White Horses

White Horses

Conditions change so fast on Shetland. A cluster of tiny islands taking the full force and weather of the Atlantic. The sky changes totally within minutes. The 200m cliffs poking out the Atlantic seem to divert the clouds, sometimes. You need to be very organised, previsualised and patient. Very patient, with a bag of dry clothes in the car! I made a series of photographs of this scene in this week, the week that my father in law, Ian Cochrane Millar died. I’ll never forget the contrast of the sublime happiness of coming back from a morning in the landscape to that extreme sadness. I’ll never forget the guilt that I felt that I wasn’t there for my wife or her mum when the phone call came. We used this photograph on the order of service for his funeral, it seems all to apt for many reasons, but mainly just for that tiny hint of sun on the clouds whilst all around is dark.
(Incidentally, the rocks on the right are Fitful Head and this is the bay where the Braer ran ashore in 1993. This is quite an emotive location for me.)

Technical details

Nikon D2X, 1/2s at f/16, Lee grads (and a lot of dry lens cloths!)

For more information on the making of this and the other photographs on my site please visit the Photography Tips and Articles pages

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We chose Mike’s photograph because we felt it captured perfectly the precious, pristine landscape we should all strive to protect. It also demonstrates Mike’s hard work and dedication to landscape photography - great images like this take a lot of commitment as well as technical skill. "Head of PR, LowePro camera bags, UK

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