allan_jamieson2

Very nice image with a good thermal inversion too, don't know offhand where this is but only thing I'd say is that the mountain itself is very small in this image, maybe this would have more impact with a heavy crop to emphasise the mountain more. Other than that, good work!

Nice pic, but isn't that Lochan na h'Achlaise and the Black Mount? I've taken hundreds of shots here myself over the years, there are a few lochans close by in this area but Lochan na h'Achlaise is the one on the left as you approach Glen Coe, where you usually see dozens of photographers on any nice morning!

Felt that I should comment on what Dennis wrote there, the lochan I reckon is

pretty much as it has been for thousands of years. Yes, there is a road nearby

(slightly more than a few feet in reality, but a short hop all the same from a

car), nearer some bits of the shoreline than others, but it is possible to be out

of sight of the road on some stretches of the shore. I don't think that the road

has itself done much to change the lochan, which is actually I'd reckon glacial

in its formation, rather than man made, the results of the last ice age

pounding Rannoch Moor. The trees on the islands are the only trees

surviving in this area, because of an over abundance of red deer, which eat

all the tree seedlings elsewhere.

 

There are actually quite a few similar lochans in this area, some on the other

side of the road, another interesting one, just a little further north gives good

views too. And there are quite a few similar islands (again with trees) on

these lochans too.

 

Sadly, many estates in the Highlands think that the answer to over grazing by

red deer is simply to put up fences to keep them out of certain areas, but all

that does is to move the problem somewhere else, it isn't a solution in itself,

yet even bodies like the National Trust for Scotland have followed this route,

fencing off the Glen Etive side of Buachaille Etive Beag and the slopes of

Liathach in Glen Torridon too. This is one of the problems which can spiral out

of control when you remove the top predators from the area; i.e. the wolves

which were part of the Highlands until about the 16th/17th century. A few wild

wolves might make things a bit more interesting for us photographers too.

I know this spot very well and as Brian himself said, it is well photographed,

but often to the point when there can be 10 to 20 people in this area on a

good winters day jostling to get a good position, waiting to put their tripods in

the exact same spot as the person before them! And beautiful as it is, you see

the same sort of pictures of it year after year in calendars.

 

It isn't actually as wild as you might think, there is a main road just a few feet

away from the lochan, which is called Lochan na h'Achlaise in the gaelic, the

mountains behind this are known collectively as the Black Mount. It is a short

distance away from Glen Coe, a beautiful spot all in all. I've stood there many

times in autumn and listened to the roar of the stags on the hills during their

rutting season; that to me is one of the sounds of the wild.

 

I like the photograph overall, it is different from most images that I have seen

from this location, the colour doesn't bother me, I've seen natural light close to

that colour on snowy winter mornings before, even if Velvia has given it a bit

of extra kick, which personally I like anyway. So, well done to Brian.

Thanks for the extra comments Cory, nice to know that I remembered it correctly about lightning starting off at ground level and then heading up to the sky!

 

The lightning storm that I was refering to was quite surreal, it only seemed to be coming from one field, there was no thunder, no rain, nothing but eery beams of light rising into the air. That was on the outskirts of Norwich in England. I thought that it must be some kind of fancy lighting at a rock concert at first, but when I stopped and looked, there was absolutely nobody there, not a sound to be heard either. I've seen a similar dry lightning storm in Australia too, whilst travelling on a Greyhound Bus from Alice Springs to Adelaide one night many years ago. It made the journey more interesting at any rate!

Nice image, just one comment though and that regards the direction that lightning travels in. As I understand it, lightning does actually travel up the way towards the sky and not down as most people assume. I am sure that somebody more expert than myself could comment further on that, but it did come as a surprise to me at the time to learn that.

 

I've seen a silent lightning storm, with dozens of ghostly beams of light apparently rising up from the ground like some weird laser light show. That was very strange and of course I didn't have a camera with me at the time!

Thanks Derek, at least you liked it!

 

I just missed the best of the Alpenglow by a few minutes unfortunately. Need to try it again sometime though. It took an extremely early rise to get to this position that morning, plus Ice Axe, Crampons, etc.

 

I climbed onto the Ben via the Carn Mor Dearg Arete after this, which was absolutely superb, one of the best days out on the hills that I've ever had. Mind you, I really spoiled it the following week when I broke my leg ( and nearly my neck ) in Glen Coe whilst taking some more wintry pictures!

 

It takes a lot to beat me, I'll be back with my camera up amongst the mountains again very soon.

Hi Nigel, well done with this shot, I like it a lot, keep up the good work.

This looks more like a painting than a photograph really, nice effect, but not photography as such. It would have been interesting to have seen the original image side by side with this.

Great sky, it really brings the whole picture to life. This looks not unlike the Cuillin Mountains on Skye, which also from certain angles seem to rise straight up out of the sea.

Beautiful portfolio of images.

Nice picture. I used to take quite a lot of mountain pictures, only the last time I tried to do that I fell a few hundred feet down the side of the mountain and broke my leg. All very dramatic, even got the trip to hospital in a helicopter and everything!

 

Still, sometimes you have to take a little risk to get to places like this. Meantime I'll stick to admiring the efforts of other more adventurous photographers!

Hi Jamie, beautiful background to your picture. Being picky, the light seems a bit harsh, but you get what you get when you're up at that altitude. I've done some climbing myself, but nothing too drastic. Always worth carrying a camera up in the mountains though, just to get a few nice views like this one.

 

Might be an idea to try some slide film in future, even Fuji Sensia 100, which should do well hand held in light as strong as that.

Hi Elaine, this is a particularly good location for photography as you have obviously found out!

 

For those of you not familiar with the area, just behind this viewpoint there is a busy, fast road. I always find it hard to believe looking at Lochan na h'Achlaise that it is so easy to reach. The mountains across the lochan are commonly known as the Black Mount. I've photographed the same view countless times and never tire of it. Also a perennial favourite in calendars and post cards too.

 

This is a nice picture, it could have been improved with better positioning of the rocks in the image, just to keep the mountains fully visible. Also, the colour is a bit odd. I'm not sure whether this is from your film choice or maybe a scanning error. But, for scenes like this slide film gives better colour saturation. If you check the images that I have uploaded here, all of them were taken on Fuji Velvia, just to give that bit extra kick. But, for a beginner this is a very good start. If you want any tips on other good locations in that area, give me a shout at my new e-mail address : scotscene@hotmail.com

Like most of the others, I think that the only thing that lets this down is the brightness in the top left corner, which could probably be toned down in Photoshop anyway.

 

It would have been interesting to see this and the original colour version side by side, just to see which works best.

Nice pictures, but all too similar, one would have been enough.