Why Taking Your Gear Out of the House is Important | Scottish Landscapes, Kirkintilloch | Midlands Photographer

I love my camera but I also love keeping it safe as it is what I need to film and photograph weddings, music videos and countless other projects. I am guilty of using the excuse of wanting to keep my gear in good condition so I don’t bring it with me on my holidays. However, this weekend I went to Kirkintilloch in Scotland and I set myself the challenge of photographing some Scottish landscapes. 

Roads can look really nice | Panasonic Lumix G80, ISO 200, 35mm, f/22, 1/8 sec

This may not sound like a massive task but for me it meant overcoming my paranoia of taking my camera gear out for pleasure. All to often I find myself think “oh that would have made a great photo”. Bringing my camera up the Scottish hills was the best decision I made this weekend; I fell in love with learning and playing around with new techniques, just having fun with my camera and knowing that I was the only client I’d be answering to. 

Landscapes like this blow my mind, simply stunning | Panasonic Lumix G80, ISO 800, 35mm, f/10, 1/125 sec

Yes I almost slipped down the hill (twice maybe three times), yes it took me a while to adjust my settings and set up for a different sort of subject, yes it felt tedious at times that I was not getting the same result as an expert landscape photographer. BUT that’s where all the fun was, the learning and the fresh ideas. It is safe to say that I am not only looking forward to the next trip to Scotland but just the next opportunity I have to take my camera out and choose a subject to capture. 

One of my favourites! | Panasonic G80, ISO 200, 13mm, f/16, 1/8 secs

I hope that if you are a reading this and you are a professional who struggles to take your camera gear out of the house to experiment with then I have helped in some way or given you some ideas of what you want to capture in your free time. 

Scotland, we will return!