I popped out of the office today to check a few things on the estate and of course took the camera with me. The light was initially not great but the clouds offered some potentially interesting shots, especially when I zoomed in on some of the craggy bits near Plockton and over to the Bealach nam Ba as well. The resulst are shown below but the question is: which is better, colour or B&W? In general I think I prefer B&W as it tends to lend atmosphere but today I got some interesting colour shots so I am not so sure. I think when there is a bit of colour in the sky the colour works well, but often at this time of year it is a bit bland, what do you think, comments are welcome?
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These three pine trees were sitting highlighted bu some winter sun with the mountains in the background. The wider view also produced a nice colour image (see below) but I like the B&W version focused more on the trees themselves, what do you think?
This image, along with the others below, were taken at the beach at Glaick this morning while walking the dogs. I think these nicely reflect Eilish in her natural environment, i.e. outdoors, as she is much more relaxed and happy than the ones I took a few days back in the kitchen. I have decided I think that I prefer portraits in black & white as I think they show the tones much better and the colours sometimes can be a bit distracting. I also like the slightly softer tones, achieved in this case by slightly reducing the clarity in Lightroom. I also darkened down the sky in the background which had the effect of making Eilish stand out much more. I liked the effect of the ripples in the sand left behind by the receding tide, with Sgurr na Coinnich in the background but to be honest I don't really think it worked as well as I have hoped. I am not sure how I could have composed this better but the this version has been cropped as the original wider angled view was really a bit boring. Maybe if the photo had been taken a bit lower down, closer to the sand, it might have emphasised the beach disappearing off into the distance?
This was the rather fine view I came downstairs to this morning so I felt that despite having probably too many photos taken from our garden that another just had to be added. I particularly liked the sharp crescent moon and lonesome star above and right of it.
A bit later on I had to take a trip up to Portree to pick up some wood pellets for our biomass boiler so with it being such a nice sunny day I took my camera gear with me and made a couple of stops on the way. The first stop was at the Allt Coire nam Bruadaran waterfall which despite being hugely popular as a photo stop with tourists I had never stopped at before, in 25 years of traveling up and down that road. On the way back from Portree the light on the Cuillins was fantastic so i stopped above Sligachan and took a few panorama shots. With the little bit of snow on the tops and the clear sky it was too good an opportunity to miss. Despite the sun flare above the Black Cuillin I think the wide panorama works quite well. The Red Cuillins was good in colour and black & white but I prefer the latter. This photo was taken yesterday and I forgot to upload it with my photos from the trip to Elgol. This was taken from our garden, very quickly in response to a sudden change of light and these spectacular dark clouds with a narrow gap of very bright sunshine. It didn't last very long but was well worth trying to catch with the camera. The light has played havoc with my old lens with lots of suns spots but it kind of adds to the atmosphere of the image.
Today's photo represents something a little different, possibly because it was my first day back at work this year. I was down at Craggan Cottage on the Ballmacara Estate checking some ground maintenance work with a contractor when I saw the old Summer House which is largely disappearing into the undergrowth. I popped back later and tried taking various shots from different angles but none really worked very well (as the slightly wider aspect shown below illustrates. The black & white one above has been cropped int to focus on the window with the door just visible through the brush to the left. I think it kind of evokes feelings of mystery and a lost story somehow. The b&w seems to remove the distraction of the bright green foliage letting the viewer focus more on the window and the almost hidden structure beneath. The final sepia tone wider view is interesting as well, offering a different perspective. The building above the Summer House is an old tin house that was once used by the Gardener as his office, and presumably before that was actually used as a house. It is now falling into a state of disrepair but represents a whole vernacular style that was prevalent around these parts in the early 20th century.
Took advantage of an unexpected free day today to make a visit to Elgol on Skye. The light was not brilliant but the clouds offered something and there was a bit of movement in the sea so I tried creating this image using HDR techniques plus using an ND12 filter to get a long exposure. The low shutter speed created this misty effect on the sea plus it also emphasised the movement in the sky quite effectively. This was taken on my Canon ES 5D with my 22-55mm lens at 22mm with an ND12 filter at 6s at f/22, ISO 100. I also took this shot using the ND12 filter focusing close-up on the boulders on the beach. Quite an effective image. On the way I also managed a few other decent shots in variable light looking over Cille Chroisd, also looking towards the mainland from the Elgol peninsula. Plus I thought the sheep was quite a good shot too.
After a visit to the vet with our two dogs and a much quicker and cheaper visit to the Broadford Co-op I managed to get this shot from the end oft he Co-op car park. The light was fantastic looking east towards the mainland with a lot of broken cloud. I took this shot handheld with the Canon EOS 5D with the 28-300mm Tamron lens at 1/50s at f/16, ISO 100. The original picture was taken at 28mm but has been cropped to 121mm equivalent as the sea in the foreground and lots of sky above were not very interesting. The Applecross hills were lit up with the sun but the pattern of cloud shadow really makes this image I think.
A busy day today meant it was quite late on when I managed to get around to thinking about taking my daily photograph. That being said I think the wait was worth it as I set off in the car to Badicaul to try and catch a view of Skye as the light faded. I was very lucky just catching this lovely sunset as the sun disappeared behind Broadford. This was taken using the Canon EOS 5D on a tripod with my Tamron 28-300mm zoom lens set at 28mm at 0.6 s, f/16 at ISO 100. Great clouds and vibrant colours. I also took a few other photos from different perspectives/zooms with the best couple shown below. I tried the HDR (High Dynamic Range) technique on the main view as well, mainly to try and get a little more detail from the foreground tree on the right. However, because there was a bit of a breeze and this method needs three images to be taken using auto exposure bracketing the delay has produced a loss of clarity and definition in the branches, looking like they are in fact out of focus. Also, I think I prefer the colours in the simple single exposure image at the top of this post.
I managed to get these two shots of Eilish reading this morning, much to here disgust, hence the slightly unimpressed expression. Taken on the Canon EOS 5D with my 28-300mm lens set at 127mm, 1/4s at f/5.6 at ISO 640. I just used the natural light from the french windows, hence the slow shutter speed and so the image was not perhaps quite as sharp as it might have been with a flash. I reduced the clarity a bit in Lightroom, producing a nice soft focus effect which I think works well in black and white.
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AuthorI am an amateur photographer who is also a Chartered Geographer with his own part-time consultancy business and I work as an estate manager for a national conservation charity in Scotland. I am based in Lochalsh, Wester Ross, Scotland, just next to the Isle of Skye. SalesIf you like my photos and are interested in purchasing prints, whether framed, mounted or otherwise please click here.
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