I got lots of “Merry Christmases” on the way down from the morning shoot at the Storr. But I had it all to myself, as far as I am aware, for the first two hours. Unless of course other photographers were hiding in the mist? Here’s what I managed to get:
Oh the weather was very fickle and I though I won’t see anything but, still, I waited and waited and here it was for the few brief moments. Happy days and a happy walk back.
Merry Christmas everybody! This is how I like to spend it.
I don’t know why exactly I needed a break from photography? Maybe I was just preoccupied with other things? Maybe I was feeling like I was not doing it “for myself” at that time. Suddenly everyone was taking pictures and I guess it put me off a bit. I think I had to come to terms with that and learn to do it for myself again and not to compete with anyone.
Now it feels right again. I can do what I want to do and photograph the way I want to photograph.
I was glad to get my butt into gear again and catch a good sunrise a couple of weeks back. Though I nearly didn’t get anything decent. The chosen shot nearly didn’t happen.
I packed up my gear and headed home dissatisfied but when I glanced behind me on the way back to the car, I spotted a possible composition using the fence. And so I unpacked and set up again for that last shot. It worked. I was happy with it and headed home to see the image on the big screen. It got a seal of approval from my partner. He always tells me straight :-).
Recently I had the pleasure of being invited to talk about and share some of my photography, remotely from Skye, with the Polish Society of Nature Photographers. It was an unforgettable experience and one that inspired me to return to picture taking as soon as it’s possible. I’d like to thank the ZPFP for their invitation and attention during the talk.
The image below, called “The Golden hour”,didn’t make it to the presentation so I wanted to share it here instead. It was taken a couple of years ago at the north end of Skye.
We were very lucky this time. The storm has passed us by. We just watched the gloomy, foreboding sky in the distance from the comfort of our living room. It was an amazing show as it often happens with the harsh weather.
It is, hopefully, with this image, that I am returning to sharing my photography with the world. I’ve had far too long a break from a hobby that used to bring me so much pleasure. So, until next time, hopefully in not too long a future.
Yes, so I have already mentioned that I’ve had a break from going out with my camera. And that was good. It wasn’t easy at first but I worked on it and just managed to enjoy looking at all the lovely sunsets and sunrises (not so many of the latter ones as I was still snoozing heavilly:-)) and not feeling bad for not being out there to bag a shot.
This sunset shoot was a complete “on the spare of the moment” kind of thing. I’ve had a big problem with the flare but just waited a bit till the sun went down and it was fine, problem solved.
I tried to get a few shots that are different from each other, as you can notice in this example, how the foreground changes; it’s texture, colour and shape. It almost seems as if they were taken on 3 different days, or locations for that matter.
A hill, a bit of heather and some rain clouds. Voila.
I have a nice colour shot from the same location, with the pinks, yellows and blues but I have decided to post the monochrom version of it instead. I like the deep, black shadows in the water and in b&w they look dramatic.
I still can’t believe we can just do a 2 hour walk on a day off and end up at the top of the Storr pretty much whenever we fancy. Today we chose a slightly different route up as to not get stuck amongst too many people on the main path. The car park gets absolutly packed in the season. When we got to the top, there was nobody else there and the views all around are hard to describe.
Best lunch time hike I one could wish for.
I like this one in b&w. The Needle taken with the Big Stopper filter to achieve the nice “travelling colouds” effect.
“Stop or don’t stop?” That’s what I was thinking to myself whilest driving back from work today. I knew there is a good chance of decent conditions for photography. I just didn’t know if I had it in me to take advantage of it today. I was tired and didn’t have my usual “out on the hill” trousers. Oh, and I was pretty hungry by then. And I wasn’t sure where to stop either.
Very spotnanously I pulled up in a small lay by that I have noted a while back below some craggs on the northern side of the Storr and I made my way there. I took the pack of raspberries that I got in co-op thinking I might need it. To be honest I was a bit early if I wanted to shoot sunset so after an hour I nearly gave up, started to go back down the hill and then decided to go back up again. And I’m glad I did as even if I didn’t take the most amazing of shots, the spectacle was just out-of-this-world!!
I’ve stayed for nearly 2,5 hours in the end but managed to forget I was hungry and cold in the midst of the most wonderful sunset.
skyeimages.com 
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