Buachaille Etive Mor and The Cuillins

Not the easiest mountain to pronounce, Buachaille Etive Mor or the buckle as it is known in some walking mags. It is near Glen Coe and normally has a decent covering of snow on it but more often than not, a few low clouds I imagine. This was taken at sunrise at about 3.30. A common composition has a few waterfalls in it but I didn't like it as there is a small tree that slightly obscures the mountain. The exif for this was ISO100, 16mm, f/16, 0.6 second. The next shot was also in Scotland, this time on the isle of Skye and is a rugged mountain range known as the Cuillins, we walked up one of these a few hours after this was taken, it was a little grueling to say the least, not aided by the fact that it was one of the hottest days ever recorded on the wee island. Spectacular views at the top though but quite difficult to get a shot in the midday sun. This one from the bottom uses the bridge near the Sligachan hotel for a bit of foreground interest. The exif is ISO100 at 28mm, f/8 for 30 seconds, I used the 10 stop neutral density to try and get some movement in the clouds, didn't really need it in the end.

Panoramas from Glen Coe

These ones are coming out of the camera thick and fast! We spent a day travelling around the famous photographic locations around Glen Coe in Scotland such as Rannoch moor, BuachailleEtive Mor and the actual glen itself, a great drive and the weather was fantastic, in fact it was probably a bit too nice for photos, certainly at midday when the sun was high. As all the locations are relatively close together I could go back and forth between them which was good, especially at late afternoon/sunset.


The first shot was at the 3 sisters and is a panoramic stitch of about 7 vertical shots taken at 35mm, I've started zooming in more for panoramas if I can. There is an export to panorama function in Lightroom which is pretty good (it takes them straight into photoshop and does the business) but for these panoramas I used a program called PTGui, it allows you to move the horizon about which is handy when you do a panorama without a tripod, or in my case with a tripod but with a bent horizon, as mentioned, this was my first outing with a ball head so I needed to get used to it.

The next panorama is of Glen Coe, it has to be one of the prettiest places in Britain. Again a stitch of about 6 photos, I had to go to 16mm with this one as those mountains are pretty big!

Cropped Landscapes

A couple more from the Scotland trip. I have put these two together as I have cropped them to an aspect ratio of 2:1 as opposed to my usual 3:2. This gives a more wide screen format and is useful when there isn't a great deal going on at the top and bottom of the frame. The first shot was a sunrise near Brogaig on Skye, I got up thinking it would be amazing and only took 3 frames before the clouds moved up and got me, so had to go read my book in the car in the hope they would clear, they didn't. Taken at 35mm, f/16 for 6 seconds (ISO100).


The second is on a beach in Harris at Husinish using the slightly unruly 10 stop filter to smooth out the sea, not that it needed a great deal of smoothing. It was taken at 16mm, f/16 for 30 seconds at ISO200, I could have done ISO100 for 60 seconds to get a similar exposure with a little more movement but that would have meant going into bulb mode and getting the cable release out etc, I was there at midday so these were just snapshots really. I think the semi panoramic layout works quite well for these though, I guess I just have a bit of a dislike for the older 5x4 ratio that is almost a square!

Isle of Harris

I have recently been on a trip to the Isle of Harris of the north west coast of Scotland to do a few landscapes. We were very lucky with the weather all week and hopefully I got some decent shots. I've barely begun processing them but I thought I'd put a couple up now and others as and when I finish with them. I was in a long exposure mood so a lot of them have the associated cloud and water movement. These two were near where we camped on the western side of the island. We also stopped in Glen Coe and Skye for a few nights so I'll put some of those up soon too. It was my first time using a ball head tripod, I usually have a 3 way but this is a great bit of kit, as long as you remember to lock it down, I forgot once or twice which was almost quite an expensive mistake! I think both of these were taken on Bulb mode with a shutter release cable at f/11 for 90 seconds (ISO100).

Helvellyn and Ullswater

Took a quick trip up to the lakes at the weekend as it seemed the weather was going to be good, unfortunately it was a little hazy so didn't get the camera out too often but these were a couple that seemed worth posting. I'll have to get there for sun rise one of these days. I didn't have my tripod so it was a hand holding compromise again between ISO, aperture and shutter speed, not too difficult in full manual, I even put the grad on on the lake shot as I new the clouds would be an important element.

The boathouse on Ullswater is very picturesque and there is usually at least one tog there trying to get something. Striding edge is a great part of the walk up Helvellyn, it was a shame the clouds were a little low but again, you really need to be there for the golden hours to get anything memorable.

I'm getting some mileage from these...

