One Day In Harris

Harris, a landscape photographer’s paradise. Moody skies, windswept beaches and Atlantic storms over opalescent seas. For many it is almost the perfect seascape location giving beach foregrounds, brooding skies and views beyond to distant hills or islands.

Many are the accounts of brave photographers struggling to stand upright in Harris storms, equipment failing the ultimate tests of wind, sand, water and salt and individuals returning home with sand rash.

The journey up is always filled with anticipation. For those of us lucky to live in the north, it isn’t even too far. Many choose to travel via the isle of Skye and across to Tarbert but for many years I have chosen to approach via Ullapool and on to Stornoway. It depends when you stay on the island but against instinct the journey to Ullapool from the M6 is shorter, easier and quicker than that to Uig.

We usually choose to stay on Lewis, often ( unfairly) the less celebrated of the two islands and enjoy more accessible prices than those in West Harris.

This year was not the typical April however and where previous years have brought all manner of meteorological challenges to test the photographer’s craft and stamina, our week brought wall to wall sunshine. No cloud, virtually no wind and certainly no ‘atmospheric conditions’.

From arriving on Saturday until Thursday the days were uniformly sunny. Not a cloud, hardly a wave, just harsh sun and deep shadows.

That presents a photographer with a number of decisions. Allow oneself to be consumed by angst and attempt to force the issue or relax and be accepting. I chose to relax, carry a camera ‘just in case’ but concentrate on walking, seeing island, exploring locations and enjoying just being in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Friday’s forecast showed rain which backed off to cloud alone but at least offered hope of making photographs that might give me satisfaction.

A 05.30 alarm put me on Niseaboist beach at 06.30 which was high tide and sunrise time. If you’re planning to visit this beautiful beach ( named incorrectly in my view as Traigh Iar by the OS on their maps) then the ends of the day work best and high tide gives the most options around the rocks at either end. At lower tides, some fine ripple patterns tend to emerge further down the beach.

My normal practice is to work slowly, methodically and make relatively few images in a session. However as this was my one chance I had to work quickly, make many images and even switched locations where otherwise I might have stayed put.

I stayed on Niseaboist for the first four hours as the tide peaked and began to ebb. A few patches of light appeared with the early sun but for the most part clouds prevailed allowing the soft pastel topaz of the sea to take centre stage. When the tide is receding the pressure is off for camera bag placement as there is no chance of it becoming inundated by waves but that same pressure is very much on for shoreline rocks which quickly lose their surroundings and over lapping water. This often happens in the time it takes to compose an image.

There are many challenges in such locations, all may be exacerbated by prevailing weather conditions. Perhaps the greatest is that the nature of the location brings sand, salt and water together and these are the greatest enemies of complex electronic cameras ( or indeed analogue cameras for the most part).

There seem to be two schools of thought on managing the elements. One is to ‘tough it out’ and celebrate the weather sealing of the chosen camera. My own view is to use soft weatherproof covers and view the camera’s weather sealing as the last line of defence. I’ll always have some sort of filter on the front of the lens either a screw on UV or one or more of my Kase Armour System filters. With windblown spray and salt, deposits are going to build up and eventually require attention. Managing the cleaning of a filter is always better than a lens element. I’ve found the Kase filters to be more resistant to build up, better at shedding water drops and easier to clean than any other brand.

Those attributes are on top of their unmatched optical quality and colour neutrality.

There are filter choices being made from the moment I start walking onto the beach in the Hebrides. In my favourite clouded conditions, the signature topaz of the sea is best revealed to my eye. A polariser almost always helps this be realised and so is fitted to the back of the holder before the holder attached to the camera.

Next I go to shutter speeds and water movement. My taste is generally to allow some motion in the water. In the early light a CPL might be sufficient when combined with a small aperture of f11 to give the look I’m after. The combination of wind and tide usually means some experimentation is needed. As the light increases, I’ll add an ND8, then ND64 and perhaps even an ND1000. All the while knowing that my colours will be utterly consistent. I may remove all the ND’s for a detail in a small pool and vary things according to how much wave washed rock is in the foreground.

