Elgol
Whilst I was away up north, back on the Isle of Eigg doing some research for an upcoming photo workshop I have scheduled there this September, the weather turned for the better. An unexpected snow flurry for a whole day left the majority of the west coast covered in a blanket of white. Whilst on Eigg I looked back to the mainland and sure enough, I could see that the Cuilins of Skye were totally white.
So I had to get there!
As soon as I left Eigg, I took a three hour drive north and reached Elgol in complete darkness. I pitched my tent a few hundered metres away from this location with no idea what to expect the next morning. I awoke to the sound of rain and thought ‘oh, here we go again’. But when I got out of my tent, I found that the rain noise was actually the sound of snow. It was very overcast and still too grey and dark, but I got up and with bleary eyes after a cold night in sub zero temperatures (with two sleeping bags lined inside of each other for warmth), I headed down to the bay.
I shot several pictures, and each time I did, I was always looking for a new composition. Sometimes you think you’ve nailed a composition, only to find a stronger one a few minutes later. But I think what made it for me was the surf in the foreground and that lovely little bit of light hitting off the left hand side of the Cuilin range.
On a technical note: Mamiya 7, 50mm lens, 2 stop hard grad placed 1/3 of the way down, long exposure with reciprocity adjustment added so I could get movement/drama in the clouds. Fuji Velvia 50 RVP.
Mountains, Sky and Rocks were all provided for me.
Bruce,
Im glad you got yourself up and camera ready. Looks a wonderful place to shoot.
I discovered Scotland for the first time in Feb when going to Glencoe and the surrounding areas. The light and such changable weather along with the awesome diversity of landscape really made my 8 days there a treat, even though i had only 7 hours of good light / with no rain, snow or whiteout.
I couldnt agree more with really working your composition. I’ve taken many poor shots that could of been bettered earlier in my photographic journey just by walking the scene, changing camera position or angle.
I really enjoy this composition very much. Velvia is clearly seen doing its thing.
Is this a straight scanned image, with no adjustments?
I feel the grad is showing a little too much, and could be sorted quite easily.
Am looking forward to seeing more :)
S
Comment by stevef — 17 March, 2009 @ 5:27 pm
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the comments.
About the grad. I thought initially that it was bad grad placement myself, but the reason why it’s easy to get that impression is that the wash from the ocean on the rocks over a long exposure has made the bottom half of the image very bright. Then the sea has a graduation of tone in it, plus the mountains above all this are at a different tone altogether. I think it’s actually what was there, and I had a look to see if I could do anything to it, and found that it would really hurt the image to do so.
I’ll see how I live with it for the time being. It may end up being a shot that I will discard as one that should have worked, but doesn’t. But please, if you feel you can sort out the ‘grad’ issue – I would be very interested to see how you would accomplish this :-)
Comment by Bruce Percy — 17 March, 2009 @ 11:19 pm