Explore #8 08/09/16

A recent trip to the phenomenal Isle of Skye, it's so hard to pick what to shoot here and when, purely because there is so much variety and also because you may well not get the right weather, one location could be poor weather - you could spend a week revisting the same location or nail it the first time, ok if you live nearby, maybe not if you live 500 miles away..., a week was nowhere near enough.

This location I last visited 4 years ago and was captivated by it, whatever I did on this trip this would be one location that was getting done again, and this time for sunset, I was camping well over an hour away so a failed trip would be a pain.

I arrived about 3pm in some very mixed weather from the South of the island including some enormous black clouds and rain, I took a boat out to Coruisk to explore the lady at the boat hire said it had been glorious here all day and was surprised that I had seen cloud, let alone rain, she also said the previous night had been a crazy sunset and expected tonight to be good too, that was it, tonight was the night then.

After the (absolutely superb) Coruisk trip I got back about 1830, got the stuff out the car and set off to find a spot in plenty of time, a few places looked ok but something was missing, eventually I happened across this place and that was it, sold. I had about 3 hours here in all and loved every single minute of it in my midge net getting eaten alive (ok maybe not that bit but they aren't as bad as Glencoe midgies), the wall of rock on the right, as well as providing a great lead in to the scene was catching the warm light so well on occasion it was just a joy, when the sun went behind the cloud it was hard to imagine you were looking at the same set of rocks, of course, light is everything, and it certainly appeared this evening.

Check out the seemingly perfectly spherical rock in the foreground, no doubt shaped by it's position on the shoreline and 2 tides a day washing over it for countless years.

I've another image from here to post yet after the sun had set and I don't know which I prefer, all I know is this is one of the most amazing places in the UK, even if you come and don't get anything, it's just a real pleasure being here, it was a nightmare driving back to Portree as the cloud / mist had dropped and hit the roads in the dark, didn't stop me smiling though all the way back. This really is why I do this.

A funny thing happened a week or so after I got home, I was reading one of Joe Cornish's landscape photography books 'first light' as I had been for months, I closed the book to put it away, on the front cover was this exact location! hairs standing up the back of your neck moment... had I picked this location subconsciously after seeing it or just a coincidence? I'm not sure, but I bet he enjoyed it as much as I did.

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Pentax 645D, 35mm lens.

Isle of Skye, Scotland

I've been to Elgol a number of times before, but I have finally got a couple of images I am reasonably happy with - this being one of them. Monty and I had enjoyed a long and full day that including a big tick on the bucket list, and a trip to Elgol later in the day was a bonus. The crowds had gone, and the tripper boats were moored up for the day so I had a bit of elbow room to try out a few viewpoints. I settled on this one because of the foreground, but also due to the restless sea washing over the rocks. Elgol with a long exposure smoothed out sea just doesn't look right to me, it's a wild place where the clouds and sea are always moving. The backdrop of the jagged peaks of the Black Cuillin also don't look right if they are becalmed. So I went for a higher shutter speed to try to freeze rather than blur the motion, but perhaps I really needed a better camera and an even higher shutter speed to really get the effect. But still, it's better than previous attempts.

More on the bucket list tick in a few uploads time.

The last from a sequence of shots on the Elgol Coastline from this evening.

This was just after Sunset and there is still some great colours in the sky, the tide was well on it's way in at this point and with each surge the waves broke higher up onto the beach leaving the photographer the job of picking the shutter speed and the right receding wave to shoot.

A little further into the scene the sea is a lot more violent, and can be seen crashing over one of the remaining sea stacks.

Portfolio of images on my personal website here

Back to Scotland again for this shot and an absolute stonker of a shoot lightwise at Elgol.

I've shot this spot a good few times now and had decent good result (all different), after having worked my way along this part of the coast this evening shooting different places, I inevitably ended up at this place (which I absolutely love) as if the light does kick off at sunset the rock walls light up here like nowhere else on this stretch, after numerous passing squalls, hailstorms, and rainstorms, the low light broke through and provided a really good period of side light onto the Cuillin, and also onto the foreground rocks.

This shot was a combination of waiting for that to happen and keep adjusting the camera settings according to the changing light to get the exact exposure time I wanted and then catch the right wave while hopefully the other 2 components came together at the same time.

NiSi V6 System NiSi 100mm 3 stop filter NiSi 100mm CPL

Lots more images from this shoot, and others, on my website here - updating regularly

A view of the Cuillins looking across Loch Scavaig from Elgol on the Isle Of Skye. This place and this view are among my favourites in the world.

Another evening at Elgol, taking in the view across Loch Scavaig to the Cuillins

No fancy semi amusing titles for this one, just exactly what it is, one of the many Squalls that we saw passing by over the Cuillins, (and occasionally over us too giving us a soaking) .

