Mark's Blog

Around three weeks ago I was running a two day workshop with Joe Cornish at Paddy's Hole - a small, quaint yet run down fishing harbour at the mouth of the River Tees. During the workshop one of the participant's batteries went flat and he didn't have a spare. I therefore offered to lend him my Panasonic Lumix G1 as we still had another couple of hours to go before last light. Delighted at this, we set it up on my tripod where we were located on the outer collar of the harbour, which is made up of sharp craggy rocks. We decided to take a breather and whilst I was talking to Joe and another participant, the wind got up and blew the camera and tripod over. The result of which was a shattered screen, torn rubber eyepiece and badly disjointed tripod socket. A total write off it seemed... or...

It's been over eighteen months since I visited the Isle of Skye and took this image of the Cuillins from Elgol. However, having scanned it using my Epson V700 scanner, I was always aware that I could glean just that little bit more information from the transparency using a drum scanner. In particular the left rock jutting into the sea, which simply blocked up in the shadows. I decided to call in to see Tim Parkin, the font of all knowledge with these things, who kindly drum scanned the transparency (along with a few others), so that I could get the very best out of the image. What I hadn't realised is that he is able to scan right to the edge of the transparency including the film name and black border of the transparency itself. I'd seen this done by a few photographers in the past and always thought they...

'Revealed Age' is another image from my excursion to Port Mulgrave last December. I was drawn to the deep golden rust of the corrugated iron which contrasts so well with the equally worn outer layer of years of paint.  On an deep, emotional level it metaphorically provoked the thought of the peeling of old skin to expose the natural beauty of age on the inside. On a shallower level, it reminds me of the cover of Jean Michelle Jarre's Oxygene album, which I still find stunning after all these years. Having spent the good part of a full day at Port Mulgrave I came away very happy that I'd done it justice - at least in my own way. I look forward to visiting it again soon for a different take. As usual, you can find the above image and more in the Recently Added section of the website - enjoy!...

Recently, I decided to take a run to the coast to do some close-up work. A genre that I am finding more and more pleasurable. Initially, I stopped at Staithes in order to wander around underneath Boulby Cliffs as the tide was out. Unfortunately, the only image that inspired me to get the camera out was being hounded by my shadow due to the sun being directly behind me. No matter what I did, this particular image just had to wait for another day. I remembered around six or seven years earlier visiting Port Mulgrave, just up the road from Staithes. It had been an early morning shoot that day I recalled and though the light was particularly good I just couldn't find a suitable image to do it justice. I remember returning from my journey rather despondent that day not having made a successful image. This was a time when...

On Friday 20th January 2012, Ted Leeming & Morag Paterson will be launching an exhibition at Joe Cornish Galleries in Northallerton. Titled Zero Footprint, all images from this exhibition have been made in one location. A vantage point just near their home at Dumfries and Galloway. The exhibition feature a series of subtle and atmospheric landscape images  which follow the changing series through the year. You are cordially invited to attend the launch party on the evening, between 6 and 8 O'clock. This will also be an ideal opportunity to browse all three floors which will be open on the evening and to meet the photographers who have permanent displays here - me included! Why not call in for a chat and a glass of wine? Regards, Mark...

Now that I am the proud owner of the fabulous Epson 4900 printer I’ve been thinking of all those new opportunities around experimenting with fine art papers. I particularly enjoy viewing monochrome images on fine art paper due, I think, to the way it renders those grey tones in a much more delicate way than other materials. In the past weeks I’ve consciously kept my eye open for images that lend themselves to the monochrome treatment in order to display them at some point in the future at the Staircase Gallery. This is no mean feat particularly when you’re out looking for autumn colours at this time of year. But it is achievable with practice. Much like I had the same problem a few years ago when I started making close-up images when really I was looking for the bigger vista. One of my favourite monochrome photographers has to be the...

What with running five separate photo workshops, getting the Staircase Gallery up and running plus trying to make some autumn images of my own it seems like an age since I was on the Isle of Arran – yet it was only three weeks ago! Phew, time just seems to have flown by since! As the weather wasn’t favourable during our stay, John and I spent a lot of time seeking out rock details along the shores of Arran in between showers. One area I was particularly taken with was the amazing rock formations just south of Lochranza at Catacol Bay. These formations were excellent for detailed work, so we spent many hours just working the area looking for interesting features. I could see a pattern emerging with strong lines and patterning of the rock. After making three similar images I was already envisaging a tryptic at some point in the...

As mentioned in my last blog, I’m now very pleased to announce Staircase Gallery officially open! – a permanent area to display my framed prints at the prestigious Joe Cornish Gallery in Northallerton, North Yorkshire (as partly seen by some opportunistic snapshots from my iPhone). Having been given the nod of approval 3 weeks ago whilst on the Isle of Arran, I got the message along the lines of ‘by the way, we are holding a grand opening on the 28th”(!). It then dawned on me that I had very few recent images in print, mounts or frames to display at launch.Therefore, with some help and advice from my photographer friends on Twitter (Thanks guys!), I finally ordered an Epson 4900 Large Format Printer along with a roll of Epson’s Ultra Smooth Fine Art paper. After a few initial cock-ups, I was finally happy with the results from the printer...

I’m very pleased to announce that from the 28th October, around fifteen of my landscape images are to be displayed on a long-term basis at the Joe Cornish Galleries in Northallerton. The directors of the gallery have very kindly allowed me to rent the large staircase area between the ground floor and first floor areas due to a major re-structuring of the first-floor rooms. Opening of New Galleries at the Joe Cornish Galleries, Northallerton This re-structuring has, for the first time in the galleries history, allowed passionate photographers like myself to display their images on an on-going basis and of course I’m throughly excited about the whole concept. Four rooms have also been rented out to some marvellous photographers which include Ted Leeming and Morag Paterson, Mark Egerton and my good friends Peter Leeming and Ruth Fairbrother both of which I run and host websites for (shameless plug ~ I’m sorry!). All framed prints will...

I seem to have my seasons mixed up at the moment what with an Autumn woodland image posted in July and now a fresh spring-like image with bluebells. I even have an image I made on Skye last year just being drum scanned by Tim Parkin that I haven’t worked on yet! However, due to this year being more than hectic for me, it’s only just now that I’m able to catch up and add my favourite images to the website (although slow image making is pretty much the norm for large format photographers). Today’s image is of a small bluebell wood near Richmond in North Yorkshire that I have visited every year for the last four years. Its only downside is that you have to cross over two fields of cows who always seem to be curious when someone like me walks across their territory and inevitably come bounding over...