January 26I was fairly creatively bipolar across 2025. I fumbled through a love-hate relationship with photography, culminating in some of the longest stints in which I didn't pick up a camera for my own enjoyment since I bought my first one way back in 2012. It’s fair to say there were a few reasons for that. Still, there’s one in particular that’s been at the forefront of my mind lately and that is, over the years, without even really thinking about it too much, I’ve let social media and the way in which I share my work influence the way in which I actually go about creating it. Over time I’ve lost creative autonomy in a passive pursuit of meaningless online attention. That bugs the fuck out of me.
Ultimately, I’m just a massive control freak who wants to create, hoard, and exhibit the things that I’ve made on my terms. And if people want to take time out of their busy lives to come and have a look at it, then fair play to them. I quite like the idea of people having that choice again. They’re not just being bombarded with black and white photos of a bin taken by some cunt they met at a party 10 years ago whenever an algorithm decides to take a break from showing them AI slop and a celeb’s hot subway take.
Going forward, I’m going to be using this blog as a bit of a dumping ground for everything creative I’ve been up to, in a format that hopefully encourages me to just bloody make more things.
So let’s kick things off with a good old 35mm film dump from a trip to shire.
We begin by winding the clocks back to December with Christmas fast approaching and the arduous drive ‘Home-Home’, up the formiddably boring A90 rearing its endless ugly tarmac head once again. And so, in a wishful attempt to relieve me of the monotony and a more desperate attempt to avoid Dundee I was willing to add a serious detour to the journey in search of seeing something new, and maybe pointing a camera at it if we got lucky.
So it was, with 20 walkhighland tabs opened and 19 closed again, the boot was loaded with enough Christmas presents and camera kit to lower the MPG of the little red rust bucket to rock bottom as we set off at the crack of dawn.
Spoilt by the light and a mad dug for company, I rattled through two rolls of film as we trekked up a few hills, ate a couple of scotch eggs, and got one soggy foot from the not-so-frozen bog.
Luckily, if you’re in a rush, I filmed a good bit of it and you can gobble that all up in no time at all.
If you’ve got the time, however, why not make yourself a delicious little hot drink, grab something from the biscuit tin (I’m a custard cream man myself), press play on the playlist below, and just take a leisurely fucking scroll through some of my favourite shots from the day. (disclaimer - definitely a better experience on desktop than it is on yer phone)
With barely a cloud in the sky, it only felt right to load up the Nikon FA with a roll of Kodak Gold 200 for the first roll of the day, with most shots being pushed a stop, due to me feeling particularly reckless (I think the sun went straight to my head)
The first pit stop of the day, soaking it all up at Suie Bothy near the foot of Carn Na Bruar.
Was immediately drawn to these mad geometric icy formations reflecting the blue sky above us.
As golden hour first crept in, we climbed the small hill at Suie where the old farmhouse once stood overlooking the glen, but now lies empty and derelict.
Koda watching out for the farmer as I have a good nosey around what was once a kitchen basked in sunlight.
Quite fond of this shot. You can just see the silhouettes of the hills off in the distance, framed by the gaps in the boarded-up vestibule window, all the while the sun spreads across the frame, creating those messy frayed poly-rope shadows from what must have once been the building’s only security system to keep rogue sheep from entering the house.
As the sun set over Suie, my 36 shots of Kodak Gold were up. So, motivated by nothing but the purest greed for more photos, I loaded up a roll of HP5 and started firing from the hip in a race against time.
Easily my favourite shot of the day, and it was the second last one I think I took that day, which is lucky. The blacks are just gorgeous, and the textures across the frame are incredibly satisfying to the eye. It’s so simple, but I just feel like I can imagine the different interactions people have had with this window over the years, from the person who shopped for those curtains before proudly hanging them, all the while looking out at their unrivaled view down the glen. To the farmer who boarded them up one plank at a time in an attempt to preserve the dignity of its past inhabitants, only for them to be ripped down again by the local youth on the lookout for a new spot to drink their Frosty Jack. That’s what I see anyway.
Thanks for reading lads, appreciate it a lot!
Everything else I’ve been up to this month:
