So, the 'Best camera is the one you have with you' is a quote often attributed to photographer Chase Jarvis, and I have to agree.  In these days of incredible technology it is easy to get dragged into the never ending cycle of upgrading your kit to keep pace with development and innovation.  However, the quote remains absolutely true, in that sometime you just need to stop and capture a scene or subject that appeals to you and you don't actually need to have the latest hi-res full frame digital camera, or a Leica, or Hassleblad....  I find that my mobile phone, while actually representing just the more portable version of modern tech I am referring to, is always with me and I resort to using it more and more as a result.  In truth, even with its apparent 105MP hi-res mode, the images are nowhere close to being as sharp as those I can get on my Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera, but it does fit in my back pocket, and the results are not bad if you are not expecting to print them at any size above A4.

Anyway, this evening, on my way home from a pizza and beer run to the local Coop, I just had to stop and behave like a tourist as I left kyle of Lochalsh.  The reason is shown above, with amazing dramatic cloud patterns hanging over Loch Alsh.  I strongly suspect some interesting weather this way comes!

So Mr Jarvis, I agree totally with you.  If you don't have any sort of camera you will certainly miss the shot, so use whatever you have, and always have one with you, even if it is only a phone.  That being said, I also had my Praktica BMS 35mm film gear, so I shot a couple of frames using that.  Only time will tell if they come out as well as this one did.

At the weekend I had a couple of days camping in Coigach in the most splendid weather.  I spent the days travelling around Coigach, Assynt and NW Sutherland as far as Durness.  The above shot was pretty much the climax of the trip with a walk up to the Falls of Kirkaig and a little bit further to this wonderful viewpoint looking towards the south side of Suilven.  The Fionn loch wends it way into the distance providing an excellent leading line and the little patches of sunlight on the slopes of the mountain add just enough contrast to make the image interesting.

I have put the rest of the images in a slideshow below, rather than set them out individually as usual, I hope you enjoy looking at them.

I caught these two birds during a recent bird survey at Duirinish and Drumbuie on the Balmacara Estate in Lochalsh.  The first two are pin sharp as the bird was being particularly accommodating - not that unusual for stonechats which tend to perch on prominent plants or rocks making their distinctive chack-chack noise which sounds like two stones being knocked together.  I lke the first one because the bird is chacking with its mouth open, but the second one is perhaps slightly sharper, maybe it wasn't moving when I took the picture.

he second bird is a sedge warbler, which like the stonechat is also prone to making itself fairly obvious and making lots of angry sounding chittering noises, although they also skulk in dense scrub making them hard to spot at times.

Last Sunday was one of those days where it appeared for much of the day that the light was going to let me down as far as landscape photography was concerned.  I had headed north for a tour of the bulk of Wester Ross and was feeling things were not going to yield much.  However, as the afternoon proceeded there were a few interesting little periods of light, some clouds doing fascinating things and broken light, all making for a few good shots.

The above shot was taken on the way home, just after Achnasheen, heading westward with the sun relatively low in the sky, but mostly behind the broken cloud.  Rain/snow was threatening on the hills, producing some great textured clouds.  The railway line provides an excellent lead into the frame from the bottom left, moving the viewer's eye towards the centre of the action where the clouds meet the horizon.

The next shot was taken from the road to Red Point, near Gairloch.  I was actually heading back towards Gairloch and spotted these dramatic clouds in my rear view mirror and simply had to stop to try and capture the view.  These localised squalls are one of the great things about our weather in NW Scotland at this time of year.  It all seems to be lovely and spring-like, and then suddenly, out of the blue, comes a burst of rain or sleaty snow.  Never leave a warm jacket behind on days like these!

The next shot is of An Tealach, one of the great mountains of Wester Ross.  The Gaelic name translates as the Forge or the Anvil I believe.  The ridge is one of the most challenging in Scotland, and in parts rivals the Cuillin on Skye.  This view is from the road to Ullapool.  I always think it makes an excellent composition, looking through the spring green birch trees and with a little bit of zoom to emphasise the height of the ridge.

Finally, the next shot was taken during an evening walk at Drumbuie on 1st April.  There was promise of a decent sunset, which never really materialised, but I did capture this image looking along the main drainage ditch in the crofting township, as the sun set beyond Skye.  Not the best sunset, but I like the composition with the square crop.

What an amazingly wonderful spell of weather we have been having, but I have not had a great deal of time to get out with the camera.  Today though I had a few hours in the afternoon and I headed north to Torridon.  It was truly spectacular, but for colour photography the complete lack of any clouds rendered the scenery less appealing for the camera at least.  Fortunately I had my infrared converted Olympus Pen E-P1 camera with me, so I set about trying out a few IR shots.  These are my three favourites.

So, after a couple of weeks back at work, and a decent weather forecast, I was keen to get out with the camera this weekend.  I agreed with a friend, Graham Ryland, that we would head north to my favourite area and just see what took our fancy by way of locations.  The result was a long drive around Wester Ross and south-west Sutherland, and we had a really good day out.

