It's been a while since I last blogged, so I thought I'd share some images from my travels during the last the last few months. In May I made a sort of photographic pilgrimage. Most landscape photographers in Scotland have a sort of hit list of the key spots - there's The Buchaille Etive Mor at Glencoe (I went there in October 2010 with rather damp esults - must go back!), Skye with Elgol and Storr and the Quiraing (was there in July 2011 - I really ought to post those pics) and there's Loch Ard and that oft snapped boathouse. In may this year I finally visited Loch Ard - I saw the boatshed, but the light was singularly uninteresting - one to go back to in the depth of winter I think... Shot of the day ended up being a close up of a flower! Some landscape photographer I am!
June saw a trip to New Lanark Mill - always a great place for a day of photography - lots of opportunity for some steam punk images. I got a few pleasing shots but nothing to set the world alight. These were the days of good weather, dappled sunlight and wandering about in shorts T-Shirt and with a camera on my back. I got along to Dalkeith Country Park while the main attraction (The Adventure Playground) was cloosed, leaving me in peace to get some snaps of the old buildings. I particularly liked the old Orangerie. I hear people saying they can't wait for it to be restored next year as it could be lovely - but I prefer it in it's ruined state - loads of atmosphere and you can picture the gentry meeting on the lawns next to the Orangerie for Tiffin. splendid.
July was Summer Holiday month and what a photography bonanza I had high in the Austrian Alps. My third visit there but my first with an SLR. What a fantastic place to be - there is nothing better than hiking the Alpine tops, camera in hand! I'm sure I'll be back again one day.August was a blur - I never got out with the camera at all - too many pressures at work and of course I was still processing the thousands of pictures I took in the Alps.
Which brings us up to date. October sees the clocks going back and heralds a time of year when dawn and dusk aren't at such insociable hours. But it also is a time for terribly cold hands and batteries that drain faster than usual. A tip I once got about that is to keep your spare batteries NOT in your bag but under your oxters (Scots for armpits). I think that's a little extreme and a bit nasty - I keep them in my trouser pockets or in an inside pocket of my jacket.
Every Year the MacD's take an annual trip to the Trossachs at this time of year - first stop loch Lubnaig in search of great foliage and glassy reflections. Followed by a quick nod to Rob Roys grave and a family hike around Loch Voil, picking the wild blackberries and having a well wrapped up ((us not the food) picnic.
This year Lubnaig was choppy and unfortunately most of the yellowed autumnal leaves fell off withing a week of turning, so we missed the full effect. Still, the mark of a good photographer is finding something from nothing and making images from what's available. There are two schools of thought for Landscapers - preparation is everything or adaptability is the key. Personally I think it's a bit of both. For the shot below, I prepped by knowing my location, the weather conditions I like, the seasonal effects, where to park, where to walk to, I'd talked to people who had been there before who could tell me what the leaves were looking like and off I went. But I got there and despite all my prep - none of the conditions were quite right - so add a splash of adaptability and I ended up with a shot I really like that still gets the colours and the feel for the place.
