Alan Mackenzie Photography

Every so often, a collection of unpublished photographs accumulates in my archives. This time around, most are from spring and cover familiar locations, such as Cuckmere Haven and the South Downs. I am delighted to include my first image of the summer, a female Roe deer, seen on the Sussex/Surrey border. Having concentrated my energies on landscape photography for six months, I am gradually refocusing on building a strong portfolio of wildlife photographs. There's a reason for this. Expect to see a new, coffee table book on Sussex wildlife by the end of the year. It is quite exciting to speculate on what I might find over the course of summer, if indeed, we are fortunate enough to have one.    

Max Furia, editor of the splendid Italian website, Total Photoshop recently interviewed me about my approach to landscape photography. If your Italian is up to scratch, please go ahead and read the interview .  I think we can forgive the editor for not having heard of curry. Half of Italy now thinks I go for a beer and a bowl of soup, when I finish for the day. For those of us, including myself, who failed at languages during school, I've included the full interview in English. ------ Landscape Photography Explained by Alan Mackenzie He is a young British photographer. I have always been impressed by the quality and compositional choices from the very first time I saw them. Alan makes it clear that it's tough and he is not afraid of hard work. I couldn't help but ask him for some advice and for some interesting stories about his experience of landscape photography. Here is what came of our chat. Welcome to Total-Photoshop, Alan. As usual we like to ask...

This evening was a calmer, more sedate affair than of late. Looking up at the moon put everything in perspective. In the scheme of things, taking the best ever photograph of the South Downs really isn't that important. I enjoyed myself for the first time in a fortnight, revisiting Stanmer Down, a favourite haunt of mine. Sadly, I forgot to bring my bottle opener, which meant the Black Sheep Ale had to await consumption until arrival at home, despite numerous attempts to force the cap off using my tripod head.

The National Trust had predicted a brief and limited display of bluebells this spring, owing to an extremely dry winter. My mother, a keen gardener, was among the first to dismiss this suggestion, followed by a number of Brighton-based photographers. It would seem that this year's bluebells are simply a trifle tardy in their arrival. Nate Wood is on the southern flank of a 360 hectare woodland near Polegate in East Sussex. I was fortunate enough to visit this location during a cool and unsettled Sunday evening, which meant that the indigenous crepuscular and nocturnal animals could begin feeding an hour early. Indeed, the absence of people led to a sighting of Roe deer in neighbouring Abbots Wood. I observed three of these beautiful, petite mammals running through the woods; their winter coats replaced by a lightweight reddish-brown coat of summer. Photographing bluebells is harder than you think. The best approach is to use a moderately long telephoto lens, shooting from a...

Danny Callcut of Sticky Rice once told me that I ought to photograph people more often. "Street portraiture in Brighton is easier said than done", I replied. The southern English are very private in comparison to our friends in the north. Down here, it sometimes takes a unifying event to bring people out of their shells. In a quintessentially English manner, the snowy weather of December 2010 made strangers more receptive to pleasant, informal conversation. I wish for snowy winters more often, if the joyous company of strangers like Frank and Magnus are anything to go by. More recently, when I met photographers Alex Lawrence and Finn Hopson, we had so much to talk about that portraiture was not even an afterthought. Perhaps, out of respect for my comrades, I unconsciously refrained from making another photographer a subject in his own right. Rather than observe them via the intermediary of a viewfinder and lens, I instinctively felt the need to relate with them directly thr...

April continues to be blustery and unsettled. The light and cloud formations were such that I imagined this was Scotland, rather than East Sussex. I felt quite giddy with excitement as the weather provided yet another superb opportunity to portray my home county in all its bucolic splendour. I presently cannot get enough of the outdoors; no wonder my mother says I have a weather-beaten look about me. I am so lucky to have a place like Balmer Down on my doorstep, something I never take for granted. The fields surrounding Ridge Road, Falmer are simply the finest in East Sussex. Lined with attractive hedgerows and accessed via lovely pointed gates, Roe deer can be seen grazing in early morning or late evening. Kestrels, Kites and Tawny Owls reward the patient observer, while bats can be seen gliding along the northern end of Ridge Road at dusk.

On Sunday, I went to photograph the River Cuckmere from Exceat HillI after drawing inspiration from a postcard I had sent to my mother during a birthday present holiday in Friston Forest last autumn. The Cuckmere Valley seems like a home from home to me. Perhaps this is because, as a child, I was taken there by my parents and allowed to engage in free, unstructured, creative play. No-one "protected" me from original experience and the unknown. My better qualities originate from early unmediated experiences outside of Sussex too, including holidays in the New Forest, Hereford and Worcester and the Cotswolds. I was perfectly happy to walk into the unknown and keep on going; my experience of sensory reality uncurtailed by external measurable results, concerns about "safety" and other stifling forms of preparation for "adulthood". The continuing unsettled and rather cold April weather was perfect for Sunday's visit to the Cuckmere Valley. Strong ...

When I set off this afternoon, I had in mind a photograph of the Seven Sisters with a rainbow and retreating thundercloud providing the backdrop. The rainfall radar looked promising, until the bus reached Seaford. Unfortunately, everywhere east of Seaford was bone dry, so I decided to walk the Crowlink to Exceat semi-circular route instead, which took me through Crowlink down to the cliff edge and westwards to the beautifully named Cuckmere Haven. This was the second opportunity in which to demonstrate the potential of LEE neutral density graduated filters. They have solved so many problems that would otherwise have created blown out skies or underexposed foregrounds. I have also noticed how little post-processing the images require in comparison to before. Of course, all RAW files require post-processing, however, now they look far more 'ready' than they used to. After spending a joyous hour at Cuckmere Haven and a further exhilarating thirty minutes walking past Grey...

The verdant Cuckmere Valley looked quite lovely on Tuesday afternoon. The presence of cumulus clouds provided an opportunity to use my new LEE neutral density graduated filters. Although they are expensive, LEE ND grad filters are worth every penny, for they help the landscape photographer achieve correct exposure across the frame without leaving colour casts. For this particular photograph, I stacked two 0.6 hard and soft grads together. I had to hold the filters in place by hand, since Warehouse Express don't yet have the LEE Universal Hood and Filter Holder in stock. The only telephoto lens currently at my disposal is the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro, because my new Canon EF 100-400mm lens is being fixed under warranty courtesy of MPD Photographic. The lens has a serious hunting problem and cannot achieve focus at middle distances between 300-400mm, making the lens useless for wildlife photography. On the matter of serious hunting problems, I earlier noticed a professional marks...

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,...