The above shot is perhaps a familiar one, although neither Graham nor I had managed to work out where exactly this view was taken from, until yesterday.  We had a wee rake around the back streets of Lochinver and eventually worked it out.  While it would be preferable to have a bit more dramatic lighting, or some snow on Suilven, I think it is such an excellent view, with the mountain looming large over the church, that it still worked well.  We will be back!

We basically visited the Achnahaird peninsula and then took the Inverkirkaig road north to Lochinver, dropped into the wonderful pie shop to get some pies for the family, and then up to the superb viewpoint overlooking the Assynt hills.  Then, finally in the late afternoon we headed home, via Loch Assynt.  The following shots are the best I managed to capture, and given that it was bitterly cold, with a strong wind, and the light was pretty flat and a bit hazy, the results are decent.

Today marked our dog, Broc's, 15th birthday and it was celebrated by a lovely walk this afternoon along the path to Leitir Fura in Sleat.  For 15 years old she is still energetic and enthusiastic about her walks, although she is happy to stay close by, and usually on the lead since she is almost deaf and can't hear recall commands.  As you can see from the photo, she still has a keen interest in what is gong on around her and a keen eye.  Happy Birthday!

The walk was followed by a late lunch at An Crubh, very nice as always, and then on the way home we encountered a magnificent sky, looking both eastwards and westwards, as the sun set.  Truly amazing pink clouds as you can see below.

So, after a horrendously wet and frequently windy end to 2024 the New Year has brought snow and some really lovely light this afternoon.  I took a short walk at Duirnish in the late afternoon and captured these images as the sun intermittently peeked through gaps in the clouds to the west.  The dramatic colours of the snow clouds was properly inspiring and I had a really enjoyable walk wiht my camera - a great start to the year.

I had an excellent day out to Glascharn in Glen Shiel, Lochalsh with Graham Ryland today.  It was not looking very promising when we arrived at Chocolates of Glen Shiel, with heavy overcast and rain.  However, a coffee helped, not least in allowing the rain to pass, and we avoided the temptation of chocolate too.  We headed off on the north side of the river along to the deserted settlement of Glascharn, a long-time objective for me.  It turned out to be a lucky day with a prolonged dry spell, with ever-changing light on the surrounding hills and the empty pastures, where once people lived.

Glascharn is one of those places where you know not many folk visit and while it is fantastically peaceful (apart from road noise form the A87 road on the other side of the glen) it resonates of a turbulent and tragic past.  There is evidence of a sizeable community that once lived on this spot and worked what is actually reasonably decent land, albeit pretty rocky, before being cleared to be replaced by Cheviot sheep, that still remain today!  There are some impressive stone walls, including the head dyke which is about six feet high, and another old dyke that heads directly up the slope, now surrounded by bracken, a sign of sheep grazing rather than the more traditional black cattle that would have been raised here once upon a time.

Many of the old structures are buried in this bracken which also reaches a height of around six feet in places, and is all but impenetrable, smothering all other vegetration.  Graham and I agreed that this site would very much merit another visit at the back end of the year when the bracken has died back.

There are a few lovely old alder trees around the site, mostly running along a burn that, while dry at this time of year, shows evidence of a substantial flow in wetter times.  Sadly many of these wonderful old trees are showing signs of dieback, with dead branches in their crowns.

The light was providing some beautiful opportunities for contrasting shadow and light patches, offsetting these trees against the hills really nicely.  These moments were very fleeting and some patience was required to wait for a decent image.

This delicate thistle drew my attention with a bright burst of vivid purple flowers against the otherwise largely green landscape.

On my way to Kintail in the morning I had a little time to spare so went via Carr Brae to see what the view was doing in the overcast weather.  It fortunately cleared away a bit and the view east to Kintail  was brooding and mooody with misty cloud hanging over the distant hills at the end of Loch Duich.  To the west, the light was very different with some blue sky and fluffy white clouds and much more vivid bright greens of the grass and the darker bracken and woodland.

These last two photos were taken with my camera on the Shutterspeed Priority setting by mistake and a high ISO as I was shooting birds last time out.  This caused a little bit of noise in the images and some weird camera settings! Just ignore that.

Last weekend we had a short trip to North Uist to visit friends and I took the chance to get out and do a bit of bird watching and photography.  In total I had 71 species of bird over the two days and I managed to capture the following shots of some of them.  The highlight was getting the one above of a short-eared owl sitting on a post watching me on Sunday morning.  There is a bit of noise as the ISO was quite high at 1000, but the early morning mist meant that the light levels were pretty low, so all-in-all I am pretty happy with the result.  Other bird highlights included seeing a corncrake, good views of corn bunting and a few black-tailed godwits.  I also had fleeting views of hen harrier, not good enough to try and get any photos though.