A Beautiful Snowy Afternoon at Balmacara

Snow on the Hills from Duirnish (Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro lens at 40mm, 1/160 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, CPL filter, handheld panorama of three images)

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.

Dramatic Light on Birch Trees at Duirinish (Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro lens at 40mm, 1/100 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, CPL filter, handheld)

Side Lit Birch Trees at Duirinish (Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro lens at 90mm, 1/100 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, CPL filter, handheld)

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.

Three Pines above Reraig from Glaick (Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro lens at 150mm, 1/250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, CPL filter, handheld)

Snow on the Bealach na Ba (Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro lens at 40mm, 1/3200 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, CPL filter, handheld)

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.

Late Afternoon Light on Beinn na Caillich from Badicaul (Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro lens at 79mm, 1/160 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, CPL filter, handheld)

Late Afternoon Light on Beinn na Caillich from Badicaul (Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm F/2.8 Pro lens at 100mm, 1/160 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, CPL filter, handheld)