Tonight's session at the College for Higher Photography was an introduction to using Photoshop Elements.  Just the very basic stuff but the two images above represent the before and after.  I had produced the left hand image using HDR and Adobe Lightroom but I was never completely happy with it because of a sunspot on the slopes of the Bealach in the background.  I tried cloning this out in Lightroom but failed to get the resutl I wanted, so I tried it in PSE with a bit more success.  I also decided to try and reduce most of the colour and focus on the red roof and the blue string holding the door closed.  I quite like this effect but I think there will still need to be a bit of messing around.  Interestingly I think I have not yet explored all the options in Lightroom either so the coming months will be focused upon trying out the different tools and effects on the images for the Higher project and we will see what happens.

The start of March has been really busy with no chance for any photography until today but fortunately I had a day off work and the weather was OK so I popped out this morning and got a few more shots for my Higher Photography project.  The one above is a panorama of five shots, but I foolishly didn't check the ISO setting so it was at the camera's maximum and hence the picture was a bit grainy.  I managed to control that a bit in Lightroom but I think it could have been better if I had only noticed.  The image itself is of the runrig croft land at Duirinish and you can see the narrow strips running right to left.  In the distance on the left you can see the Drumbuie tonwship.

Some of the other images are shown in the gallery below.  I have done most in black & white but felt the Cottar's House was better in colour, although I don't really like the brightly painted old machinery, so I might try it in black & white too.  The hay rake was the same but in this case I didn't have the interesting background colour of the pink house so chose the B&W option.

Being the beginning of another month it is time to decide which photos were my favourites from last month.  As I did for January here are my favourite three in reverse order.  I did have a few others that I liked a lot including the shot of the Birch Trees at the River Moriston at Bunloyne on 17 February and the Buzzard at Duirinish taken on 28 February so please feel free to suggest others... 

Third - Otter (22 February)
I would have been happier with this one if I had realised the camera was not set at its highest resolution, but given that I am pleased with the quality.

Second - Tractor & Snow Squall, Dubh-aird, Plockton (24 February)
I think this was one of those cases of capturing the Decisive Moment as Cartier Bresson would say.  The snow squall came down the Inner Sound very quickly and I was fortunately in the right place at the right time.  The tractor adds vibrant colour and context to the shot as well.

First - Snow Storm on The Bealach an Ba (24 February)
This shot came out nicely in colour but when I converted it to black & white I felt the contrast was much greater, showing off the  terrain well.  I darkened down the sky as well to try and get something like an Ansel Adams effect which I think was achieved quite well.  The snow squall coming in from the west (left) soon obliterated the view which was constantly changing throughout the day from brilliant sunshine to snow storms and back again.

I was out again at the weekend trying to get more shots of the Crofting Cultural Landscape for my Higher Photography project.  This shot shows a valley above Balmacara Square just off the road to Duirinish.  If you look at the foot of the valley you will see a clearly defined area that was once cultivated using lazy beds.  This is now very wet and forms part of the Balmacara common grazings but at one time would have been quite productive.  The distinct lines of the ridges and furrows can be clearly seen along with the boundary dykes or turf walls.

The following gallery consists of the best of the photos I took on Sunday.