Over the last couple of days I can feel a slight warming of the daytime temperatures compared to last week, so I thought I should get out and get some pictures of the isle of Arran before the snow completely disappears.

This 12 image panorama was taken just after sunrise this morning.  The rising sun has given the snow covered peaks a pink glow.  Unfortunately there was a slight haze so not as crisp as I would have liked.

Both images on a Nikon D700 with Nikon 16-35 f4 VR lens. A lee 3 stop soft ND Grad and a Lee 3 stop Grad used (to lengthen the exposure and blur the water slightly).

The last one was taken with my Lee Big Stopper. A 3 minute exposure, which wasn’t really long enough. My next exposure of 4 minutes was better but the clouds had moved on so didn’t look as good. A 3 stop soft ND grad was used too. This was the first time I’ve used the Big Stopper with the D700 and I was surprised by the amount of hot pixels in the image. There was also a touch of a magenta cast which is slightly visible on the right. Thinking about it later, I forgot to close the viewfinder blind which might have helped with this.  I have used the Big Stopper on my Nikon D300 and never had issues like this, so more experimenting required I think.

Goatfell is 874m or 2867ft for us oldies.  The last time we climbed Goatfell was later on in the year, so this would be our first time with some snow at the top.

The mountain forecast was for some low lying cloud with a chance of cloud inversion at the top and light winds.  Perfect conditions.  We got the first ferry at 7am and the day looked very cloudy and dull.  The first glimpse of Goatfell as the boat was heading into Brodick didn’t look good, totally covered in cloud but we hoped that we would climb above it once we reached the summit.  We got the bus round to Corrie and started the climb.  Once we made Coire lan, the cloud started to move in and we encountered our first pockets of snow.  From there on, up to North Goatfell we climbed in plunging temperatures and poor visibility.

This image is of Cameron on North Goatfell.  What the picture can’t convey is the wind that had started to pick up and we had to seek shelter between the rocks for a bite to eat.  The wind was so bitingly cold that ice crystals started to form on my jacket and waterproof trousers.  Suitably refreshed and after heating up my cold hands with a handwarmer, it was time to head along Stacach ridge and continue the climb.

The higher we got, we saw gaps in the cloud every now and then, with tantalising glimpses of blue sky.

We sat down here and waited for the cloud to lift.

The wait was worth it!  In front of us the clouds parted and started rolling over the hills behind the Stacach Ridge.  The wind also died away and it turned into a lovely afternoon.

Looking to my left, I could now see Cir Mhor and the Witches Step above the clouds too.

I then decided to head for the summit.  By the time I reached the top, the clouds had moved on even more and there was some cloud inversion.  Looking South-West from the trig point all you could see was a big blanket of cloud.

The next image is looking across Glen Rosa to Beinn Tarsuinn.

We then started our descent along the tourist route which was a bit tricky in places with hardened snow being a bit slippy.  Luckily some other hardy soul had been up here and left footprints on the way down which we followed and used.  Once we got to the top of Meall Breac we veered left and followed the path down to rejoin the original path back to Corrie.  We managed our timings not too badly too, with only a 30 minute wait for the bus back to Brodick.  I took one last picture of the ferry bathed in the late afternoon sun with Goatfell behind, before embarking and heading for home.

A very enjoyable day.  The total length was just about 6 miles due to us going back to Corrie for the return instead of following the tourist route back down towards Brodick castle.  The tourist route can be a bit of a slog so we were happy to try this alternate return route.

I still managed to get a couple of images which were pleasing to me.  No great show of reds or oranges in the sky though but a slight tinge of blue mixed in with the grey certainly helped lift the sky.  This is Saltcoats beach looking over towards the Isle of Arran in the distance.

Another image which I think is the stronger of the two.  Closer to sunset and a better foreground and more interesting sky.

It was now well after 2pm, with the sunset only an hour away.  We made the decision that the best place to get something worthwhile would be on the coast.  Castle Stalker, near Portnacroish, on the coastal route to Oban was a likely candidate.  We had been before during daylight and we knew that there was a vantage point looking down on the castle which would hopefully give us a good sunset with the Morvern hills behind it.  We headed off with the temperature dropping once again below freezing.  We made it with about 10 minutes to spare before sunset.  Unfortunately, as is usually the case for the west coast, the clouds had rolled in and the setting sun was  hidden behind a low bank of cloud.  We made the best we could of it and the image below is not really the best example of a sunset from here but I thought it was worth posting due to the effort and distance we travelled to get it.

All that remained after this was to make the long journey home in the freezing darkness.  We had a pretty good days shooting, covering about 250 miles in the process and getting a few images I was more than happy with.

Another view, this time from a single image.  This concentrates more on the wonderful mackerel sky.

We then decided to head towards the top of Stob Mhic Mhartuin which at 2100ft has quite a good viewpoint along the pass of Glencoe.  Cameron so kindly provided a much needed bit of foreground interest in this shot!

We then headed back down and rejoined the original path near the bottom of the hill.  I saw this small footbridge on the way up and thought it would be a pretty good lead-in towards the Buachaille (Stob Dearg).  By this time it was mid-afternoon and the sun was starting to get a bit low in the sky.  I had to use two ND grad filters on this shot, a 3 Stop soft and a 2 Stop soft for a total of 5 Stops, to try and hold back the sky and balance the exposure.  I like the setting of the image but I think it might be better to revisit it at another time of the year when the light is a bit more favourable and the foliage is a touch greener instead of a dull brown.

Afther making the way back to the car, we then decided to head for a location to get a decent sunset.  Again because of the time of year and the position of the sun, we decided to head for the coast and we chose Castle Stalker.

Once we parked the car we saw that another couple of hardy souls had ventured out to capture the sunrise too.  We quickly looked around and myself and Cameron split up and headed for the spots we thought were the best for the sunrise.  When I say sunrise, I don’t really mean capturing the sun rising, as looking across Lochan na H-Achlaise towards the Black Mount is the wrong direction for a sunrise.  We were more interested in the first rays of the sun clearing the hills behind us and lighting up the Black Mount.

The pre-dawn light was a bit special though with pink tinged clouds swirling over the top of the black mount.  There was just enough of Lochan na H-Achlaise ice free to cast a lovely reflection too.

Once the sun started to light up the peaks of the black mount, it was as if the mountains themselves were glowing.

Once we had exhausted all possibilities here we headed for the Devils Staircase to hopefully get a few new shots of Glencoe from a different angle.