A week or so ago I had the pleasure of a couple of nights away camping with my daughter Eilish, firstly at Altandhu, near Achiltibuie, and then further north at Sandwood Bay.  The above shot was taken about 10:30 pm looking towards the stac that is such a key feature of the bay.  The sunset was not particularly brilliant but there was a brief moment or two where it presented some lovely pastel colours before disappearing behind the clouds on the horizon. 

The trip produced a few good shots with the sky providing some excellent interest in what might otherwise have been a fairly 'green' landscape.  I usually find that I don't get many great shots in the main summer months, mainly because the landscape up here tends to go a pretty uniform green.  Except for the rare occasions when I am up and about in the very early hours or very late at night, and this far north these times are at pretty anti-social hours, I often rely on the sky, water or buildings to provide the main interest in my compositions.  As a result I regularly opt for the black & white format as the limited colour range can frequently appear more interesting as subtle tones of grey.  The following shots reflect that preference pretty clearly, plus you may notice a bit of a fixation on passing places, more of that to come....

This was defintiely the best shot of the trip, taken from the car after creeping closer and closer until the bird finally flew away.  The weather for the trip was mixed with a lovely sunny day on Friday with a visit to Berneray to the beach and the machair with our friends Anne & Graeme Robertson.  The Saturday was all together a different story with strong winds and rain all day.  Back home today (Sunday 9th despite the date of posting) and it has taken me all evening to go through the masses of shots I took.  Here are a few of the better ones.  Thank you again Anne & Graeme for your wonderful hospitality.

Today was National Meadows Day and to celebrate the NTS held an event at Drumbuie with Simon Larson offering tuition in macro photography of some of the wonderful plants found in and around the croft meadows there.  These shots represent the best of my efforts which were a bit hampered by some damp weather and fairly strong winds which made focussing on the moving plants pretty difficult.

Following the outdor session at Drumbuie we moved over to Balmacara Square to the Steadings Gallery where Simon set up some studio lights and we tried some shots under morte controlled conditions.  I didn't have the chance to do much with the flowers but got this shot of a snail on a birch log.