19 August 2010 : 2011Transient Light Wall Calendars.

At last they've arrived!!

I hope and think you will find that these are the best printed of my calendars to date. 

To see more information about them and to make a purchase, please take a look at the Transient Light Shop on the front page of my website.

18 August 2010 : Duff Scans no driver.

Well here's a peculiar thing.  I have had a Nikon 9000ED scanner that has performed faultlessly for 6 years or so with my Windows XP machine.  Recently I decided it was about time to upgrade my aging computer to an all singing all dancing quad core la di da Windows 7 (64 bit behemoth).  It's bigger, faster and got a blue LED ON button that I can turn on with my big toe. 


Naturally enough I connected my scanner up to the machine expecting it to purr away like a contented pussy cat with the minimum of fuss.  It didn't.  Oh I need a new driver update, well silly me of course I do, I'll just download it from Nikon's site.... Imagine my horror when I discover that probably the biggest and most significant photographic business on the planet has no plans what-so-ever to update or upgrade their drivers to enable the Nikon 9000ED scanner, a machine currently produced and sold as a brand new item, to work with recent technology,  Somewhat incredulous I telephoned Nikon and eventually got through to a rather sheepish technician who confirmed those very facts.  At least he was apologetic, but never-the-less it was a metaphorical shrug of the shoulders and a clear message that Nikon is telling its customers to get stuffed!!

Fortunately some photographers with infinitely more knowledge than myself on matters IT have managed to devise an answer to the problem, and for those folk who still scan their images I hope this provides a solution.  It worked for me, and by all accounts it similarly worked for a good many others with related issues and a variety of different Nikon film scanners both old and new.  If you follow the instructions to the letter on this website  I suspect you will have equal success getting your Nikon scanner model to work with any Windows Vista 64 bit machine or Windows 7 64 bit machine.  Any other problems that might materialise can probably be resolved by referring to the link to a thread on Photonet within the text of this solution.

Hopefully your Nikon scanner compatibility problems will be resolved by the above link, which brings me on to the second issue.  Of late I have been feeling a mild sense of dissatisfaction with the quality of my scans.  The colours are good but it is as though a milky veil has been pulled across the clean and crisp more contrasty transparencies in my collection and this was most evident in a recent scan you see represented in the picture above.  The sky really is very dark even in the tranny and I have no particular problem with that it was deliberately exposed this way.  The problem is in the areas of extreme contrast where light has bled into the dark clouds causing an ugly bloom which simply isn't visible in the original tranny.  At first I assumed I was simply asking too much of the scanner, high key images or those with relatively even tonation were completely unaffected.  However I compared the results to older scans of high contrast slides and discovered this bloom was not apparent.  The conclusion dust.  I did some research and it appeared others had suffered similarly and the solution would appear to be a damn good clean, in particularly the primary mirror and lens assembly.

My machine is six years old.  Used on a professional basis the value of that machine has reduced formulaicly and for tax purposes to a virtually zero.  A spring clean by Nikon would prove costly, but worse still could mean my scanner would be unavailable for three weeks or more, professionally a worryingly long amount of time.  I opted to clean the machine myself.  I should hasten to add this is something you do at entirely your own risk and I am hardly qualified to give advice.  In short it worked for me when I checked the primary mirror I was astonished.  I had thought I was looking at the back of the mirror assembly but when I set about cleaning it I discovered that it was actually the front mirrored surface and it was covered in at least two millimetres of heavy grey dust.  How on earth the scanner had done its job at all is quite beyond my comprehension.  Should anyone else be in a similar situation and feel they have the ability or inclination to take their Nikon 9000ED scanner apart these are the guidelines I followed.

I can tell you now the difference is a comple revelation.  I will be re-doing most of my recent high contrast scans so please bear with me while I play catch up.        

11 August 2010 : 2011 Transient Light Calendar

At last the Transient Light Wall calendars have arrived in the UK and are currently being unloaded at the docks in Portsmouth.  Judging by the air freighted advance samples, I reckon they are the best printed  Transient Light calendars yet. 

I hope you enjoy them, it's always immensely satisfying choosing a yearly foilo of seasonal images.  


Arrival in Scotland should be by the end of this week and I will be able to make deliveries to Scottish retail outlets and of course directly through my website shortly after.  Keep an eye out on the CALENDARS page for availability and prices.

