This month has been incredibly busy and as a result I have not been out with the camera for nearly four weeks.  However, yesterday, while returning to the house, I was taken by the amazing light shining through the vibrant green leaves of the trees.  I returned with the camera to try and capture the essence of that wonderful light.  I chose a small aperture to produce a star burst effect with the bright sun, and managed to balance the exposure reasonably well considering the dark shady foreground. 

The amazing blossom of the crab apple tree in the background stands out in perfect purple against the bright lime green of the new leaves.  The following shot is a close-up of the same blossom.  I really like this image with the soft tones of the purples of the blossom against the smore muted green of the new leaves.

Inspired by the wonderful late-afternoon light I shot a few more close-up images of various plants in the gardens.

The South Skye Camera Club held its first outing for ages and ages tonight with a visit to Cill Chriosd and Torrin.  After a quick meet up at the old churchyard at Cill Chriosd we split up to try and find some interesting shots of the area, agreeing to meet up again at the shore at Torrin.  I shot this, and the following variation, from the side of the loch, managing to capture the crepuscular rays breaking through between the heavy cloud above Bla Bheinn.  The colours were very muted with backlight from the low sun, and it was only when these occasional rays broke through that the scene merited a shot.

After a heavy cloud descended on the mountain I headed to the shore at Kilbride to see if a different angle, with the rocky shore in the foreground, might offer up something worthwhile.  The light was not that great on the hill with the sun setting behind it, but the following shot captured the scene quite well, with the sun illuminating the clouds just above the top of the mountain.  I liked the small rock pool in the foreground providing interest and colour among the rocks and the angles leading the eye into the view, countered by the spreading cloud pattern above Bla Bheinn..  Once again the colours were very subdued late in the evening and it was extremely cold for May.

The first overnight trip of the year, since lockdown, was to Uist this weekend.  We were very lucky with the weather, bright and sunny most of the time but the north-easterly breeze did provide some more active fronts, including the above which moved quickly across the islands from east to west.  The dark clouds and curtains of rain, offset by the bright sunny patch on the dunes and the amazing turquoise of the sea in the bay made this shot irristible.

Equally dramatic was the light at Clachan when we first arrived, looking west.  Again the amazing turquoise colour of the sea made this scene truly wonderful.  I particularly liked the renovated old croft house adjacent to the old abandoned one, and the ubiquitous telephone poles.

The trip involved quite a bit of driving, mainly to do a lot of bird watching - 64 species counted in two days, but I did manage a few shots in between.  Not surprisingly, the white-tailed eagle was one of the main highlights, but we also had decent views of a male hen harrier, short-eared owl, and long-tailed duck.  The following images are my other favourites from the trip.