Leading Lines Photography is now up and running, so pop on over and take a look. In it I have a little information on my own photography (and how to book me if you’re having a wedding/event or need someone to sort out some extreme sports photography for you!). I also have the start of a series of free online tutorials that I will be adding to regularly. That’s part of an ongoing project, but I think it’s going to be fun working on it, along with the range of photography courses that I will be starting to offer soon.

I’m not sure how often I’m going to be updating the Solitude blog in the near future. I might keep it running for personal blogging from time to time, but I’m going to be pretty busy over the coming months trying to make a proper start with the Leading Lines site.

Thanks for all the support over the last year or so – it’s been great to see so many people reading so faithfully. Hopefully I’ll see you all over at Leading Lines too!

Dougie

I landed back in Glasgow last monday with a lot less of a bump than when reality came crashing back in sometime mid-week. It’s hard to describe how life feels when you get home after a long trip. It’s a little like everything’s the same but different. Glasgow’s not changed much since I left (almost two years ago given my time in Kendal before heading for Patagonia). Then again, a lot of friends have left, and a lot of familiar haunts have gone too.

The trip itself seems different in my mind than it did two weeks ago too. It was still real then, by the very fact that I was still on it. Now if it wasn’t for a hard drive full to bursting with photos I’m not sure I’d be convinced that it wasn’t all just a very long, rather strange dream. Thankfully, not only not only have I still got that drive full of photos I’ve also got the exhibition to work on for the next couple of weeks, easing the pain a little and softening the impact as Life tries to sneak up and shanghai me once more. After much indecision, processing and reprocessing I finally dropped off the final selection of prints at the framers this afternoon.

With that all in hand for the moment, I thought I’d take the chance to let you know what the script is for the exhibition over the next few weeks. A lot of you know what it’s all about already, but bear with me as we seem to have picked up a few more folks along the way since the blog started back in November!

The exhibition is not just my work, it’s a joint show that I’m part of along with Jaime Medina Jimenez, a painter from Chile. The concept that we’re working around is that I’ve travelled from the Lake District in Cumbria to photograph the area he grew up painting. Jaime in turn has spent some time in Cumbria painting the area I normally photograph. Everything on display will be new work produced specifically for this show. I’ve not seen what Jaime’s produced for the exhibition as yet, but have seen some of his other work. He has a wonderful style and a great talent for capturing the atmosphere of a place and I’m really looking forward to seeing him unveil his Cumbrian paintings on opening night.

Which is what this post is all about: we’re having a small opening event at 19:30 on the 19th of May in the Theatre by the Lake, Keswick. I’ve been quite astonished at the level of interest in the blog since I started it, so thanks folks. It’d be great if some of you guys could make it along to see what I’ve been rambling on about in person. Entry is free, so just turn up. It’s also woth pointing out again that the exhibition is being run as part of the Keswick Mountain Festival and that there’s a whole lot of great events in and around Keswick between the 19th nad 23rd of May.

With respect to the photographs themselves, in the end I’ve decided to produce only a limited edition run of 120 of each of the images that will be shown. Each print is numbered, signed and produced by myself using the best pigment based inks on acid free 100% cotton rag fine art paper. The first print of each of the images will be available at the Theatre by the Lake exhibition.

Now that they are all at the framers and out of my hands for the next week, I guess that I’ve got some time to sit back and think about life, the trip and what to do next. Thankfully, there’s also the Scottish Highlands to re-familiarise myself with! I’ve not checked everywhere just yet, but so far I still don’t think there’s anywhere more beautiful in the world than what we’ve got on our doorstep. Perhaps a wee trip north is in order…. Fancy hanging around for the ride?

the Falloch last weekend

It would seem that Gwen and Garth think otherwise. In total, 15 of us went on their honeymoon, spending two weeks camping and driving through Botswana and Zambia…. After all, why relax and spend some quality alone time when you can keep on organising a big group of people, face yet more cameras and bring the family and friends with you around the game reserves of southern Africa? A lot of folks I’ve talked to think they’re nuts, but having joined them for the trip I won’t hear a word of it!

It was a great trip: a great group of people, wonderful locations and a fantastic journey. For me, it was a perfect end to five months touring the southern hemisphere.

We travelled in a convoy of bakkies (pick-up trucks) kitted out with roof tents and an off-road trailer from the farm where the wedding was held, driving north into Botswana and the Kalahari national park on the first day. The weather at times was torrential but thankfully there was a respite from the rain to allow James to break his vehicle just 10km into the park. An hour later and the linkage rods for the tortion bar had been removed from both front wheels, we’d transferred the trailer to my car (the “Flying Haggis”) and we were back on the road. I say “road”, but we drove in mud and sand exclusively for the next four or five days.

