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Northumberland Photography

Northumberland photography is the order of the day in this article by landscape photographer Tom White. He shares his love for photographing the North East of England and Northumberland Coast as well as a selection of his best images. This article first featured in Issue 5 of Light & Landscape.

Holy Island - Northumberland Coast

A Northumberland Photographer

I have lived in the North East of England now for almost nine years and during that time I have gone from owning a compact camera that I only used for holiday snaps to an obsessed semi-professional landscape photographer who spends every bit of time and money doing what I love. This journey has been influenced by many different things and sometimes I try to think about why it was that I first became enthralled with capturing the world around me, and also why that devotion has grown and flourished.

Sycamore Gap - Northumberland photography by Tom White

But one thing I know for certain is that the beautiful region I am lucky enough to call home has played a huge part. Whether it is ruined castles standing proud over rugged beaches, Hadrian’s Wall weaving its way through fields and over crags, or the stunning dark skies of Northumberland National Park, the North East has been the perfect place for me to cut my teeth as a landscape photographer.

And even now after countless early morning rises and hikes I am constantly stumbling across new scenes and places to photograph. Some of the places I like going to have become quite cliché in photographer circles but this does not bother me at all. If a place is popular that’s normally because it’s great to take pictures of, so going back time and time again and discovering new ways of conveying that beauty is a challenge I love. I don’t buy into the school of thought that says unless you’re photography is unique it is not worth something, because ultimately for me it is about enjoyment which is something no one else can dictate.

Embleton Bay, Northumberland Coast.

But I also love throwing my pack on and setting off into the wild – or as wild as you can get in England – and trying to make images of the places in the North East that are not so common. Being very near to the Scottish border living here has also has given me the chance to quite easily head up into Scotland and make trips to the countless number of stunning locations there. In October last year I wild camped around the Isle of Skye with a friend and didn’t see a single drop of rain which made the trip a huge success.

But whether I’ve been to a location a hundred times or never before, the main thing that connects the two is the necessity of planning before I go.

Planning Northumberland Landscape Photography

Planning my images is very important as to achieve the pictures I want, often the conditions need to be just right. That’s not to say that heading out with my camera and seeing what I come across is not something I enjoy, as it is, but especially for photographs that involve elements like a sunrise, preparation is key. 

As simple as it sounds the first thing I do is to find a location that catches my eye and is somewhere where the challenge of photographing it draws me in. This quickly turns into a number of locations and soon I have a long list of places I want to visit.

Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland Coast.

Having decided on a spot I want to visit the first thing I always do is find the location on The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE), a free computer program that is extremely useful for any landscape photographer. Using this I can establish key information such as where in the sky the sun will rise, where it will set, how it will move through the day and much more.

If you are shooting in a mountainous region it can be used to work out when the sun will disappear from view and it can also very useful for planning astrophotography. During the past year I have spent a lot of time photographing sunrises at the coast so knowing where the sun will appear in relation to my subject is essential.

Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye

So with my list of locations to hand, and having studied them all on TPE, what I find useful is creating my own Google map with them all pinned on. I then colour code them to what time of year the sun will be in the right place, based on the information from TPE. This means I can plan the coming months of Northumberland photography trips and then just sit back and pray for good weather. It also means I can quite quickly work out what destinations I’m able to get to if I’m short of time.

Tewet Tarn, Cumbria

Northumberland Photography – Final Thoughts

Having done all that I think it then comes down to having the right light, knowing my camera and kit well and ultimately a bit of good luck for me to be driving home feeling satisfied with what I captured. Sadly this does not happen nearly as often as I would like, but when it does, and I experience that moment of knowing I have perfectly captured the landscape around me, there’s few feelings I enjoy more.

Tom White Profile

I am a photographer based in the North East of England with a passion for landscape and wildlife photography. By day I work as a journalist for a national news agency in the UK but spend as much time outside of that getting out and taking pictures. I really enjoy taking images that combine water and land and making use of the tides at the coast. I also love viewing other people’s work and in particular have been influenced by those photographers that push themselves to get to remote and beautiful locations. 

Tom White Profile Photo