Another trip to Portencross this morning.  My main reason for the trip was to take some more images with the 10 stop ND, especially as the cloud formations were quite interesting. This image is from the pier (obviously).  I played around with exposure times and the Hitech 10 stop ND allowed me to get the exposure to 61 seconds for this shot.  Unfortunately, even though the sun was behind me, I had a few issues with flare and a slight magenta colour cast.  It’s a pity as the effect is really good, but it’s hit and miss whether you can get a shot that doesn’t suffer from flare and colour casts.

The low early morning sun seemed to make the sailboat glow especially with the great sky above it.

Another shot from Sundays sunset at Portencross.  This is the landscape format version of the previous image.  I think I now prefer this one to the portrait version.

Yesterday was a fine sunny day.  As the day wore on, it looked like there was a chance of a good sunset.  I went to one of my favourite locations, Portencross in Ayrshire.  As it turned out, the sunset wasnt the best but I still managed to get an image I was reasonably pleased with.

Todays archive post is once again from an area that I have visited a few times.  This is Loch Trool, near Newton Stewart in Dumfires and Galloway.  This was taken after sunrise with the sun just breaking through the clouds and the early morning mist hanging around the still Loch.

Todays post was taken a couple of days ago.  Due to the weather being nice for a change we had a trip up north.  This picture is of Butterbridge, part of an old military road in Glen Kinglas.  This  road was built by English Redcoats not long after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and was part of the route from Dumbarton to Inverary.  This bridge across the Kinglas Water was completed around the same time.  Every summer, cattle and goats were brought here to graze on high summer pasture or ‘airigh’.  While most of the men remained below on the crofts, women and children spent their time herding the cattle and making butter and cheese.  They stayed on the sheiling in small groups of stone huts.  The tradition died out in the late 18th century but it is remembered in names such as Beinn Ime (gaelic for ‘butter mountain’), which towers over the Glen, and in Butterbridge itself.

This shot was an ideal opportunity to use my new HiTech 10 stop ND filter.  This filter has loads of problems with casts and flare and results can be a bit hit and miss.  When it does work,  the images can be great with blurred water and moving clouds in the sky.  This view is of the bridge itself with Beinn Ime behind.

This next shot is taken from the other side of the water.  I decided to convert this one to mono to really emphasise the cloud formation and the silky water.

Today the weather forecast was for sunny spells with any cloud burning off by mid morning.  When we left home it was 9 degrees and rising with a watery sun hidden in a cloudy sky.  By the time we reached the RSPB reserve at Ken Dee Marshes, it was very dull and misty with a max temperature of only 6 degrees.  So much for the weather forecast.  Instead of getting some nice light for a change, I ended up with the same old story here, ISO 1600 and loads of noise.  Still it was another chance to practice with the Sigma 150-500.

There was a lot more activity on the water today, unfortunately it is a bit further away so a higher crop neccessary.  This Heron decided to turn up before he was chased away by some gulls.

This was probably my favourite shot of the day.  A pair of Canada geese flying low over the marshes.  The high iso and large crop along with the dull conditions suited a mono conversion to my mind.

Todays archive shot is from our 2007 trip to Florida.  This is Sanibel Island in the Gulf of Mexico.  Large parts of the island are a nature reserve and the rest of the island is strictly controlled so as not to be over developed.

This is a seven image panorama of sunrise at Sanibel Lighthouse.