I had a great day in the darkroom yesterday, processing five 120 films, two of which were colour.  I had never tried develping colour film before and wanted to give it a go using my waterbath that I bought a while back for cheesemaking!  I had seen some videos on YouTube that suggested it was not that difficult if the temperature can be controlled, so decided to give it a go.

The above shot is the finished article after a process of development, scanning using my Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark iii camera and the 60mm f/2.8 macro lens and a light box.  I then imported the images into Lightroom, set the white balance and inverted them in Photoshop before returning the inverted image to Lightroom for a bit of normal post processing.

The final images are not great because I was having a bit of difficulty wth colour balance when shooting the negative scans, and I got some of the settings on the camera a bit wrong as well, so they are a little grainy, but I can do it again as the negatives look pretty good.

Here are the various stages of development leading to the final image above:

Here are some of my other images created in this way:

First real snow of the winter over the last couple of days and I found I had a little bit of time to get out on the estate with the camera to try and capture this relatively uncommon phenomenon.  I was hoping to get some wide contextual landscape shots but also to zoom in on some of the details, so went out with my 40-150mm lens, giving plenty of scope for different compositions.

The following couple of images were taken looking west towards a small outcrop with birch trees along its summit, with an amazing dark brooding sky behind and strong afternoon sunlight coming in from the left, making for a dramatic composition.

On my way over to Duirinish I stopped and took the next couple of shots, the first looking along Loch Alsh towards Carr Brae, where the light was playing nicely on the snowy hills and highlighting the three old pine trees above Reraig; and also at the Horse Park looking north towards the Applecross hills and the Bealach na Ba, always a favourite of mine.

Finally, and by no means least, I stopped at Badicaul on my way home to capture these two shots of amazing light and snowy clouds on Beinn na Caillich above Broadford.  The two were taken from the same spot with different amounts of zoom, I think I prefer the slightly more zoomed in version.

The UNESCO Man & the Biosphere (MAB) programme is an intergovernmental scientific programme that aims to establish a scientific basis for enhancing the relationship between people and their environments. It combines the natural and social sciences with a view to improving human livelihoods and safeguarding natural and managed ecosystems, thus promoting innovative approaches to economic development that are socially and culturally appropriate and environmentally sustainable.

The UNESCO Wester Ross Biosphere is approaching its tenth anniversary and has just launched a Crowfunder appeal to ensure it has a future supporting sustainable communities and the environment across Wester Ross.  The organisation, established in 2016 has worked for nine years with virtually no public funding, apart for delivery of some specific projects.  In response to the lack of public funding the Biosphere has established a social enterprise, Wester Ross Consulting, offering a range of community support services and other consultancy work, always linked back to the core function of the UNESCO designation.

So, this is a plea to support the Biosphere by clicking the link below and making a donation to the campaign or sharing this with your friends and social networks.  Without your support the Wester Ross Biosphere cannot continue to work with communites across Wester Ross to help protect this wonderful place and promote a sustainable future for everyoen who lives and works here.

Thanks

Back the Biosphere Campaign

What a beautiful late afternoon/early evening it was yesterday.  I had a walk round the circular coastal path from Duirinish Station to Port an Eorna and on to Drumbuie and back to Duirinish.  The sun was low in the sky and eventually set beyond the horizon, lighting up the few clouds that were present.  I was trying out some long exposures with my ND filter kit, which results in beautifully smooth seas and soft skies.  This is something I plan to try out more, especially when there is a bit more movement in the sea and more interest in the sky.

Here are some more images captured during my walk.

So, the 'Best camera is the one you have with you' is a quote often attributed to photographer Chase Jarvis, and I have to agree.  In these days of incredible technology it is easy to get dragged into the never ending cycle of upgrading your kit to keep pace with development and innovation.  However, the quote remains absolutely true, in that sometime you just need to stop and capture a scene or subject that appeals to you and you don't actually need to have the latest hi-res full frame digital camera, or a Leica, or Hassleblad....  I find that my mobile phone, while actually representing just the more portable version of modern tech I am referring to, is always with me and I resort to using it more and more as a result.  In truth, even with its apparent 105MP hi-res mode, the images are nowhere close to being as sharp as those I can get on my Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera, but it does fit in my back pocket, and the results are not bad if you are not expecting to print them at any size above A4.

Anyway, this evening, on my way home from a pizza and beer run to the local Coop, I just had to stop and behave like a tourist as I left kyle of Lochalsh.  The reason is shown above, with amazing dramatic cloud patterns hanging over Loch Alsh.  I strongly suspect some interesting weather this way comes!

