Reader portfolio

from Amateur Photographer 15th March / Premium March 2022

Seeing in B&W

Spotlight on readers’ excellent images and how they captured them

Bill Duncan, Dundee

About Bill Bill is a member of the Photo Forum at Dundee Contemporary Arts. Favourite subjects I love being outdoors, where I’m drawn to form, texture and tone. How did you get into photography? For as long as I can remember I’ve been making and looking at drawings, paintings, prints and photos. Visual art has been a constant in my life. What do you love about photography? Mastering techniques can be frustrating and satisfying in equal measure. It’s constantly stimulating. First camera Aged ten, a 6/11d Diana. Current kit Nikon D7100, Nikon D90, converted for infrared to 720nm, Nikon and Sigma lenses, Giotto tripod, LEE filters. All my kit is second-hand’. Favourite lens Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM. Favourite accessory A £20 pair of gloves with magnets and openings on the forefingers and the thumb. Dream purchase A high-quality drone to experiment with. What software do you use? Lightroom CC and Silver Efex Pro. How do you find inspiration? Northern landscapes are my thing. I’m a repeat visitor to Orkney and Iceland. And I’m lucky to live near amazing mountains, beaches and forests. I love glowering skies and moody weather. Favourite photographers Don McCullin for the darkness – literal and metaphorical – in his work. Ragnar Axelsson for his bravura approach, which often ignores photo conventions. Thomas Joshua Cooper. Favourite tips Get a firm grasp of technical basics by mastering the exposure triangle. Then experiment, take risks and surprise yourself. Engage actively with photo books for inspiration. Is there a story behind your photos? All these images were taken on one four-day trip over the Highlands of Southern Iceland in a ‘covid-window’ in July. I had to travel light, and stayed in mountain huts on the Laugavegur trail. This necessitated a stark decision: taking just one camera and one lens. See more Instagram @bill.duncan.1253

Sulphur Wave

1 Mount Brennisteinsalda (sulphur wave) rises from the vast lavafields. Ahead, four days of snowfields, river crossings, black sand deserts and the birchwoods of Thorsmork. Nikon D90 (converted), 18200mm, ISO 1000

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Into the Mountains

2 Where the lavafields meet the mountains. The snowfields assume intriguing shapes; some abstract, others suggestive of human or animal forms. Soon the snow sets in, and we walk in it for 10km across the highest part of the trail Nikon D90 (converted), 18-200mm, 1/100sec at f/11, ISO 200

The Storhiver

3 Shifting clouds of steam rise and drift, pressurised gases bubble and hiss through the magma. The odour of sulphur dioxide – rotten eggs – hangs in the air. Nikon D90 (converted), 18200mm, 1/125sec at f/10, ISO 200 Storkonnufell – the Woman’s Peak

4 The day after snowfields, geothermal springs and lavafields, a black sand desert, flanked by snow-capped mountains and distant glaciers. Nikon D90 (converted), 18200mm, 1/125sec at f/11, ISO 400 Hattfell

5 An extinct volcano looms above the black basalt desert. This was Iceland at its most lunar and alien. Nikon D90 (converted), 18200mm, 1/250sec at f/11, ISO 200

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