My North Coast 500 Journey

Early this year, I was making a number of decisions in life. Lots of change, lots of soul searching, and a real effort to sort myself out. It resulted in a couple of blogs about change I had made in life.

One of the things I had decided was, that it was time to stop talking, and start doing. I made a short list of things I wanted to get done in 2018. I guess New year resolutions of sorts. One of those, the biggest one, was to have a book published. I had started work on several possible books, and it was time to get something out there, regardless if it was perfect or not. The hardest decision within this one, was which book to do. I decided on a landscape photography book, for various reasons, one being the chance to get out and shoot some images and enjoy the outdoors. I initially decided to do a book about home. Caithness. My take on the county I grew up in. I started this, and after a short time, I had the idea to expand the project area, and do something on the North Coast 500, and decided to look into crowdfunding to get it published.

By May I had launched a Kickstarter campaign to create a book. 30 days later, funds secured, I was on my way. Confident it would reach the target, I had already started shooting, and had fallen in love with the area and of course landscape photography once again. It became an obsession, every waking hour that I wasn’t working on any jobs. I sacrificed my cycling, and with it my fitness. I just needed to spend every good day on that road, capturing images.

Little did I know what I had started. The proverbial can of worms had not just been opened, but blown apart. It could have been done in less time, with less work. It could have been a fairly easy project. To find enough scenes to create a book is easy. However, anyone who knows me, who really knows me, will understand that I do not do things half-heartedly. It’s all or nothing with me. Go hard or go home as they say. I also would not want a book doing the rounds that was in any way a poor reflection of my work. I am not an expert landscape photographer, so felt it would be scrutinised by everyone.

As I started to get out shooting, I became keen to capture more than just landscapes. I wanted to express myself, express my emotions, and show the feelings I felt in places. I also wanted to capture a lot of images which were not the standard ‘from the layby’ shots, and vowed to make a big effort to get to some places not seen by most passers-by.

A few months later, I had pulled together a load of stuff, had racked up thousands of miles, walked many more, and had been attacked by every insect we have in the Highlands. But I had a body of work I was happy with.

Self-doubt is another trait I am well known for, and it was now that this started to creep in. I decided late in the process that I was doing this whole project myself, so the designs and layouts were added to my to-do list. Never having used Adobe Indesign before, or laid out a book, this meant learning new skills very quickly.  It is amazing what a wee bit of blind optimism and a few hours on YouTube can do, and within a few days we had a layout. Then it was on to cover design and trying to finalise the choice of title. It changed title four or five times over the course of the six month journey, but I eventually settled on The Magic of the North Coast 500, which I think works well.

I sent the files away, and that moment was the worst and most scary time, as suddenly it was out of my hands and I had no idea what the quality or feel would be like. It took almost two weeks to find out, and when the proof arrived it was opened with great trepidation. All sorts of self-doubt, and fear of having to go back and almost start again. None of it was necessary though, and that feeling I had when I leafed through it for the first time, was one of the proudest and best feelings in twenty years taking photos. It looked better than I had hoped.

The journey has really only just begun, and now I have to get them sold, get them into shops, and actually make this work. The feedback I have had from the few people who have seen it is very positive, and it gives me faith in the project. It’s hard to put into a few paragraphs, just how much effort and time I put into this project, supported by family, friends, and backers on Kickstarter, as well as all my social media connections, who have offered encouragement at all times. It truly has been a labour of love, and everything has been given 100%, no corners cut, and just blood, sweat and tears, as well as an awful lot of emotion and passion. I have learned so much along the way. I have learned that I am surrounded by some very, very good people, who push me, support me, and encourage me. I have learned a lot about landscape photography. I felt like I knew a fair bit before, but in actual fact, I have picked up more skills since I started, than I had in my possession beforehand. I have mostly learned that you can overcome feeling shit, by having a mental strength and passion for something that can override even the darkest of moods.

It was always a dream of mine to have a book published. It has now become a reality. Why? because I just went out and made shit happen. Not because of fate, the universe, the stars, or anything else I see people going on about online. If you want something to happen in your life, there is only one thing that can make it happen. That thing is you. So stop believing in fairy stories, and believe in yourself.

Make. Shit. Happen.