As we moved deeper into autumn, there turned out to be some further opportunities to get out with the camera. One such opportunity was over the weekend at the tail end of the storm Babet - a storm that impacted the east coast of Scotland for a number of days.
It has been on my bucket list to get out in a decent storm to take photos of the coast and I particularly had Tarbat Ness lighthouse in mind, as it is about an hour’s drive from where we live and has great potential with the type of coastline.
So we headed off Saturday morning in the rain - not 100% sure we would make it to the lighthouse because of the potential flooding (amber weather warning in effect) - but thankfully we were successful without any major incident!
Arriving at an empty car park and donning waterproof jacket, waterproof trousers and wellingtons we headed off to the initial viewpoint, realising that this was not going to be an easy photography trip. The wind was in true Scottish vernacular blowing a hoolie. Along with the driving rain/sea spray, the ‘art’ of capturing some photos in between lens wiping became a major pastime for the few hours we were there! In fact a decent number of photos were just straight to recycling bin quality due to the wet lens effect! The photo below hopefully conveys something of the conditions!
Watching the waves just brought a reminder of the power of the ocean. There was a major swell, and at times the incoming waves 'reflected’ back off the rocks and collided with more incoming waves, creating an even taller crest of the wave - and bringing to mind the Scriptures where it speaks of the ‘raging of the sea’. Quite spectacular:
The birds seemed most at home in the environment - flying over the waves….
A lot of the time was spent trying to capture the waves crashing against the rocks - with some successful moments shown below.
It was definitely a trip to remember. I’m now on the lookout for the next period of high winds but without the rain - to give a better chance of keeping the lens clean!
Glen Cannich
The following day after the experience at Tarbat Ness, the weather couldn’t have been more contrasting with sun and light winds through most of the day and an opportunity on the Sunday afternoon to make a trip over to Glen Cannich for the autumn colours - knowing that they would be in full swing by now. The initial stages of the road up to the glen, delivered some beautiful reflections:
However, I noticed that cloud was rolling in over the location we were heading for, and there was some moments of disappointment thinking that the weather was going to change significantly. However it turned out for the better, because along with the clouds came rain, but the sun was still popping in and out of the clouds changing the drama of the atmosphere.
It was another trip with wet camera moments - but the views were excellent. Here’s some photos at the lower part of the glen with a mixture of rain and sun. The wet leaves of the ‘golden’ tree in the last photo were glistening in the sun.
The combination of rain clouds and sun created some super contrasts in the landscape.
As we headed up the glen the distant munros came into view - the atmosphere and autumn lighting was superb.
Here are some views as we reached the dam including a rainbow that suddenly appeared on the mountainside.
The return down the glen was going to end up the most exciting part of the journey. The lighting just continued to improve as time went on and we reached this point on the road where I got out to take a panoramic, just prior to another rain shower.
As I took the photos of the above view, the clouds darkened and another rainbow started to appear which just got brighter and brighter including doubling up!
My favourite photo was when noticing the rainbow reflecting in the river, even amidst the ripples, and managing to catch the reflection before a short while later it just disappeared! A special moment indeed.
What a weekend! Such a contrast between the two days - great moments to experience.