Travelling through Scotland 2018 (mostly images)

Location
Switzerland
Name
Matt
Well, I know this that I'm probably not the only one travelling throughout Scotland this summer, but I'll use this thread to show some images - miscellaneous subjects, ordered by date (roughly).

The first couple of days were nice enough, if a bit too warm for my liking, but who am I to complain about good weather while travelling with photography in mind?

Edinburgh was - well, just Edinburgh; lots of people, lots of tourists, nothing new to me (I shot b&w film, so there may be some images later). On my second day, I wandered out towards Leith (with a specific goal in mind - dining at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society's The Vault venue; I've been a member there for more than a dozen years now).

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After dinner, I strolled along the shore. A little impromptu street photography ensued ...

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M.
 
After picking up the car (a different one than intended, much bigger, but also more convenient ... I'll have to talk about that in a later post), I drove north - into Cairngorms National Park; on a convenient spot, I got out of the car and went for a little hike up the mountainside. The Cairngorms treated me to their wonderful light-and-shadow theatre.

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Sometimes, it gets dark very quickly and thoroughly - creating islands of light in a sea of shadows.

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Suddenly, I spotted a whole herd of red deer - just when they saw me and fled. Fortunately, I had the 90mm mounted, so I actually got a half-decent shot.

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I went up until the path would have descended down into an adjacent valley, then doubled back - more nice vistas on the way.

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Finally, I saw the herd again - twice! First, they passed below me, making me a bit concerned if I would bump right into them when descending further, but when I reached their crossing point, I spotted the herd way up on the moutain above; when the light picked them out, I took a last shot even though I was too far away to make them stand out the way I wanted. Lesson learned - the following day, I packed the long zoom (not that I got another similar opportunity, mind).

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Today's images will follow later, I hope.

M.
 
Lovely shots! I was in the Cairngorms last year, and the play of light was indeed wonderful - although it was equally spectacular in the Highlands...

Looking forward to seeing more of your images!
 
Okay, apart from today's shots, this is going to be "the kit" post.

I have with me four cameras, three digital, one film:
- Canon G1X III - 24-75mm equivalent, light, small, weather-resistant; the camera I carry if I'm *not* out shooting - convenience!
- Panasonic GX80 - with Olympus 14-150mm II, the "long lens" (well, you get it ...), and Laowa 7.5mm f/2 for those super-wide shot; versatility!
- Leica M10 with Summicron-M 50mm f/2, Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 (pre-ASPH), Elmarit-M 90mm f/2.8 - my "serious" kit.
btw. I also carry a small Leica to :mu43: adapter; the most intriguing combination is the 90mm.
- Leica M4-P with Voigtländer 35mm f/1.4 Nokton Classic and 21mm f/4 Pancake - my film kit; of course, it can exchange lenses with the M10.
Films: Kodak Ektar 100, Ilford HP5+, Agfa APX 100 and Agfa Vista 200.

So far, the saying that the camera doesn't make the image but the photographer does certainly rings true - it's not as if all shots from the Leica are keepers (specifically, I seem to be having trouble composing with 28mm so far - I'll hang in there). We'll see how it goes - so far, I'm not regretting my choices (even though I might have left one of the two extra/super-wides at home - I could probably do without the 21mm, but there are lots coming up - we'll see if I ever dig it out).

For post-processing and posting on the go, I'm using and old Chromebook (Acer C720) and Polarr, so don't expect super-accurate and inspired work in that respect; Polarr has many limitations, one of which is that it usually does use the embedded JPEG instead of the real RAW file (though not for Leica's DNGs!); in the case of files from the Panasonic, that's a smallish file (FullHD instead of full resolution), so I can't really crop in, but I don't like doing that anyway. In case of the Canon and the Leica, the files are full resolution - nice and versatile (Canon has the edge over Leica here, actually). Of course, I don't have anyway near as much latitude as I would with true RAW processing, but the Curves tool in particular works really well and helps a lot with making the files pop (colour correction is also nice enough).