In retrospect, we didn’t see that much game in the first couple of days as we drove into the heart of the Kalahari, but us un-initiated Scots were happy enough to see the likes of Impala or Oryx for a good while and soon enough we were getting to see a whole lot of pretty incredible wildlife (when we didn’t walk right past it on the way into the bushes to pee anyway – mind the lions!). As we continued, James’ bakkie continued to deteriorate to the point that the whole tortion bar was removed and the bearings left exposed: a bit of a problem when you’re two days off-road to the nearest place to buy some grease. Thankfully we had a farmer with us (the groom) who came up with the cunning plan of packing them with peanut butter, held in place with the plastic from a six pack of beer. It was good enough to get us through the next three or fours days driving in the desert. And so the “Peanut” was born.

From the Kalahari we moved north to Chobe where we actually went out with a guide for the day, allowing us to all travel in the same vehicle for a while. The game was incredible, including a couple of Impala that even the Saffers thought we should stop for….

After spending a little over a week constantly making and breaking camp and touring in the vehicles, either watching game or trying to get from A to B we were all glad of some chill-out time to round off the trip. Jungle Junction is a small island in the Zambezi river, a truley idyllic setting and the perfect place for Garth in particular to recover from the horrific level of inefficiency and corruption involved in getting the group across the border from Botswana to Zambia.

Honeymoon support team A

There are so many stories from the two weeks, there was so much banter and so many good times that it’s hard to write about it in a concise manner. Getting lost in the bush in Zambia, Silly Hats and slacklines, grumpy Germans and visiting Vic Falls are just a few that pop to mind…. If you really want to hear the stories, find me at the bar sometime. In the mean time, I’ll be hiding behind my computer working on the exhibition for next month.

Big thanks to Gwen and garth for sharing their honeymoon with us all. I’ll never forget it, and I hope that you two enjoyed it as much as we all did.

Too much of fun!

I also really appreciated the opportunity to visit Blue Dog, the photography school that Augustine teaches at. If anyone out there happens to be reading this from the Brisbane area, they’re well worth looking up! I was very impressed with the range of workshops offered and the quality of teaching.

SS Dickie, Dickie Beach

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since leaving Oz. I flew to Africa at the start of the month and met up with some old friends from Scotland to attend a good friend’s wedding. I’ve spent enough time working at weddings to think that I’d seen most things, but I’ve got to say that Garth and Gwen got married in proper style. Through the day I spent more time catching up with old friends and inducting new friends than I did taking pics (so nice to be a guest rather than working!), but I tried to make the most of the opportunities that presented themselves.

The venue was Garth and Gwen’s farm around 500km west of Johannesburgh. The service itself was about 5km from the house in a specially erected wooden hut. The weather in the lead up to the weekend had been very wet so the normally dusty, arid landscape was particularly green and lush. Gwen arrived in a horse drawn carriage through the bushes and we all watched the service from pews of straw beneath the thatched roof.

The reception was held in a stunning marquee back at the ranch, where about 120 of us were camping for the weekend. It really couldn’t have been a better setting, but it’s always the people that make or break a wedding. Everyone we met was brilliant: open, friendly and having a great time. I’ve always thought that you can judge a man by the company he keeps, and by that measure Garth’s a great lad. Come to that, no matter how you cut it, you just can’t fault the man. Heck, how many people would volunteer to share their honeymoon with a bunch of strangers?

And that’s why I’ve not updated the blog for the last few weeks: I’ve been out on Gwen and Garth’s honeymoon with another dozen people, touring Botswana and Zambia in a convoy of 4x4s and getting to know the local wildlife. But more about that in a couple of days….

Opera House abstract

I’ve got to admit that I like Sydney much more than I thought that I would. It’s a great city, with plenty to do and a cracking atmosphere. It’s also a good place to wander around with a camera, as made evident by the hoards of photographers at the more popular sites. It’s a bit of a double edged sword, that: you pick out a nice composition in the afternoon and return at sunset, only to arrive there and find your shot full of people with tripods! I’m not really sure I understand why either: all these people with big fancy cameras lined up on the very last rock before the water’s edge, with nothing but open water between them and the opera house and the harbour bridge. How can they not see that they are standing on the perfect foreground?!

Ah well, back for sunset then, when it’s nice and cool….

I also took a brief jolly into the Blue Mountains this week, so called because the mist of oils from the eucalyptus trees that hangs in the air makes them look blue, and because everything else for hundreds of miles around is pancake-flat.

You could argue that the Three Sisters (above) are the New South Wales equivalent of the Torres del Paine. There are pictures of them everywhere you go in Sydney: in the tourist shops and agencies, in the train stations, on bill-boards…. If there’s one place* outside the city that you simply must visit, it’s the Three Sisters. Measured against the Torres del Paine, they hardly even register. In fact, having just come from Patagonia the Blue Mountains on the whole really don’t make the grade in the mountain stakes.

