We set off on our first visit of the winter to Glencoe which we were eagerly looking forward too as the weather forecast was predicting snow, and misty conditions.
As we drove over Rannoch Moor, we were met with a picture postcard scene, all the mountains had a covering of snow on them, a scattered covering of snow on the ground, with the sun shining and projecting spottled areas of sunlight and shade across the landscape.
The plan was to drive to the Kingshouse Hotel hotel to see if our room was available, if not Carole would relax with a cuppa, a bite to eat and relax for an hour or so whilst I would go out to photograph some locations. At this time of year the hours of daylight in Scotland are getting really short, sunrise being around 8am and it being dark by about 4pm.
Once I was on my way, the decision was a choice of traveling to a specific location, or to work with the conditions that we had. I decided on the latter, the Buachaille Etive Mòr was bathed in sunlight, quite unique conditions, so it was time to use the drone for the first time in anger.
I pulled over and found a suitable launch pad for the drone, I had flown it locally to get used to the controls, but this would be the first time I had used it out in the field.
I wanted to get a photography from hight looking down towards the Buachaille Etive Mòr, and maybe even a view looking down the Glen. I gingerly got the drone into the sky to a safe height where there were no obstacles, I then began to manoeuvre it in to place, when looking at the screen on the drone remote control, the detail was quite impressive. I was soon expanding my flight envelope to capture photographs of the valley, no videos at this time, as I wanted to concentrate on the still images. I even had a go at taking several panoramic images, the plan being that I would stitch these together in lightroom later. I was conscious to keep an eye on the battery monitor for the drone, the last thing that I wanted was to lose it on my first flight.
After about 40 minutes of messing around with the drone, I landed this and got packed up to head further down the valley. I have wanted to get a decent photograph of The Three Sisters mountains in decent light, but has I got ready for the short walk to get where I needed to be, I noticed that the sun was now dropping behind the Tree Sister mountains, this concerned me as this would put the Tree Sisters in the shade and hide the detail of the cliffs.
I had a short walk along the Old Military Road, as I was making my way along this, I noticed a couple of compositions which included a small stream as one, and a culvert under the old road as another one, taking these photos delayed me even more in reaching my final location, but it was an opportunity I was not going to let go.
As I neared “The Study”, an area adjacent to the Meeting of the Three Waters, which provides a view down the lower Glen, with the Three Sisters being prominent on the left side of the image. There is a huge boulder located on a slab of flat rock which makes an interesting foreground interest when taking this shot. I initially began taking single images of this scene but then progressed to taking a 7 shot vertical panoramic sequence of photos, again, these would be stitched together in lightroom in post processing.
I then climbed a little higher up the slope to look for any other images, I came across a virtually round rock embedded in the grass, so concentrated on this to get another couple of images.
By now the light was going very fast, so it was time to pack up and head to the hotel for a well-deserved hot drink and some food.
As I drove back up the Glen towards the Kingshouse Hotel, it was a little frustrating to see the colours in the sky form the setting sun, although there was no light in the Glen, I presumed that up on Rannoch Moor there would have been some lovely conditions, but, you cant be in tow places at the same time, you make your choices and deal with the outcome.
Once back at the hotel, I was soon washed and changed and ready to sample the culinary delights of the establishment. Post food, it was time to look at the weather proposals for the following morning, up until this time these weather apps had indicated nice sunrise conditions with the chance of mist and sunrise colours. Disappointingly this had now changed to indicate an overcast, dull conditions, with the chance of rain to rub more disappointment into the mix.
I then done, what you should never do, I looked at two other weather apps to seek confirmation of the conditions, one supported the first, but the third still showed possible good sunrise conditions. Carole and I then had a long conversation as what I should do, as sunrise coincided with breakfast time at the hotel, should I get out and rush back to try and catch the late breakfast time?
After, what seemed like ages, I finally decided that I was staying at the Hotel for breakfast, and I would go out after this to see what photographs I could get.
We awoke next morning to a pink coloured sky, this filled me with self-doubt, frustration and disappointment, I had made the wrong call, missed a glorious opportunity. Once back in our room post breakfast, a couple of posts on social media confirmed my missed opportunity mindset, some of the photos were spectacular, this really lowered my enthusiasm levels, why, being here on location and making the wrong choice really hit home.
But life goes on, we were still in the middle of the lovely winter’s paradise, time to give myself a shake, get ready and get outside to make the best of what was there.
I planned to follow the route of the River Etive from the hotel with the snow covered Buachaille Etive Mòr being prominent in the scene, what I needed was some foreground interest to use to support this scene. I was looking for a “S” shape of the river, unique boulders, or frozen foreground to use.
I like to think that I captured some decent images from this exercise, some in landscape orientation and some in portrait orientation, do you have a preference to any of the images below?
From the banks of the River Etive, then planned to head up above the hotel to the Cauldron Falls, even though the water levels in the rivers and burns were very low, I was sure that with the snow-covered mountains, I could take a decent unique photograph from this location.
What happened next would further dent my earlier disappointment of missing out on the morning’s conditions, as I began retracing my route back along the river towards the hotel, the sun totally disappeared behind a thick covering of clouds.
Now what do I do, by this time I was fully of negativity, do I continue to head to the falls, or change my plans, so I threw in the towel and heading back to the warn interior of the hotel.
Sure enough, by the time we had a warm drink and a short chat, the weather gods were dead against us, light rain began to fall intermingled with whisps of snow, all the time the clouds were getting thicker and the light levels falling. Such a shame, this was fast becoming the end of the day’s photography for me.
40 minutes later and it was constant rain, with very poor light, so we decided to get some wet weather clobber on and head to Glencoe Village for a short walk to get some fresh air, we ended up having a leisurely walk around Glencoe Lochan, a lovely place to visit.
By the time we arrived back at the hotel, it was becoming dark once again, so all that was to be done was to have a lovely warm shower, get changed and head to the hotel’s restaurant for a delicious meal and a few comforting glasses of wine.
The next morning brought us typical Scottish dreich weather, (miserable wet, windy and bleak), so it was a day comprising of a short drive around Loch Leven, a brisk visit to Kinlochleven, and another early afternoon in the hotel, no photography again on this day.
The next morning was our day to leave and return home, the weather gods were being more kind than the day before, this at least allowed me to capture a could of misty, moody images at Rannoch Moor.
The final take away for this short visit to Glencoe was one on a missed opportunity of the mornings conditions, but despite this the image quality of my drone images really surprised me, this was a huge positive for me and will (hopefully) get me using the drone more and more in the future.
Along drive home to look forward too, but we will be back for another stay at the Kingshouse Hotel in between Christmas and New Year, lets see what this brings.
