Loch Clair, Torridon, Scotland

Equipment: Canon 5Dmk3, 24-70L @46mm, 1/5″ @ f/11. 2 stop ND hard grad on sky. Tripod, remote release. Head net and total body coverings (midges were a nightmare).

Conditions: 5.30am, very still with clear sky and mist rapidly burning off.

Loch Nan Tri-eileanan, Torridon, Scotland

Equipment: Canon 5Dmk3, 24-70L @ 38mm, 2 seconds @ f16. 2-stop ND hard grad on sky. Tripod, remote release.

Conditions: Sunset, very cloudy in the west with a brief blast of light just as  the sun set. Moderate wind (hence the movement in the reeds). Hellish midges. I mean clouds of the wee brutes!

Just back from Torridon after a couple of days shooting with Niall Henderson. Very mixed conditions with the weather. Midgies were ferocious as always. This pretty little lochan was a nice find on the slope up to An Ruadh Mheallan. There is a name, Loch Nan Tri-eileanan, think that translates as the loch of the three islands and applies to the biggest of this collection of lochans. the setting sun is lighting up Ben Sheildaig and Beinn Damh across on the South side of Loch Torridon. Not the best composition in the world. The short period of light meant that there was no time to consider alternatives, especially when being eaten alive by the midges.

This image feels special to me despite its short comings. I had no intention to be in this spot at this moment. I was just following my nose across the hill looking for interesting erratic boulders and just stumbled across it. The light was dull and flat and I was about to leave when the sky suddenly lit up. A place to go back to for sure.

The first image above was taken that same morning at Loch Clair. This is a more well known location and  the perfect stillness of the morning left a mist hanging in the dawn light. Perfect. Many thanks to Douglas Griffin for his fantastic advice on locations. Check out Flickr posts by Douglas and Bruce Percy for amazing images of this location.

Sunset near Mijas 2

Supplementary to the last post on shooting into the light. This image was taken after the sun disappeared. It works better for me without the distracting sun burst.

Technical: Camera as before, 73mm, 2.5seconds at f/16. 3 stop ND hard grad over the sky.

North of Mijas, Spain

Outdoor Photography Magazine recently ran an interesting feature on shooting into the light. On the whole I feel the usual advice that this is something to be avoided holds true as that bright point of light dominates the composition let alone the exposure. On this occasion, however, the composition depends upon the path meandering through the hills so I was stuck with the position of the sun. 5 stops of Lee ND filtration was still not sufficient so I also had to break my rule on using a maximum of 2 filters and hold a third filter in front of the filter holder to make up 7 stops.

Technical: Canon 5D Mk3, on a tripod, 7 stops of ND grad filtration (hard and soft), 24-105L lens at 85mm, 1/50th Sec @ f/8.0, ISO 100.

Location: Hillside North of Mijas, Spain. Off an unpaved road then a short trek but not hard to get to.

This church clinging to a hillside had caught my attention so I went back at dawn. The mist was a nice surprise.

Tuscany is a stunning photography location for lots of reasons. There is a timeless look to the landscape and buildings that is very pleasing. We were lucky to have hot weather interspersed with heavy rain which gave rise to a very atmospheric dawn.

Technical: Canon 5D MK2, 70mm, ISO 100, Filters were not suitable for a single image as the backlight was too strong on the church so had to be a 3 exposure HDR (Photomatix). RAW file processed in LR3 with tonal adjustments and slight sharpening made using Niksoft tools.

Location: Near Greve, Tuscany (Toscana).