Dunnottar Castle was one of the only stops we had planned for on the east coast of scotland. Most of our trip was headed into the scottish highlands. But after the last 2 rainy days in Wester Ross with nearly no photography it felt so good to head out of the highlands and to be greeted by blue skies again.

We stayed near Stonehaven and I went to shoot Dunnottar Castle during sunset and sunrise. Even if the sunset was in the other direction the sky looked beautiful in the east that evening. I had been a little sceptical when researching this location if it would work during sunset. I wanted to shoot it from the south but there weren't many good comps so I tried to find my comp facing east even if in the west the real show was going on with a sunset as I haven't seen for some time. But if there's nothing to shoot in that direction it doesn't help, make the best of what you got in front of you. And really the colors were awesome in that direction too. I found a place with nice greenery in the foreground to complement the magenta tones in the sky. There were also some bluebells (or however they are called) wich repeat the blue tones in the upper part of the skye. From a color standpoint this was quite a find for me :-) As it happens I also like the comp here, some might argue there's to much foreground but the typical Castle shot was done quite some times before so I had to find some special comp.

Since the wind was picking up repeatedly I had to make an exposure in between the blows to get the flowers sharp. I had to go to ISO 200 to get a 3 sec exposure which was roughly the time between two wind blows :-) The grass was still mooving slightly but that's ok, I call the slight blurr there an effect.

This is one exposure using a Lee 0.6 hard grad. Ok I did 2 exposures, but not for the light but for the sharpnes -> focusstacking again, front focus and focus to the castle

cheers

Dunnottar Castle near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire must be set in one of the most imposing situations on the British Isles. I took the opportunity to...

Edinburgh, Scotland - June, 2017: Dunnottar castle in a foggy evening