A break in the monotony of poor weather over the past couple of weeks allowed me to head out for some fresh air and a bit of contemplation of the detail in our environment.  I wanted to practice some macro photography, using focus stacking, which is built into the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III camera, and which I had never tried before.  Given it was my first attempt I am pretty pleased with the results and I look forward to experimenting a lot more with this type of imagery, although I also like straight macro work too.

The weather forecast for today was pretty abysmal with very strong westerly winds anticipated, along with periods of heavy rain - just lovely.  However, I had to take a trip to Sleat this morning, so took my camera and headed out into the storm to see what I could find to photograph.  In reality it was not nearly as bad as I expected, and I was lucky enough to get some small breaks in the cloud, with spots of bright sunshine, and some rainbows as well.  The above shot was taken from the shore at Tocavaig, on the west side of the Sleat peninsula, looking west towards the ruined castle of Dun Scaich.  Normally the Elgol peninsula is visible in the background on this shot, but at this point in time, between squalls, there was just dense, dark cloud and a short break overhead was spotlighting the little promontory with the remains of the castle really nicely.  I took a few shots at different zoom lengths, see below.

On the other side of the peninsula, just north of the Clan Donald Centre, I stopped by the roadside to try and capture the light on the Sound of Sleat.  Looking south-east towards Mallaig was a bit challenging due to bright light shining through the overcast, but looking north, past Sabhal Mor Ostaig (the UHI's Gaelic College), provided just what I was looking for.  The clouds were quite oppresive, but the sea was relatively calm on this side of the peninsula.  A break in the cloud behind me was illuminating Sabhal Mor Ostaig really well, making it stand out against the darker background.  In the distance on the right, there is a hint of light on Beinn Sgritheall above Loch Hourn, and the pink bouy just adds a colourful point of interest in the sea as a counterpoint to the highlighted building of the college.  Sabhal Mor Ostaig must have one of the most spectacular views of any academic institution, anywhere in the world.

I had planned to try and do a little macro photography, but with the windy conditions it proved to be really challenging to get sharp images, with everything blowing around so much.  The shot of this small variegated ivy leaf was the only one that I was really happy with. I like the overall softness in this shot, and while the colour version was good, I felt the contrasting tones of the leaf came out much better in monochrome.

Finally, another black & white image, taken above Tarskavaig, looking towards the Cuillins.  The light was pretty dark and the crofting township in the foreground was a bit gloomy.  With a neutral density filter effect applied in post-processing to darken the sky and balance the exposure, I feel I managed to capture something of the atmosphere.  The overall effect is quite dated, but I like it.

What a beautiful frosty day with bright sunshine all day.  After a busy morning, I headed out this afternoon to Broadford to buy fuel for the car and decided to pop down the Elgol road as far as Torrin - no surprise, as this is one of my most favourite photography locations.  There was amazing frost and ice on Loch Cill Chriosd and I got some nice macro shots of frost on the vegetation, as well as some familiar compositons.  It is always different though, so no shame in revisiting a favourite spot with the camera.  Here are some of my favourite shots form the trip.