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From the Mountains to the Sea

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If you subscribe to the school of thought that suggests you can head for a beautiful part of the world and allocate yourself just a few hours to search with your camera for some meaningful landscape shots then prepare to be disappointed. You might get some pretty pictures, but unless you're remarkably lucky it's unlikely that you'll come away with anything that runs much deeper.

"However naturally beautiful an area might be, you can't just hope to turn up and find great pictures," says landscape specialist John Rowell.

"I'm remarkably lucky in that I happen to share a cottage in the heart of Snowdonia with fellow photographer and A/V specialist Marion Waine, and even though everything in this part of the world is remarkably compact - I'm never really more than half-an-hour from any of the locations that I photograph in regularly - I still have to work really hard to find the shots that I'm after.

"For example, there's a lake close to where I live that I visited around a dozen times looking for the picture that I knew was there, and I came away disappointed every time. Finally I went back once again two weeks ago and everything just fell into place, and I finally got the shot I was after.

The fact is that the landscape itself never changes, but the light and the atmospheric conditions can be different from moment to moment, and it's being there at that magical time when it all just comes together that is so rewarding."

Given all this, it's perhaps scarcely surprising that John and Marion's business goes under the name of 'Chasing the Light Photography', and each image that is triumphantly brought home has been hard won and is duly cherished as a valuable artefact. The beauty of digital technology is that it's now possible for photographers to bring their work together and to self publish, and John recently marked the opening of his oneman mono exhibition in Capel Curig - which formed part of the 2012 Snowdonia Arts Festival - by selecting the best of his Snowdonia images and compiling them into a single volume, 'From the Mountains to the Sea,' using Blurb software. It's possible to flick through the pages on the Blurb website and John has printed up a small number of physical volumes that he shows around at his workshops and lectures, but he concedes the price of a low print-run series is just too high for him to make them economically available.

"Even if it's difficult to put on general sale, I love the idea of a book because it's a great way to bring a project together and to give it some boundaries," he says. "It's also really good for me to be able to hand the book around when I'm talking so that people see the work presented in a way and in an order that I'm happy with. It's similar in some ways to the principle of the A/V shows that Marion and I work on: this is a good way to work when there is simply too much to say in a single image, and it allows us to tell a coherent story."

Loving the land

John's love affair with Snowdonia started when he was just 14, and he still remembers vividly the day when he and his camera, plus his friend Paul, were dropped off by his mother and father at Capel Curig Youth Hostel. "They weren't scheduled to pick us up until a week later," he says. "It's amazing to think that things like that would happen as a matter of course back then, but it gave me the chance at an early age to really develop a feel for the area and a love for the freedom that came with being outdoors."

It soon became natural for John to pack a camera when he was setting off on his regular expeditions, but it still took a chance encounter with the book 'Mountain Light' by the great US landscape photographer Galen Rowell to really open his eyes to what was achievable by those working in this sector.

I was in my mid forties at the time," he says, "and I first took notice of the book because I shared the surname of the photographer. It was only later that I found out that this was something of a bible for those shooting outdoor photography, and I've since learned that it was a huge influence on the likes of Joe Cornish and Colin Prior as well. I then decided that I had to start to visit all the great mountain ranges of the world, and I went on to do this for a number of years."

Personal circumstances then dictated great changes in his life: his marriage ended and he met Marion and the couple's shared interest in photography drove him to throw himself more into his craft. Marion's cottage in Snowdonia was where the couple went every weekend and it was only natural that his love for the area inspired his photography. Finally, while on a trip to the Sierra Mountains in the US he got the chance to meet Galen Rowell in the flesh and, although it was just for a day, it opened his eyes to the enhanced status that photographers enjoyed in America.

"Marion and I had reached a point where we were so busy that we decided to rent out our property on the Wirral and move full time to the cottage in Snowdonia," says John. "Although we've never actually gone looking for weddings to take on, we did get a few that just came our way, and we tackled these in a relaxed style and presented them in a Graphistudio Album. I even photographed my own daughter's wedding since I wanted her to have a set of pictures that I knew she would treasure. On top of this we were running an international audio visual festival, which was attracting entries from all over the world."

Something had to give, and a year ago John finally gave up his day job as a head buyer in a hospital, to devote himself full time to his landscape photography. "We also believe very strongly in putting something back into our craft, and I'm now chairman of the Snowdonia Arts Festival and I'm using that position to try to promote photography as an art form, since I don't believe that it gets the same credit here that it does in America. However, I also want to get involved with all forms of art not just photography; quite simply I will use any medium available to get the visual message across. I always say that if a single image communicates everything I want to say then it ends there."

There's no doubting that John is relishing the choices he has made and, by devoting himself so fully to the creative arts, he's found the ideal outlet for his boundless passion. "My love affair with Snowdonia is ongoing," he says simply. "My new lecture will be 'The journey will never end,' and, for me, that just about sums it up."

More information:

John Rowell: www.chasingthelight.co.uk

From the Mountains to the Sea: www.blurb.com/b/3770387-from-themountains-to-the-sea



Updated 27/04/2026 16:44:22 Last Modified: Monday, 27 April 2026