I’m just back from a shooting photos in Scotland for a week and to say I was blown away by its breathtaking scenery is an understatement!
I set of for bonny Scotland on Monday morning after dropping my daughter of at school, its a 5hr drive from the Midlands which went really pleasant stopping once to recharge my needs It wasn’t long before I was driving along the A82 main road though the Highlands where the scenery on either side of the road is overwhelmingly beautiful .
I reached the Glencoe Ski Centre where I knew there was a beautiful cottage called “Black Rock Cottage” which is probably the most photographed cottage in Scotland, so seen as my camera kit was in the boot I decided to stop and admire the view.
Scotland A Photographers Paradise
I spent the rest of Monday afternoon on the Glen Etive road which is a 12 mile stretch of single lane “Heaven For Photographers” to put it into perspective I have been taking Peak District Images now for just over 12 months and when I’ve been out in the Peak District you do bump into 1-2 fellow photographers but the most I have seen in 1 day on a location, say for example Curbar Edge is 2 maximum.
Whilst on the Glen Etive road I saw over 10 photographers in the space of an hour! So it is prime photography estate!
There was no sunset that evening, in fact there was only one sunset all week which I managed to catch a glimpse of from Castle Stalker. Tired from my long drive and few hours photography I went to meet a fellow photography friend James at our guest house for the week to discuss our plans.
James is a little like me, very easy going, relaxed and open minded, but he does have far more subject knowledge and in this case location knowledge as well as he had been before to Scotland.
I ended up taking 10 shots, and when I processed the images 1 of the 10 pictures just had 1 small water droplet on it so I was extremely happy!
One of the things I will take from this trip is to go out whatever the weather, and its also one of my new year resolutions too and it seems to be paying of so far!
The rest of the week was much of the same except for Friday which was rain free, but no sunrise or sunset light unfortunately, that being said I still had an amazing week being out and about.
I had Tuesday to myself and I stayed local venturing back along the Glen Ective Road, the A82 and the B863 all within 30 minutes of our Guest House in Ballachulish. For the next 2 days of our stay it rained constantly so we went for a few recce of possible locations, I did manage to get a few nice shots when the rain briefly stopped, but they were challenging shots to get but at the same time most rewarding to see the outcome.
My photograph of Steall Waterfalls is a prime example of shooting in the rain, we parked up got our waterproofs on and made the 2 mile walk to the waterfalls in the rain, the rain was a times downpours and at other times none.
I would say it was defiantly heavy interrupted showers, so the chance of getting a decent shot was slim but it was worth the walk.
Setting up I realised this was a gamble the water coming down the falls was like a shower in its self and the rain was coming from the left, this was tricky so I decided to wait for 10 minutes. and the rain passed.
I then just had the spray to contend with cleaning my lens constantly I needed to keep it free from water for 3 seconds, that’s how long the exposure was!
Lessons I Learnt
- Check the weather forecast and study it from more than one source, I tent to use
- Dont let the rain stop you, yes its demoralising but don’t let it beat you.
- Research Photo Locations prior to your trip, luckily we had internet access but if you didn’t you could miss out on some amazing photography locations near by.
- I also learnt that I could take my laptop to process images, however I was discourage to share them because your laptop screen is not fixed so the angle of viewing is different for everyone so during the week I only shared 2 images with my followers on Facebook.
- I also realised that whilst using Lightroom 4 on my laptop that any image edits or meta changes I made could be exported from one Lightroom library to another library to save time, this meant that I could tag my photos and make small changes on my laptop and then export them to my main computer at home and its actually very easy. (tutorial to follow)
- Use a GPS on your camera if you can get one, I didn’t know where I was at some times, so I purchased a GPS that stores the co-ordinates so when importing my images to Lightroom it shows me where that photo was taken!
The Photos
I’m not going to ramble on where all of the images were taken and when, They were all taken within a 20 mile radius of Glencoe, in the Highlands so you can surely get a feeling of the environment we were in from the shots.
I really loved my week in Scotland and I really cant wait to go again, but with it being a 5hr drive and prices for fuel rising all the time the weeks little adventure cost around £500 in total, and for that price you can jump on late deals too other parts of the world so its also something to factor in when planning a photography trip.
I hope you enjoy the pictures and I hope they inspire you to get out and about and enjoy the wonderful Scottish countryside.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed my little ramble thanks for reading.
Check out my Scotland Landscape Photography
Have a browse of some of the stunning scenes ive managed to admire and capture whilst in Scotland from Assynt, Glencoe and the stunning Isle of Skye