I think this will be the last from this set and I'm only posting now instead of tomorrow as I might be busy then and I'm not now. The first jetty was the one I wanted to get but I arrived and it wasn't in the best state of repair, good job I didn't plan to get the boat there! I was after some long exposure shots so out came the 6 stop ND filter which got me to 25 seconds at f/16 (ISO100). I used a cooler white balance to give the colder tone, you can either do this in camera or, if shooting RAW, in processing.

The second shot was on the way up Catbells, using some frozen vegetation as FG interest and a 3 stop ND grad to keep the sky under control. This was taken at f/16 ISO 100, 1/10 sec at 16mm.

Desert Landscape

This was taken out in the desert (surprisingly enough). I didn't have a lot of time to set this one up as I was holding people up. Unfortunately there wasn't a huge amount of foreground interest, unless you count fag packets and plastic bottles, so I tried to do something with the ripples and the reeds. I originally wanted to have a black and white version but I think the colour one just edged it. This was taken at ISO400 (I had a polariser on) f8, 1/100 at 16mm.

First of Dubai

I'm just posting the first few coming off the card from a recent trip to Dubai, if there is anywhere to practice architectural photography this is it, converging verticals everywhere! I'll hopefully be posting some more of our trip in a few days. These were taken near the marina before the sunrise, a long exposure of about 20 seconds served to really flatten the water and get the mirrored effect.
Obviously I needed the tripod but nothing much else to it, the exif data on these ones was ISO100, 16mm f/8 for 20seconds. I was a bit slack processing them, using noise ninja when not needed etc. So I might redo them at a later date.

Seascape at Sunset

Another one from our trip to the lakes, this was overlooking the Morecambe Bay area during the last few minutes of sunlight, the tide was very far out leaving large bodies of water between the sand (or mud) banks, as there are no waves the water is very still and ideal for reflections, I was a little annoyed at the ripple saw after we got back but there you go. The original was quite a cool tone so I warmed up the white balance in Lightroom, one of the enormous benefits of shooting in RAW. This was shot with my 3 stop ND grad at ISO100, 17mm, f/16 at 1/2 second.

Boat at Low Tide

I've just come back from a few days in the Lake District and have started processing some shots. This one was one of my favorites. I used a very low angle to really include pebbles and hyper focal distancing to ensure all but the very closest stones were in focus. I have a colour version which I really like but I've decided to post this mono version. I'll hopefully put a few more up this weekend. As I didn't have my tripod I had to make sure any exposure had to be over say 1/100 as I was lying on the pebbles I wasn't confident to go any slower and keep the camera steady. I had a 3 stop ND filter attached to keep the sky from going places it shouldn't! This was taken at 16mm at ISO200, 1/160 at f/9.

Abercastle harbour, Pembrokeshire

Thought I would post another from my trip to Wales. This is a small port (or harbour, not sure what the difference is) called Abercastle in Pembrokeshire just as the sun was on it's way out. I wasn't using a tripod so the exposure was a bit of a compromise, not made any easier by adding my polarizer, which will get rid of 2 stops of light at it's full effect. So I needed to get decent DOF, decent ISO and a shutter speed I could keep steady, and I don't trust my hands to stay steady as I grasp onto a cliff face above a harbor so I ended up with ISO250 1/80, f/7.1 at 16mm.

One Man and his Dog

Granted the man and his dog are a fair way away in this photo but I had my wide lens on so this is the best I could do. This was taken during a nice spell of hot weather in the Pembrokeshire National Park. I'm endeavoring to do more landscapes using the sun as a focal point in the harshest of conditions (in lighting terms) for no other reason that the sun gets up far earlier than I do. I'm still getting shots during the golden hour at sunset though. The sky was kept from being blown out by my trust 3 stop graduated filter, I really liked the star burst effect this gives. There was minimal processing with this shot, just a quick mono conversion in Lightroom and a few dust spots cloned out. Taken in full manual mode. ISO320 1/100 sec f/11 at 17mm.

The Castle of the Wind

I was in Snowdonia national park a few days ago to celebrate the start of summer, I was scrambling up mountains with a friend and we found this interesting formation at the top, I say we found it but I imagine there have been plenty of previous founders, this was confirmed when we found out it was called the castle of the wind, a cool name it has to be said. The name is due to the sound that can be heard when the wind passes over the mountain through the sharp rocks. Anyway this one was taken using a 3 stop soft edge ND grad and processed in Lightroom where I added some contrast and a vignette. The exif was ISO200 (I was hand holding) f8, 16mm 1/125 sec. The mountain was called Glyder Fach and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a bit of scrambling.

