Lochaber PhotoBlog

No Future.... Just The Future

2009-03-09T18:50:00.011Z

This is my likely to be my last post on Blogger, for a while at least. For the foreseeable future my blog posts will be available via the link on the top right: or just click here

So why am I leaving Blogger?

Well, LochaberPhoto.co.uk has been through some major changes in the last few weeks.

For one thing, I'm no longer building the site with Softpress Freeway Pro. Estimable package that it is, and much good stuff I've wrangled out of it, I haven't found it easy to keep the site updated on a regular basis with Freeway.

I tried instead RapidWeaver. Nice package, and great for blogging, but not currently possessed of a plug-in or other tool for the construction of photo galleries with e-commerce capacity. So it's not for me, not for now...

Next thing to come to my attention was the existence of a growing number of websites which allow publishing of full-blown websites, with e-commerce capability built-in, which are dedicated to the needs of photographers, and which don't involve purchasing any software, as the entire work of site-grinding is done online, in a web browser.
I tried out two of these: ClikPic and Photium.

ClikPic has some nice templates - I especially liked their "basic" styles, and offers 7-days free trial.
Photium also has nice templates, and offers 30-days free trail.

I read somewhere that ClikPic is less reliable/ more liable to outages, but I can't either confirm or counter this heresay, as 7 days free trial was just not enough for me to get far into working with ClikPic before it expired.

I read in a few places that Photium's support is speedy and extremely helpful and obliging - and on that I can offer my confirmation. So it wasn't just the extra 3 weeks free trial time that swung it for Photium here. It seems like an outfit worthy of support as it's dedicated to providing a top class service to photographers.

Coming back to the main point... Photium also allows users to publish something like a blog, but to integrate it fully within the main site.

You can see the new, Photium, incarnation of lochaberphoto.co.uk here, and follow my blog posts within it, here

Waxwings Come to 't William

2008-11-03T15:27:00.004Z

Seen today around the Union Road/ Seaview Gardens area of Fort William, a sizeable posse of Waxwings, apparently fresh in from Scandinavia in pursuit of what the Redwings haven't yet gobbled up of our autumnal berry crop

Go here for pictures of Redwings in action in our garden, feasting on the berries from the Cotoneasters

Lochaber Mòd 2007

2007-10-15T18:04:00.000+01:00

The Mòd is the annual Gaelic cultural festival which moves around Scotland year by year.

The 2007 Mòd is here in Lochaber, and I'll be posting some pics of what I see of it in the next few days.

Saturday night (Oct 13th) saw the start of activities, and I got some available light pics of the proceedings at the Nevis Centre in Fort William. Here's one:

and there's more on my main site here

Well, it's been a bit of a learning curve getting this first post out, so I'll leave it here for now.

Later

Jim

On with the Mod

2007-10-17T15:15:00.000+01:00

I've posted some more images on my main site from Monday evening's Award Winners Concert at the Nevis Centre,

*

and from a Ceol Sraide (Street Music) session on the Parade in Fort William on Tuesday afternoon

Click on either image above to view relevant image gallery.

This has been Ruth's and my first experience of having the Mod in town, and it's been a welcome enhancement of the town's off-season entertainment. There are good exhibitions at the West Highland Museum and the Lochaber Rural Complex, as well as the music and dance stuff.
The Mod has a website at www.lochabermod2007.co.uk, but sadly Tiscali seems to have nobbled it, this of all weeks! (But try the link, it may yet come back up)

* This picture is one of a collection I'm building of digital photographers at work. I'll be putting a gallery of them on lochaberphoto.co.uk sometime soon. It's also a victim of an abuse of Photoshop CS3 HDR technology. I took 2 shots of this guy at work, but neither was exposed quite right to capture the dynamic range from shadows - where the photographer stood - to well-lit stage - where the performers were. And I'd re-composed the shot between exposures, so this was the first time I'd really tested the "Align Layers by Content" feature in CS3's "Merge to HDR". The results were interesting, especially as HDR is supposed to need at least 3 image files to work on. After running the HDR merge and getting something quite nice from the Local Adaptation dialogue, I wrangled the perspective in PS too, added a little Clone Stamp-work, and here it is... Not the sort of stuff I'd regularly do in PS, but once in a while it can be fun, and the dynamic range is improved (if nothing else)

It may not be much, but it's here....

