Revisiting the Isle of Skye again after two years, and staying in the same cottage meant that we were only ten minutes drive from the Old Man of Storr - a great location when planning early morning rises for photography shoots!
It looked like there would only be one particular morning that the weather would be suitable to visit the Old Man for the type of photos I was wanting. Setting the alarm for 4.10am I was awake before it went off, but looking out the window debated whether it was going to be worthwhile after all! I eventually however made the decision to go for it!
Arriving at the near empty car park, I headed up the path checking back towards the direction of the low rising sun and captured a few photos showing the changing light as the sun broke through the low cloud:
The Old Man was currently cloaked in mist and low rain cloud!
Unperturbed I headed up into the mist (actually rain!), deciding to avoid the viewpoint I took the photos from a couple of years ago (see: The Old Man of Storr dawn visit) and found a path that headed towards the back of the rock formation. This gave the view below - where the camera got wet from the rain with continual attempts to wipe the lens to try and get a clean photo!
There is a labyrinth of pathways behind the Old Man that I was totally unaware of, so weaving my way between the rocks, I hunted down a good location to wait and see what happened with the weather.
Looking back along the path at different points, it didn't look like much was going to happen, other than get wet!!
But I found the spot that looked like a good one and with the waterproof cover over the camera bag I waited ... and waited ... and waited.
Then the fun started!
As I was hoping, the mist and rain lifted temporarily and combined with the sun breaking out through the clouds started to change the view dramatically from the photos above.
At the same time the mist lifted towards the south opening up a superb vista.
Once again, it turned out a worthwhile trip, and the effort to get out of bed despite what the weather looked like, had paid off with the results I had hoped for!