by Claire O'Neill

In Partnership With National Geographic

The problem with landscape photography is that it's hard to do something new. How do you take something like the Grand Canyon, which has been photographed millions of times, and capture it creatively? Jim Richardson, who has landscapes of the Scottish Hebrides in January's National Geographic magazine, had a few thoughts to share. For one, he likes working in the wee hours.

  • Basalt pinnacles loom over the Sound of Raasay, on Skye's Trotternish Peninsula. Richardson sat for about four hours in one location, waiting for light to break through the clouds for the perfect shot.
    Hide caption
    Basalt pinnacles loom over the Sound of Raasay, on Skye's Trotternish Peninsula. Richardson sat for about four hours in one location, waiting for light to break through the clouds for the perfect shot.
    All photos by Jim Richardson/National Geographic
  • Cut from rocks 3 billion years old, the Callanish stones very likely stood before the Great Pyramid was finished. Richardson spent the night with the stones, waiting for that eerie glow of magic-hour light.
    Hide caption
    Cut from rocks 3 billion years old, the Callanish stones very likely stood before the Great Pyramid was finished. Richardson spent the night with the stones, waiting for that eerie glow of magic-hour light.
  • In a seaward rush, fresh water pours from upland lochs and streams down broad, rocky terraces in Grimersta.
    Hide caption
    In a seaward rush, fresh water pours from upland lochs and streams down broad, rocky terraces in Grimersta.
  • Seabirds throng the sky and stipple narrow ledges with their nests. Inhabitants of St Kilda archipelago used to scale these crags, harvesting birds and eggs that helped sustain their remote community. Now, says Richardson, this island is almost entirely uninhabited.
    Hide caption
    Seabirds throng the sky and stipple narrow ledges with their nests. Inhabitants of St Kilda archipelago used to scale these crags, harvesting birds and eggs that helped sustain their remote community. Now, says Richardson, this island is almost entirely uninhabited.
  • Basalt pillars line Fingal's cave, lit from within by Richardson. The cave is a popular pilgrimage site for connoisseurs of romantic art and music.
    Hide caption
    Basalt pillars line Fingal's cave, lit from within by Richardson. The cave is a popular pilgrimage site for connoisseurs of romantic art and music.
  • High tide mirrors a summer sky above Uig Bay. This image and the following are both digital composites. Richardson said that as recently as two years ago, the magazine would not publish composites that were digitally stitched.
    Hide caption
    High tide mirrors a summer sky above Uig Bay. This image and the following are both digital composites. Richardson said that as recently as two years ago, the magazine would not publish composites that were digitally stitched.
  • Tranquil waters and a drift of morning mist belie the power that carved these granite hills in Red Cuillin, Skye. Digital composites can run in the magazine as long as the credit indicates that they were digitally stitched.
    Hide caption
    Tranquil waters and a drift of morning mist belie the power that carved these granite hills in Red Cuillin, Skye. Digital composites can run in the magazine as long as the credit indicates that they were digitally stitched.
  • Fog lifts to reveal the island of Boreray, in the St Kilda archipelago, perched far out in the Atlantic.
    Hide caption
    Fog lifts to reveal the island of Boreray, in the St Kilda archipelago, perched far out in the Atlantic.

1 of 8

View slideshow i

The Hebrides (pronounced "HEB-ri-deez") are a group of islands off Scotland's west coast. For centuries the mystical atmosphere has inspired musicians, writers and artists — even National Geographic photographers. Richardson, who had been to the Hebrides before, pitched the photo series to the magazine in hopes of making another photographic pilgrimage.

For about five weeks in the summer — when there's up to 18 hours of light in Scotland, and when "magic hour" is actually about 4 hours long — he traveled the islands on his own. "If you have people with you, they want to eat and they want to sleep," he joked. "It's a real damn drag." But solitude really is only one part of Richardson's equation for interesting landscapes. What he's after, he wrote in an e-mail, is "the sense that things are happening on a very grand scale."

I guess if I do anything in particular to take these pictures it is to enter that mindset. To put my mind into a geologic time frame, or into some sense that the whole thing in front of me is living and it's my job to see it. Not always easy and I often fail.
And maybe that's why I am better off when I don't have anyone traveling with me. I know that in documentary photography I have to enter the lives of the people I am photographing. ... I have to be with my subjects and with them alone.

You can read more of Richardson's thoughts about this photo journey on his blog. Go to his Web site and click "BLOG" on the bottom right. And go to ngm.com to read the article.

Have an idea? Pitch it!

The Picture Show on Facebook or on Twitter