Alan Mackenzie Photography

I've often said to people that the price of being in the right place at the right time, is being in the wrong place at the wrong time, hundreds of times. I wouldn't have taken these pictures, if I hadn't ventured across treacherous, even dangerous ground, walked up steep hills or revisited locations several times, even when feeling tired. As a landscape and wildlife photographer, I have experienced failure and disappointment many times. One simply has to keep trying. Of course, it is important to have a sound understanding of the weather and knowledge of tides, otherwise there would be many more wasted trips than is desirable. I say desirable, because experience of failure is character-building; it gives me focus and makes me stronger. I prefer visiting coastal locations during abnormally low tides in sunny weather, to obtain striking images of familiar landmarks, such as Beachy Head Lighthouse. Recently, when taking photographs across Cuckoo Bottom towards Kingston Ridge,...

My image of the Seven Sisters is to feature in Peace Camp 2012 , part of the London 2012 Festival , culminating in a series of encampments at various locations around the British coastline. Theatre director, Deborah Warner and actor Fiona Shaw are working in collaboration to produce a series of coastal installations, from Cornwall to Sussex and Wales, Northumberland, Scotland and Northern Ireland.   "Designed to be visited between dusk and dawn, Peace Camp is a poignant exploration of love poetry and a celebration of the extraordinary variety and beauty of our coastline." Peace Camp 2012 . My image will advertise Cuckmere Haven, the nearest Peace Camp installation to the London 2012 Games. I expect the image to gain wide exposure, owing to the proximity to London. Peace Camp 2012 runs between 19th - 22nd July and entry is free.

Looking at these until now unseen pictures, taken last June, make me crave for a pint of real Sussex ale, a cheese board and everything else I associate with a warm summer evening. The fields around Balmer Down and Falmer are some of the more interesting parts of the South Downs. At no point, could I describe them as bland. The landscape is very English and well kept. Hedgerows line fields and Roe deer graze into the night. Hurry up, spring!

Part one : Thursday 8th March 2012 . During March, the orbital alignment of the sun and the moon creates a strong gravitational pull on Earth's oceans, resulting in abnormally low tides. Coastal features normally hidden at any other time of the year are revealed. Brighton beach is the place to be during the spring tides. I had the pleasure of meeting Alex Lawrence and brightondj for the first time and once again, I bumped into Finn Hopson . Alex and I probably spent more time chin-wagging than taking photographs. He also let me try out his 10 frames-per-second Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, which he uses in his job as a professional motor racing photographer. In part two , I will revisit the beach at the weekend, when the forecast is for bright sunshine. I will also have my new Canon EF 100-400mm lens by then, replacing the copy destroyed at Beachy Head on Monday evening. On Saturday 10th March 2012 , the water level fell to 30cm on an unseasonably warm evening. In pla...

Shortly after I took this picture, I dropped my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L USM lens into the sea, destroying its electronics, including the image stabiliser and autofocus system. The £1300 lens is now ruined. No-one else was at Beachy Head when this unfortunate accident happened, but if there had been, they would have seen a man cursing and crying. A friend of mine had invited me to her exhibition in Hastings today. There is no point in making a connection between the two, but its funny how decisions in life can have unforeseen consequences.  Four bottles of real ale have just made an appointment with my central nervous system. I may be gone some time. Here is a full list of prices for my work, if you're interested in making a purchase (and helping a poor soul recover his losses) : www.alanmackenziephotography.com/p/licensing-and-prices.html

Snow fell across England and Wales on Saturday 4th February 2012. I got up early on Monday morning to capture a rare glimpse of the South Downs covered in snow. Rising temperatures and information from contacts in Eastbourne and Friston Forest persuaded me to avoid these areas. Instead, I visited Stanmer Down, north of Brighton in the morning and spent the afternoon at Kingston Ridge, to the west of Lewes. The partially melted snow created extremely difficult walking conditions. As temperatures fell sharply close to sunset, the snowy surface re-froze, creating ice on paths and a hard crust on top of undisturbed snow. The conditions also resulted in a pair of frozen boots.

I recently visited Stanmer Down, in the South Downs National Park, over five afternoons, figuring out how to photograph a lone tree I had spotted while looking for deer. The first two visits were marred by inaccurate weather forecasts; the third, by arriving late. By the forth visit, I had worked out the prime location for obtaining the photographs I wanted — north of the tree, along a hilly path leading up to Ditchling Beacon. I would need to use the moderate to long telephoto settings on my Canon EF 100-400mm lens in order to compress the landscape and isolate subject matter. The light was good for mid-afternoon in winter, being reasonably 'warm', although I was prevented from taking pictures during the 'Golden Hour' by increasing cloud cover. Haze, a common bugbear on the South Downs was present, although not altogether unpleasant. The daytime temperatures and physical presence of the South Downs caused the uplift of relatively humid air, creating hindering low lev...

I feel rejuvenated by the longer daylight hours of January and at the prospect of spending 2012 exploring new parts of Sussex. On my list of places to visit are the High and Low Weald, the Ashdown Forest, Amberley, Stanmer Down and the South Downs between Woodingdean, Peacehaven and Kingston near Lewes. Of interest are the range of escarpments between Clayton and Offham. Site visitors will be seeing less of Brighton beach and Friston Forest, although be assured that important events, such as the spring low tides, Brighton's starling murmurations and the fiery reds of autumn will be featured on here. 2012 will see a continuation of my trend towards subtler colours and tones. The South Downs is a quiet, gentle landscape, deserving of brighter, lighter pictures. My approach will be directed on obtaining more complete, well-exposed photographs at the time of taking them, aided by the purchase of four and six stop neutral density filters. I am going to spend every available opportu...

Gulls and starlings par excellence at the end of another delightful and unseasonably mild November day. The gulls spent several minutes trying to figure out how to eat a starfish. Each gull picked up the starfish and carried it around before dropping it. Eventually, a tug of war between two gulls produced unintended consequences. The unfortunate starfish was torn apart, resulting in a shared meal. It was refreshing to see gulls eating proper, nutritious food, caught from the sea, rather than the usual burger and chips. Starfish lack a centralised brain, which means that they are incapable of suffering. If, however, you find starfish on the beach, they are probably still alive. The seemingly 'lifeless' starfish will begin moving again once returned to the sea. Should you take the 'dead' starfish home to dry out for bathroom ornaments, you are in fact responsible for its death, not the high tide. Besides, hungry gulls could have eaten it. At sunset, many thousands of...

The temperature on December 1st 2010 never rose above -0.3ºC and heavy snow fell across Sussex. I started taking photographs two hours before work, in the afternoon and resumed photography after an early finish due to severe weather conditions. Continuous light snow fell until 19:45, when the powdery snow turned very heavy, dumping 15 - 25cm in  just a few hours. I caught the number 6 bus into Brighton city centre, where I spent two hours meeting friendly faces and photographing familiar places in unfamiliar conditions. As I braced myself for a long walk home, I thought I'd pop into Brighton Station on the off-chance that tonight's snow was of the 'right kind'. Miraculously, the 22:34 Southern train to Chichester was on Platform 2. The train crawled up to Preston Park, reversed and struggled along to Portslade. I met Frank on a very cold, snow-swept Hove Promenade. He was out walking his West Highland Terrier. He told me that he owns the Snoopers Paradise on...