Photo of the Month: September 2015

Dead Calm

7th September 2015, Lochan nan Corp, Ben Ledi, Trossachs

My second wild camp of the year, this time on the Bealach nan Corp (Pass of the Dead) at a height of 670m/2200ft on the northern slopes of Ben Ledi. After pitching my tent at sunset I walked up to the summit of Ben Ledi (879m/2884ft) by torchlight following a line of old rusty fence posts all the way to the top. The sky was clear, the stars were out, as was the Milky Way.  It was quite something to see against a black sky. The following morning I was up at dawn (6a.m.) to photograph Lochan nan Corp (small loch of the dead). The dawn sky proved to be clear with the central plain of Scotland covered in a blanket of fog. Eventually the sun rose high enough to light the eastern slopes of Ben Ledi with golden light that lasted for a few minutes.  Lochan nan Corp was dead calm.  The vapour trails of two airliners were mirrored in the lochan to suggest the flag of St Andrews. By 8a.m. I had struck camp and ready to descend when the midges came out in force. Suddenly it was no place to hang around.  I was down at the car park for 10a.m. where the first walker of the day asked me what time I had started. 

As a footnote, there is nothing sinister in the names as the pass is an ancient coffin route through the mountains. However, some say that the pass and the lochan were named after a coffin party tragically met their deaths by falling through the frozen waters of the lochan one winter.  This is highly unlikely given the lochan is quite shallow.   

Technical Info:

Taken with a Fujifilm X-T1
Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R lens
EXIF: ISO-200 / f/11 / 1/10sec

Lee filters:
RAW File converted to TIFF in Fuji RAW converter powered by Silkypix, developed in Adobe PSE9

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