A Trip to the Glenelg Brochs

Dun Telve, Glenelg (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-35mm lens at 21mm, ISO 200, 1/125 sec at f/16, ND8 Grad Filter, Tripod)

I took the opportunity of having a free afternoon with some interesting light to make a trip over to Glenelg for a visit to the brochs.  The main aim was to take some shots with the new View Camera, which I did and am now eagerly awating the opportunity to develop them.  However, I also took my trusty digital kit and got some nice shots. 

There are two brochs in Glen Beag this being the larger of the two, Dun Telve, which is apparently the second highest remaining broch in the coutnry.  I took a variety of shots but this is my favourite with the two trees and a fairly atmospheric sky.  For all of these shots I was shooting against a much brighter sky so it was really difficult to get a good exposure on the structure while retaining any detail or colour in the sky.  Hence, I used the auto-bracket funxtion on the camera to shoot three shots of each photo, one at normal exposure, one at +2 and one at -2 stops and then merged them using Lightroom's HDR merge tool.  While I don't like using this tool overly much there are times when shooting into a bright background when it works well.  The following shots show the structure from different viewpoints illustrating its shape and form quite well.

Dun Telve, Glen Beag - Main Entrance (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-35mm lens at 17mm, ISO 200, 1/40 sec at f/16, ND8 Grad Filter, Tripod)

Dun Telve, Glen Beag - Inside (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-35mm lens at 17mm, ISO 200, 1/50 sec at f/16, ND8 Grad Filter, Tripod)

I also took an interesting close-up shot of the amazing stonework which looks cmpletely different in colour to black & white.  These structures are double skinned with tie stones holding the two walls together and somehow this strucutre provides excellent strnghts without needing to be too heavy which allowed the cnsiderable height to be achieved.

Broch Stonework (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-35mm lens at 35mm, ISO 200, 1/15 sec at f/16, Tripod)

Broch Stonework (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-35mm lens at 35mm, ISO 200, 1/15 sec at f/16, Tripod)

I also visited the smaller f the two brochs, Dun Troddan and this was my favourite shot, taken from below a large sycamore tree which grows just to the side of the broch.

Dun Troddan, Glen Beag (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-35mm lens at 17mm, ISO 100, 0.6 sec at f/22, ND8 Grad Filter, Tripod

On the way home I stopped at the top of Mam Ratagan and took a shot of Kintail and the hea dof Loch Duich.  I don't think this is a aprticularly great shot but it shows the hills with a bit of snow and some nice light on the more distant hills.  This is a panorama of two shots.

Kintail from Mam Ratagan (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 17-35mm lens at 35mm, ISO 100, 1/25 sec at f/8.0, ND8 Grad Filter, Panorama of 2 shots)

Then finally as a spur of the moment decision returned via the old Carr Brae road and got this lovely shot of Loch Alsh, looking towards Skye.  I didn't use any filters on this one, preferring to go for more of a sillhouette effect and focusing on trying to capture to warm light on the loch and in the clouds.

Loch Alsh from Carr Brae (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 24-105mm lens at 50mm, ISO 100, 1/320 sec at f/8.0)