"Rocky Outpost"

Ben Aan, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, Scotland

 

 

View from the top of Ben Aan (455m)

You can see Loch Katrine and Ben Venue (737m) on the left.

 

 

It's my second attempt to photograph this location - but let me describe

how it was at the first time.

 

 

Since I've heard some good things about this spot I decided to visit it by

myself.

 

 

Weather forecast was highly optimistic - as more than 90% chance of

cloud free sky was forecasted (not that I prefer cloudless skies) - but it

was just the general weather description for that day.

 

 

My plan was therefore quite simple - early wake up at 1:30am, set off at

2am, arrival at the location around 3am and one hour uphill walk through

dark forest with a light torch in my hand.

 

 

It is a fact that weather forecasts in this country are nothing but a joke -

and that's probably why Brit's talk so much about it :)

And it was probably heavy rain (raining while I was driving to the

location) that made me sure about the effectiveness of Meteo-Gov

institution.

 

 

Needless to say - early walk through unknown, dark forest, when all

you hear is your breath and rain drops falling down the trees is nothing

but unforgettable experience. It would have been even more

unforgettable if I had met some wild bear or other forest creature on my

way up :D

 

 

Once I reached the top and set up my camera all I had to do was to

wait. Unfortunately no amazing sunrise took place. The whole area was

covered with thick clouds.

 

 

That was the story with my first attempt.

 

 

On my second one I decided to capture a sunset scene instead - and

had more luck this time.

 

 

Hope you'll like it.

 

 

Please have a look at the larger version.

Your comments/critiques much appreciated.

 

 

Piotr

Czesc Piorek,

Swietny widok i perfekcyjne wykonanie, widc warto bylo 2 razy probowac...Moze w Polsce tez uwiecznisz jakiś krajobraz.....Pozdrawiam Mariusz

Hi Piotr, there is nothing worse than an arduous trek to find the weather hasn't working in your favour, but you have been rewarded through persistance which clearly shows here. This is a wonderful shot and perfect timing along with exposure providing a fantastic view from Ben Aan.

 

Scotland is an amazing place and I would love to organize a trip with other photographers from photo.net especially Scotlands West Coast. If interested let me know, Regards.

Your work-out for this photo, is worthy Piotr. Great effects and great realism. The sun effect is realy dreamy. very well composed and shoot.

Well worth the trek, perfect timing, light and composition. Did you also manage to get a morning with no wind? It looks as though it could get quite blowy up there.

wonderful shot

A spectacular view and some pretty good light. Certainly more than worth the troubles to get it.

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate it

 

John - I am always interested in such trips but I'll be moving from Glasgow really soon so it's going to be a quite intense time for me.

 

David - no I haven't been lucky enough so far. The other day it was completely overcast, but I'm not going to give up :)

 

Cheers

 

Piotr

Perfect light for a perfect moment. I also like this real images, although, as you know, sometimes I make some fantastic images. Best regards. Eugenio.

Has situado el sul justo en la confluencia de tercios, y le has dado la importancia justa, sin ir mas alla. Eso hace que a diferencia de otras fotos de atardeceres y amaneceres el sol no se coma la foto. Y sin embargo has dado la mayor importancia al primer plano, donde has puesto unas rocas fabulosas con vida propia. Una foto perfecta, un gran premio a un buen paseo. gracias por mostrarnos este y otros trabajos. 7/7

Piotr, that�s a very familiar tail for me the number of mornings when the there is to much cloud for interesting sunrise or sometimes not enough or in the wrong place!!!!!.

 

Anyway this is super image did you use some blending technique on it or just NDG as the dynamic range between the sky and foreground must have been great.

 

I see also you are using some new equipment the 5D and 17-40L they seem to be working well for you.

 

Rich.

 

Hi Richard

 

Thanks for your comment

 

With such a crazy British weather you never know :) - but that's the beauty of landscape photography for me.

 

When it comes to the technical side - GND filters were preety much useless in this case - I mean I could have used some strong grad but the sky would have been too dark to my taste and the general filter transition too obvious.

 

I did, therefore, a blend of three exposures to make it more natural.

 

Yes - new equipment is a very nice tool indeed, hovewer is has some flaws over the old one (i.e. larger barrel distortion and stronger vignetting). Anyway - it's nothing to be worry about (i's easily fixable) and the general photo quality is really impressive (great improvement over the old 20D).

 

I only wish I had bought it long time ago :)

 

Cheers

 

Piotr