29 July 2010 : Transient Light At The SNPF.

I was surprised and delighted to learn that I had been invited to lecture at the

SNPF Scottish National photography Fair at the superb Scottish Natural Heritage run Battleby Centre at Redgorton near Perth. 



This event runs annually and attracts landscape and nature photographers from all over Scotland and further afield, providing a feast of photographic entertainment. 

I will be headlining with four other guest speakers
  
Fergus Gill
Danny Green
Alex Mustard 
Niall Benvie.

The event takes place on both Saturday and Sunday the 4th and 5th September 2010 commencing at 10am.  Lecture slots are approximately 45 minutes each.  Afterwards I will be available to answer any questions and of course I will be delighted to sell you a Transient Light Calendar or two and to sign copies of my Transient Light Book.

Also included are various trade stands, a free prize draw and even a daily Photographic competition judged by the lecturers at the end of each day.

Prices start at £25 up to £33.25 dependant on whether you want lunch and breakfast included. (Concessions available)

Full details and tickets can be obtained by telephoning or emailing Norlyne Rosewarne at

Tel: 01738 458609   or email at  SNPF@snh.gov.uk

20 July 2010 : Provence Workshop

Hi Folks I seem to have been away for ages.. 

From the beginning of July I spent a week in beautiful Provence running a photographic course.  It makes quite a change organising a course where sunshine is almost guaranteed and certainly expected.  Temperatures climbed to over 30 degrees with habitual regularity but were surprisingly dashed by thunderstorms that welled up near the mountains. 

The lavendar fields, as ever, were the chief reason for travelling to Provence and I was delighted to see dozens of fields on the high French plateaus.  There was one surprise, the crops usually mature with metronomic precision for the first week of July and are usually cut a week or so later, but this time many fields had not quite achieved the maturity expected and the sunflowers that usually accompany them were virtually non existent.  Never-the-less the trip was very productive and I am sure that those that accompanied me also got some splendid shots.  They at least had the benefit of seeing their results on the displays on the back of their camera.

Above is one of many shots that delighted me taken near Valensole. 

4 July 2010 : Holiday Time

I will be spending some time with my family over the next couple of weeks so the site will not be updated and it may take longer to respond to any queries - please be patient.  My camera hasn't been confiscated so I may manage the occasional picture!

01 May 2010 : New Slideshow - Treasured Moments

It's been a good while since I put my last slideshow - Drifting - up for display on my website so I thought it was long overdue for another. 

Treasured Moments is just that - little snippets of time spent in beautiful locations when the light was nothing short of magical, they uplift my very soul and make me feel good to be alive and melt away worries like icecream in bright summer sunshine. 


I have been fortunate enough to locate a copyright free version of my favourite ever classical piece - Danse Macabre by St Saens it is a highly evocative and dramatic piece of music that varies in tempo and pace successfully conjuring the atmosphere I seek in my landscapes.  It is far from the best version I've heard, but beggars can't be choosers - I trust you enjoy it. 

Please don't be put off by the associated notices that come up with the various attempts to run the software.  Providing you aren't a Mac user it works very well, (presently Pro-Show is not compatible with Mac's).

Here's the LINK to the relevant show.

27 April 2010 : Ullapool Exhibition

Beginning 01 May 2010 and lasting until mid June, there will be a small exhibition of my photographs hosted by Angus Bruce in the Gallery Cafe situated above the Northwest Outdoor clothing shop in Ullapool.  Mounted canvases and ash framed prints will be available to purchase along with a few signed copies of my recently published Transient Light book. 


The gallery cafe is a great place to wile away a couple of hours particularly if the weather takes a turn for the worse, nice cakes, tea and a decent breakfast should you want one and a oodles of great pictures to admire. 

Ullapool is a fairly lengthy journey for me, but I will be trying to get along on a few days over the period of the exhibition and would be delighted to speak with anyone similarly interested in landscape photography.

Please contact the gallery cafe at Ullapool for details of opening times.

13 January 2010 : Transient Light Photo Group

After a recent winter landscape photography course in Glencoe one member of the group, David Brean, suggested I have a web page specifically set aside for folk that have attended a Transient Light Photographic workshop or masterclass.  




His idea is that those attending a course could place images they had taken on that course, on the page, so that anyone else could refer to it and perhaps get a feel for where they would like to visit themselves, preferably with me as their guide. 

