Monotone Mountains - November Drakensberg Workshop

Getting back from Namibia I found myself hurled into commercial work - immediately photographing everything from windmills to recycled truck tyres. Reviews that were waiting in the wings also suddenly needed to be finished and my days were literally 3 hours too short to get everything done. Thrown into the middle of the end of year chaos, a quick Drakensberg workshop was like a visit to the doctor (or a zen garden possibly). My world found calm once more and I was able to breathe without thinking of deadlines, even if only for a few days.  2014 has been a hectic year with numerous workshops, a turgid financial start for most photographers I know and a sprint to the finish of December. As a result I found myself playing with image ideas that are different to my usual oeuvre - namely fiddling in monochrome.

Composing The Dunes Part 4 - Quiver Trees and Canyons (delayed workshop report)

Crossing the desert one last time we drove between Luderitz and the Fish River Canyon, before snaking our way back north-eastwards to the incredible scenery of the Quiver Tree forests north of Keetmanshoop. Crossing the desert was itself an experience. The tarred B4 highway shoots straight as an arrow after the permanent dunes around Kolmanskop towards the West. Distances are truly vast, particularly when you get to the flat landscape of the Khoichab depression that looks more like it should be found on Mars rather than on earth. The searing heat throws up shimmering mirages that double the sense of vastness.

Read more at Composing The Dunes - Part 4: Quiver Trees and Canyons... 

Composing The Dunes Part 3 - Picturing Ruins (delayed workshop report)

Traveling south from Sesriem along the D707 is an incredible experience. The vastness of Namibia’s desert landscape is only made more intense by its near emptiness. Our three vehicles moved rapidly along the dirt road that flanks the eastern edge of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, but still, distances seemed to crawl by. That is one of the complications of travelling in Namibia. The distances between locations are enormous. The workshop we are leading takes in four of the most iconic landscape destinations in Africa, but, they each require almost a full day’s traveling to get between.

Read more at Composing The Dunes - Part 3: Picturing Ruins...