The above, and following shots were taken over the last week or so, including a trip north to Torridon and Gairloch, and today another trip, south this time, to Arnisdale, with a wee walk around the crofting townships of Duirinish and Drumbuie in bnetween.  I am not going to add lots of text, just a bit of a slideshow.

I recently took the decision to switch camera brands, moving from my tursted Canon to Olympus, specifically from full frame to micro 4/3 format.  The reason for this is pretty obvious, and I know I am not the only person doing this, and is all down to weight.  I was getting fed up carrying a massive heavy backpack of kit around, especially when trying to do wildlife photography. 

This post features some of my first images shot on the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III camera over the last few days.  There have been a good few geese about and while they are not necessarily the most exciting species to capture, they do provide good subjects for practicing your field craft.

The first couple of shots (above and below) are of greylag geese, feeding on croft land at Plockton.  Shot with my new Olympus M. Zuiko 300mm f/4 Pro IS lens I have to say I am very pleased with the results.  Very sharp images and very fast auto-focus.  This format has a small sensor, half the size of the full frame Canon, so the 300mm lens equates with a 600mm lens on the full frame system.  This lens is roughly half the size and weight and has a wider aperture so is faster in low light - all good benefits for wildlife shooting.  The downside is the smaller sensor has lower resolution, only 20.4 megapixels compared to 30.4 on the Canon 5D Mark IV, but these days the sensors are so good that this is plenty of detail for my needs.

The next few shots are of Canada Geese captured at Kirkton Bay two days ago.  These are migratory birds in passage, heading north for the summer, unlike the Greylags that are more likely to be resident breeding birds.  We don't see many of these Canada geese here so it was lovely to get this opportunity to add them to my portfolio of bird species.

These shots were taken with the same 300mm lens but with the 1.4x teleconverter added, providing a total focal length of 420mm (840mm equivalent on Full Frame).  I was not sure how the teleconverter would perform, as it reduces the maximum aperture by one stop to f/5.6, and can slow down the auto-focus and reduce the image sharpness.  However, on the basis of these shots, I have to say I am very impressed with its performance and see myself using it a lot.

My final shot was grabbed as a pair of Greylags took flight, again at Kirkton.  I love the black and white tail feathers, and wanted to try and capture them in flight.  This was a proper test of the auto-focus performance of the Olympus system, and white it is not 100% sharp, I think the result was excellent.

I went online to make this post and could not believe that it had been so long since I had posted.  In truth, I have not been out with the camera much since Boxing Day, due in the main to the very overcast, wet and windy weather we have been experiencing since Christmas.  That being said, I have built up a few images worth posting, so I will do so over the next few days in a series of winter images, rather than doing them all as a single post today.

The above shot was pure good fortune as I headed home from a walk in the woods at the Coille Mhor at Balmacara.  I had gone to the woods to try out some macro shots of the lichens (more of that later), and as I was driving past the crofts at Duirinish I noticed the late afternoon light was improving, and off to the north the sky was looking darkly over the Applecross hills.  This rainbow appeared and I had to stop for the shot.  The next shot was taken just a little further alonng the road and the wider perspective shows these amazing clud curtains, backlit by the rainbow and the darkly contrasting hills.

The following image was shot at th the same location and time as the first, but the wider landscape perspective, while a little less dramatic perhaps, provides a good view of the crofting context I think.

I will return later to the macro shots I have been experimenting with over recent weeks, but since this post is focused more on the landscape and the sometimes wonderful light we experience here in the winter I have included below a couple of other shots from Skye that I took during the last month or so.

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.

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.

I must apologise to regular readers of my posts for the singular lack of any content over recent months.  It has been almost five months since I last put anything significant up on my website.  Why you may ask?  It is quite simple really, I have been incredibly busy with other work and to be honest the weather has not been particularly kind to me when I was available to get out and about with the camera.  However, being totally honest, I have definitely lost my mojo and it has only been in the last week or so that I have felt like getting back to it again.