I thought it was a great idea and David very kindly set it up for me on Flickr.  In order to participate you would need to join Flickr first and then request an invitation to join the group from existing members.  It is very early days yet but if you have been on a Transient Light course and you would like to contribute your own images I would certainly encourage you to do so.  Although I won't have time to comment on every image you present I will certainly provide a meaningful short critique or appraisal of some of the images presented.

Here is the page LINK

22 December 2009 : Transient Light In Nottingham.

I am very pleased and proud to announce that I will be visiting the fair city of Nottingham to present a Transient Light lecture.  

Nottingham & Notts Photographic Society the largest Photographic club in the East midlands are hosting the event which will be open to the public.



The admission charge is £7.00 and the event will begin at 7.30pm on 12th January 2010 at the

Richard Herrod Centre,
Foxhill Rd
Carlton, Nottingham,
NG4 1RL

Contact Adrian Manhire for admission tickets and further information HERE 

The event will include a short audio visual of my work followed by the projection of some of my medium format landscape transparencies of scenic Scotland.  I will also have a selection of calendars, Photographic Workshop/masterclass brochures and my recently published Transient Light book available for sale on the evening of the show.  I hope that some of you will be able to make it along to the night.

01 January 2010 : New Year, New Slideshow

I haven't put a new slideshow up in quite a while mainly because time has been at a premium.  However with the New Year just starting I thought it would be a pleasing addition to my site so I hope you enjoy it.  This time the music includes a vocal arrangement and has a distinctly Celtic feel to it. 




The lady that sings "She Moves Through The Fair", has a beautiful clear voice, (I have no idea who it is),  I find it to be wonderfully evocative and meloncholic and hopefully my recently uploaded images act as a pleasing backdrop to her soleful voice.

Please don't be put off by the associated notices that come up with the various attempts to run the software.  Providing you aren't a Mac user it works very well, (presently Pro-Show is not compatible with Mac's).

Here's the LINK to the relevant show.

14 December 2009 : Winter in Glencoe

I have just returned from leading a winter photography masterclass in Glencoe with five other photographers including two from Slovakia.  During the four days we were there we were treated to some of the best winter photographic conditions I think I have ever had the good fortune to witness.  Dazzling colours at dawn, pink sunrises over frozen grasses, reeds and lochs with snow capped mountains, followed by all day reflections, sunshine and shadows. 

It was a wonderful sight and we shot from 45 minutes before sunrise to half an hour or more after the sun had set on every day save the last. 

I have been promised a few sample images of their best work so look out for a future link in the testimonials section of the Photography Courses page.

I believe everybody returned with staggeringly good images and even I managed to shoot 20 rolls of film whilst there.  I await the developed results with considerable interest. 

I trust I shall have the pleasure of meeting up with everyone once more, roll on the winter and a dash of snow.

18 November 2009 : St Andrews Day Launch

After last year's successful launch of eight limited edition Transient Light prints timed to coincide with St Andrews Day, Lidls has once again elected to follow it up with another edition.  This year eight new and carefully selected images have been turned into 80 x 60cm canvas prints and will be released for sale at an incredible price of £9.99. 



With prices as sharp as these it is perhaps not surprising that something has to give and ultimately it is clear that they lack the clarity and colour fidelity of my hand printed work, however they still represent an inexpensive opportunity to own a Transient Light print, so I trust you'll enjoy finding them in your local store.

My understanding is that these prints will be on sale in every Scottish Lidl's store from 23 November 2009 (don't quote me on that!!), and that a further launch will take place in Ireland. 

I am delighted to be working with Lidls on this venture once again and hope they prove every bit as successful as they did in the first year of launch where some stores sold all copies of the prints within 5 minutes of opening and reported significant queues forming outside the store prior to opening the doors.  I should probably advise everyone that I do not have any copies available for sale save for one courtesy set of prints. 

This single set of canvas prints will be personally signed by me in the bottom right hand corner of the print and they will be available for sale from my website on a first come first served basis for £29.99 + Postage. 

19 October 2009 : Landscape Photographer Of The Year 2009

The results have been announced I did pretty well, I had one Highly Commended and two Commended images.

Family Tree Mono ----------- Highly Commended
Crimson Chill ----------------- Commended
Post Sunset Depression -- Commended

Emmanuel Coupe, a good friend of mine won the biggy and is Landscape Photographer Of The Year 2009 with a beautiful panoramic stitched image of the Old man Of Storr on fabulous Skye.  I reckon he goes there even more often than I do.

