Harris photography workshop in February
I have just returned from my Harris Photography workshop in February 2022. I spent 3 weeks on the Isle of Harris prior to the workshop to get to know more intimately the land,new walks and observe even more closely how each of the beaches on the island works. This becomes crucial when you are leading photographers out on the island and trying to find the best places in any given condition. A love of the island, in conjunction with knowledge and familiarity, is means that I can take photographers to the correct locations on each day of my photography workshops. I also enjoyed deepening the connection that I have to the Isle of Harris personally as well. The weeks I was there alone were stormy, wild and dramatic. Photography conditions were tough and prepared me for the week ahead with my 3 clients who joined me.
The wind didn’t let up during the week of the harris photography workshop in February this year. But with storms and winter weather on the Scottish Islands, big waves also roll in. The benefit of being on the Isle of Harris in the winter months! My lovely small group were so relaxed about the wild weather that they just embraced and enjoyed it all. We headed out each day to different locations depending on the wind direction and always seemed to get the best out of each day regardless. We headed to the stunning Luskentyre beach most days. This beach has the most dramatic backdrop of all beaches on Harris, with views directly onto the Hills of Harris. And with the sprinkling of snow that we had on the first day, it was even more beautiful.
We were rewarded with some beautiful big waves to photograph at different locations, most of which were chosen to be out of the wind! The darkening skies soon told us when it was almost time to retreat into the car to warm up a while, but not before taking some images with beautiful dark blue-grey sky above turning turquoise waves.
Whenever I am leading a photography workshop, I am always most conscious of the comfort of the participants and balancing that with time outdoors. So we spent most days out whilst I saw weather windows and indoors when the weather was just too wild and cold. Helping everyone with their images, setting up lightroom catalogues and choosing a few from the day is amongst the things that I often help people with. I feel that going home with more knowledge as well as inspiration is an important aspect to photographic workshops. So I spent one cosy morning near the end of the workshop going through everyone images and helping them choose 5 images they were really happy with and getting them through to completion. It was really amazing to see how everyone interprets the same scene in a different way.
On our last evening we had an Aurora warning so a couple of us headed out to see if it was possible to photograph the Northern Lights over the Isle of Harris. With photography like this you need a fast, wide lens and a sturdy tripod. It can be fairly specialised to photograph but even harder is finding the clear skies needed! We got lucky for about 5 mins and captured an image of the aurora over Seilebost. If you want to join me in Harris, I am planning a series of very small, bespoke workshops on the Isle of Harris for 2023 so watch out on my site and newsletter as I release them soon.
