This episode is a study of green tree foliage and roads.
Category Archives: intimate-landscape
Inverawe Impressions (2/10)
Part 2 of an ongoing series of posts about the Inverawe estate in Argyll.
This time, we concentrate on mankind’s intrusion into nature. For the most part, the laird leaves the woodlands alone, untouched; however, the Forestry Commission clear-felled the slopes of Ben Cruachan, initially leaving the mountainside bare but there are now young trees beginning to grow in the barren patches. The unfortunate consequence has been damage to some of the water-courses, resulting in culverts that used to flow with beautiful clear peaty water now stagnant and clogged-up with algae.
Inverawe Impressions (1/10)
This is the first in quite a long series of of blog posts.
Several years ago now, I spent a couple of years making one black and white image a day, every day, for nearly 2 years, concentrating a lot on the shapes and forms of trees in the Inverawe, Argyll, avoiding the contrasty light normally appreciated in landscape photography.
This new series takes the same fascination with filling space with shapes that caught my eye, but permits for colour. All images were taken in the course of a couple of hours on a return visit walking around the estate; for the most part they were shot at f/8 with HDR bracketing +/-1 EV, processed in RawTherapee, Darktable and digiKam.
That Tree: Millarrochy Oak
“Make Photo Here” – another total photographic cliché, but I figured it had to be done. The Milarrochy Oak on the shores of Loch Lomond.
What the photos don’t show you is that the tree is barely three yards from the edge of the carpark and, with a pleasant sunset behind it, there were four other photographers lined-up along the strip of beach.
It has the advantage of just being in the Highlands: the caravan-site at Milarrochy Bay is definitely north of the Highland Boundary Fault, on psammite and semi-pelite; while the oak tree itself is in a local igneous intrusion surrounded by sandstone conglomerate.
Up Kinnoull Hill: Strange Trees
Two different views on trees in the woods on Kinnoull Hill.
Both taken in bright sunny daylight; one tweaked to look more like dusk/night-time, the other processed for a high-key haze. Nice one, Darktable.
Up Kinnoull Hill: Nice Trees
Three photos of trees, taken on a stroll up Kinnoull Hill in Perth.
Stillness: the Pass of Brander
The reflections of Creag an Aonaich in Loch Awe on a calm day take some beating.
Only question is: with or without the boat?
Water: Around Loch Rannoch (4)
A final pair of images from the day’s trip around Loch Rannoch – the first taken at the start as I was setting off, the second toward the end of the day while I was hoping for a glamorous sunset but enjoyed a beautiful subtle sundown instead.
The view of the folly on the Eilean nam Faoileag crannog in Loch Rannoch is available on my landscape photography site, ShinyPhoto.
Water: Around Loch Rannoch (3)
This one isn’t so much about the water as the mountain, Schiehallion. Back in 1774, its regular shape and relatively isolated location led to it being used in the famous experiment by Mason and Maskelyne to determine the value of the gravitational constant, big-G, and the density of the Earth.
Certainly it sits fairly impressively in the landscape.
Water: Around Loch Rannoch (1)
It’s hard driving around Loch Rannoch – all the stopping and starting makes for lousy mileage. But that’s OK – the scenery is more than worth it.
The first time I came around here, more used to the road network than the geography of reality, I drove beyond the end of the loch (into the setting sun in these photos) up to Rannoch Station, and was surprised to see `Glencoe’ on the adjacent page on the map. No mistake – it’s only about 5 miles directly across Rannoch Moor, and yet by road it’s at least 83 miles and 2.5 hours’ drive.
Trees
Pine forests: what’s not to like? Scots Pine trees stand tall and proud, burnished orange-gold catching the sun; birch trees get a bit old and develop gnarly character.
These are from a stroll in the Black Woods of Rannoch, on the south shore of Loch Rannoch.
I noticed Gunnar’s Tree, named for Gunnar Godwin, a chap whose fondness for these woods led him to manage them and agitate for them to be designated a Caledonian Forest Reserve.
A Walk in the Woods
Details from a walk in the Black Woods of Rannoch, one of the Caledonian Forest reserves, in September.
A Lunchtime Stroll
I spent a lunchtime recently with a friend from the Photo Society, strolling in leisurely fashion around the South Inch in Perth, mostly admiring the shapes and colours of trees. Well, why not… especially in Autumn!
Light, Land and Heather… and ferns
I was quite pleased to notice that one of my favourite afternoon quick-escape locations is technically just north of the Highland Boundary Fault.
As I drove off the road, a flock of over 20 grouse shot out from the undergrowth and sprinted for dear life in front of me up to the carpark. Walking through the trees, I disturbed a deer grazing on the heather. Sometimes, you just can’t beat a few hours in golden sunlight, staring at mountains, for relaxation.
Arbor Low
A few photos from a trip around Derbyshire.
Arbor Low is a Neolithic henge monument in the White Peak area of the Peak District, Derbyshire, consisting of about 50 local limestone boulders now mostly recumbent in a circle surrounded by a ditch and embankment.