First Images for 2023

Bla Bheinn from Ord, Isle of Skye (Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, EF 24-205mm f/5L IS USM lens at 93mm, 1/320 sect at f/8, ISO 400, Zomei HD CPL filter, handheld)

Happy New Year to my regular readers and I hope you all had a wonderful festive season.  I have had a prolonged holiday this year and had hoped to be out with the camera much more than actually happened.  The weather was less than conducive for photography and I found myself busier than I had expected.  However, since the New Year, I have managed out a couple of times and these are the best of a fairly mediocre collection.

The above image, fittingly of Bla Bheinn - one of my most photographed subjects - was captured this afternoon at Ord on the Sleat peninsula of Skye, looking towards the Cuillins and Bla Bheinn.  The Cuillins were pretty much in cloud but thre was a little light catching the upper slopes of Bla Bheinn, with the tops just shrouded a little in cloud, and the sky had enough interest in the clouds, with a little blue here and there to make it interesting.

The following photos were captured on the 1st of the year during a coastal walk from Duirinish to Drumbuie.  I had my Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens attached to my Canon EOS 250D, cropped sesnor camera, thus an effective 640mm lens.  I wanted to try and capture some bird images but the opportunities were few and far between, with the crofts largely silent in the cold and my only chances restricted to long-distance shots of a few birds on the sea.  I also took a few wider landscape shots but the light was not overly exciting, so it was more for the sake of it than in expectation of anything brilliant.