2007-10-17T15:37:00.000+01:00

The first snow of winter 2007, now showing on (from right to left) Ben Nevis , Carn Mor Dearg and Aonach Mor, from I'd guess about the 3700 ft mark!

(Picture taken noon today)

Last Days of the Mod

2007-10-21T18:03:00.000+01:00

Friday saw the final stages of the competitive Mòd, with the Gaelic Choirs singing for the Lovat and Tullibardine Shield and other prizes. Elsewhere in the town, music was everywhere - in the pubs and bars, the High Street and the Parade. Only sorry to say I missed out on the band Daimh's Kilmallie Hall session on Friday night.

Click on a pic to see more

It all ended on Saturday morning, with a procession of pie bands and choirs down the High Street to the Parade, where the assembled choirs sang the 2007 Mod out, in Gaelic, surrounded by townsfolk and tourists.

As I said previously, this was Ruth's and my first encounter with a Mod, but it won't be our last. It's a shame Fort William can't host the Mod every year, but we'll maybe become Mod-followers, now we know how to play it. Watch this space next year...

Inverness to Bangkok on the Cheap, anyone?

2007-10-21T19:07:00.001+01:00

Seen on the tarmac at Inverness Airport yesterday afternoon:

this 737 belongs to Thai Budget Airline nokair.com (telephone Thailand 1318, it says!)

No bookings yet showing on their site for Inverness > Bangkok, but they do have Bangkok > Hanoi for 3 baht, so the Scotland flight should compete with RyanAir's cheapest.....

Day Return to Mull

2007-10-25T14:50:00.000+01:00

Rather belatedly, I guess, Ruth and I have recently discovered two things about the isle of Mull. Firstly, it's only about an hour's drive - plus a couple of ferries - from here (Fort William). And secondly, it's astonishingly dramatic in it's landscape and wildlife.

A group of 30+ cormorants were basking on a rock as the ferry from Lochaline in Morvern glided into the quay at Fishnish on Mull.

As we drove along Loch na Keal the air seemed to teem with raptors. Mostly buzzards, but there are eagles around too, and Mull has a renowned colony of white-tailed Sea Eagles. I'm gonna need to shell out on something sharper and steadier than my current Canon 100-300mm f/4-5.6 USM lens to get really useable pics of these birdies!

Last time around we started at the southern end of the island and turned along the north shore of Loch Scridain, climbing up through woods and open moorland before plunging down and round a bend to find Loch na Keal and this wide Atlantic vista opening out below us, just by the barely-discernible habitation of Balnahard:

This time we headed north from Fishnish to Salen, then cut across the isthmus to Killiechronan on the north shore of Loch na Keal. On the south shore of the loch rises the massif of Ben More, Mull's highest peak and a dominant feature of the landscape for many miles around (plainly visible from Oban, Appin, Morvern and much of the west coast of Argyll, and the islands which lie off it). Yesterday's light was weaker than on our last trip, with an early mist which had risen to hang below the clouds, and clung still to the hillsides. Not making for the easiest photographic environment, but this shot captures something of the light:

Out to Lunch

2007-11-12T00:34:00.001Z

Just another lazy Highland Sunday...
A short drive from here to Oban for a decent seafood lunch at "Ee-usk!"

Swans in Oban harbour

"Ee-usk" (Gaelic for fish) sits on the town's North Pier, with superb views over the harbour and Oban bay

Looking over Oban bay to the isles of Kerrera and Mull

...and a surprise sunset over Loch Linnhe and the Mull bens from Benderloch on the road back home

... all in all not a bad place to abide...