Most of the time exposures are between 1 and 3s. This morning gave occasional images of two minutes however.

A sturdy, solid tripod is required. These conditions with waves hitting on approach and sand being washed away on the ebb flow highlight any shortcomings. My rule of thumb is to use the biggest, carbon fibre tripod I have. I’ll choose either my Kingjoy C85 or my Gitzo Series 3. Despite the significant price difference there’s nothing to choose between them. Leg joints hate sand and salt and carbon fibre doesn’t much like seawater so I use two strategies to mitigate this.

Despite generally accepted practice, ( of favouring the thickest leg sections in sequence) I always extend the bottom leg section fully and leave it out: if possible until I get back to my accommodation. This significantly reduces the chance of getting sand or salt in leg joints. Secondly, I wash the entire tripod in warm soapy water as soon as I get back to wherever I’m staying.

Finally I’ll always use the longest tripod spikes, with the threads well greased before putting in. I’ll take them out after the trip to clean and regrease. Seized spike threads are a nightmare.

Marginal Failure Points

So much of the above depends upon a number of critical elements when an entire week’s photography has to be accomplished in a single window of opportunity. The stakes are raised still higher if one considers that this might be the sole window for the year as, for me, visits to Harris tend to be annual.

Much has been written about marginal gains but in circumstances such as that morning it’s all about marginal points of failure. Identifying and eliminating every imaginable point of failure gives the greatest chance of success in the limited time available.

There are two fundamental threads to pull:

• High proficiency in the craft of photography and complete familiarity with the equipment being used. These are not the times to be unskilled or to try new items of kit.
• Complete faith in the reliability and performance of the equipment being used.

Over 45 years making photographs professionally means that an instinctive approach is based on the certainty of knowledge and the reliability of countless repetitions.

I’m still using a Nikon Z7, bought on the day orders were opened and now approaching 5 years old. I use a 24-200mm more often than any of my ‘superior’ lenses in such circumstances to reduce the number of lens changes. On that morning, I used only the 24-200mm and a 14-30mm.

Even the camera bag is part of the chain of success that must not be broken. I know a photographer who, some years ago, slipped on the rocks at Niseaboist and his D810 camera was broken inside his ( well known brand) camera bag. This left him without a camera for his entire week. I chose the excellent Summit Creative Tenzing 30 bag which I’ve been using for the past year.

It is a superb bag and performed in outstanding fashion throughout. It is well designed, made to an impeccable standard and gives the level of protection, ease of use and comfort that I require.

It demonstrates a great deal of learning about how we actually use our bags and offers improvements not seen elsewhere.

As photographers, we visit beautiful locations to make photographs,  not to think about equipment. Once the process begins, the very best equipment ‘disappears’. By this I mean that there is nothing to interrupt or distract the process between the photographer’s eye and the image produced. Each item is chosen carefully, there are no risks possible when opportunities may be so limited. There is no room for error or for equipment failure and no room for any item of equipment to get in the way of making photographs.

Mike Prince April 2025

www.mikeprince.org

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I have been fascinated by the weather from an early age. The weather has had a big impact on my life as I have spent so much of my time outdoors cycling and walking in the mountains. When I first started doing landscape photography in 2007 I already knew the importance and influence of the weather and its effects on the atmosphere of the land. 

I have seen many photographs of the big storms in America from photographers like Jim Reed.  One of his photographs, in particular, caught my attention, ‘A Tornado, 500 Feet In Front of a Kansas State Trooper Patrol Car’, in such a way that I wanted to see a tornado for myself. 

I finally got the chance to go storm chasing in Midwest America in 2013 with a good friend of mine who had been chasing the previous year with Weather Holidays. This was a real eye-opener because the 2013 storm season was very active. I was lucky enough to see my first tornado on my first day, in fact within a few hours of getting into a chase vehicle. Many people do not see a tornado the first time they go storm chasing, as they are actually quite rare, but they are obviously dangerous, as day two proved to be.