So, this does not mean that I have not done any photography, and in fact I have been busy doing a bit of experimental shooting with infra-red, and a bit more bird photography as well.  Therefore, by way of a little catch-up, I have drawn together below some of my better shots from the last few months and I hope you enjoy them.

This juvenile cuckoo was being very obliging today when I visited the crofts at Duirinish.  It just sat on the fence waiting to be fed by its adopted parents, a pair of meadow pipits.  I managed to get quite close and got a good number of decent shots with the one above being probably the best, along with the following one.

I took a couple of other bird photos, the first a young dunnock (hedge sparrow) and then what I think is a skylark, but I have my doubts about it possibly being a meadow pipit - feel free to post your opinion in the comments.

As always at this time of year, the meadows were looking really impressive, with a great diversity of flowering plants.  Some small areas had been cut for silage already, but the damp weather has prevented most of it being cut as yet.  While this is not particularly good for the crofters, it does mean more wild flower seed will be set and spread into the meadows, enhancing their already considerable conservation value.

The next shot was taken at the weekend, at Drynoch on Skye, in the bay below the cemetery.  There are a number of old boats tied up at the shore and I thought they might offer up a compelling composition or two.  As it was this was really the only good shot I managed to capture, but it works well with the Cuillin ridge in the background.

On Friday last week I took my wife for a drive up Strathconon with the hope of getting some interesting photo opportunities.  As it happened the best chance came with a large herd of red deer stags with antlers in full velvet.  I suspect these deer are being fed as they were very closely herded together which is quite unusual from my experience.  None-the-less, they presented an exciting opportunity to capture these magnificent animals from a decent distance.  This shot only includes about a third of the total number present.

The next, and last colour shot, was taken at Loch Achidh na h-Inich one afternoon when the light made the woodland of the Coille Mhor shine brightly green and the lack of wind provided lovely reflections on the water.  So many shades of green!

The remaining shots are a collection of slightly older shots captured at various locations over the past few months.

My 2023 Steadings gallery Exhibition is fast approaching, opening this Saturday, 20th May, until 2nd June.  The exhibition will be open 11am to 5pm daily and admission is, as always, free of charge.  I am busy getting all my images printed, mounted and framed, ready for putting up tomorrow evening.  This year I have gone 'Back in Black & White', although there are some colour images as well.  There is a mix of B&W infrared and straight B&W photos from around the Highlands & Islands.  Most are new but some have been seen before, with updated processing.

Anyway, I thought I would provide readers with a sneak peek at a few of my favourite images.  The first (above) is a classic view of the magnificent Suilven from the Inverkirkaig road.  This amazing coastal road (not part of the NC500 thankfully) is one of my most special and favourite places, one that I must visit every time I am in the area.  On this occasion, fairly recently, I was a complete tourist and stopped in the road to take this image with my Olympus OM-D E-M1 infrared camera.  I think it catrues the wonderful textures on the mountain and contrasts the background beautifully against the bright new spring foliage on the trees, and the road disappears mysterously round the bend - what is there further down the road?.

This is another infrared image, shot at Strath Brora last summer.  The contrasting white fluffy clouds against the dark sky (bright blue in reality) set off the sharply textured, dead pine tree with its amazing tortured pattern of branches.  Once again the green foliage on the birch trees and ground flora of the foreground, rendered bright white in the infrared format, make this look almost like a winter scene.

Finally, the thrid image in this preview is an older one which I have exhibited previously in colour.  The wonderful cascade falls on the Allt Dhuirinis are a wonderful example of the type of watercourse found in our magical temperate rainforest.  Yes I am being serious, these wet mild woodlands found on the west coast of Scotland are internationally important areas of temperate rainforest - a much more scarce cousin of the better known tropical variety.  These wonderful ecosystems are typified by the presence of various broadleaved tree species and a beautiful assemblage of lichens, bryophytes, ferns and mosses, all sustained by our wet and mild climate producing amazingly humid conditions in which they thrive.