here in North Wales, Iceland and the USA. I really enjoy teaching people - almost as much as making my own photos - I love those 'light bulb moments' when i can see that people have 'got it!

cherylhamer.com

I had been looking forward to my trip to Lewis and Harris for ages; at last, I was getting the chance to get to one of my bucket list photographic destinations – and for a whole 9 days – I was so excited!

As well as a fabulous destination, I was also looking forward to 9 days of photography just for me, what a privilege to be able to do this, and one that is very rare for all of us. So, my expectations were very high even though I was striving to keep them in check. I knew that the Hebrides in winter was likely to be frequently rainy and windy, but I come from Anglesey, which is the same, so I thought I would be prepared for this. I had all sorts of plans in my head for photographing in the rain – lens hoods, rain covers, umbrellas, even experimenting with deliberately allowing the rain to smear on the lens (a UV filter I hasten to add, not my actual lens), so I really felt prepared for this too.

Image 1

How wrong can you be!

So, do you remember Ciara and Dennis – how can you not?! Sod’s law would have it that I managed to coincide my trip with these two storms, arriving just before Ciara and managing to get away on the last ferry before Dennis really started to do its worst. Consequently, my trip was a pretty constant battering of very high winds - at least in the high 40’s and mostly in the 50’s and 60’s - rain, hail and snow. I had one day of calm - the penultimate one – and one of just high winds with no precipitation – the first one.