The Bookshelf #17 - Scotland: the Wild Places - Colin Prior
Scotland: The Wild Places
Colin Prior
Published by Little, Brown Book Group
Available on Amazon from £3.69
I said a couple of weeks ago when I talked about Prior’s book “Highland Wilderness” that it wouldn’t be too long before I walking about another book of his… well here we are; this time around I am taking a look Scotland: The Wild Places - another one of his books which is out of print and having looked through it, I don’t understand why.
I want to think about the fact that this book was published 25 years ago and then send a further thought out to everyone that it’s the gear that makes the photos. This book proves that even with equipment that would have been released over 25 years ago, Prior has managed (very successfully) to produce a book of images that would hold their own; even when compared to images that are taken by much more modern cameras.
With very odd exception, this is a book full of stunning, panoramic photography which shows off the beauty of Scotland at its absolute best. It does this by taking us through a full year in the Scottish Highlands, from the depths of winter and it’s snow capped (often blanketed!) mountains, to beautiful blue skies of summer and the fresh greens of spring.
What this book does well is that it proves to you that you don’t need golden light to capture a great landscape photography. What you do need is a good light, a good understanding of your kit and the right locations. Combine all three of these and say that you have the photography equivalent of a triple threat.
That combination is something which Colin Prior has absolutely got dialled in, and it shows in every shot in this book which, might I add is beautifully bound in such a way that none of the image is lost to the middle of the page - I feel that this is of the utmost important in a book of panorama’s where the vast majority of the images are spread across a double page spread.
There is a really good balance of pictures to text in this book, which is important for me as it gives some time to stop and do something that isn’t look at pictures - don’t get me wrong, I love looking at other people’s work, especially when it’s this good, but having some text to break up the images means I don’t spend so much time looking at images that I become blind to what I am looking at. When this is text well written, like it is in this book, it also gives you a real into the mind of the photographer, and that’s both interesting and useful to us as photographers.
Some of the images are real standouts - there’s a glorious shot of a cloud inversion at Sgurr Nan Gillean on the Isle of Skye, a shot at Loch Linnie with the most incredible blues and a burning sunset on The Isle of Mull which all just jump off the page. There’s a lot of inspiration and skill in this book and you need a copy!
As I said at the start of this blog, this book is out of print, but there are copies second hand on Amazon from as little as £3.69 - it’s worth every penny and should absolutely be in your collection.
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Check out some of my other bookshelf posts below:
Photo Credit: Main Blog Image Samuel Regan-Asante @reganography | unsplash.com