Just returned from two weeks in Glencoe
The two weeks we’ve just had in Glencoe have been possibly the most enjoyable we’ve had despite the weather being very unpredictable (two sunny days, two overcast days and the remainder had rain every day). The reason for this was a mixture of being a lot happier taking photographs in any conditions, being prepared for those conditions (thank you Paramo!) and being willing to stay out all day under all but the most persistent downpours (we were meant to spend a day out with Richard Childs but it rained in torrents for two hours, after which we retired to the cabin for coffee and watched the rain out of the window). I should say that even thought most days had rain, all but one of the rainy days was interspersed with sunshine to good effect.
The thing about having ‘difficult’ weather for photography is that I had to concentrate more on the composition more than just pointing at some nice light. Some of the pictures I thought were good will suffer from not having “luminous light” but for me the acheivement is about how well I coped with what was given. I’d like to think I did OK in most cases and in a couple of cases I’m really happy.
I’m going to be posting a ‘daily summary’ (much like my last Scottish holiday) with a few notes on what my thoughts turned to on each day..
So, how was the first day? Well Charlotte and I got up earlyish and went over to the famous Lochan Na h’Achlaise with the goal of having a good wander around. In the end we did a lot more than that, we ended up circumnavigating the shoreline of the lochan and wandering around a few tributaries. There were lots of interesting places but the by the time we got to them, the light was unflattering. Toward the start of the hike though, I saw that the sunlight and the white clouds were creating a diffuse highlight on the lakes surface and the ripples were bouncing off the rocks to create rings. After wandering up and down the shore for a few minutes, I found a suitable composition that made a feature of this (not a too strong one however) and that receded toward the horizon in nice curves, The picture was intended as black and white but I wasn’t confident that it would be good and hence did not take a large format shot. Now that I’ve seen the results, I wish I had.. This has convinced me that I need to learn to see better in black and white and possibly to buy a couple of black and white filters (I ended up using a yellow filter on this shot but only in Potatoshop). The result is a subtle shot but one that I find quite pleasing and reflects the morning very well..
Just for future reference, at the north or northwest end of the lochan there are many tree stumps that are slowly being exposed out of the peat. I intend to return to these next time I’m up in Glencoe. I’ve added a ‘refererence (i.e. crap) shot to show an area at the west north west corner…
I was a little disspointed in the day’s outing in some ways.. I was hoping for some ‘amazing’ light in the morning which didn’t occur and I was looking for a great composition which maybe occured(?) but really I think I was trying too hard to see; I wanted to get ‘into the zone’ too much. In the end we went home (after emptying boots of water) and met up with my parents who were staying for the first few days of our holiday, hoping that the next day would help my head to get back in the right shape.
