I set out at 2.30am on Saturday June 21st (the summer solstice) to capture the sunrise across Rannoch moor as part of the photo-book I’ve been working on for the past 16 months.
Unfortunately by the time I reached the moor, the weather had closed in and it was beginning to rain.
With any chance of seeing the sunrise gone, I decided to try to rescue something from the trip by driving a little further into Glencoe to see if the moody overcast sky would lend itself to some dramatic shots in what is one of my favourite locations in the Scottish highlands…
I knew of a great little waterfall on the River Coe, close to Loch Achtriochtan, so I set off for the car park at the foot of the loch.
Thankfully, the car-park was deserted and I parked up, collected my equipment and set-off.
Near the loch shore, I found a patch of daisies growing in a clearance overlooking the loch and some reeds, so I set up my tripod and camera and attached an ND grad filter to my 24-105mm lens to reduce the contrast between the brightening sky and the dark foreground.
I decided to stop the aperture down to f22 to maximize the depth of field as I wanted the daisies and the distant mountains in focus, and selecting a shutter speed of 2 seconds, took a few shots of the daisies.
Once I was happy with this shot, I set off along the footpath to the waterfalls, only to find that the recent spell of hot weather had reduced the usually dramatic falls to a mere trickle!
Undaunted, I set up the camera and waited for a break in the now increasingly frequent rain showers.
Although not ideal for photography, I prefer dull overcast days for shooting water, and in particular waterfalls, as the low light allows long exposures which give that pleasing, if slightly clichéd, milky look.
During a break in the showers, I managed to snatch the following three images:
(all images taken at 100 ISO, f22, and 2 or 3 second exposure times)
The first image has been posted on my Facebook page (here) and has since been shared 31 times and viewed by over 2220 people.
The second, of the River Coe, was also posted on my Facebook page (here) and been viewed by more than 350 people.
Image 3 (above) plus the daisy photo at the top of this page are “blog exclusives” 🙂
I have received requests to make images 1 and 3 (above) available to buy as prints, so these will be added to the inventory of available prints on my web-store, which is opening VERY soon.
One of the most exciting things to come out of this trip was that while sitting waiting for the rain to stop, I envisaged images 1 and 3, under VERY different weather conditions.
If the resultant photographs are anything like what I have pictured in my mind, then WATCH THIS SPACE for what may turn out to be some of my best photographs yet. Fingers crossed that the right weather conditions present themselves soon!
Thanks again to everyone who follows my work, your encouragement and support is greatly appreciated!
Please feel free to comment or leave feedback below.
In particular, I’m keen to know if readers would prefer more, or less, technical information regarding how I’ve taken each shot?
John McKenna Photography 