So, back to the images. Yesterday evening wasn't particularily spectacular, but one cloud was interesting enough.

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Today, I shot some more in the Cairngorms - this time, I tried to change my approach a bit, to concentrate on detail as well man's presence.

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There's a sort of lush minimalism you can find everywhere - it's sparse, it's repetitive, but it's very, very beatiful - and gratifying.

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But in the end, I found another opportunity to "take it all in", so to speak (even though this is with a 28mm-e).

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Interestingly, none of the shots from the Leica worked equally well for conveying what I saw; I may have overdone the "artistic" aspect - from now on, I'll just shoot, it's a camera, after all (it's said to be quintessential - it should be simple to use it that way). Only after arriving in Inverness, I was able to walk around with a sufficiently relaxed attitude ...

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M.
 
Time for a bit of reminiscing. I've been to Inverness before - twice, in fact. Last time, I shot one of my most "iconic" (read: memorable, not unique) images; it's still one of the images I like to show - even though everyone seems to think it's either corny or over-processed ... it's neither (well, I don't know about the corniness, but anyway), it's what I saw at the time, indeed pretty faithful to reality (I have the RAW file from the LX100 on my disk if anyone wants to doubt me).

So, that's the image in question:
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glorious sunset II
on Flickr

Now, today wasn't anywhere near as spectacular, but the light was nice, I had eaten very well (if you ever get to Inverness, give Prime a shot - it's not inexpensive, but it's, as the name suggests, a prime eating place), so I took the opportunity to walk a bit. First I tried to chase the sunset, but topography didn't help (houses everywhere, no good angles), so I gave up and decided to stroll back to my guest house. Then I saw this:
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Yes, I know it's not in the same vein as the other one, but it still resembles it somewhat, and place and intention were the same; besides, the G1X III has all but replaced the LX100 in my kit.

M.
 
Today was a really wild mix of impressions - mostly weather related. The day started of miserably - I tried some sight-seeing (went to explore a cairn, nearly got lost on the way - in a bogg area, no less; the cairn was hardly worth it ...). It was foggy, and the rain fell harder and harder. I went back to my car wet and somewhat discouraged. I took a shot over a probably otherwise pleasant little loch immediately adjacent to the parking lot (the cairn didn't yield many shots, the bog did - but they're strange, I have to look at them again in a couple of days).

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I went the long way to Thurso on the north coast of Scotland, always hoping for the weather to clear up - which it didn't; in fact, it got worse and worse. In the afternoon, the rain finally abated; I went to the beach (yes, they do have one!), but somehow managed to only snatch mediocre shots, some scewered horizons among them - oh, well ... Found a place for dinner, enjoyed it, left the restaurant - and got this (this is in fact the next image I took with the G1X III after the one above).

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That gave me an idea (a flawed one - you'll shortly see why): I hurried back to the hotel to get the wide-angles - I put the 21mm on the M4-P that had been loaded with Agfa Vista 200 (the first roll was APX 100) and slapped the 7.5mm on the GX80. Back I went; shooting the 21mm felt quite comfortable, and I sure hope I got a couple of shots, but it was hellishly difficult to get things right with the 7.5mm - whoever said that wide-angles can actually ruin landscape shots was entirely right (I refer to a YouTube video by - I think - Thomas Heaton here)! I was at a loss as to what to do with the shots - until I thought of cropping wide.

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And this is the reason why I went for a wide crop on the otherwise pretty dull foggy loch image. So, all in all, more important things learned from actually not being able to take a lot of satisfying images. It could be worse ...

M.
 
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You probably know this already but ... on dull days in the Scottish highlands (or anywhere really) when the grey, lifeless sky and landscapes are not playing ball try pointing your camera to the ground. Not only does that focus your attention on where your feet are going so you don’t stray into a bog, you will find a colourful world opening up all sorts of photographic possibilities at your feet. Shoot it in it’s own right or incorporate that colour and detail into your landscapes.

