Northern Adventures

So here it is then.

The big one.

I've been talking about this post for a while now.  I've been editing it for even longer.  I was talking about it even before I took the photos.  It's got to the point now where I hope the hype I've put behind it doesn't end up overtaking the thing itself.

So what is it and why is it so important to me?

This post is the culmination of a 10 day road trip holiday Lina and I took ourselves on in July, taking us to the far North Coast and exploring all it had to offer.  Holiday is hardly the right word to describe it, I remember it more as 10 days of adventure.

So what the big deal then?  It's not like I haven't done road-trip photo's before!  Well for starters, this one broke completely new ground for me, having never ventured this far up the coast before, every turn brought new excitement.  And I was surprised to find how different the landscapes, towns and people were to what I had grown accustomed to. A sensory overload. 

Add to the fact that I have a lovely new camera to play with, but only a single fixed 50mm lens to shoot with and suddenly I had found myself in love with photography all over again.  My creativity had sparked a brush fire and I was shooting with the wonder in my eyes that I hadn't felt since I first took up photography and would wander through the city for hours.

Fixed focal length lenses force a photographer to compose each shot very carefully, and a 50mm is quite tight in the way that you must squeeze your subject into the frame.  It has been said that photography is the art of know what to leave out and this philosophy is certainly something it pays to bear in mind when using such a tight lens.

Get to the point right?  With all this new creativity, I wanted to throw out the rule book on everything I thought I knew and bring you something totally fresh.  So the photos you see here have a fresh look- a look that I hope you will appreciate- is reminiscent of film photography and matte paper.  It brings out a greater range of tones and colours from my scenes.  The softly vibrant colours mirror the winter sunlight we enjoy during the trip. It reminds me of the kind of look you would find in some of my favourite surf magazines. 

And of the images themselves?  I am the first to admit, that not long ago, I would have been too scared to publish these.  I found refuge in the grand scale and impact of wide angle landscape photography, finding ways to shoot with such tight frames was difficult to grasp initially, I was particularly anxious in shooting such a big trip in a new way.  And yet, I have found these photos are a better souvenir of the journey than those I've taken before.  It seems that these images, often of some of the smaller details of a trip, mirror those that sit in the front of my memories, like triggers to bring back a scene and it's senses.

Speaking of scale- I wasn't joking when I said this is the big one- there are 72 images here, but please don't rush through, I've deliberately taken my time on this one.  

If you read down this far, then I'd like to thank you! I hope you sort of feel like we've shared a journey together.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on my new style! Or if you've been to some of the locations I've shown you here- tell me your stories! Or if you have a suggestion for me to travel to next time,  I'd like to hear that too! 

This adventure, has already reached it's destination, but the excitement for me now is that there has to be another one!

-Jimmy