Exploring Scotland with a Camera

Most of my photography adventures are close to home, on an island off the west coast of the continent, so after far too long not having explored somewhere different, it was time to do it. Of course I chose to travel over 7000 km (4400 miles) to go to an island off the west coast of the continent.

Arriving in Glasgow with an extra day to explore before my adventure really began, I rented a small car to drive to Edinburgh. I could have taken a bus or train, but I like the experience of driving somewhere new. The fact that the steering wheel was on the opposite side of what I’m used to and it was a manual transmission car just added to the fun. Parking in Edinburgh was a bit of a challenge, and rather costly. Half a day exploring the city was far too little, but I enjoyed seeing the Edinburgh castle and doing some street photography along the Royal Mile, which stretches from the castle to the Hollyrood Palace.

As this was my first visit to Scotland and there were so many great photography locations to see, I went on a photo workshop with some great guides to show us around. We started our first day by travelling to Glencoe and exploring the area, before moving on to the Isle of Skye, where we would spend most of our time. Along the way we saw some interesting sights.

Most of the time I was there it rained. There were occasional brief breaks in the weather and this produced some great conditions for landscape photography.

I’ve enjoyed other photographers photos of the area for years, so it was great to be there in person and get an up close view of the area myself. After hiking up the hills and getting drenched while doing it, you gain a whole new appreciation for what it takes to come back with those images.

There was so much to see in a little over a week that I’d love to return at some point to explore it some more, but for now I’ve got many great memories and some photos to help remember the experience.

No trip to Scotland would be complete without visiting at least one whisky distillery, and since we were on the Isle of Skye, it was the Talisker Distillery. I managed to get a quick photo inside with my iPhone, between samples.

There was much more I saw and experienced but I’ll leave you with one last image. As I noted earlier there was a lot of rain and some breaks in the weather. This brought with it more rainbows in a little over a week than I am used to seeing in a year!