Photo of the Month: July 2014

Heads and Tails, Cleish Hills

26th July 2014, Cleish Hills

Woke up at 4:15 a.m. as bright as a button.  Last nights weather forecaster had predicted that the eastern side of Scotland would be affected by a haar, or fog, which would roll in from the North Sea overnight. Looking out of the window there was no fog at all but I still got up and headed for the Cleish Hills.  It's a 20 minute drive on quiet roads, the final stretch being on the narrow hill road through Blairadam Forest. I glimpsed the fog just as I was coming out of the forest and my first reaction was to punch the air in triumph.  It was a sea of fog stretching to the horizon over much of the old county of Kinross-shire.  Poking through the fog were the hills around Loch Leven; Benarty and Bishop Hill with the dome of West Lomond behind.  With few clouds the red hues of the dawn sky subsided to blue once the suns disc had cut the horizon behind Bishop Hill.  The fog was still in shadow but eventually, as the sun rose higher, its light started to reflect off the fog which took on a yellow glow.  Just before 6 a.m. two horses appeared and came over to say hello.  Their profiles were caught by the light from the sun which was gaining strength rapidly as the minutes ticked by.  I was back home for 6:30am feeling elated.  Time for a brew before switching on the PC.

Technical Info:

Taken with a Canon EOS 5D mkII
Zeiss Distagon T* 21/2.8 ZE lens

EXIF: ISO-100 / 1/25 sec / f/11 
Lee filters: 0.9 Hard GND

RAW File converted to TIFF in Canon DPP, developed in Adobe PSE9

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Photo of the Month: March 2013

Point of Impact, Loch Glow, Cleish Hills

12th March 2013, above Loch Glow, Cleish Hills.

I've visited Loch Glow a few times over the winter months to study the lie of the land including a circuit of the loch itself.  It is approx. 2 miles / 3.2 km's around with the far side, Tipperton Moss, being a poorly drained marsh, making for extremely tough going.  The northern side is flanked by forestry and the craggy Cleish Hills which rise to over 350m /1150ft.  The Loch is a fishery run by Rosyth Angling Club and out of season there  are few visitors.  This evening I had the loch to myself. It was very windy and cold with sunset due at 6:10pm. The day had been overcast and the sky was dull and grey as I climbed the hill on the north side of the loch. After setting up my tripod and camera it was a case of waiting to see what, if anything, would happen. And happen, it did. Big bands of thick black cloud started moving in from the NW on strong winds.  The cloud was so black that even the weather forecasters on BBC Reporting Scotland mentioned it on the early evening broadcast.  The sun appeared, disappeared and then re-appeared as an intense orange ball as it set in the little dip in the hills. It lit up huge sections of black cloud with red light making one section of the sky look almost apocalyptic as if there had been an explosion.  Eventually the fiery sky subsided to dusky pinks and blues before settling down for the night but I had captured the moment perfectly which is why it is my photo of the month.

Technical Info:

Taken with a Canon EOS 5D mkII
Zeiss Distagon T* 21/2.8 ZE lens

EXIF: ISO-100 / 4 sec / f/13

RAW File converted to TIFF in Canon DPP, developed in Adobe PSE9

The changing sky at sunset

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