 On day two, we were southwest of Moore in Oklahoma chasing a supercell storm. As the storm was heading into populated areas, our guide, Paul Botten, decided it was too dangerous to continue chasing as there were reports of a large tornado. Chasing storms in populated areas can be dangerous as it can be more difficult to have a safe escape route, and the local communities do not need the burden of storm chasers in the event of an emergency situation. Unfortunately, a tornado emergency was declared as this storm tore through the town of Moore killing 26 people and causing over $2 billion of damage. Our chase day was over; there was nothing anyone could have done apart from warning the authorities of the tornado, which is done by storm chasers and spotters.

This type of storm photography can be quite difficult at times as it is more like photojournalism than normal landscape photography. There is not always time to set up a tripod – quite often I am leaning out of a car window travelling at speed while trying to capture a fast-developing supercell. You seem to be constantly on the move and when we do stop it isn’t always ideal for pictures, but this is what it can be like when the weather is active and you are chasing tornadic storms in peak tornado season. 

However, it is not all frantic. There is another side to storm chasing; there are vast stunning vistas and astonishing photogenic storms. At times we are able to stop and watch these storms develop, and if lucky, witness a tornado or two off in the distance ripping up dust on the high plains away from the towns and doing no harm. Watching these storms explode upwards into the stratosphere with their powerful warm updrafts is quite something, they sometimes display mammatus clouds (under the anvil) and with the setting sun, they look otherworldly especially with lightning. Sometimes the lightning gets so fierce it is like strobe lighting. As the air cools after sunset they can really get active, constantly flashing and lighting up the night. 

There are generally three types of supercells, the classic (normal precipitation), HP (high precipitation) and LP (low precipitation), and a storm can change from one to another quite quickly. The classic and especially the LP storms can produce some of the most photogenic skies and do tend to be slower moving than the HP storms, which can be more dangerous. At the extreme end of the scale you can have rain-wrapped tornadoes that are not visible; the HP storms can produce flash flooding and extremely poor visibility. These storms are generally not photogenic unless you are in the clear and out of the rain. All supercell storms can produce hail, from pea size up to a monstrous 4 inches in diameter, although as large as 8 inches has been recorded. It is not uncommon to see hail between 2 and 3 inches in diameter (baseball size).

Navigating these storms is done by our expert guide, Paul Botten. He has a wealth of experience chasing the big storms in Tornado Alley and has safely witnessed 225 tornadoes in the 17 years he has been chasing. He uses several different types of live weather radars with a fixed laptop in the lead chase car. These SUV cars are fitted out with all the necessary ariels, wiring and laptop holders at the start of the storm season. There are typically 2 to 3 cars for each tour. One tour lasts 10 days and we can cover 5000 miles during this time. Over the years we have chased in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota and even Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada. Weather Holidays also chases the monsoon season in Arizona. Every chase day is different and every tour has different guests which make for a great way to see the real America and meet like-minded people. The Weather Holidays drivers are all experienced seasoned storm chasers with some being professional meteorologists. 

The photography equipment I use for storm chasing differs slightly from my UK landscape kitbag. I use at least two DSLR cameras, so I don’t have to change lenses. It is not practical to change lenses in a moving car, and there is usually dust or rain, or both. I use the Nikon D810s, one with a Nikon 14 24mm f2.8 lens and one with a Nikon 24 120mm f4 lens. Sometimes I use a Nikon D500 on a Nikon 70 200mm f2.8 lens. All lenses have lens hoods to try and keep water droplets off the front lens element. I carry at least 2 lens cloths because water on the front lens element can be a constant problem. This is why I don’t use filters when storm chasing. My main tripod is a Gitzo systematic with an Arcatech levelling base and an Arca Swiss Z1 ball head. I also use remote shutter releases and a light sensor for lightning to trigger the shutter. These are ok but don’t always work, especially in awkward light situations such as bright daylight or a low contrast sky, even the passing headlights of a car can set it off. They work best when the lightning is close enough to stand out against a dark sky. If I look back over my archives, nearly all of my best lightning shots are without using a light sensor, but I would still recommend a light sensor as you need every advantage to capture lightning. 

