ShinyPhoto

Admiring the Universe - a fine-art photographer based in Perthshire, Scotland, with interests in landscape, nature and astrophotography

Landscape, Nature and Art Photography

My mission is to highlight beauty in nature wherever I see it.

The natural environment is my passion. I like little more than to spend a few days out on adventures exploring the landscape with camera in hand, appreciating what nature has to offer and making photographs to convey my own impression of the place.

You can't beat a good walk in the woods, the calm green setting the mind at peace. The Caledonian Forest is a special place - ancient woodlands of characterful Scots Pine, birch and juniper at their most natural.

The processes that form rocks - from the oldest Lewisian Gneiss in Assynt in the north-west Highlands to the Highland Boundary Fault dividing the country into north and south halves - inspire awe. Clouds express fleeting turbulence.

A few years ago, I starting exploring the landscape as it appears by night. It was a natural progression, during Covid-19 lockdowns, to extend the interest to full-on astrophotography, so I am pleased to have added a small but increasing number of works to this site.

About Tim

I first became interested in photography when Mum gave me my first camera to help recovering from chickenpox in primary school. However it was a good twenty years later before it became a serious hobby - an excuse for weekend excursions away from town.

When I moved to Scotland in 2004, the habit extended further; I got into medium- and large-format photography, developing my own film at home, still using photography to explore the landscape. For my purposes, film has long been replaced with digital, but the appreciation of light, landscape and nature's shapes and forms continues.

I'm quite a technical photographer: out to maximize the amount of information available from the sensor, optimum image quality facilitating large wall-art prints.

Testimonials

Your craft and art are now a part of our home. These wonderful images will be with us for many years to come, stirring us to think and feel about this good earth of ours. We will be contemplating the moves of sky and water, the turns in the road and twists of branch, the power of mountains and lull of country. You have captured and expressed so well the essence of these moments...

...Family and visitors alike all remark on their beautiful and stunning imagery. They are now a treasured family heirloom; the vistas inspire me every day, and for that I must send a big, hearty "thank you!" of appreciation.

--TC, Kentucky.

My Themes

Over the years, my work has evolved to include a handful of themes:

Astrophotography
Who doesn't love looking up at the night sky? As Covid lockdowns came into effect I developed an interest in astrophotography, specialising in deep-sky objects such as nebulae (emission but particularly dark nebulae and IFN) and galaxies.
Black & White
A classic genre, seeing the world for its shapes, forms and textures without the distractions of colour.
Mankind/Nature
Human interaction in the landscape. While the scenes might look bucolic, there's something - either blatant or subtle - that betrays humanity's influence on the land. Whether the land has been used well or not is left to the viewer to determine.
Caledonian Forest
Old-growth native ancient temperate forest, rich in flora and fauna, descended from the first Scots Pine trees to arrive in Scotland after the ice age 7000yr ago.
Perthshire
This place I call home... with a particular fondness for Highland Perthshire