Just another Highland Sunset

2007-11-21T12:10:00.000Z

I wasn't ready for the otter as we strolled down Mallaig harbour yesterday afternoon. I sensed a decent sunset in the offing, and hadn't taken my camera out of its case when I caught out of the corner of my eye what I took for a small seal. But it wasn't. It was my first encounter with the almost-tame otters that have been hanging out the quayside at Mallaig this year. Ruth had seen one before there, and recognised it at once. By the time I'd got the camera out it had stopped staring up at us, dived and swum away. When it re-surfaced, it was a bit too far away for my EF-S 17-85mm lens. So this was all I got...

Then it was onwards, chasing the setting sun...
Firstly in Mallaig, with the sun setting by Eigg

Then down the coast to Morar bay...

Then finally to Traigh, just north of Arisaig.

Best sunset we've seen here since our honeymoon in December 2000.

Winter is the season for West Highland sunsets. Not least because they happen in the afternoon when you're out and about and can just bump into them

Rannoch Moor

2007-12-04T12:42:00.000Z

Wanted a picture of the "Lochaber Tree" for a book I'm working on, so yesterday Ruth and I headed out on a bright winter afternoon to the wastes of Rannoch Moor. Arrived too late for the best of the light at the Black Mount, but got some reasonable shots of the tree - Ruth driving slowly and me in the passenger seat with lens out the window.
The Lochaber Tree is a particularly determined rowan (I think) which has sprouted from an erratic boulder on the moor, just south of the county border that separates Lochaber ( and Highland) from Argyll & Bute. It's a better way-marker than the council's signage, and passing it coming north means we're entering home turf...

The real hit of the day was a liitle further south, though, at the lay-by above Loch Tulla, where this guy

and a couple of his friends have established a close relationship with the chap who runs a burger & tea stand.

Intersecting Planes

2008-01-02T18:37:00.001Z

A big, big Happy New Year to all who stumble upon this page!

Such was the view from here at Glenalbyn at 3.15 pm yesterday - New Years Day 2008. Not the brightest, but not lacking a certain enchantment...

Now for a little Catch-Up

2008-01-02T18:43:00.000Z

The week before Christmas was a stunner in the Fort William micro-climate, with six consecutive bright sunny days and six successive frosty nights. Temperature didn't rise above -3ºC that week, but your photographer fell on his EOS 400D on day four and bust a rib or two, thus not as much captured as might have been.
Here's a few taster shots from the Great Glen taken that week. There'll be prints of some of these available at lochaberphoto.co.uk soon.

Loch Lochy

Glen Spean

...near Tomacharich on the Highbridge road...

As I've said before - summer is not the best time to visit these parts. On winter days like these, when the sun is low in the sky all day long, there's really nowhere to beat the Highlands

2007/8 : A Winter Retrospective - Part 1

2008-02-16T20:43:00.016Z

Laid up through most of January with a busted rib or three, I didn't get much photography done, but here area a few shots that show some of the delights that winter can bring to Lochaber:

Driving snow in Glen Nevis

It often is on winter afternoons that the light is at its best for photographing the highland landscape. The low sun casts long horizontal shadows and somehow the colours - more muted in some respects than the greens of spring or summer - seem more vivid than at any other time of year. The three shots which follow were taken while driving home from the RSPB Insh Marshes wetland centre near Kingussie. Taken over an hour or so and I guess about 30-some miles, they show how the light develops as the sunset progresses

Ruthven Barracks as the sun goes down

This reminds me I must get more shots of Loch Laggan...

Loch Laggan

...whose water level is at its maximum here, as can be seen at the dam at its western end, which supplies electricity to the National Grid as well as the Fort William aluminium smelter

Laggan Dam

Winter Retrospective : Part Two

2008-02-21T12:35:00.005Z

Shock 'n' Awe in Glenfinnan

I've been trying for a shot of one of these guys for a while, but they're not easy to capture: kind of sneak up and over you. Fortunately this time I had the camera in my hand, switched on, and set - approximately - appropriately.