But what’s in a name? Call them the Little Blue Hills with Trees On and it’s another story: what they lacks in drama, majesty and ruggedness they compensate for in atmosphere, mellowness and being a much more reasonable temperature than Sydney. It might not be somewhere that I’ll be rushing back to, but I throughly enjoyed my day walking along the cliffs of the plateau.

I also took the time to visit another star attraction of the area: the Jenloan Caves. These caves have been a tourist attraction since around the 1830′s, and it’s easy to see why. I’ve been down a few holes in my life, but I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a more spectacular cave system. The limestone formations are as varied as they are incredible, as beautiful as they are difficult to photograph. I gave it my best shot though, just or you guys.

*one place that’s not a beach anyway….

Those of you that follow the SPOT maps will no doubt have noticed that this didn’t happen.

I’m not 100% clear on why. I spent a considerable time on the phone to various people at the Quantas call centre in London and they sort of, hazily, hinted that perhaps the plane might have been broken in the ‘quake. Maybe? They didn’t seem to know very much about very much to be honest: when it became obvious that I wasn’t going to make it to New Zealand, they offered me the opportunity to fly direct to Sydney instead… provided I could meet the flight in Los Angeles. I had to gently point out to the girl on the phone that I was as close to Los Angeles as she was to Cape Town, and suggest that perhaps something leaving from the same continent might be more convenient.

Which took me back through Buenos Aires again: the home of Tango. Being astonishingly bad at dancin’ (no matter who’s askin’) I opted to take in a show rather than a lesson….

Buenos Aires is a pretty special city, so it was good to spend a couple of days there before heading off to Oz. It’s a vibrant place, full of life and energy, and I even managed to find an English guidebook for Australia, which will be handy now that I’m to spend more than the planned three days here. Considering my recent run of luck I also picked up a portable hard drive to back up the Patagonian files. It’ll be put in the post home just as soon as the 11,997 files have been copied! I guess that’s what happens when you’re shooting timelapse sequences (oh, didn’t I mention them?). Flicking through them has given me the chance to look back over the last few months and has made me think….

It’s been an exceptionally frustrating few weeks: I was ready to leave South America almost three weeks ago. I felt that I’d achieved what I came here to do and was really looking forward to moving on with the journey. Missing Easter Island was a blow, but missing New Zealand as well… well that’s seems kind of harsh! (life, eh?) I think what’s really frustrating me is that juggling travel plans hasn’t really allowed me to make the most of still being here: it’s a big place and getting around takes time. But as I sit here surrounded by camera gear, cables and hard drives it seems to me that things aren’t that bad really. It’s still a criminal shame to have to waste the best part of two weeks faffing – that’d be a good holiday at any other time in my life – but damn, I got lucky along the rest of the way!

Looking back, there have been some exceptional times in Patagonia, a great many experiences that I’ll never forget. I’m also happy with what I’m coming back with for the Lakes Exchange exhibition in the Theatre by the Lake in May. Since I arrived in Australia a couple of hours ago I gues I now have everything that I will be using in the exhibition: I’ll certainly keep taking photos and posting them here but they will fall outside the remit for the project. I’ve got to admit that I’m a little bit sad to see the end of this stage of the project – the pressure might be off for a while, but it has been a real joy to work on it this last three months. Heading out into an unknown landscape renowned for it’s fickle weather with limited time in the hope to find material worthy of the project was quite intimidating three months ago. Reviewing the material now I think that it’s paid off and now that the images are in the bag I’m really looking forward to seeing it all coming together alongside Jaime’s work when in may.

I’m painfully aware that the blog has been long on excuses and short on photographic content this last few weeks, but bear with me! I’m working on it; let me find my feet and get back in the game. Somehow missing Easter Island came good when I got to paddle the Futaleufu instead: not much in the way of photos that would interest many of you, but it was some of the best kayaking I’ve ever done and I loved every minute of it. So far missing New Zealand hasn’t worked out as well, with only a few days in Mendoza to show for it (about two weeks short of the time you’d need to try Aconcagua, though the day cycling round the vineyards wine tasting was… amusing). With any luck I can pull something worthwhile out the bag in Oz to go some way towards making up for it. Browsing my shiny new guidebook on the plane, I don’t think it should be that hard to find something worthwhile!

In the mean time, it’s been a long day: a big night out last night followed by a fourteen hour flight in the morning so it’s all a bit fuzzy round the edges at the moment. I’ve no real idea what the next few weeks will bring.

I do know this though: I will return to Patagonia again someday.

I couldn’t see how I was going to top Easter Island as a destination for taking photographs, so I didn’t even try: instead I opted to get back in a kayak. Other than a couple of hours on a grade three run in Pucon a few weeks ago, I’ve not been on moving water in almost three years. Not knowing much about the river had no idea if I’d even be able to tackle it when I got there, assuming that there was space and kit for me when (if!) I arrived. This is where I owe a huge debt of thanks to Mark and the folks at Bio Bio Expeditions.

