Photobook: Southerly Point: The Mull of Galloway

Photobook: Southerly Point: The Mull of Galloway

The Southerly Point Photo Zine features 40 black and white images from a 2021 visit to the Mull of Galloway and the most southerly point of Scotland. The visit to the Mull last a week and also included documentary and landscape photographs shot around the nearby Rhinns of Galloway at locations including Port Logan, Portpatrick and Killantringham.

A Difficult Start

The photography came about naturally during a week long visit to the Mull. Staying in one of the lighthouse keeper cottages, the Mull of Galloway receives a lot of visitors during the day that gradually dwindle until after six o’clock in the evening, you largely have the place to yourself.

Initially the project was going to be colour photography just to add to the ongoing Around Scotland project that has been running since 2012. The photography style took some time to gel with this project. Originally the images had been shot to produce colour photographs. During the editing process, however, it became clear that colour wasn’t the right direction to take the project. Several colour images did work and have been included in the gallery but others lacked visual impact.

The final decision to produce black and white images didn’t come until several months later during an image editing session. Sometimes a bit of experimentation and improvisation comes into play and produces the required results. Photography is all about experimentation and challenging yourself and the Mull of Galloway Images certainly managed to do that.

The black and white tones were also a small homage to the black and white film photography that I used to do for many years. The books is the first of my photography books to use images from a DSLR. The previous two books, ‘Sea, Sky, Sand and Street‘ and ‘Caught by the Tide‘ both used images from an iPhone.

Landscape Photographs and more

The images for the Southerly Point Photo Zine were taken using a Nikon DSLR with the photographs processed Nik collection software in Photoshop.. This was the first in-depth look at monochrome images using digital and the results from this project influenced me to shoot more black and white images, most recently seen in the Northumberland and Lindisfarne images.

The crisp tones and contrast in the images were the style I wanted for these images. A copper toner setting was used to give the images some warmth. For many years I used selenium toner on the photographic prints to create deep rich tones. I think the use of the copper toner in these photographs stems from that. I did try the selenium setting in Photoshop but preferred the warmer hues of the copper.

The aim of the photography was to cover both the activity, landscape and seascape of the Mull of Galloway and especially around the lighthouse. The location felt very remote and inaccessible even though it is only thirty or forty miles from Stranraer with a good road connecting it. The Mull had a feeling of being on an Hebridean island, and yet, the influx of walkers and visitors was quite large each day. After six o’clock in the evening, the visitors would vanish and you would have the Mull almost to yourself. Hopefully the photography captures that mixture of activity and peace.

Favourite Photograph

My favourite Southerly Point photo zine photograph is of the Fort Victoria class Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment (AOR) Ship of the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary off the coast of the Mull of Galloway. The ship was waiting offshore one evening with a wonderful cloudscape behind it. The colour original was pretty good but the photograph really came to life when it was converted to black and white. The tones and textures of the sea, coast and sky came out providing a wonderful atmosphere to the photograph. The next morning the ship had gone.

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The Foghorn

The lighthouse is the only fully operational foghorn in Scotland. Designed to run automatically after being started, the foghorn uses compressed air to sound a warning. Foghorn use ceased in the early 1990s as technology provided other options for navigation in low visibility. Fortunately, I had the privilege of hearing the foghorn which was oddly a very moving experience.

The haunting deep note echoing across the water felt very lonely like a foghorn calling out and then waiting for a reply from another foghorn. Only no reply ever came. Hopefully, this working piece of nautical audio history will continue calling out for many years to come.

Forty Images

The premium quality photography magazine features 44 pages with a total of forty images. Premium Magazines have a high-end magazine finish with a heavier cover. The quality is excellent and perfect for producing photography zines with brilliant photograph reproduction.

I have been creating books for nearly fifteen years and still love the process of designing and building the book. The Southerly Point photo zine marks a new benchmark for my book creation. The photo zine format is perfect for smaller projects with the added bonuses of lower production cost to produce, which also means a lower selling price. I will certainly be producing more photo zines in future for other projects, and have an interesting idea for a photo zine book for next year already that will link into a past project.

Purchase the 44 page Southerly Point Photo Zine via Blurb

Photography Prints

If you would like to purchase a Mull of Galloway print, the Richard Flint Photography RedBubble store has a wide range of images available.

Framed prints, canvas prints, artboards, metal prints, acrylic blocks plus lots more can be found on the Redbubble store HERE.