Tim Parkin - Landscape Photographer

The Nab near the summer solstice has to be one of the most popular photographic locations for landscape photographers in the North of britain. Nowhere in Britain (apart from maybe the Lochan Na h'Achlaise) has such a small area of prime photography with the added attraction of Saltwick being that the sun sets in the perfect location only during a few weeks at the end of June. So, I should have been unsurprised to find myself in the company of nine other photographers, including Mr Mike Kipling (a very successful Yorkshire stock photographer). Now I would normally be trying to avoid the 'reflex' composition but given that my window of opportunity for such a shot was so small and that the sky was offering so much, I thought "What the hell!" - after all it's a simple set-up on the large format camera (although it did require turning the back of my camera 90 degrees, the only such shot in my large format portfolio I beleive). The result is dissapointingly beautiful. On the one hand I would love some of my other pictures to have the immediate impact that a photograph such as this has and so I'm sad that all it took was for me to turn up on the right day and point my camera in the right direction to get a great picture (OK, maybe the composition makes a difference, perhaps I chose to include the specular highlights of the drier rocks rather than moving to the right for a full reflection) but I'm also happy because the transparency is a joy to behold on the light table. In the end, as long as you have a balanced diet there has to be room for a double fudge sundae somewhere :-)