The weather forecast looked promising, light winds with a low of -7c. Ideal weather for a trip away. Glencoe is about 100 miles from my house, so planning is important as I don’t like to squander time (or money) on a wasted trip.

The plan was to get a sunrise at Rannoch Moor. Either Loch Ba, which would mean facing towards the sunrise, or Lochan Nah Achlaise which would mean the sunrise light hitting the Black Mount behind the Lochan.

I left around 5.15am, a little later than planned, luckily the traffic was light. As I travelled further north, the temperature gauge on the car started going lower and lower until I reached Loch Tulla and the gauge was showing -15c. The whole of the Loch was frozen over, which I thought would be a good picture opportunity for later on. There was not a cloud in the sky until I went up the hill towards Rannoch Moor. As soon as I got closer towards Rannoch Moor, I drove into a bank of freezing mist with visibility was down to around 30 feet. This was no use, you couldn’t even see the sky never mind the sunrise. I made the decision not to hang about and started back down towards Loch Tulla where I knew I would be able to get something decent.

This first picture was taken by the side of Loch Tulla after a climb over a fence and down towards the Lochside. The sunrise was still about 10-15 minutes away so the predawn light was starting to change from dark blue to shades of pink and purple.

The next couple of images were taken after sunrise with the sun hitting the black mount behind the Loch. After I had exhausted all possibilities for sunrise shots, I decided to head back up to Rannoch Moor and see if the mist had lifted.

On getting back up to Lochan Nah Achlaise, I was greeted with the glorious sight of the mist starting to lift revealing the sunlight striking the Black Mount behind the Lochan. A few shots later and it was in the bag. It’s moments like these that I love, you know you have got a good image and it makes the trip worthwhile.

After leaving the Lochan on a high, I made my way towards Glencoe. I decided to get an old favourite, a standard postcard shot of the ‘Black Rock’ cottage with the Buachaille behind it.

Continued in Part 2…

From here it was on towards the River Coupall, which to my delight was completely frozen over. I parked the car in the nearest lay-by and made my way across the moorland towards the frozen river. The ice was a good couple of inches thick, so I decided to risk it and, going down onto my hands and knees, slid my way slowly towards the centre of the river. I managed to get a few shots of the frozen river with the Buachaille behind. The sky was pretty plain though as there was no cloud cover at all, but you cant have everything!

I messed about with a few more locations and then as it was approaching midday, I decided to head down through Glencoe towards Glencoe village and Ballachulish. I had a short stop for a bite to eat down by the side of Loch Leven. The water was very calm and I managed to get a nice panorama of the loch itself with the Pap of Glencoe in the background. Just to the left of the pap, is the moon! It is a bit small in the frame but the full size image shows it quite clearly.

Turning the other way was just as good. The clear day meant that visibility was high, which was a good thing as it meant that the hills behind the Ballachulish bridge were clearly visible.

Suitably refreshed I made my way back towards Glencoe. This time I headed down the Glen Etive road. Even though the snow was about 6 inches deep, the roads had been well gritted and were still passable. I made my way alog the road until I got to Lochan Urr. The Lochan was half frozen over, so I decided to park the car and walk down the hill towards the Lochan.

I took a few pictures from here, this one was probably my favourite. The golden colour of the reeds and hills contrasting nicely with the frozen Lochan.

After climbing back up the hill to the car, I decided as time was getting on to start heading back towards Rannoch Moor. I did manage to stop a couple of times to capture more shots of the frozen River Etive as the late afternoon light started to light up the hills behind it.

My initial idea when I planned the trip was to stop once again at Lochan Nah Achlaise for the sunset. When I arrived there late afternoon, I realised that it wasn’t going to be such a good location after all.

I did take a few shots however of the low afternoon light really showing the flakes of snow that had frozen onto the surface of the completely ice covered Lochan.

Time was running out now with less than an hour to sunset. I decided that maybe I could get a few panoramas of the sun setting over Loch Tulla. I headed towards the viewpoint overlooking the Loch and waited for the sun to set.

The sky was still practically cloud free, so my main focus was on the light striking the hills behind Loch Tulla. This first image is of the sunset over Loch Tulla and Beinn an Dothaidh.

The second shot is another pano shot taken from the same viewpoint but concentrating on the last of the light hitting Beinn Achaladair.

After the sun had set, all that remained was a trip to the Real Food Cafe for a bite to eat before starting the 100 mile journey back home.

I arrived back home at 8.30pm. It was quite a long day as I had left the house at 5.15am that morning. It was well worth it though as I got a few images I was pleased with plus I managed to fulfil something I had wanted for a long while, A day trip to Glencoe with loads of snow.

This is a view from Ardrossan Harbour looking through the breakwater towards Arran.

We headed back to the cottage in late afternoon.  By this time the cloud had started to move in and we debated whether it was worth the trip down to Elgol for the sunset.  We decided that as it was our last night we would go anyway and make the most of the evening.  We got to Elgol a couple of hours before sunset and started to look for suitable positions to capture the sunset, if we could see it through the cloud.  I took a few images of the loads of smooth rocks along the waters edge, knowing that a mono conversion might be best for these due to the grey sky.

