After a long break away from doing any specific photography trips I have been inspired over the last few weeks to get out and try and capture some of the wonderful autumnal colours.  This is truly the most spectacular time of year for colour in our magical landscape and I think some of the following images are among my favourite shots in recent times. 
The above image was taken yesterday on a wonderful trip to Glen Affirc, always a popular destination at this time of year, for obvious reasons.  More from that trip at the end of this article, including one of my all-time favourite shots.
The first recent outing was on 15th October for a walk through the Coille Mhor Atlantic Oakwood, part of Scotland's globally important temperate rainforest.  I have selected a couple of shots that I feel really capture the sense of the character of the woodland, as well as the magnificent golden rays from the low sunlight.

A week or so later I had the urge to get out of the office and took myself across the bridge to Skye and down the road to Loch Cill Chriosd.  It was late in the afternoon and the light was failing, with limited contrast, but I caught these two shots.

The following day I was driving through Reraig and noticed that the light to the west, on the Skye Bridge and the Cuillins was looking magnificent, so I pulled into the car park and shot the following panorama, made from a composite of nine portrait oriented shots, merged in Adobe Lightroom Classic.  It is a pretty broad panorama but I think it worked well and captured the scene nicely.

Last Saturday (28th October) I needed to pop over to Lochcarron, so I decded that afterwards I would conntinue northwards with my camera kit and try and get some autumnal shots.  Unsurprisingly, I ended up going over the Bealach an Ba to Applecross and then onwards to Shieldaig before heading home again.  This is a route I have travelled many times with my camera, and it can be a bit challenging to find new locations and compositions for photos.  That being said it is always different and  I got a few decent shots and had a lovely day out.

And, finally, back to yesterday's trip to Glen Affric.  The light varied a fair bit throughout the day, with periods of bright sunshine, some overcast times and occasional moments where partial light offered some interesting opportunities for mixed, contrasty landscape shots.  On arrival at the lower reaches of the glen it was still quite misty, and I captured the image below which is definitely my favourite from the day.

I love the pendulous foliage of the silver birch, it is well named Betula pendula.  I took far too many shots of similar compostions with golden birch trees illuminated by marvellous light.  The next few shots are essentially variations on a theme - birch trees in golden light.

The last two shots are also among my favourites.  The first is a reminder to always look up, not just straight ahead.  The wonderful contrasting colours of the bright blue skye as a backdrop for the golden foliage and dark stems makes a compelling image, I think.  The last shot was taken while I was waiting for the light to improve for the shot looking up Gen Affric that was at the head of this article.  I looked to my left and the light on the pinewoods was amazing, highlighting the depth and layers in the scene really beautfully.  All-in-all, a really good day out and some lovelly images too.