Enjoying your adventure so far ...looking forward to seeing more.
 
You probably know this already but ... on dull days in the Scottish highlands (or anywhere really) when the grey, lifeless sky and landscapes are not playing ball try pointing your camera to the ground. Not only does that focus your attention on where your feet are going so you don’t stray into a bog, you will find a colourful world opening up all sorts of photographic possibilities at your feet. Shoot it in it’s own right or incorporate that colour and detail into your landscapes.

Enjoying your adventure so far ...looking forward to seeing more.
Spot on, Karen - that's what I did, and it was, well, at least interesting (as you'll see ...). But the main problem was that the path was hard to find, and the signposts were really hard to spot - not because they were inconspicous (big black and white poles!) but because visibility was so poor. It wasn't an altogether pleasnt experience - once, I actually lost the path on the way back. There was a fence, fortunately - but it didn't really go into the right direction. Anyway, here's one of those strange shots - this was to prove it was a real, genuine bog (and that it was really wet - me included ...).

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It's a shot I'd normally neither take nor publish - but it shows the sort of mood I was in (and the feet seem to convey that I found it all a bit troubling ...).

Anyway, onwards and forwards ...

M.

P.S. I'm in a pretty bad spot concerning networking. WLAN is spotty, and I have no mobile connection whatsoever; I'll have to wait and see what I can do from here.
 
At least your shoes are still on your feet. That’s always a positive!
And it was a narrow escape - at first, I hadn't spotted the causeway and was a couple of steps in before I noticed my mistake! I had ended up in a boggy area the day before already - very interesting, but you need to be cautious.

Anyway, today was a whole set of firsts: first ever sea-going ferry to Orkney, a place I had always dreamt of going. It wasn't a great day for photography, though - with one thing or another, I ended up with only a handful of shots.

The first thing that caught my eye at the pier was the lifeboat - which I quickly tried to put into perspective, what with the of the rather high winds and choppy waves (I'm no stranger to stormy seas - having done my share of sailing when I was younger).

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I was very early for boarding (having no experience with this whatsoever, I had grossly overestimated the time it'd take to get all the vehicles on the ferry), so I went for a tiny stroll and made a rather conceptual image.

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The voyage was surprisingly uneventful. My first impressions of Orkney were quite nice; unfortunately, I had picked the wrong camera to make the most of it (the G1X III is somewhat useless at greater distances, obviously ...). So, this is all I got - almost at the harbour. Some other images need more careful handling than Polarr can provide - maybe I can salvage them at home.

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But when I drove south-east to explore this particular part of the island (which can only be reached by crossing a number of causeways exposed to the sea!) the weather deteriorated, and so did my mood; I switched to the film camera which I usually find more inspiring, and in a way, I was right - but that means I haven't any further images (yet). All in all, it was tough driving with not a lot to show for it.

The day more or less ended with me winding up in the middle of nowhere (in a sense - it's Orkney Mainland, so anywhere is pretty close to everywhere else). I'll document the guest house tomorrow (this afternoon, the weather was rainy again) - it seems to have been a rather grander (or at least busier) place, but now displays only hints of its former glory; I'll use daylight to give you an idea of that.

M.
 
I repent - on many levels. What a difference a day can make ... I'll start at the end, with sort of an apology. This is the view from right outside my lodgings (well, a couple of steps further on, but you get my drift).

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Could be worse ... and makes me curse my failure to record yesterday's view. Anyway, today was really a lot of fun - exhausting, but rewarding as well. Other than having to share roads too narrow for safe crossing with some dangerously careless oncoming drivers that forced me to slam the breaks more than once, things worked out fine.

I started of with the famous neolithic monuments around the Ness of Brodgar - central to Orkney's unique position in neolithic archeology. There aren't many dedicated footpaths on Orkney, sadly, but one links three of the monuments - the Ring of Brodgar, the Ness of Brodgar (a site on a small strip of land between two Lochs that goes by the same name, just north of the harbour town of Stromness), and the Stones of Stenness with the adjacent Barnhouse settlement.

