Skye in Winter

[billtils]

Took a short break in Skye at the beginning of the month. Went to most of the usual photo spots, but so did the rain and clouds. Here's one that wasn't too dismal.





Sorry, having Tinypic problems and this did not upload correctly. Too late to debug tonight - will look at it in the morning.

EDIT: It looks fine now; when I previewed it last night I couldn't see the full image, it looked as if it had been cropped vertically.

I probably should have mentioned in the original post that the weather gods were kind and provided the horizontal strip of cloud that masked the sun.

[Cantab]

Bill, I'm not sure what the uploading issue was but I'm looking at what I think is a spectacular photo!

I visited Skye a good many years ago (40 to be precise) but understand that a bridge has now replaced the Kyle of Lochalsh ferry.

[Mike Buckley]

Here's one that wasn't too dismal.

I should say so!

Do you by any chance have a photo of the house shown below? I ask because I have seen another photo of it taken years after I took mine in 2002 and I wonder how much more the house, the vegetation growing on the stone fence and the tree have changed more recently.

[Wavelength]

What a spectacular sky @ skye....superb image

[billtils]

A few more "Winter in Skye" images

Loch Fada before sunrise, taken about 30 minutes before the sun broke the horizon





Loch Slapin: the top of the loch as the cloud level descended to hide everything other than the loch itself





Mono version of the above




And just to show that there were indeed glimpses of Skye sky, here is one of the Cuillins from Sligachan

[Shadowman]

Nice captures.

[Donald]

Lovely set of images, Bill. I've never photographed on Skye.

[Wavelength]

Very nice shots

[billtils]

Thanks Donald - apart from rain, midges and tourists, it's a photographic paradise.

(And thanks to John and Nandakumar also).

[NorthernFocus]

Nice set, Bill. All are well composed. Just a bit more cloud in the Loch Fada shot would have been awesome given the colors of the few you had to work with. When I first viewed the Loch Slapin shot I thought the FG was wind blown snow. Looks like you braved some tough conditions for that one. Nicely done.

[bje07]

My preferred # 1 for the sky, the clouds, the atmospheric perspective of the mountains.

[billtils]

Do you by any chance have a photo of the house shown below? I ask because I have seen another photo of it taken years after I took mine in 2002 and I wonder how much more the house, the vegetation growing on the stone fence and the tree have changed more recently.

Mike

These houses are more common on other islands, particularly Lewis. There are some in Skye, and indeed there is a site in the north of the island with a group of restored ones. They are called "black houses" and the Skye ones have unadorned stone walls - very interesting but not photogenic. However, there is one like yours by the roadside on the way to and from the bridge that is available to rent as a holiday house. As far as I can gather it is the only one like it on the island - we were told by the folks in the tourist office in Portree that there were none of the white-walled ones on Skye.

However, we stumbled on this when going elsewhere. It was a "must capture", but also cold, wet and windy and I spent as little time as possible outside of the car. I'm afraid it is a "record shot" but perhaps it is indeed the same building?





EDIT; I shot it from this side to get the red door ... but prefer yours.

[Wavelength]

WOW; when heaven is full, i will stay here

[Mike Buckley]

The lines in the photo of Loch Fada are spectacular!

It's fun to learn that this house is the only one like it on the island. It was the only one I saw, but I didn't realize why that was the case. The photo I saw of it made in between yours and mine indicates that it's being taken care of better now. In that photo and yours the walls are bright white rather than dirty. I'm reasonably certain the door was not red when I took my photo. A new roof was put on in between my photo and the other photo I saw of it. I don't know how often the roof has to be changed, but notice that the stones attached to the thatch are higher in your photo than in mine. Interesting stuff!

EDIT: Is it possible that the small tree in my photo is the large tree in yours? A tree could certainly grow that large in 15 years but I don't know if that species will grow that much.

[Donald]

WOW; when heaven is full, i will stay here

Don't tell a Sgiathanach (person from Skye) that. They already think the place is the centre of the known universe!

[Wavelength]

Haha...did you mean, it to be the faith of aborigines or just a fashion statement like in Kerala even Government names it 'God's own country' ?

[Donald]

Haha...did you mean, it to be the faith of aborigines or just a fashion statement like in Kerala even Government names it 'God's own country' ?

No not a blind faith, Nandakumar, but a strong belief that there is nowhere quite as wonderful as Skye.

[madcrow]

Beautiful images, everyone. I think the people in Skye got it wrong, in Ireland we know, we are the centre of the universe.

[Wavelength]

May be Universe is an ellipse with two centres

[bnnrcn]

Great set Bill