Highland photography can be frustrating

Photography in the Scottish Highlands can be both frustrating and rewarding. Let me explain, Scotland’s weather can be defined as freezing  cold, chilly, windy, calm,  warm or even hot, because at times it will have all of these conditions, sometimes in the same day.

Take last weekend, where we live, about 35 miles north of Inverness in the Highlands, the weather at 6 am was sunny but not too bright with a few clouds, perfect for landscape photography. We decided that it was worth a trip to Glencoe, an attractive mountainous area south west of Inverness. We got our kit together and travelled the 100 miles to Glencoe.

What did we find, miserable misty, damp overcast and cold and windy conditions, not good for photography. We spent a couple of hours trying to find something to make the trip worthwhile.

One loch in particular Lochan na h’Achlaise is  a location that photographers visit in their thousands each year. When we arrived there was a fairly strong wind blowing which caused ripples on the water and the sky was grey and the scene was not what I was expecting. Drastic measures were called for, The Lee 10 stop nd filter-The Big Stopper. I wanted the water smoothed out and reflections from a lone tree on a small island to be a feature of the shot. The big stopper gave me an exposure of two minutes which flattened the water and allowed some reflections to show.

Lochan na H Achlaise,taken using a big stopper.
Click on image to enlarge

 

Not one to do hundreds of images when I go out I came back with less than a dozen shots , but the next time I go there the weather could be perfect so you just have to keep at it and take the bad days  and just hope the next time is a good one.

http://www.philrestanphotography.co.uk/