Lots of running around at the moment but always the chance for a bit of fun, though the dog seems a bit miffed by the purpose of it all. That said there seems to be a pretty good balance of the components that go to make this one up. I only noticed the cormorant after the shot – a momentary lapse there – but it’s worked out pretty well.

Plans to get up a Munroe in the Cairngorm Mountains at the end of September were sadly abandoned due to the fact we couldn’t see much more than 50m in front of us! Not possessing the right equipment for the conditions (you never take your chances on the mountains!) it was settled a walk in the Rothiemurchus Forest would be the alternative ‘Plan B’. As it turned out this revealed some remarkable and fascinating areas that more than made up for the lack of altitude fun and games. This part of the forest (pictures) was entirely pine trees with the old and twisted ones combining with the slowly dissipating mist creating a wild edge to the scene. The dash of colour along the floor seems to balance it.

Happy New Year Everyone!! Hope you all had a great Christmas and were warm, well fed and entertained throughout. Well, As you may have noticed there’s been a bit of a change around here. The website has had a (rather premature one might suggest given current conditions around the UK) spring clean. The upshot is it should be much easier to find things in the site, as well as viewing across browser platforms (including mobile devices) and from now on images will be sightly larger so you get to enjoy them that much more. Have a poke around and if you see something broken just get in touch and I’ll fix it soon as I can.

As I write much of the UK is under a thick blanket of snow, though inevitably this has crippled pretty much the entire country. Incapable of preparing for adverse conditions people continue to slide amusingly down steep hills behind their steering wheels vainly struggling to get to work. Just take the day off people, it’s so much easier! I headed out with the dog who found the white stuff great fun to play around in! Here’s to the new year and onwards, Keep an eye out for my photographic review of 2009 in the next post or two…

 

I had a fantastic day yesterday assisting a professional photographer, learning as I went and gained some excellent advice throughout the day on how to progress my own career as a photographer. Annoyingly though, I awoke today with the most ridiculous cold, so I went out for a wander to try and clear my head a bit. It didn’t exactly work and my cold has got the better of me and I’m suffering a tad…First signs of all this rain turning to sunshine for a bit and I get struck down, rather rubbish but there you go. Still, the light today was great as it mixed with the thickening mist the entire country seems to be enveloped in at the moment and I got a small collection of shots that suit the mood nicely. I didn’t spend too long out, I don’t think the sun warmed the ground at all and as it fell the temperature began to drop rapidly! It’s worth mentioning that car headlights on high-beam and thick fog do not mix terribly well…

 

Built in 13th century and modified around the 15th and 17th century Castle Tioram, pronounced ‘Chee-rum’, prominently stands in Loch Moidart, upon the tidal island of Eileen Tioram, and is ideally placed to control access to Loch Sheil to the west. the castle was burned down around 1715 when the Clan Chief left to fight the English to avoid it falling into enemy hands should he not return. If the tide is out you can walk out along the causeway to get up close to the castle, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, and are slim enough, you can slip through the metal barrier to see the inside of the ruins.

A trail on the shore beside the causeway leads along the edge of Loch Moidart westwards along rugged path through old and sometimes quite dense woodlands. Named The Silver Trail due to the story of a maid servant from the castle being caught running away with stolen money, her punishment was to be tied up on the rock below the castle and drowned as the tide came in.