Fotovue Hebrides Books

Last week, we looked at planning a landscape photography shoot, and one of the recommendations was to use a location guidebook. I particularly enjoy the FotoVue books, which include Photographing Scotland by Dougie Cunningham, Photographing Iceland by James Rushforth and Photographing Northumberland by Anita Nicholson. Now, Fotovue has added two more guides to the stable, along with a rebrand to the popular photography books. Explore and Discover The Inner Hebrides and Explore and Discover The Outer Hebrides, both by Christopher Swan, have just been released, and I’ve had a flick through them.

Where are the Hebrides?

I have quite a few followers who live outside the UK. So, whilst they may be aware of Scotland and a few areas, the Hebrides may be new to them. Off the west coast of the Scottish mainland are nearly two hundred islands, of which 51 are inhabited. They form two columns of islands; the ones closer to the mainland are known as the Inner Hebrides and include the most famous of the Scottish islands, Skye. The second column of islands, The Outer Hebrides, are sometimes known as the Western Isles and include Lewis and Harris.

Explore & Discover The Inner Hebrides

I am pretty familiar with a couple of the Inner Hebrides islands. My father-in-law, whom I sadly never met, was born on the Isle of Jura. To get there by car, you must take a ferry through Islay, so these two islands are familiar to me. It’s good that the book starts with the complicated task of navigating between the 20 islands covered in the publication. Only Skye doesn’t need a ferry trip to reach it. The rest rely on the network of sailings covered, mainly by Calmac, that joins the islands to the mainland.

Also forming part of the 50 pages of introduction is a basic guide to the wildlife seen on the Scottish islands. The species you might hope to see include whales, sharks, otters, birds of prey, red deer, and my favourite inclusion, the border collie, which “often pesters you into throwing sticks for hours”.

The central part of the book is split into five main sections. The Southern Hebrides which includes Islay, Jura, Colonsay and Gigha. The Central Hebrides with Mull, Iona, Staffa, Coll and Tiree. The lesser-known isles of Lismore, Kerrera, Seil, Easdale and Luing form the Inner Isles section. Eigg, Rum, Canna, and Muck are included in The Small Isles section. The book is completed by the Skye and Raasay chapter.

Explore & Discover The Outer Hebrides

The other book in the Hebrides series is a slightly thinner tome. It’s unsurprising, given there are far fewer islands in the Outer Hebrides. There is a similar introductory element to this book as the Inner Hebrides one – if you have bought both books together (and you should), you can probably skip the first 40 pages in the second one you read.

While there are fewer islands in the Outer Hebrides, the area covered is enormous. The islands and the book are dominated by the two largest islands, Lewis and Harris. Both these places have a chapter to themselves, and I am sure the author could have expanded these sections even more. The rest of the chapters include The Outer Hebrides South (Berneray, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Eriskay), The Outer Hebrides Far South (Barra and Vatersay), and St Kilda, the Western-most point of Scotland.

Using Explore & Discover

FotoVue books follow a familiar and helpful format. Each chapter is preceded by an introduction to the area being covered. Each island has an introductory page with vital information, such as links to local transport providers, useful websites and the best place to find accommodation. Finally, we are introduced to classic viewpoints that provide an excellent overview of the subjects that you may wish to photograph.

The individual location guides have lots of helpful information, including more detailed instructions on how to get to a location, the accessibility of the location and the best time of the day/year to visit. Each viewpoint has a variety of ways to reach the locations with latitude and longitude coordinates, what3words links, grid references and postcodes. In addition, there is a scannable QR code link to Google Maps.

Each of the books has forewords from leading members of the folk music community. Award-winning fiddle player Duncan Chisholm passionately talks about the escapism of the Scottish Islands at the start of the Inner Hebrides book. Julie Fowlis, known for singing the theme song to Disney/Pixar’s Brave and who was born on the Outer Hebrides island of North Uist, introduces the Outer Hebrides book.

Christoper Swan – the author

Christopher Swan has authored the two Hebrides books over five years. Christopher is based in Glasgow but has travelled the Hebrides on family holidays since childhood. He is a professional photographer producing photography for architects, landscape architects, engineers, and interior designers. He won numerous awards, including Landscape Photographer of the Year in 2016 and the British Wildlife Photography Awards ‘Urban Wildlife’ category in 2018.

Conclusion

It takes a lot of effort to get to the Hebridean islands, and if you are planning a photography trip, then it would be quite easy to miss some excellent locations. These two comprehensive guides provide an excellent overview of these remote locations. The FotoVue format makes these two books invaluable to any photographer visiting the Scottish Hebrides. The excellent photographs in the book will also prove alluring to anyone who wants to see the fantastic landscapes off the west coast of Scotland.

The books are available in most good bookshops, the usual online sellers, but I would always encourage you to buy directly from FotoVue. Head to the online shop at https://fotovue.com/shop/ where you can buy the Inner Hebrides volume for £29.95, the Outer Hebrides book at £28.95, or for those looking for a bargain, both books can be purchased together for £49.95. For readers of this blog, you can receive 20% off any of the full-priced FotoVue books, including the two Hebrides books, by using the code RICH at checkout. If you are thinking of buying both books, the code will not work for the bundle offer, but by adding them individually and using the code, you’ll pay £47.12.

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About the author

As well as running Edinburgh Photography Workshop, Rich Dyson is a professional photographer. His photographs are regularly used in newspapers such as The Times, Guardian and Daily Telegraph. He also had two solo exhibitions and was featured in a members-sponsored exhibition in the Scottish Parliament. You can see and buy his photography at richdysonphotography.com.