Ian Cameron - Landscapes and Colour

At the end of my assessment feedback for Elements of Design my tutor suggested that I might look at the work of landscape photographer Ian Cameron to see his use of colour in preparation for the Colour projects building up to Assessment 3.  Ian’s website Transient Light, shows a wide variety of his images and also his interesting comment that some observers have found his work  to be‘saccharin sweet’, presumably because of the intense colours that he portrays in his images – but that was just what I was looking for. 

I got hold of a copy of Cameron’s book ‘Transient Light – A photographic guide to capturing the medium’ and have also been in contact with the author to enquire if I could use some of his images in my blog post to avoid having to talk about pictures which can only be linked – I have a thing about  this .. if I am talking about a particular image I want it here and not linked elsewhere, which was why I felt I had to start the hardcopy learning journal.  Ian replied that I could use some images if I linked to his site in the text and displayed his copyright, which was excellent news. 

Many thanks to Ian Cameron for kind permission to replicate the images from his website.  All images are copyright of Ian Cameron.

I intended to use a landscape image or two in the exercises around primary and secondary colours, and Cameron’s Findhorn Twilight has some spectacular oranges.

Findhorn Twilight  Copyright Ian Cameron.  Used with kind permission.

A superb violet/orange combination comes from Lavender Twilight, an image taken from a commercial lavender production site in France.  Probably not quite the classic violet I’m looking at on my colour card, but not too far off ..

LavendarTwilight   Copyright Ian Cameron. Used with kind permission.

Much of Cameron’s work focuses on dawn and dusk and there are therefore a multiplicity of examples of oranges and reds, all taken at the decisive moment (heard that before ..) when the light is perfect .. hence transient light of course.  Another great example of oranges is Slot Sculpture 4 taken in Arizona in the USA where the light colours the sandstone to perfect orange hues.

Slot Sculpture 4    Copyright Ian Cameron. Used with kind permission.

A blue comes from Palm Beach, taken in Zanzibar, with the stunning sky being a perfect colour.

Palm Beach    Copyright Ian Cameron. Used with kind permission.

Finally, Tea Plantations from Malaysia was another striking image that delivered superb greens. It also gives a fine example of red and green in an image, although not in the 1:1 ratio I need to find !!

Tea Plantations    Copyright Ian Cameron. Used with kind permission.

I could go on at some length about the website and the book and the images they show, and I would highly recommend both as examples of landscape photography and the use of intense colour derived from naturally lit situations.  It is certainly something I need to remember as I progress through Colour in TAOP and later in the Landscapes unit of the course.  When I come to that I can only hope for some decent weather and light – I would certainly not want to be doing the unit this summer!!