As the sunset got closer I headed to the spot I had picked out on my recce earlier.  I waited patiently for the sunset and got a couple of shots that were OK.

At this point I was starting to pack up the camera gear. I thought  that the sunset was over, then the bottom of the clouds started to turn pink and it was a mad rush to get everything back out and get somewhere with decent foreground interest to include in the sunset. The next shot was just the start of an amazing display.

For the next 5 minutes we were treated to one of the best sunsets I have ever seen.  The whole sky lit up with angry shades of red, yellow and purple.  It was hard to stop watching it and try and get a picture or two.  The images cant really do the sunset justice as it was one of those ‘wow’ moments that last a lifetime.

It was a wonderful end to a great week of picture taking.  I think the final tally was around 1900 shots taken.  Out of that 1900, a lot were multiples of the same thing and a lot of shots went into making the panoramas.  Out of the remainder I have got nearly 40 images that I was pleased with.

Once again Cameron has provided a video of the day’s locations.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eevGyJESFA

Our last day on Skye.  We decided to head to Talisker Bay.  Once we parked at the end of a single track road, it was a short mile or so hike along a farm track to the bay itself.  The walk was worth it as the bay revealed golden sand and loads of interesting rocks amongst the sand.  While this location is prbably better later on in the day when the sun is lower in the sky, I still managed a couple of images I was happy with.

We arrived at Neist point mid afternoon which allowed plenty of time for me to walk down the multitude of stairs and follow the path to the lighthouse.  I spent some time around the lighthouse trying to get soime decent shots of all the birds that continously flew past.  On the way back I had to climb up the 240 feet of stairs to get back up to the car park.

Cameron has once again provided a video of our days activities from the view towards the old man of Storr, The Quiraing, Staffin Bay and finally the view from the cliffs looking down towards Neist Point.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h_Rtueb-a4

We were very lucky with the sunset as the lack of clouds made the conditions perfect for the last rays of the setting sun to light up the cliffs of An t-Aigeach and the lighthouse as well.

We decided to venture up the east coast of Skye towards The Quiraing. The Quiraing is a spectacular landslip on the eastern face of Meall na Suiramach, the northernmost summit of the Trotternish Ridge on the Isle of Skye. The whole of the Trotternish Ridge escarpment was formed by a great series of landslips; the Quiraing is the only part of the slip still moving, the road at its base near Flodigarry requires repairs each year.  First of all we went down into Staffin Bay where the view looking across the bay towards the Trotternish Ridge and the Quiraing were very good.

We then drove up the small single track road to the top of the Ridge.

A view from the Trotternish ridge looking towards The Quirang

After spending some time here we headed across the island with the intention of getting to Neist Point for a sunset.  On the way we couldn’t resist stopping to get this shot of Lamb Hotpot – Skye Style!

Saw us once again going off island.  This time we decided to take a trip round the Applecross Peninsula.  This involved going over the Bealach na Ba. The Bealach na Ba (Gaelic: Pass of the Cattle, see Cattle droving) is a famous, twisting, single-track mountain road, rising to 626 metres (2053 feet) in the Applecross peninsula, in Wester Ross, Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland. It is one of very few roads in the Scottish Highlands which is engineered in a similar fashion to the great mountain passes in the Alps, with very tight hairpin bends which switch back and forth up the hillside, with gradients approaching 20%. It boasts the greatest ascent of any road climb in the UK, rising from Applecross at sea level to 626m above sea level.

This is a six image panorama from the top of the Bealach na Ba looking over towards Skye.  In the bay to the left of the picture you can see the houses in Broadford Bay where our cottage was located.

We then travelled around the Applecross peninsula where I manged to find some detail in an old fishing boat.

We also passed the bay where the BBC TV series ‘Monty Halls Great Escape’ was filmed.  There was a steady stream of people venturing down to the sands to have a look at the old cottage beside the bay.  This shot is a six image panorama of the whole bay.

More video from Cameron.  This time a short film of Plockton, plus the view towards Skye from Bealach na Ba and seals in the bay at Poll Creadha just past Applecross.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS0WpeQ2qgg

I got up rather earlier than planned due to misreading the time on my phone. This worked in our favour as the day was bright, sunny and reasonably cloud free. This meant we decided to tackle Sgurr na Stri. It is not too large a hill only 494m (about 1500ft) but it can lay claim to having one of the best views in Britain from the top of it. To get to the hill was a 3 mile trek from Killmarie and across Camasunary bay.

The view looking down on Camasunary bay was good and showed the promise of better to come.

After a few hours of walking, climbing and taking pictures, we were rewarded with the view below. If there is a finer view in Britain then I would like to see it.

If you look at the full size version of the file you can see the motor launch ‘Bella-Jane’ taking passengers back towards Elgol.

After walking the 3 miles back to the car we decided that due to being exhausted and with various aches and pains/ sore feet, the picture taking was over for the day.

Cameron has produced a short video of the day courtesy of his 5DII’s high definition video recording modes.