Sunrise in the West and a Boardwalk to Nowhere

Sunrise, Loch Alsh (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 24-105mm lens at 24mm, ISO 400, 1/60 sec at f/8.0, Panorama of 4 shots)

This morning began with clear skies to the east and a few strung out clouds to the west.  When the sun started to rise if the reflected light in the west produced this amazing effect, looking more like a sunset than a sunrise.  This shot was taken looking west at 8:15 this morning.  I actually took four shots to make a very wide panorama covering about 180 degrees hence the strange curved effect of the clouds, which actually ran more-or-less across the view in reality.  However, it was the light that attracted me to this shot.  I also took a zoomed shot towards the Cuillins ans the Skye Bridge (below) which really shows the strength of the colours, I did almost no post processing on this one, apart from removing a few dust spots and reducing the noise a little.

Dawn's Light on the Cuillins (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 24-105mm lens at 105mm, ISO 400, 1/60 sec at f/8.0)

I had to travel to Achnashen for a morning meeting so left a little early to try and cacth a few shots on the way.  The following one of the Bealach na Ba came out OK despite the sky being a bit dull and uninteresting.  The little bits of light shining on the hills made this worth stopping I think.  This was taken using my Sigma 150-500mm lens at 403mm zoom handheld using the lens' excellent image stabilisation.

The Bealach na Ba (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 150-500mm lens at 403mm, 1/125 sec at f/11)

Finally I stopped just short of Achnasheen for a shot I had envisgaed many times but never had decent light when passing this spot until this morning.  On the south-east side of the road just about 1 mile south of Achnasheen there is a layby with a gate leading to a footpath, or rather a boardwalk which crosses the bog to an old cottage or bothy.  The boradwalk snakes a little across the big after crossing the river in a south-easterly direction, straight into the rising sun.  Today it was very cold, c. -2 degrees and had been colder, so the bridge and boardwalk were covered in frost.  I took this shot from the start of the bridge looking along the line of the boardwalk.  I converted the image in Nik's Silver Efex Pro using the Low Key preset to emphasise the sillhoutte effect and reduce the glare from the sun.  I really like this one. 

Boardwalk to Nowhere (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 24-105mm lens at 75mm, ISO 400, 1/200 sec at f/22, ND8 Grad Filter, Tripod)

Towards the top of the previous image you will see a post with a diamond shot on top, this was the focal point of the following image which I just had to take.  Only in the Highlands....

Passing Place (Canon EOS 5D Mark II, 24-105mm lens at 47mm, ISO 400, 1/10 sec at f/22, ND8 Grad Filter, Tripod)