Birthday Excursion to Applecross

Bealach na Ba (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-105mm F/4 L Lens at 24mm, ISO 2000, 1/6 sec at f/14, Handheld)

Following the end of my exhibition we all headed over the Pass of the Cattle (Bealach na Ba) to Applecross for Aileen's birthday dinner at the Walled Garden.  Inevitably we were running a bit late so there was no time for photo stops on the way over.  However, o the way back, quite late so the light was pretty dim, I did take the opportunity of shooting this shot of the Bealach.  Due to the poor light (it being 10:25 pm) I had to up the ISO a fair bit, I could have probably gone higher, and I opted for a slow shutter speed hoping that the Canon len's Image Stabilisation would work.  I had left my tripod behind so had to go handheld.  The shot worked out better than I expected, although when you look closely it is a bit blurred and it was still quite noisy.  I used Nik Soluntions' Define plugin to reduce the noise selectively and it has worked reasnably well, softening the hills only a little bit.  I keep saying I will go back early in the morning and try and get a really dramatic shot from this part of the Bealach but have not yet got rond to it.  Maybe this summer.

After dinner, before heading home I took a few shots of some of the flowers in the Walled Garden.  Shot at even higher ISO they were very noisy and again the shutter speed was a bit low so they are not really sharp, but I have posted them here as a memory of a lovely family night out to celebrate Aileen's birthday.  It has been a while since we were all out for dinner together.  A great night.

Iris (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-105mm L Lens at 105mm, ISO 6,400, 1/15 sec at f/16, Handheld)

Californian Poppies (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-105mm L Lens at 105mm, ISO 6,400, 1/80 sec at f/5.6, Handheld)

Oxeye Daisy (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EF 24-105mm L Lens at 105mm, ISO 6,400, 1/400 sec at f/5.6, Handheld)