Thursday 3 July 2014

Skye Light (Sunset Over Loch Dunvegan), Isle Of Skye

Skye Light (Sunset Over Loch Dunvegan), Isle Of Skye

Last October's trip to Skye hasn't really filtered into my photostream yet. The wildly changing weather demanded a level of preparedness and dedication that wasn't compatible with a family holiday, and winds at night were devasting on tripod work. Being on Skye is how I imagine standing on the prow of a yacht sailing through a year's worth of weather in a day. The sky constantly scrolls overhead and the weather hits you in an unrelenting showcase of possibilities - rain, sun, cloud, rainbow, hail, searing light, downpour, rainbow, fog, hail, sun, thunder, rainbow, lightning, sun, howling rainstorm, etc. all washing over you in seconds, faster than you can take it in. You're way out on the edge of the Europe, like a sentinel watching the Earth's production line dispatching rain to Dresden, sun to Barcelona, fog to Venice, hail to the Nürburgring, triggering weather reports on televisions in fifty languages. This particular shot comes from an outing to see the seals on the coral beaches of Loch Dunvegan in the late afternoon. Really I'd have liked a tripod and fifteen minutes more time to find a foreground, but neither were available. Stern as Jessica's legs are, at 2.5 years old as she was then, a couple of miles was too far to risk without carrying capacity - hence no tripod. A mile into the walk, we found a gurgling stream tumbling down to the beach, bright in the sunlight with fresh water that fell twenty minutes earlier in a claustrophobically intense rainstorm. Seeing it snaking off into the reeds and heather was temptation too great, and answering the explorer within, Jessica pounced off into the dense thicket of clean water, peat and phragmites australis. Treating us to the wry, hauntingly jolly laugh you'd imagine Oates sharing with Scott, Jessica was plucked out entirely soaked. Back to the car... As we raced her adrenaline-drunk metabolism back to a change of clothes, a proper firework display of a sunset broke over the far side of the Loch. Without time to compose properly or tripod to assist, I fired off a couple of shots. This is a manually blended product of the two. Almost all comes from the first, exposed for the sky. The pool of green grass comes from one exposed for the foreground, such as it was. Hopefully I've kept it subtle enough not to stray over the line. It's always hard to judge these, so let me know what you think - I'd appreciate it immensely! Hopefully everyone is having a terrific end to the week!