Quite often when these blew over the light was drab and dark and the mountains often dissapeared, so when this one blew threw and it was hit with good light it was game on.... This is one of my faves I've done so far with the light breaking through hitting the mountains and also 'warming up' the storm.

I was like a kid in a sweet shop with all this weather going on !!

Lots more images from this shoot, and others, on my website here - updating regularly

Explore #2 10/04/20

A landscape scarred by the elements over time, this coastal section at Elgol was absolutely fantastic with all its curious striations no doubt caused during the Ice age with the movement of huge glaciers, the larger of these catching water from the last tide where it would remain until called back into the ocean on the next one.

The weather had been so unpredictable this day with just about every weather box being ticked in about 45 minutes.

This was sunset and a gorgeous bit of light is breaking the the passing squall of weather lighting the sea and unusual foreground, quite possibly one of my favourite images from the trip.

Lots more images on my website here - it's being updated regularly

Probably time for another image from Elgol as I've not put one up for about a week...

This was another one around sunset with the tide coming in around the rocks forcing me backwards bit bit bit... as the tide came further in it gave me completely new opportunities shooting in a smiliar spot, you could see what was going to happen and allowed you to envisage a shot you wanted, which just left you to set up and wait.

The one bit that you really couldn't predict was to the rear of the image with the crazy weather fronts and squalls from Storm Dennis rolling accross the Cuillin, the mountains would totally dissapear at time, the reappear in great light, then get covered in hail storms again.... just a case of getting the speed I wanted for the shot and waiting for the right waves and the right conditions to the rear of the scene and watch for the light dropping off.. easy right ? :-)

I suppose you could 'composite' the image, but where's the fun in that ?

No feet were soaked in the making of this image.

Plenty more images on my personal website here

Captured on a Pentax 645D and a 35mm lens.

This image has been lain on my hard drive untouched since February, having another root through the the images from the Isle of Skye it stood out as one that definitely needed some love and attention as it had been passed by.

The end to a great shoot at Elgol with the sun already having gone down, with there still being some really good colour in the dramatic stormy sky, and the sea absolutely pounding inland it was hard to stop shooting, so I didn't....

I think this image for me just epitomises Skye and just how wild it is when the weather takes a turn for the worst, which sometimes is no bad thing if you are out with your camera, well it is if you are only 5 minutes walk from the car....

Portfolio of images on my own website here

It's really not often I use that word, but then again it's really not often that literally everything comes together like this did...

Another evening at Elgol and the conditions were absolutely Epic, no other word, immense golden warm side light picking out all the details on the rock faces, and illuminating the waves, along with a completely biblical sky due to the stormy nature of the day.

The scarred rock face here although very interesting to look at can look quite drab and can easily be lost in the scene, but as I've seen before here when it catches the sunlight it absolutely glows fiery yellow and really comes to life, not long after we got here it was like someone turning on a massive light switch and it just kicked off in style, I've lost count of the amount of images I got from here but this is definitely one of my faves so far.

When the light died down it looked as that was going to be the lot, I made my way back towards the car park keeping one eye on the conditions, as the sun went under the horizon, though the quite dense cloud we were treated to another ten mins or so of natures lightshow in a completely different really dramatic deep red / purple colour, so I even managed another load of shots from a different location! a truly unbelieveable shoot, I almost felt a bit guilty coming away with so much stuff! (almost)

I'll post the others up in due course.

Lots more images on my personal website here - regularly updated

Explore #11 05/10/16

One of my favourite shots from my last trip to the fantastic Isle of Skye, just for once I fell on great weather, couldn't really have asked for anymore given previous experiences..

Following on from the sunset shot (3 pictures back in my stream) this was taken after the sun had finally dropped behind the now silhouetted Cuillin mountain range, I decided to go for a long exposure shot as the colours were starting to look good after a few moments of dull light following the initial sunset and there was also some nice clouds to play with that weren't blocking the mountains or the sky colours, with the light fading very very quickly I needed 2 attempts at this as there was no base exposure to work on it was a case of just guess with the first exposure then read the histogram (which was under exposed) to see how much I had left to play with, then go again adding bit more time on to the original exposure plus another bit for the rapidly diminishing light and hope for the best, with the long amount of time needed for these shots I really only had the two attempts at it so I was made up to get this one in the bag as if I had failed I had also missed decent shots while I was waiting. The shadow areas in the rock formations being the darkest part of the scene would be difficult to exposure for so numerous times during the exposure I lit them up with a powerful torch painting over the darkest areas to try and balance the exposure out.

Final exposure time was 6 and a half minutes, fair to say I'm happy with this one given the unpredictable outcome.

Still makes me smile looking at it thinking back to the couple of very happy hours I had sat here taking pictures and watching the scene transform in front of me, to my mind this is surely one of the most magical places in the UK, the long drive back to the tent at Torvaig was a happy one.

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