Continuing the theme of failed attempts to do astrophotography, I spent an evening out at Newport-on-Tay in Fife. There’s a neat little road leading down to a carpark with a tiny beach and rocky outcrop… with the interplay of artificial lights and huge blanket of fog, it needed photographing 🙂
Tag Archives: weather
A Day in Argyll (3): Catching a Ferry
Late in the afternoon I caught a ferry from Oban out to Mull.
Several times in the voyage, the light was just amazing.
Leaving Oban with sunlight and clouds over Kerrera:
An epic vibrant complete double-rainbow seeming to hover just 50yd behind the ferry:
Stunning light approaching Mull:
There’s something relaxing just simply watching the low sunlight reflecting off the bow-waves around the boat:
Detail of soft sunlight reflecting on the sea and bow-waves from the ferry.
Foggy Night
I just strolled home through the fog from an evening at the photographic society.
A Favourite Walk
Around January I discovered a new walk near Dunkeld that quickly became a favourite way to spend a weekend afternoon. Starting from the Pass of Birnam, head up the track from Bee Cottage and turn left to go around the south side of Duncan’s Hill then rejoin the path up to Stair Bridge Viewpoint and the top of Birnam Hill.
As routes go, it gives a mixture of sheltered woodland tracks and sweeping landscape views, complete with my favourite feature – you can watch the rocks changing from till to slate to psammite and semi-pelite as you cross the Highland Boundary Fault. Small wonder I’ve done it half a dozen times dragging various folks along with me, gradually exploring further each time as the winter receded.
These photos are from an experiment with a Prakticar 24mm lens (M42 fit) – acquired for cheap from ebay and stuck on a wonky adapter which might explain some focussing issues. Several of them depict the line of the HBF through the landscape, with hills on one side in the Highlands and on the other in the Lowlands.
Changeable Weather
A few photos from the start of January – experimenting with a road I’ve not often travelled, up from the A9 to approach from the south. It was a stunning morning – swathes of cloud-shadow flying across the landscape such that the mountains north of Comrie were alternately visible or obscured behind passing snow/hail clouds.
Ben Lomond
Classic views – the familiar pointy triangular shape of a snow-covered Ben Lomond with its head in the clouds, from the Loch Ard Forest track
Sunlit Snow
A classic Trossachs view – sunlight on snow-capped mountains (Sron Armailte, Ben Vane and part of Ben Ledi), from the Duke’s Pass.
Perth by Night
A handful of photos taken after dark from the Queen’s Bridge in town, waiting for the fireworks to happen.
Bright Light / City
A fairly obvious shot from a viewing location on the south side of the Tay, the road bridge disappearing in a stream of lights flowing to Dundee in the fog. At night. As a long exposure, because it’s what one does, right?
A Walk in the Mist
This is what it looked like, walking Dog through the local woods this morning.
Misty Woods
Misty Morning
I think this is the best misty morning I’ve seen in nearly a year of living around Portpatrick – the fog’s not lifted all day. Naturally it made for some great photo opportunities this morning too.
Already
A clump of green shoots poking through, ready for spring
Storm Surge
Apparently there’s “exceptional weather” doing the rounds at the moment. From last night until midday the wind speed has been around 40mph gusting to 63mph. On hearing mid-morning of a storm surge coinciding with high tide around lunch-time, Dog and I set out to see what it looked like.
The waves were impressive – the highest I’ve seen around the harbour. The coast-guard were doing an admirable job of directing such little traffic as dared or needed to get close; a small crowd gathered to watch the waves.
I made a small video of the goings-on as well:
The End of the World
It’s been a bit breezy the past couple of days – winds gusting over 50mph locally and up to 100mph nationally. Fortunately, the gardener has just finished staking all the trees that needed it, so the storms passed us by with no significant damage – the only loss appears to be this wooden trellis that’s blown over, with the honeysuckle creeper climbing all over it severed at the root. No sad loss, really, as I spent too much of the summer pruning the thing in an attempt to keep the walkway accessible underneath it anyway.
Perthshire
Early(ish) mornings with thick frost on the grass, painfully bright in the glare of the sunlight as the world warms from -3C overnight.
Autumn sunlight in the grounds of Gleneagles
Thick misty clouds lurking in the glens.
Forests of primarily oak and birch, the trees green with moss while their fallen leaves cover the ground in a thick carpet of orange, yellow and red.
Autumn sunlight and a partially frozen pond
A red squirrel scampering up a beech tree.
Freedom to walk in the woods, basking in the joyful glory of it all.
The Wee Cauldron waterfalls, just north of Comrie