So Mr Jarvis, I agree totally with you.  If you don't have any sort of camera you will certainly miss the shot, so use whatever you have, and always have one with you, even if it is only a phone.  That being said, I also had my Praktica BMS 35mm film gear, so I shot a couple of frames using that.  Only time will tell if they come out as well as this one did.

At the weekend I had a couple of days camping in Coigach in the most splendid weather.  I spent the days travelling around Coigach, Assynt and NW Sutherland as far as Durness.  The above shot was pretty much the climax of the trip with a walk up to the Falls of Kirkaig and a little bit further to this wonderful viewpoint looking towards the south side of Suilven.  The Fionn loch wends it way into the distance providing an excellent leading line and the little patches of sunlight on the slopes of the mountain add just enough contrast to make the image interesting.

I have put the rest of the images in a slideshow below, rather than set them out individually as usual, I hope you enjoy looking at them.

I caught these two birds during a recent bird survey at Duirinish and Drumbuie on the Balmacara Estate in Lochalsh.  The first two are pin sharp as the bird was being particularly accommodating - not that unusual for stonechats which tend to perch on prominent plants or rocks making their distinctive chack-chack noise which sounds like two stones being knocked together.  I lke the first one because the bird is chacking with its mouth open, but the second one is perhaps slightly sharper, maybe it wasn't moving when I took the picture.

he second bird is a sedge warbler, which like the stonechat is also prone to making itself fairly obvious and making lots of angry sounding chittering noises, although they also skulk in dense scrub making them hard to spot at times.

Last Sunday was one of those days where it appeared for much of the day that the light was going to let me down as far as landscape photography was concerned.  I had headed north for a tour of the bulk of Wester Ross and was feeling things were not going to yield much.  However, as the afternoon proceeded there were a few interesting little periods of light, some clouds doing fascinating things and broken light, all making for a few good shots.

The above shot was taken on the way home, just after Achnasheen, heading westward with the sun relatively low in the sky, but mostly behind the broken cloud.  Rain/snow was threatening on the hills, producing some great textured clouds.  The railway line provides an excellent lead into the frame from the bottom left, moving the viewer's eye towards the centre of the action where the clouds meet the horizon.

The next shot was taken from the road to Red Point, near Gairloch.  I was actually heading back towards Gairloch and spotted these dramatic clouds in my rear view mirror and simply had to stop to try and capture the view.  These localised squalls are one of the great things about our weather in NW Scotland at this time of year.  It all seems to be lovely and spring-like, and then suddenly, out of the blue, comes a burst of rain or sleaty snow.  Never leave a warm jacket behind on days like these!

The next shot is of An Tealach, one of the great mountains of Wester Ross.  The Gaelic name translates as the Forge or the Anvil I believe.  The ridge is one of the most challenging in Scotland, and in parts rivals the Cuillin on Skye.  This view is from the road to Ullapool.  I always think it makes an excellent composition, looking through the spring green birch trees and with a little bit of zoom to emphasise the height of the ridge.

Finally, the next shot was taken during an evening walk at Drumbuie on 1st April.  There was promise of a decent sunset, which never really materialised, but I did capture this image looking along the main drainage ditch in the crofting township, as the sun set beyond Skye.  Not the best sunset, but I like the composition with the square crop.

What an amazingly wonderful spell of weather we have been having, but I have not had a great deal of time to get out with the camera.  Today though I had a few hours in the afternoon and I headed north to Torridon.  It was truly spectacular, but for colour photography the complete lack of any clouds rendered the scenery less appealing for the camera at least.  Fortunately I had my infrared converted Olympus Pen E-P1 camera with me, so I set about trying out a few IR shots.  These are my three favourites.

So, after a couple of weeks back at work, and a decent weather forecast, I was keen to get out with the camera this weekend.  I agreed with a friend, Graham Ryland, that we would head north to my favourite area and just see what took our fancy by way of locations.  The result was a long drive around Wester Ross and south-west Sutherland, and we had a really good day out.

The above shot is perhaps a familiar one, although neither Graham nor I had managed to work out where exactly this view was taken from, until yesterday.  We had a wee rake around the back streets of Lochinver and eventually worked it out.  While it would be preferable to have a bit more dramatic lighting, or some snow on Suilven, I think it is such an excellent view, with the mountain looming large over the church, that it still worked well.  We will be back!

We basically visited the Achnahaird peninsula and then took the Inverkirkaig road north to Lochinver, dropped into the wonderful pie shop to get some pies for the family, and then up to the superb viewpoint overlooking the Assynt hills.  Then, finally in the late afternoon we headed home, via Loch Assynt.  The following shots are the best I managed to capture, and given that it was bitterly cold, with a strong wind, and the light was pretty flat and a bit hazy, the results are decent.