One to one
Every month we join a top pro for a one-day masterclass. This issue, Chris George joins top landscape photography Jeremy Walker for a summer shoot on the Somerset coast
Jeremy Walker on using ND filters
As we drive along the twisting Exmoor road that leads down to Porlock Weir, Jeremy Walker explains why he has chosen this spot for our one-day shoot.
“I have been to Porlock Weir about three times before, and there are a couple of spots here that I still want to recce,” he explains. “This location is not as well-known as the Jurassic Coast, which I shoot a lot, but that is best photographed at a different time of year. Most of the cliffs and beaches are southfacing, so are in shade at sunset.”
“The small harbour here is picturesque, and the pebble beach has some beautiful wooden groynes that suit Big Stopper long exposures. With the beach facing north-west, it is lit the whole day at this time of year. It is not overrun with tourists, even in the height of summer, which is another bonus.”
It is the tide times that are the most crucial for this location – this part of the Bristol Channel has one of the biggest differences between high and low tide in the world. We needed to be set up on the beach for the hour or two before high tide, which today was at 5.28pm. (Jeremy uses www.tidetimes.org. uk.) It was now 1pm, so we had plenty of time to talk technique, and explore. Sunset was not until 9.34pm – and as the previous evening had produced a spectacular sunset, we were hoping the today would produce more of the same.
“Professional landscape photographers have a reputation for just shooting at dusk and dawn, but as long as you avoid the middle of the day, you can still should be able to get good shots in the morning and afternoon,” Jeremy says. But with a windless heatwave of a day supplying endless blue sky and no clouds, nothing was going to be easy.
Although he’s best-known for his landscapes, Jeremy has not always been a scenic specialist. Even today he has a regular gig Digital Camera 9
shooting artist portraits for a magazine. After studying photography at Gloucester College of Art, he spent 10 years working in design studios in London and Northampton, with the aim of becoming an advertising photographer. The reality was that he ended up shooting commercial and industrial subjects. “I shot lots of shoes, photographed plenty of college prospectuses, and toured the country photographing countless bus shelters,” he reminisces.
It was when Jeremy set up on his own that he diversified into shooting landscapes. “When client work was quiet, I went out and shot stock – taking pictures of the power station at Nottingham or lorries on the motorway, for instance. It was still the golden era of stock photography – and I got my first library contract with the renowned Tony Stone agency, on the basis of three sunset images I had taken on holiday in California”.
One of his best-selling images was taken on a day trip with his mother – a shot of sillaging, with a red tractor with a yellow cutter creating diagonal lines across a green field of grass. Eventually stock became 80% of his income, so he moved back to the West Country, where he had grown up. “Dorset is also a great place to do photographic workshops – but that was more luck than judgement!” he laughs.
Today stock just makes up a very small part of Jeremy’s income. “Well over 50% of my income now comes from workshops and private tuition,” he explains. “This is supplemented by private sales of prints and commissioned work.” His latest venture is a book of images of ruined castles and other buildings shot within their landscape – it will combine around 100 old and new images, and will be published in early 2019.
After a tour around the boats in the harbour, made possible by the low