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Now, these monuments have been photographed to death (and I have images of them all), so don't expect many touristy images from me. I tried to get a few moody shots in, and the M10 proved a perfect tool for that. The other cameras helped with getting documentary shots. I'll even leave out the Stenness site altogether - I wasn't able to get anything that hasn't been done a whole lot better many, many times before. Maybe I can fix this tomorrow (I'm going to visit Maeshowe - that's just around the corner, in fact part of the whole "sacred landscape", as it is called).

First, the Ring of Brodgar, the youngest part of the whole site (which I only found out later) - and the grandest, at least judging by its proportions. It's got a well defined back and ditch, the usual requirement for a henge (think Stonehenge); interestingly, the Stones of Stenes seem to be a much more crude version of such a monument - and they have a speciality: a hearth in the center (well, if it was a kind of ring, as supposed currently). The Ring of Brodgar doesn't offer anything of that kind - it's just a vast ring of standing stones.

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The sun was playing hide-and-seek in the beginning, so most of the early shots play with muted colours and patches of illumination in the background; this is the major example.

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I walked the whole footpath between the monuments (twice, coming and going); on the way, I found other worthwhile sights.

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TO BE CONTINUED ...
 
... PICKING UP FROM THE PREVIOUS POST ...

Well, another view ... (there were problems with too many images in one post, I guess).

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On the Ness, serious archeology was going on.

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The site is unbelievably huge - the main trench uncovers only about 10 % of the whole site (the 21mm was not enough to get it all in - even from a raised platform that allows a good view of the scope of the excavations)!

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Seeing all this and being there was very rewarding. I went on to the equally famous neolithic village of Skara Brae - a very nicely established site with good documentation. This, too, has been photographed widely, so I will only show a little detail with a nice trick of the light that reminded me of the shadows cast by the Stones of Stenness earlier in the day.

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(Due to the fact that I can't get Polarr to export the files from the GX80 with reasonable resolution, I'll skip a little episode here - doesn't hurt, it's too much anyway ... I think I pushed Polarr and the poor little Chromebook over their limits a couple of times already, especially today).

There's a "land's end" everywhere - and so it is on Orkney's main island as well. Here, it's called the Brough of Birsay; it's an exposed rocky outcrop with some archeology on it (that's more or less natural all over Orkney); in this particular case, it's Norse - but that's just a side note. The real spectacle is the small causeway you have to cross (in good weather and at low tide only) to get to what isn't much more than a large rock, an outpost, a bridgehead in the middle of windswept seas. So, I'll end today's lengthy postings with a little unexpected street photography of the most imporbable kind; possibly, I'll add a couple of images in a third post tomorrow.

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M.
 
Really cool. The play of light and texture in the 2nd shot of today's first post, and the first shot of today's second post, would have me checking out my walls for a place to hang a large print.
 
Really cool. The play of light and texture in the 2nd shot of today's first post, and the first shot of today's second post, would have me checking out my walls for a place to hang a large print.
Thank you very much - I think I'll have quite a few shots to choose from, but you picked two of the most likely candidates :)

Anyway, no images today - it's too late, and I'm too tired after a long day of shooting to process any images. I came back well after sunset - there was still a bit of light in the sky at 22:30. Furthermore, I'll restrict myself to fewer per day from now on and leave posting the rest for later (there will be - after a long hiatus! - a Flickr album containing all definite edits of my favourite shots, but that'll take a couple of weeks after getting back home).

