Photo of the Month: June 2015

Cast a Giant Shadow

14th June 2015, summit of Beinn Ghlas, Perthshire

Ben Lawers, at 3984ft (1214m) and on the north side of Loch Tay, is the highest mountain in Britain outside the Nevis and Cairngorms ranges.  The mountain path starts from the car park at Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve and climbs over Beinn Ghlas, which, at 1103m is also one of the highest peaks in Britain. I reached Beinn Ghlas a little after 8pm to explore its summit with a view to photographing Ben Lawers at sunset (due soon after 10pm). Just before 9:30pm the sun appeared from the clouds far to the NW and strong backlighting has cast giant shadows of Ben Lawers (L) and Beinn Ghlas (R) onto the hillsides on the far side of Loch Tay.  The tops of the shadows are 8km away. The clouds were only partially in direct sunlight which added another element to the composition.

I completed the ridge walk to Ben Lawers after sunset before retracing my steps down to my car well after midnight. A headtorch was not required until I reached the NNR below Beinn Ghlas as there was still enough ambient light in the sky to walk along the mountain paths unaided.  

Technical Info:

Taken with a Fuji X-T1
Fujinon XF 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR lens @ 18mm

EXIF: ISO-200 / 1/28 sec / f/8
Lee filters: 0.6 Hard GND

RAW File converted to TIFF in Fuji RAW Converter powered by Silkypix, developed in Adobe PSE9

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