I took this photograph, in March 2012. I was in Elie for an engagement shoot with Dillon and Rosalyn.
It was a gorgeous, warm day, the first really warm day in an unusually hot spell in March. We went over to that lighthouse to start our photos, and when we returned to the harbour, we went for lunch. While we were sitting outside, I took this photograph.
In terms of landscape, it's probably quite dull. The sky is flat, the sea is still, the line of the land is narrow. But I love this photograph. I love it for its simplicity. I love that it's not filled with everything and anything, clouds, sunshine, birds, tornadoes, leaves. The sky was flat - it was a very hazy day. Look through the other photos, it was almost misty. But it's not boring to me. There's a subtle graduation in colour, creeping in from the left, and fading out towards the right where the sunshine was coming from. If you saw a cloudless sky outside your window in Scotland, you'd comment on it. I love that the sea almost disappears into the horizon. This photo is calm.
I love that it doesn't tick the boxes. I like some landscapes, but in a lot of them I see over-processing. Heavy on the colour. Vignetting, hue alteration, filters and editing. Colours that pop, colours that burst, scenes that grab your attention and shake it violently. I like calmness. I like seeing what is there, I like seeing what is real and what I'd see if I were there too, rather than an over-enhanced digital interpretation. Sometimes I see those photos, and they look wrong... they look like false nails, and dyed hair extentions, push up bras and implants, fake eyelashes and fake tans. They're not natural beauties.
I think sometimes, I go to a place like Elie, and I feel calm. I relax. I switch off, and I listen to the sounds around me, and that's all I feel. I wanted a photo that captured that. I love the smallness of the lighthouse.
I love that this photo feels unusual for me, but at the same time, it feels like a step in a direction of creative calmness that I find myself wanting to be. I just wonder where, in three years time, this photograph will sit in my personal photographic development.
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