14 October 2009 : Skye Workshop

Well the workshops and masterclasses have started up with a vengeance, the pace accelerating with the intensification of autumn colours.  I spent a wonderful few days with some Russian friends on Glencoe and Skye and have just yesterday returned from a lovely stay at Dun Flodigarry hostel near my beloved Quiraing on Skye.  The weather as ever was a mix of sunny and showers but we managed to skip around the worst of it and found ourselves in prime locations at the best of times for the majority of the time. 

One morning was particularly memorable after climbing through dense pine forest and then slogging onwards for an hour to my favourite viewpoints well before sunrise Olga, Emma and Annette, my three companions, were treated to a simply stunning display of pre-sunrise colour which even stretched its fingers onto the clouds above the Old Man of Storr and its brethren pinnacles. 

I hope to be able to show you some of their results on my website as I was too busy making sure everyone got the results they so richly deserved for the effort they put in to get there at the right time and neglected opportunities that were begging.. 

23 September 2009 : New Pro Show Added

A new PRO-SHOW  has been added to the existing collection of work, which I hope you will find enjoyable. 

Copyright free music has been used  to accompany the images but I'm afraid as yet Pro-Shows won't run with Mac based machines.

26 August 2009 : Launch Date Imminent

Well of course if you're reading this launch date isn't just imminent
... it's arrived ... 

First of all I hope you like it and agree with me that it is a much more sophisticated looking site.  The previous one served me well for years, but it was starting to get very long in the tooth.  It lacked a number of very useful features that other websites had; particularly e-commerce, which I think in todays world is vital.  The pictures are larger in size, easier to view and navigate, and finished off to a considerably higher standard than my old website ever permitted.  You will still need a calibrated monitor to view the images at their best, but with calibration done the viewing experience should be greatly enhanced.  

The new Transient Light website was put together and designed by Jack Brauer and Jesse Speer who did a fantastic job integrating my thoughts and ideas into a practical and highly functional package which will undoubtedly evolve further, time and necessity permitting.  The first thing you will probably notice is the choice of colour scheme, now I realise the pale blue background won't be to everybody's taste and that a nice grey, white or black is considered standard, but the last thing I want is for my all singing all dancing website to look exactly like everyone elses, there's enough homogenity in this supermarket  world already without me adding to it. 

Unlike the previous site, the search system works pretty well, have a wee play, some of the images it selects will probably leave you scratching your head and it isn't an intelligent search system that guesses what you meant to type, but in most cases it does a fair job of tracking down the image you were actually trying to find.  Currently there are around 500 images on site, that's less than previously and is partly because I have to keyword and type descriptive text for each image uploaded, which incidentally I hate doing.  However, you will find that I am completely dedicated to the task and as a consequence the number of images will grow daily.  All NEW images will appear down the side bar of the "NEWS / EVENTS" page of my website, with each image linking to a larger version of that image. 

Now that the site has full e-commerce facilities you will find it possible to buy Prints, Calendars and Books and eventually fine art cards at the click of a button.  From there you will be taken to a typical shopping cart page where your products are accumulated prior to check-out and appropriate post and packing amounts added.  The secure transaction is carried out by Paypal invoice.  Having said all that you can still send me a cheque if you prefer.  

The Transient Light Photographic Workshop/Masterclass page has been given a facelift too, information about each course has been extended and more options added along with fuller information relating to my 1-2-1 tuition days.  The option of paying the deposit for a workshop or masterclass by Paypal is now a practicality.   

New to my website are the PRO-SHOW  slide shows which you will find on the home page menu.  I've had one or two teething problems with these as the resolution is of the same quality as the raw web images.  A show could take as long as five minutes to download but I think you'll really enjoy them.  Music is necessarily copyright free or license applied for.   If a show doesn't work at the first attempt try once more. 

Pro-Shows do NOT work with Apple Mac computers only PC's

I think that's enough from me...  You are most welcome to explore the website, it was built for you, yet satisfies my artistic needs and I'm equally sure there will be teething problems to overcome.  Your feedback and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

24 June 2009 : Transient Light Exhibition.

Two new exhibitions of my prints will be rolled out during the summer months. 

The first is quite small of the order of ten to twelve of some of my finest large format Scottish landscape prints.

