One to One
Andrew S Gray takes Lauren Scott on an abstract imaging tour of Northumberland, for a unique style of landscape photography created with a camera in motion
Find out how Andrew S Gray creates his beautiful painterly pictures
While most landscape pros wax lyrical about the golden hours and finding the perfect light, abstract photographer Andrew S Gray (Andy, as he’s known to most) is happy to work with what he’s got. This is just as well: I’m meeting Andy on a bright, clear summer’s day that’s perfect for the beach, but less perfect for taking photos of the beach.
The plan is to spend a day with Andy travelling to some of his favourite haunts around the Northumberland coast. I meet him in the early morning outside Alnmouth’s Old School Gallery, where his first exhibition is being held. After viewing his impressive hanging prints – and getting a flavour of the day ahead – we drive to our first destination, Dunstanburgh Castle.
Arriving at 11.30am, just as the daylight is peaking, would throw many landscape pros off, but no fear. Andy tells me he shoots to fit around his schedule, and while he’s checked the forecast before our shoot, he never feels confined by plans, or compelled to shoot at a given time. This is because his personal style is based around intentional camera movement (ICM for short) and long exposures. “I have always enjoyed having a camera in my hand to make traditional landscape images of the local iconic views,” Andy says.
What started out as minimalist long exposures progressed to intentional camera movement, which is now the only technique he uses. “The looseness and ability to play without being tied by the light or weather affecting the scene you’d normally be shooting is the style’s appeal to me”, he says.
When we talk about camera kit, I find that Andy’s approach is refreshing there, too. “I still use the Nikon D700 I got back in 2012”, he says. “I prefer to make do and use what I’ve got, rather than spend money constantly updating.” It’s this approach that has pushed Andy’s creativity, rather than limiting it. Although he has a mirrorless Canon camera for shooting YouTube content, he finds it too sharp and too well-resolved to create satisfying abstract images.
Some of my images are recognisable vistas… some are formed from feelings and emotion, as if from a painter’s brush
At our first location, Andy grasps the camera by the grip in one hand, then lets it fall in an unrestricted way around the frame as he presses the shutter. ICM is a freeing shooting technique that does what it says on the tin: it means moving the camera on purpose during long exposures so that the resulting images are artistically blurred. How the camera is moved is completely up to the photographer, though. While it can sometimes be a hit-andmiss approach, it does mean that every frame – particularly in Andy’s case – is unique.
I’d never experienced Northumberland, and Andy is a fine tour guide to the coastal sights. Next, we carry on to Bamburgh Castle, which is busy with tourists playing on the beach in front of it. “Having people in the frame won’t matter here, as they’ll blur out when you set a long enough shutter speed,” Andy explains.
As we reach our spot in front of the castle, Andy is quickly ready to start firing off some frames – around four or five – which he will blend together later on in post-processing. Traditionalists might look for reflections in the puddles, or to make a feature of the seaweed, but he doesn’t spend hours honing the frame. “Some people would complain about the messy foreground, but a flick of the wrist (with a long exposure) and that disappears.”
During our sunny shoot, Andy uses a sixstop ND filter on his lens, to reach exposures of around 1/2 sec to a second at ISO 100 and apertures of f/8-f/11. He keeps his camera in Manual mode to keep control over the resulting images, although there’s no set formula for his image making. “I do this or that because it works and I realise it works. It comes from years of playing around and knowing what I’m doing intuitively.”
Using a 16-35mm lens, Andy zooms in further to avoid incorporating bright parts of the sky in the composition. “Having a very bright light source in ICM means that the light follows you all the way around the frame. If I clip the shadows, however, I can lighten things up by adding another layer.”
While he’s framing images and finding the best spot to stand in, Andy is less random than he appears. He uses distinct shapes – buildings and castles – to provide a focal point in his images. “Even when blurred, having curved shapes can provide natural leading lines,” he says.
At our final location, Lindisfarne Abbey, I notice that Andy moves the camera