The Woodlands of Lancashire - A Personal Perspective

When choos­ing a work­shop one of the qual­i­ties that is of upmost impor­tance to the pho­tog­ra­ph­er con­sid­er­ing attend­ing is the reas­sur­ance that the leader knows the loca­tions well. This work­shop led by Paul Gal­lagher and Michael Pilk­ing­ton has been cre­at­ed not only because Paul knows and lives in the area, but he has found some of his most expres­sive work in these woodlands. 

Sev­er­al years ago, Paul expe­ri­enced some­thing of a tran­si­tion in his work, or more impor­tant­ly, in his approach to his pho­tog­ra­phy. Paul spends much of his year trav­el­ing the world lead­ing work­shops in some of the most cap­ti­vat­ing land­scapes. Giv­en the fre­quen­cy of his trav­el, on his return home he put his cam­era away and left work behind, and for plea­sure, walk miles in the coun­try­side of his sur­round­ing Lan­cashire. It was at this point that he realised that his life­long pas­sion was almost being con­fined to work, and also, he did not the ​‘see’ beau­ty of land­scapes where he lived.

He set to change this and began walk­ing from home with his cam­era, slow­ing down an mak­ing a con­nec­tion. The envi­ron­ment he grav­i­tat­ed to the most were the plen­ti­ful mature wood­lands of Lan­cashire. Some of these wood­lands wrap them­selves around Paul’s home in a pro­tect­ed val­ley park, oth­ers con­sist of ancient beech wood­lands cling­ing to the flanks of the Pen­nine Moors whilst close to Chor­ley itself there are the mag­nif­i­cent wood­lands that fol­low the mean­der­ing path of the Riv­er Yarrow. 

It is all very easy to over­look the nature that sur­rounds us and the beau­ty we take for grant­ed. Now has come the time were Paul would like to share with you these places of con­tent­ment and solace. Dur­ing our time in these beau­ti­ful sur­round­ings, you will be encour­aged to take your time and relax into the expe­ri­ence of being there and mak­ing pho­tographs that are unique to you as opposed to striv­ing for an impact­ful tro­phy image to share on social media. We will not be dash­ing from loca­tion to loca­tion, but enjoy­ing con­tem­pla­tive times in beau­ti­ful land­scapes. We want to engage in ques­tions, con­ver­sa­tion and intrigue, all the time allow­ing your­self to be as cre­ative as you feel. All approach­es to pho­tog­ra­phy will be wel­comed. This work­shop is designed for you to wan­der freely and make a per­son­al con­nec­tion with how you feel about your surroundings.

Half of our time dur­ing this work­shop will be spent in the wood­lands and the oth­er half back in our meet­ing room. Through­out the work­shop you will have Paul Gal­lagher FRPS and Michael Pilk­ing­ton FRPS on hand to share and dis­cuss your images guide you through any image inter­pre­ta­tion, post pro­cess­ing, and print­ing tuition.

Paul and Michael will encour­age you to con­nect with the world about you and work slow­ly. What­ev­er your lev­el of expe­ri­ence, we will be there to encour­age and inspire in an entire­ly non-judge­men­tal way.