Snowy Weather

Snow of the Bealach na Ba (Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens at 145mm, 1/400 sec at f/8.0, ISO 400, handheld)

The last couple of days have produced some snowy weather and as always the hills look fantastic when dusted with the white stuff.  Yesterday I had the pleasure of a work trip over to Strome Castle at North Strome (near Lochcarron).  Afterwards I quickly nipped over the hill towards Kishorn to see if it was worth catching a shot from one of my favourite viewpoints.  The above shot is the result.  To be honest the light was pretty flat and the colours very muted, although about 20 minutes after I left to head home, I could see the whole scene lit up by sunlight from the south side of Loch Carron.  Anyway, I find these muted winter coluors lend themselves to conversion to black & white, creating more texture and drawing out the tonality more than colour does.  This is not one of my best by any means but still nice to see the hills with snow on them.

Late this afternoon, I was driving towards Kyle from Duirinish and there was some really dramatic light on the Cuillins of Skye with dark blue clouds above and dark blue sea below.  I stopped at Badicaul and shot the image below with my 70-200mm lens, focusing in on the illuminated area of the landscape.  You can see the snow squalls coming down form the north-east against the very dark and dramatic sky.    I should probably have increased the ISO and gone for a faster shutterspeed, but I keep forgetting I can do that with my new camera without getting too much noise.  Soon I'll get used to it, hopefully.  As a result this image is not quite as sharp as it might have been.  At least I managed to capture the amazing colours of the hills on Skye illuminated by the low sun from the left, just squeezing below the lowering clouds.

Dramatic Light and Snow Squall on Skye from Badicaul (Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens at 95mm, 1/20 sec at f/8.0, ISO 400, handheld)