Yorkshire Dales

Just got back from a few days in the Dales and the Lakes, not the greatest of conditions for landscape photos unfortunately, We did a nice walk around Buttermere taking in a few peaks. It was blowing a hurricane on the top of high stile so our descent was a bit hair raising. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm just bad at assessing risk, ironic considering I used to be a risk assessment consultant. Anyway, I got this one just north of Ingleton during a break in the clouds, I kept the sky under control with a neutral density graduated filter. The exif data was ISO100, 17mm 1/15 at f/16. Ingleborough is in the distance. The raw file was processed in Lightroom, adding a little clarity and a slight tone curve to increase the highlights. I burnt the clouds in CS3 and added a tinted BW adjustment layer.

Icy Puddle

Two post in two days, I do have these fits and starts when it comes to posting photos. This was another from our ascent up to high street in the eastern fells of the lake district. This was looking back at the crag featured in the previous photo, I think this is called eagle crag (but could be wrong) apparently the last surviving golden eagle in England resides around here, very sad indeed. Anyway I've burnt the clouds a little to add a bit of drama and dodged the snow to make it slightly whiter. In retrospect I think it might be a bit too central but if I crop it I get rid of the dark cloud to the top left of the shot and I really wanted to keep him in.

On a completely unrelated point, I downloaded some free lightroom presets for any lightroom users, it is from a site called protography.com the link for the presets is here. They are pretty good if you need a bit of direction on how to process your shots.

My Buddy, The Medic

I haven't posted for ages and I thought I'd get back with a HDR shot taken of my friend who went with me up high street in the lake district today. I was explaining how it is possible to process a RAW file for HDR but you are better using a bracketed exposure, obviously this isn't possibly for moving subjects. You used to have to process the raw file 3 times and blend them together in photoshop but it really is much easier to use a dedicated HDR program such as photomatix or the one used for this photo, dynamic photo hdr. The clouds were fairly thick but still had a bit of texture too them so I under exposed by 2/3 so I didn't blow them out. There are plenty of sliders to play with in dynamic photo it just depends how much you want to cook your image. The painterly effect (if thats the right word) is a new feature in the latest version, it's called match colour, then you chose which sort of colour set you want, I recommend you give it a try. The exif for this one was ISO200, 16mm, f8, 1/320.

Panoramic Photography

I took this one a few months back up in Whitby (the abbey was behind me in this shot). There are a few important points to remember when getting panoramic photos.

• Always shoot in portrait mode, this gives more height to the finished shot.
• Set your tripod level with the horizon, some tripods have a spirit level on them if not you can get hotshoe mounted ones for a few quid.
• Shoot in manual keeping your aperture, shutterspeed, iso, focal length, focus point and white balance the same for each shot. Meter from where the middle of your panorama will be, if you meter from the sunny side everything else will be underexposed, if you meter from a relatively dark area you risk over exposing the brighter bits.
• Keep an overlap of about 30%, so if you are panning from left to right look for a feature, such as a tree that is about a third of the way in from the right then when you pan your tripod right, frame so that tree is on the left of the shot. That sounds more complicated than it is.

If you get these basics right you should have a good set of say 4-8 photos that can be stitched using CS3. Photoshop has a really good automatic stitching program (file - automate - photomerge) there are other programs such at PTGui that do a good job too. This panoramic was taken at f/16, 1/4 sec, 43mm at ISO100 I had an 0.9ND grad filter to balance the sky. The file has been drastically reduced so it has a smaller size.

Whitby Boat

It's been a while since my last post so I'll try to get back on track with some shots from the east coast. This one was taken in the small harbour village of Staithes, about 5 minutes north of Whitby. It was a fairly overcast day and I had done a lot of landscapes that morning so I was more concentrating on shots with no horizons in them. As the tide was way out I got near the boats to try and get some detailed shots, the lighting is not the most dramatic so I added a vignette in photoshop and pushed up the reds slightly. The exif info shows how low the light was, ISO 800, f2.8 1/60 sec at 24mm. As I'd been lugging the tripod round all morning I'd left it in the car so the aperture had to be wide open and the ISO quite high to get a decent shutter speed to handhold, I get nervous with anything under 1/50, although I read about a guy who claims to be able to handhold at 1/10 in a helicopter and still get sharp photos! Anyway in this instance I think the wide aperture just nicely blurs the top and bottom of the shot.

Travel Photography

I was just looking through some old photos taken on a trip round the world and found this one I quite liked. This was in Cambodia when our bus broke down, or ran someone over, I can't remember. We were just sat on the side of the road watching traffic waiting for another bus when this wagon rolled along. I thought it converted to mono really well, my only regret was I didn't have an SLR at the time althought my old Canon Powershot A95 was the best.