Mark somehow managed to sort out my tangled travel issues and arrange a transfer across the border for me, and allowed me to join a group of clients that he had in for the week. It meant I was joining them a few days into their schedule and leaving early but they were a great crowd, both guides and punters, and I got to enjoy three excellent days on the water with them all.

And what a river! Beautiful big rapids, a perfect level, great weather and a magnificent setting. You really couldn’t ask for more, unless you wanted pampering with an open bar and a hot tub to enjoy a beer in at the campsite after your day’s paddling. Which you have! You can even get a massage if you want one. Bio Bio really do run a pretty slick operation down there.

The irony of it all is that the river valley was one of the most naturally beautiful places I’ve been in Patagonia: I could have spent weeks there with the camera, touring around and taking photos. I only had three days though, and with the river running right past the camp I’m afraid that the camera was seldom out. I hope you’ll forgive me for not being able to show you what the place was like properly, but perhaps the shots below will explain why I was concentrating on other things….

I will not be sorry to get on the bus tomorrow morning but as they say: any Puerto in a storm.

Getting up in the morning with no power isn’t (as far as I can tell) that unusual on Chiloe. Parts of the Island only have power at certain times of the day anyway, running to a schedule, so I didn’t even immediately assume that the lack of electricity was down to what had felt like a minor tremor through the night. I certainly wasn’t worried about anything and never even considered taking the SPOT with me, which as it happens would have saved a lot of worry for the family back home! It wasn’t until much later in the day when I got back from the tour I’d gone on that I learned how bad the earthquakes were. Given that a lot of the worry was about tsunamis it is perhaps slightly ironic that I spent a fairly dull hour sitting on the beach at the pacific coast mid-afternoon.

I’ve heard from most of the people that I’ve met travelling recently that could have been in the area of the quakes, with the exception of a couple that I spent some time with last week who were starting work in Conception on thursday. I’m sure that they’ll be fine, they’re probably just a bit too busy (or unable) to get in touch with a random lad they only met for a few days. I know that Jaime is waiting to hear from some of his family in Santiago – all the best lad! I’m sure that they’ll be fine, but it can’t be nice waiting for word.

That aside, the only immediate implications it has for me is that my travel plans have all just gone right out the window. I was meant to arrive in Santiago yesterdeay, which obviously isn’t happening since the roads are mostly rubble. I was meant to be flying out of Santiago tomorrow morning to Easter Island, but that’s not going to happen now either: even if the airport is open I still can’t get there. I’ve tried to change my flights to get to New Zealand a bit earlier, but that was always a bit optimistic and is definitely not going to happen, so I’ve got the best part of two weeks with no plans. I’m sure that I’ll think of something!

Given the chaos north of here I really can’t complain too much.

While I think about it, here’s a few pictures from Chiloe….

Cheers folks! Stay safe.

It´s a good base for outdoor activities, or just for chilling out on the black volcanic sands by the Lake. I found myself getting back in a kayak (on a river) for the first time in around three years, which was brilliant! It really made me remember why I used to love it, so I’m looking forward to getting to New Zealand to give it another whirl. I even went for a wee wander up the local volcano the other day.

Ok, I’ve got to admit that I wasn’t that thrilled with the volcano, but that’s probably my own fault for expecting too much. Everyone raves about it here, but at the end of the day I’ve come to Patagonia on a walking holiday/photo mission, spending most of the last two months walking in some of the most magnificent landscapes you could ever hope for and for the most part doing it in perfect solitude. To ascend Volcan Villarica have to go with a guided group and after the last two months I found walking a snail’s pace, nose-to-tail up the hill kind of trying. It became so monotonous and mindless that the guy behind me kept walking into my rucksack every time we stopped.

That said, the views really were stunning. Particularly early in the day when we had a perfect cloud inversion for sunrise.

Perhaps I’m also judging it a little harshly as I’d really hoped to see some magama bubbling in the crater at the top of the volcano. Unfortunately the levels are apparently quite low at the moment and all we really got at the top was a whole lot of extremely noxious gas. On the whole it was still a worthwhile experience, and I’m glad that I went up; it just didn’t quite rate on the same scale as some other recent outings!

Tomorrow I backtrack a little down Chile to Chiloe, a large island near Puerto Montt. I’ve really not much clue what I’m going to do when I get there, but that’s because I’ve been doing some serious relaxing rather than thinking about things this last week. It’s been great, and I’m sure that Chiloe will take care of itself when I get there. I understand that it’s a particularly mellow and pretty place to visit, so I’m trusting that my return to The Mission won’t be too much of a shock to the system!

In the mean time, I took a stroll along the beach form town this evening. It might have been intented to be a week off from the photography mission, but it’s still a very pretty place to be….