The Intimate Landscape

Sweeping views of wild places are sheer escapism, letting me be at my desk and in the wild at the same time. Intimate landscape photos are about thought. They don't take me to a place - they make me think what kind of place it could be. Rather that cramming it all in, intimate landscape photos keep it all out - stripping scenes down to the one or two elements that define the entire emotion and feeling of being there. They show the pebble, not the mountain; the leaf, not the tree; the water, not the river. Without any obvious scale, context or closure, the viewer of an intimate landscape is free to explore the image and draw their own conclusions.

I find these Intimate Landscapes the hardest to photograph. It's not that they present any special technical challenges - no special lenses are required, I might not have to travel very far to find them, and they work best in poor weather (which we're not short of) - it's just that they are difficult to see. Wide vista sunsets over snow capped mountains are relatively easy to spot. There aren't many of them, and when you see one, it will stop you in your tracks. The challenge with the intimate landscape is that it's everywhere. It's at your feet every step of the way; it's the rock you sat on for lunch, or the stream you just crossed. You can pass a thousand of them on a walk and never know it. With so many potential shots, it's difficult to select the one that's worthy of your living room wall.