Gotcha! Well, nearly...

Return of the Winter - Today on Rannoch Moor

2008-03-03T18:26:00.008Z

First stop Ballachulish - 2 goldfinches sighted as I was setting up this shot. Bird book says they don't come to these parts...

Bit of a cliché this shot. Black Rock Cottage and the Buachaille Etive Mor. Unmissable, though, on a day like this. And only one other photographer active at the time!! That would change as we headed down to Lochan na h-Achlaise and the Block Mount Bens...

Still, I think I was the only one that bothered to take a shot of these snow-encrusted trees.

And here we are at the Lochan. Stunning cloud formations - you can tell it's still snowing up there even though we're in bright sunshine. Good day, though the breeze precluded any good reflection shots today

Met this fellow just where the road turns down towards Loch Tulla. Frequent visitors to these pages (if there are any) may recognise him from an earlier post on December 4th last year. He was also on our 2007 Xmas card to select acquaintances. Fine chap. Good to see him again.

And again, stunning skies above Loch Tulla...

This was all we saw of Buachaille Etive Mor...

2008-03-03T19:03:00.007Z

... as a blizzard descended on our way back to Fort William. No less imposing for the fact you can barely see it!

Arran

2008-05-05T16:21:00.002+01:00

Just back from a few days on the Isle of Arran in the firth of Clyde. Sometimes called - usually by its tourist industry - "Scotland in Miniature" - Arran does present a kind of microcosm of the nation, topographically at least.
In the north it is mountainous, rugged and has a large and highy visible deer population and a distillery. The centre contains the area of most dense habitation around the capital Brodick, while the south is greener and more rolling and has views across the sea to Ireland. This might also make the village where we stayed - Lochranza, in the north west corner of the island - the analogue of Fort William, but I wouldn't want to make too much of that

The approach to Arran from Claonaig on Kintyre is spectacular from the outset

and Lochranza has a genuinely dramatic setting,

as well as a fine and relatively well-preserved castle

(seen here from the doorstep of our rental cottage)

Sunset

2008-06-07T18:16:00.005+01:00

Summer sunsets in Fort William can be stunning

Took this from the bedroom window at10.20pm last night

First Swallows Make A Summer

2008-05-07T17:33:00.001+01:00

First swallows of 2008 seen here outside our kitchen window today

Redwings

2008-10-24T15:54:00.001+01:00

We witnessed a large flock of Redwings in action in our garden today, feasting on the berries from the Cotoneasters:

(Apologies for the low grade picture quality: just my luck these birds arrived when I'd sent my best telephoto (EF70-300mm f4-5.6 IS) zoom back Canon for repair. As a result I only had an old Tamron 28-200mm lens to hand, and it is not sharp at the 200mm end. Ho hum...)

Over the sea to Skye (Catch-up #1)*

2008-04-19T19:03:00.008+01:00

It's not exactly a long way from Fort William, but it took old friends John & Jean to drag Ruth and I over there

We sailed from Mallaig to Armadale - here's a shot taken on the boat, looking north to the Glenelg hills

High point of the trip was a meal at the Three Chimneys in Colbost, way up in the north west of the island, but the constant dominating presence on Skye is the Cuillins

Last morning we went over to Neist Point, where a lighthouse perches on a peninsula looking out over the Minch to the Outer Hebrides.

Almost impossible to convey anything of the scale and grandeur of this part of Skye, but here's a couple more taken close to Neist Point
First: looking south along the coast

Second: this is Loch Mor at Waterstein on the road from Glendale to the Point

From under the very shadow of the Red Cuillins on the approach to Sligachan, a last look back to the snowy peaks of the Black Cuillin before we head for the bridge back to the mainland, and the drive home to Fort William

* I'm posting this stuff retrospectively - well retrospectively, so look back soon for more from Skye, plus later 2008 adventures on Arran, in France and Holland, Dorset, Edinburgh, and of course - around and about the Highlands