These will be on show in the first floor cafeteria section of the North West Outdoors shop in Ullapool as part of a series of photographic exhibitions.  At the very least you can get a decent brekkie and some great gooey chocolate cake, so do pay it a visit if you are in the area or on your way to Lewis and Harris.

Opening: 20th July 2009     Closing: 30th August 2009

The second exhibition is considerably larger and follows on from a very successful show at the Elgin Gallery three years ago.  I will be displaying approximately 35 of my finest Scottish landscape prints and during the first and second week I will be available to discuss photography in addition to signing copies of my 2010 Transient Light Calendars and my new Transient Light landscape photography book.  I also anticipate being able to show short digital audio visuals of my work.  

Address:  Elgin Library, Cooper Park, Elgin.

Opening: 5th Sept 2009     Closing: 26th Sept 2009

Mon-Fri   10am - 8pm   &   Sat   10am - 4pm

I would advise phoning ahead as gallery opening times are prone to alteration without warning.  Tel: 01343 562600

02 November 2008 : A Lidl Bit Better.

Over two millon leaflets have been sent out all over Scotland and there are two double page spreads devoted to a St Andrews day promotion of eight of my Transient Light pictures.

The large scale canvasses (60 x 80cm) which will be available on sale at every Scottish Lidl store on 29th November 2008 for the remarkable price of just £9.99.


Update: A recent report back from Lidls promotions manager indicates that the Transient Light canvas picture launch was highly successful. 8000 images were initially available a 1000 of each edition. Local scenes were sold out of all associated stores within an hour of opening, with several stores reporting a queue at the premises prior to opening. Lidls were delighted at the success and have already requested a repeat order from Transient Light.

I can apparently look forward to a similar venture with a new selection of shots for 2009.

20 July 2008 : Landscape Photographer of The Year.

Commended LPOTY 2008.


Following on from last years inaugural landscape photography competition is the announcement of this year's Landscape Photograph Of The Year 2008.
 

I feel sure the quantity and quality of work submitted will have surpassed last years efforts, so although I was disappointed not to be in the very top selection I was never-the-less pleased to find that five of my images were deemed good enough to be selected for show in the exhibition and subsequent publication in this years LPOTY book, which was more than anyone else managed to do.  I trust the competition will continue to grow in popularity.  One thing is certain it will get tougher every year.

Above is one of my commended images. "Island In The Mist"

7 November 2007 : A Picture of Health.

Earlier this year I was contacted by a representative from the Doctor's surgery at Lossiemouth requesting a large number of photographic prints extolling the virtues of Moray's delightful coastline between Burghead and East beach Lossiemouth, extending inland as far as Elgin.
 



Lossiemouth are to gain a brand new Health Centre adjoining the RAF base to cater for patients health needs within the area depicted.

I am delighted to have been awarded the contract to furnish the new building with forty selected ash framed photographs.

The new Health Centre is due for completion in January 2008 and will be opened by Royalty.

News Flash!!

The new Moray Health Centre is now open there are currently  53   20 x 16 inch framed prints on permanent display there.

07 June 2007 : Landscape Photographer of The Year 2007.

After much debate consultation and whittling down between a select panel of judges including such notables as Bill Bryson, Charlie Waite and Ben Fogle, the results of the Landscape Photographer Of The Year competition were announced in the Sunday Times.





I didn't win the big one, the £10,000 first prize went to Jon Gibbs with a picture bordering on surreal, a thunderstorm brewing behind a sea based windfarm.

Never-the-less I was delighted to learn that three of my pictures were placed highly commended and selected for inclusion in Charlie Waites new book, while one of them did it's very best for me and was selected as a runner-up netting £500.


Some of the winners and commended entries are printed in the
Sunday Times supplements 17th September 2007. 

An exhibition of the winning photographs, runners up and highly commended entries are exhibited in the foyer of the
Lyttleton National Theatre in London from 15th Sept - 3rd November 2007.

10 October 2006 : Transient Light At Apple's Core!!

Transient Light
is at the very core of the new Apple iphone.

After initial contact from Apple US, I was delighted to hear that Steve Jobs the corporate head of the company selected one of my images to be used as an embedded file in their brand new Apple iphone. 



Apparently one of my pictures (above) will be used as a wallpaper image along with Leonardo Da Vinci and other notables.


Naturally I am very pleased to be associated with such a prestigious company and I'm sure the iphone will be a resounding success.

The image chosen is a sectional enlargement of one of my fine art images.
(see above).