Lock Corner Weir — Julian Calverley - I'm In A Wide Open Space

A year or so ago I was on location with a client and friend of mine, photographing some of his landscape design projects, and we ended up on the subject of my personal landscape work, in particular my Scottish work, and more specifically the process of working with large format printing as the end goal.

He said he was looking for a large print for one of the walls in his home, and had a very specific idea for the subject of the photograph. The story behind his idea was not only very personal, but also moving too…

One day in January, a few years ago, my client was out with a friend on the River Ivel, in their kayak. They often navigated this section of river together and on this occasion the water levels were unusually high and the river was running particularly quickly, which was fine and in fact exciting, until they reached Lock Corner Weir.

Instead of taking the calmer right hand fork of the river, they decided to attempt the weir. That’s when the problems started.

The kayak became caught in the turbulenat revolving current, with the rear of the kayak being pulled down and it immediately filled with water and basically sank. He was dragged and held under in strong rotating current, convinced he was about to drown.

After a couple of failed attempts at surfacing he eventually managed to grab the rear of the kayak and held on, literally for dear life.

Eventually they both made it to the bank, utterly exhausted.

The River Ivel, as shown on one of my father’s old Ordnance Survey maps.

That day changed his view on life, and so from then on, with the help of a photograph, he wanted to be reminded and inspired to live each day as fully as possible.

With the idea in our minds we decided to recce the spot where it took place.

With a vague memory of the location we headed out one morning and walked a long section of the River Ivel. In the end we came up against a boundary fence to some private property and returned home empty handed.

So, it was Google Maps to the rescue, and within a few hundred yards of where we had to turn back, I found the weir.

““With the help of a photograph, he wanted to be reminded and inspired to live each day as fully as possible...””

Working at Lock Corner Weir. © Jake Berry.

Over the months I kept an eye on the weather and importantly the atmospheric conditions, as my friend ideally wanted the photograph to be made in foggy or misty conditions.

After a spell of misty mornings the day came to attempt the photograph.

We headed to the location, leaving at 4am. After a walk along the river, past some very curious cattle and through a few damp and misty fields, we reached the weir. The conditions were perfect.

The wait had been worth it.

For the vast majority of my landscape work I use a 40mm lens on the ALPA, but in this instance I opted for the 32mm, in order to increase the feeling of movement and tension in the foreground rush of water.

Although in many ways it is a landscape photograph, I also wanted the photograph to feel both architectural and calming. It also had to have a feeling of foreboding and dread to it.

The dark of the calm water as it leads down the slippery concrete to the speeding and circular current, worked really well, and the mist was the icing on the cake.

The photograph was finally handed to Genesis Imaging of London, and a beautiful Diasec was produced.

All in all a very moving story, a wonderful commission and a great outcome.

Technical Information :

Camera / Lens - ALPA 12 STC with ALPA HR Alpagon 5.6/32mm SB17 with ALPA tilt/swing adapter 0° - 5°, 17 mm.

Filtration - None.

MFDB - PhaseOne IQ3 100. ISO 50.