THE photographer Alan Donaldson lives just a few miles from Loch Ardinning to the north of Glasgow. Over the years he has returned time and again to the loch to immerse himself in a landscape protected by the Scottish Wildlife Trust. This image is one of the results he has now gathered up in a new book.
Donaldson, born in Clydebank and still based in the area, has been a commercial photographer for more than 30 years. He didn’t set out to take photographs of the loch and its surroundings. He simply went there for the exercise. But in time he couldn’t help himself. The loch, despite its modest size (some 350 acres), offered too many visual possibilities.
Even so close to Scotland’s largest city, Loch Ardinning is as good as any wilderness, he believes.
“I do not need high mountains or deep valleys,” Donaldson says. “Despite its proximity to a busy road and popularity with everyone from dog walkers to families to groups of inquisitive students, the experience of a landscape is undiminished.
“In the end,” he adds, “all that matters is the vegetation, rock, water, ice, air and light.”
Loch Ardinning Pictures by Alan Donaldson, £17 plus £8 postage, is available from the photographer’s website alandonaldson.uk
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