It was another marvellous day - not least because it was adventurous, too. After almost running over a pheasant yesterday (as they say, a real looker, but like a brick on the road ...), I got dive-bombed by a Great Skua male today; rightfully so, because I had (inadvertedly) left the official footpath through the reservation and got too close to their nest (the female circled me as well, but without closing in). Anyhow, they're really fierce birds, aiming right for your face. I had to duck out of the way more than a dozen times, and even had to throw myself to the ground on two occasions - they certainly don't mess about. It's not as if they can really injure you, but their beaks and feet do pack a bunch, and they come at you at high speed (as a former martial artist, I can say, almost fist-like). I was actually lucky - I hadn't even noticed how serious the situation was because the first attack came from behind; the bird swooped me and missed me by maybe a hand's width (intenstionally, no doubt - as I said, they really don't go for the soft option). In the end, nothing more serious ensued than a couple of stains on my trousers, jacket and backpack (I knelt down several times - and once slipped and fell after a particularily swift second attack). Oh, and my pride took a hit - but not because I ran from a bird; after all, the male was only defending his territory, and I was the perpetrator - it's not as if I had anyone to blame but myself. I don't know what would have happened had the female joined in, though.

Okay, that's it for now, I'll be back tomorrow with images ...

M.
 
Okay, here are yesterday's images. I decided to limit the number of images - though I'm not yet quite down to a sensible number ;)

In the morning, I visited Maeshowe - one of the most magnificent neolithic tombs in Europe, fantastically well built. However, we were not allowed to take photographs on the inside, so I'll just leave it at that; I may provide images from the outside at nightfall in a later post.

Afterwards, I went to Kirkwall - that's the most important town on the island and has been the place it was governed from most of the time. In St. Magnus cathredral, the light was particularily nice for Rembrandt type shots (though I decided to respect the person's privacy by not trying to snap a portrait).

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The adjacent palaces of the earl and bishop are both derelic - as the Romans would have put it: "Sic transit gloria mundi!" (The world's glamour goes to waste). I chose a more moody approach here.

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After that, I went off exploring - originally I had planned to add another possibly neolithic site to my list, Mine Howe, but since there's no sign on the road to guide you, I must have missed it. So I drove on and arrived at the nature reservation I told you about yesterday - I did experience wildlife, but didn't get a lot of good images of it; here's one I rather like from the cliffs (I seem to have been able to make Polarr swallow the images from the Panasonic again - go figure ...).

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Finally, after a really good dinner in Kirkwall (after a brief detour to my room for a change of cloths) I went to try shooting the Standing Stones of Stenness at sunset. It had been a magnificent sunset the day before (of which I have lost the images due to stupid oversight - didn't copy them over to the hard drive before formatting ... shame; there were rainbows and purple and orange clouds in there), but it was a bit more subdued yesterday. Still, the cloudscapes were amazing. I only give you a small selection here.

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I tried different angles and compositions, but some of them were really just along the lines of what everyone does, so I'll not post them here. Instead, I'll end with a typical image as I like to take them.

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The more I shoot with the Leica, the more I like it - no pun intended whatsoever.

M.
 
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Today I was uninspired and lazy - short walks, not a lot of photography, just a bit too tired (I think I may have overdone it a bit yesterday ...).

Anyway, it was overcast for most of the day - it's a bit better now, but I'm not planning on doing anything serious anymore. I started with a walk around the area I'm staying - a small bay and minute ferry port called Houton, on the south coast of Orkney. The only remarkable thing was the light playing on the slopes in the distance.

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The lodge can actually be seen in the second image (the one with the big red roof).

I had a quick lunch in a roadside café - the three ladies and their cart might make a good picture, but also might get my persecuted, so, no joy ... I went on to the Broch of Gurness, an Iron Age settlement with centered around one of these impressively massive multi-walled circular structures - they're a bit like squat towers, but this one is so wide it was probably more like a castle in appearance. The site is hard to photograph from close by, so here are only two images. The first sort of shows Iron Age life in a nutshell (a millstone, a hearth, a well and a stone cupboard), the second one proves that dry-stone walls look the same today as they did more than two thousand years ago ...

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That's me done for the day - I'll be back tomorrow (I hope).

M.
 
I’m enjoying your travels Matt - don’t hold back on the pics and the commentary if you have time and bandwidth to share.

The Great Skua does look intimidating but i think the mighty little midge remains the fiercest winged beastie in Scotland.
 
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