This is Loch Tulla, not long after sunrise. The fog had started to burn off from the winter sun, leaving the valley floor shrouded in mist that swirled around the bottom of the mountains. This left an idyllic Scottish scene with the semi-frozen loch reflecting the snow covered peaks behind.

This image was made up from 13 seperate images taken in portrait format and stitched together.  This creates a very large image of over 14500 pixels on the longest side.  This allows this image to be enlarged to very large sizes with no loss in quality or resolution.  A scene such as this deserves to be captured with as much detail and quality as possible.

The plan was to climb up Conic Hill at Balmaha for a panoramic view along Loch Lomond.  Unfortunately as I was heading up towards Balmaha the cloud cover started to roll in.  By the time I was on the east side of Loch Lomond, the clouds totally covered the sky in a uniform dull grey.  I then decided to abandon the hillwalk till another time and headed to Aberfoyle, hoping for a break in the clouds.  First stop, once I reached Aberfoyle was to head along to Loch Ard.  The grey skies meant that I tried for compositions without too much or any sky in them.  I was luck in the fact that the upturned boat was placed in a good position beside the tree stumps and jetty.

The lack of wind meant that within a couple of minutes of getting here the midgies were all over me and biting rather ferociously.  Luckily I remembered my midge hood was still in my camera bag.  It might not look the best thing in the world but it certainly works in keeping the  face and head midge free.

My next stop was then to head along the Dukes Pass towards Loch Achray.  The lack of wind meant that the still waters  perfectly reflected the trees in the hills around the loch.

The small church in the Picture is the ‘Trossachs Church’ erected in 1849 in this most picturesque location and is still in use today.   ‘Achray’  is believed to be derived from old Gaelic, meaning the field of devotion, a place of worship in the open air.

Another view of Loch Achray this time from the reeds around the western edge of the Loch.

Once I had these images, I then spent some time along the road towards Loch Venachar.  Nothing really caught my eye as by now the wind had started to get up and any picture opportunities afforded by the calm waters were gone.  I headed back towards Aberfoyle for refreshments and a bite to eat and then seeing no let up in the grey conditions, I headed home.

So, the first trip away since I got back from holiday and not the most successful trip ever.  That’s the thing with landscape photography though, sometimes the conditions just don’t come together and you come away with hardly anything to show for the effort of getting up early and travelling a hundred or so miles.  I suppose three images that I am reasonably pleased with is better than none though.

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

This is Loch Arklet with Beinn Narnain, Ben Vane and Ben Vorlich in the background more commonly known as the Arrochar Alps.

After the nice early evening light at the fairy pools, the clouds started to roll in so we didnt want to travel too far for a sunset.  We decided to have a look at the area around the narrows of Raasay, a small peninsula called An Aird.  While Cameron decided to wander along to An Aird itself, I decide that the bay before it called Camas a Mhor-Bheoil looked a bit more promising.  I walked down to the edge of the rocks and started looking for a good vantage point.  After exploring the area for an hour or so the sun started to set, but the sunset was pretty poor with the heavy clouds and the slight spits of rain as well.  I did manage to get a couple of images that I liked though.

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.

http://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.

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS0WpeQ2qgg

When we got to the observation level we took the next elevator to the Sky Pod.

The view from here was a bit more vertigo inducing due to the expanse of glass and full length windows.  Again no queueing was a bonus.

We spent some time on the observation level, where I took a few pics…

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This skyscraper is one of the great visual spectacles in the Toronto skyline.

It has the ability to bend, refract, reflect, and play with light in a way that other buildings aren’t prepared to. That’s because its exterior is covered in gold leaf. Its visage has been compared to a huge ingot of Spanish bullion, though New Spain never extended this far north. It’s not just the façade that helps with this dance of light. The Royal Bank Plaza is composed of two triangular towers (one 41-stories, the other 26-stories) that help take advantage of the sun’s low angle at this northern latitude and bounce the light around at unusual angles. Incidentally, the sun is the reason there is gold on this building in the first place. The skyscraper has 14,000 windows and because of that, incredibly high heating and cooling bills. Having 2,500 ounces of 24-carat gold baked into the glass helps insulate the building and makes up for the installation cost, though the bank got the original gold for less than CAN$100.00 an ounce. No one has ever stolen one of the windows even though each contains about CAN$70.00 worth of gold. That is because the process that puts the gold into the glass makes it worthless at the same time. It is not possible to separate one material from the other.

* The Royal Bank claims there is more glass in this skyscraper than any other in the world.
* There is enough gold on the surface of the building to mint 50,000 Maple Leaf coins.

I also stood on the glass floor.  It was a very wierd sensation, looking down and seeing nothing apart from the drop down the tower.  Most disconcerting!