Scotland Through A Lens: A love of the Scottish Borders with Rod Hanchard-Goodwin

The Scottish Borders are often overlooked by visitors, but for Rod Hanchard-Goodwin the diversity of historic buildings and landscapes make it picture perfect. 

I started taking photos on a two mega pixel Canon camera 18 years ago and after winning my first photographic competition in a local gallery I caught the bug. At first, I experimented more with digital art but after about five years I bought my first DSLR camera and started shooting landscape photographs. Since then I have received commendations from both the UK & Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year competitions.

I have never worked full time as a photographer but I spend some of my spare time at weekends taking photos. During the week I have a full-time job as an IT manager for a large manufacturing business.

The Borders are often overlooked by visitors to Scotland, but I love the diversity of historic buildings and landscapes in a relatively small area. I love photographing ancient buildings, timeless seascapes and sunsets. I live in East Lothian and I am close to the sea and I can combine my love of photography with my love of watersports.

You have to be patient to get good shots but I always check several weather forecasts and decide where to go depending on the conditions, time of day and sea state to give me a chance to capture the best images. Generally speaking I am looking for good light otherwise the shots are flat and less dynamic. However if it’s fully cloudy or fully clear I tend not bother taking the camera out of my bag.

The most challenging aspect of taking pictures in Scotland is the weather and sometimes the remoteness of some locations. It’s also quite difficult finding new locations or different takes on the most popular spots that are constantly shared on social media.

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