The kitbag I use for UK landscapes consists of a modified Osprey rucksack with a ventilated back, one Nikon D810, the lenses are all Nikon, 16 35mm, 24 120mm & 80 400mm. I also use a Wolverine 100mm Kase filter kit. As well as the same trusty tripod I take storm chasing and a remote shutter release. 

I am a full-time multi-award-winning landscape and storm photographer based in the Derbyshire High Peak. I run my own one-on-one tailored landscape photography workshops in the Peak District and I am a storm chase photography tour guide for the British based company Weather Holidays.

www.johnfinneyphotography.com

www.instagram.com/john_finney_photography

www.facebook.com/johnfinneyphotography

www.flickr.com/photos/28189469@N06

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Exactly one year ago I started using Kase filters, I had used other well-known brands previously and I was intrigued to see how the Kase system compared to them and how they would help me in my photographic journey as a landscape photographer. I initially purchased the Kase K8 holder and a wide range of filters, I have since upgraded to the K9 holder, I will go into the benefits of this new holder a little later on.

What did I enjoy most about the Kase Filter System as a whole?

The magnetic CPL for me was a game changer, being a landscape photographer. I’m often taking pictures in not the easiest of locations i.e close to a cliff edge, well not easiest for me as I suffer terribly from a fear of heights! So, in places where you must “focus” on your safety, a system that made my life easier and safer was most welcome.

The CPL attaches magnetically, no screwing needed, this made it so easy to take on and off as I required. The new CPL for the K9 filter holder system is slightly larger from the previous K8, increasing the size from 86mm to 90 mm, this avoids any chance of vignetting when used with ultra-wide lenses.

The turning dial to adjust the CPL is also large and easy to use. It is also easy to remove as there are two indents on the back plate allowing you to get a good grip on the CPL even with gloves on and this is something that I personally like a lot, most of the times I’m setting up during the early hours of the morning or late evenings when the temperatures tend to drop so you need to work fast in cold conditions.

The K9 holder is sturdy and easy to use, it has a faster screw lock mechanism so this allows you to work faster without compromising the safety of the holder and filters. This works great for me and I think most other landscape photographers would agree, sometimes you just don’t want to be fiddling around with complicated filter systems. The filter slots in the K9 are designed so that the filters slide in smoothly and easily, especially welcome when working in precarious locations as previously mentioned. I have experienced this being an issue with other brands used in the past, so a very welcome improvement for me.

Another plus point for me is having the gasket on the holder rather than on the ND filters, this avoids any damage to the gasket as I had experienced with other brands. The one thing that I personally like is the fact that the ND filters are 150x100mm in size, I found with previous systems I used that placing the square ND filters precisely into a holder was time consuming and the removal difficult, the Kase ND’s just slide in easily and easy to remove.

The filters are high standard optical glass and colour neutral, I found the neutrality is outstanding both on grads and ND filters and thanks to the Nano coating the filters wipe clean fast with no smearing, this in particular is very important for me as I shoot a lot of seascapes sometimes in weather conditions that are not always favourable. The filters are also shock resistant/shatterproof so if you are unlucky enough to drop the filters you stand a better chance of them not ending up in a million pieces. The filters are also scratch resistant, more than often I’m photographing in harsh environments so I appreciate the toughness of the Kase filters.

As I said previously, I have a wide range of Kase filters and am often asked, “Which filters do you use the most and which filters would you advise I buy?” My answer is always it depends what you would like to achieve, having said that I generally seem to use my 6 stop ND filter and a soft or medium graduated filter as I enjoy LE very much. I would advise anyone looking to buy their first set of filters that these three are a good starting point.

In conclusion, one year on I must say that my experience with the Kase filter system has been all round very positive and I find myself to be more relaxed when out on a shoot thanks to the ease of use and the sturdy build of the system. This for me has to be one of the most important things in my photography journey, in order to not take the pleasure away from something I love doing dearly.

Thank you to Kase Filters UK for making my photographic experience all the more pleasurable.

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