I have found myself at loggerheads with many friends over the past few years. We live in divisive times. I now believe that: ‘you cannot change someone’s mind’. All you can do, is leave them with what you want to present to them, and hope that they might follow it up.

In my view, pressing harder your point of view, just increases the resistance from whomever you wish to convince of your point of view.

In artistic terms, this is why I do not believe in pushing my work too much. I think that by trying to force your work upon folks who are either not into what you do, or are just simply not ready: you are just putting them off.

An analogy to this, is that I am a big fan of the Icelandic band Sigur Ros. Their music in my opinion is an acquired taste. It is not for everyone, and for a few years, it wasn't for me either. I had several friends try to show me the right way, to enlighten me. Their efforts failed. Instead, what had to happen, was that now that I was aware of them, I started to pick up on them in car adverts, commercials, tv specials and on the radio. It was slow, and the indoctrination to becoming a Sigur Ros fan took around 2 years.

But it had to happen in my own time. When I was ready.

What I love about landscapes is that they don’t care what you or I think. They are confident in being themselves. You can take them or leave them, but no matter what you think - nothing is going to change for them. They just are.

So, when we come away from a place and say ‘I didn’t like it’, or ‘there was nothing there to photograph’, what we are doing is judging the landscape based upon our own experiences. If we have a great time, we think the landscape is great. If we have a bad time, we think the landscape has nothing to offer.

The landscape has eternity to deal with. At least many thousands of years ahead of itself to deal with. Worrying about what we thought of it, is the least of its troubles.

The landscape just ‘is’.

And the sooner we realise that, and begin to try to work with it, rather than assume it will work with us, will be a good start.