Start of the New Day

[Donald]

Over the past couple of weeks or so I've been posting some of the images as a result of a week spent in the north west Highlands of Scotland. I did manage to capture the photo that allowed me to make an image that had been in my head for two years. since I was last there. It is here.

But during the approx 3 hours I was at this location, the light was changing all the time. I was there before dawn and watched the light coming into the sky. As well as the light, the clouds were weaving an ever changing pattern. So, another image I made from almost the same location as that one linked to above, was this one.

I like the sweep of the clouds. Am always keen to hear what your views are.


Canon 40D, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ 11 mm. ISO100. 20s @f16

[rtbaum]

Altough both images are quite good, I think this is my preference. I like how the clouds compliment the road

[Mike Buckley]

As much as I like the other one, this one seems superior by a wide margin. The road is a leading line to the point from which the sky virtually explodes.

I find it interesting that you spent 3 hours at this location. When I'm traveling, travel experiences are my first priority; photography and everything else are secondary. I gather that when you spent the week in this part of Scotland that you went there primarily to do photography, perhaps much as when I enter my makeshift studio I'm there to focus on photography. Otherwise, I imagine that you would not have spent 3 hours at this scene. Am I right?

By the way, if I am right about that, I don't begrudge that you might have enjoyed some wine during your week of travel, whereas that's not the case when I spend time in my makeshift studio. Just the opposite, I'm jealous.

[Cantab]

I like them both. For me, the first one gives a broader sense of the expanse of the land, partly because of the horizontal rather than square format. The picture in this thread perhaps draws you in more since the road starts closer to the centre of the bottom edge of the image --and yet this being drawn in is justaposed with the expansive and dramatic sky and clouds.

I visited Benbecula and North & South Uist a good many years ago and remember not seeing a single tree till we got back to Skye -- perhaps a similar type of grandeur and barrenness as in the north west where this picture is from?

[gcowan]

I was standing photographing the sunrise onto our tallest mountain, with the remnants of our winter snow, on Wednesday, I was actually trying to catch the full moon setting, but I did not calculate the time correctly and forgot, that it sets over the mountains earlier than over the plain, but while I watched the light change, I was thinking of was your atmospheric images of the Highlands. I will post one of my images when they are finished, but you will see that they are bright and colourful. We do get moody weather but it is not how we normally see our landscape.
I think you have shown us another beautiful image of Scotland. I really like the feel of place and the space and emptiness. When I visited Scotland I was surprised at the feeling of space and wilderness even though it is tiny by comparison to home.

It would be interesting to see the images in a series.

Graham

[jeeperman]

Donald, I liked the first.....but this one even more. The slight movement in the clouds works well and everything works towards pulling me down the road. There is a very honest and intense feel in this image for me....if that makes any sense.

[Donald]

Thank you for your comments. I had seen this image as very much the 'B' side and the other one (see link above) as the 'A' side (for those who remember buying their music on vinyl). Maybe I need to revise that thinking.

Re some specific comments:

I find it interesting that you spent 3 hours at this location. When I'm traveling, travel experiences are my first priority; photography and everything else are secondary. I gather that when you spent the week in this part of Scotland that you went there primarily to do photography, perhaps much as when I enter my makeshift studio I'm there to focus on photography. Otherwise, I imagine that you would not have spent 3 hours at this scene. Am I right?

Mike - Yes, to a large degree you are.

I do know this part of the country quite well, having been there a number of times. When I go on holiday/vacation I don't do a lot of distance travelling. I like to be based in one place and try to get to know something about it.

I had stood on this spot two years ago and saw the image I wanted (the other one that I linked to), but the weather was not right. This time it all came together. I was up at, I think, 5am. It was still dark. It was still dark when I got to this location at about 6am. As dawn began to emerge at about 7am, I got myself set up and then just waited for the light.

To stand there in the silence, only broken by the roar of the rutting stags (red deer) all around me on the hills, was one of those magical experiences. Many people, I accept, wouldn't 'get it' and that's fine. But, for me, these are moments to savour and store in the memory bank and I hope some of that passion is transferred into my images.

I visited Benbecula and North & South Uist a good many years ago and remember not seeing a single tree till we got back to Skye -- perhaps a similar type of grandeur and barrenness as in the north west where this picture is from?

Bruce - You are right. In fact if you were to go about 500 yards behind where I'm standing for this one, you are on a rise looking down over the Atlantic Ocean and on the horizon you can see the island of Lewis, the northernmost island in the Hebrides chain that includes the Uists. I posted this one that shows the view. For the image above, I was standing on the road, which goes out of the frame near the top right, that leads from the houses at the bottom of this linked image, to the village of Ullapool.

It would be interesting to see the images in a series.

Graham

Unashamed plug, but you can see them in my own website here. I'll transfer them into one of galleries at a later stage.

There is a very honest and intense feel in this image for me....if that makes any sense.

It does to me and I hope it does to others. And that, I hope, is about that feeling and emotion that I referred to above in my reply to Mike's comment.

[Clactonian]

Great image Donald.
The square format strengthens the composition for me.
I can sympathise with Mike's comments as photography always has to play second fiddle when I'm travelling.

[GrahamS]

I was up at, I think, 5am. It was still dark. It was still dark when I got to this location at about 6am. As dawn began to emerge at about 7am, I got myself set up and then just waited for the light.

To stand there in the silence, only broken by the roar of the rutting stags (red deer) all around me on the hills, was one of those magical experiences. Many people, I accept, wouldn't 'get it' and that's fine. But, for me, these are moments to savour and store in the memory bank and I hope some of that passion is transferred into my images.

Donald, you are a man after my own heart! Wonderful, evocative images. Bravo!

[Coinneachmhor]

Donald, I think your record should be a double A side! The atmosphere is captured brilliantly from the bleakness of the landscape to the awe inspiring wonder of the scale of natures moods. Many's a day I spent in the highlands marvelling at nature's showing off, regardless of whether it is torrential rain or bright sunshine, the canvas provided by the Highlands for this is I believe second to none and yet again you have captured the very heart of it. I am going north in a couple of weeks and hope to get a similar image looking onto Loch Lundavra, catching the MacCallum's farm house above the loch in moody weather.

[Donald]

I can sympathise with Mike's comments as photography always has to play second fiddle when I'm travelling.

I have a partner who is:
a) very tolerant or,
b) delighted to get me out of the way for a few hours

Donald, you are a man after my own heart! Wonderful, evocative images. Bravo!

Thank you Graham. Success, for me, is capturing the mood and atmosphere.

Many thanks for commenting Kenny and ............

...... looking onto Loch Lundavra, catching the MacCallum's farm house above the loch in moody weather.

I'd never thought of that. Haven't been up there for years. But you're right. There is a wonderful picture to be made of that scene.

[oleleclos]

I love the second picture, especially the way the clouds and the light fan out from the same point as the road.

Personally I would have put a little more detail into the very dark fore- and middleground - but we've been there before, and I am beginning to understand a darker side of the Scottish mindset

[Donald]

Personally I would have put a little more detail into the very dark fore- and middleground - but we've been there before, and I am beginning to understand a darker side of the Scottish mindset

We'll make a good presbyterian Scot out of you yet!

In fact, on the original file, that ground is much darker than you see it in this finished image.There was quite a bit of fill light and dodging went into it to bring it up to what you see here.