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.
A Piper along the Royal Mile
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.
The Jacobite
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.
Kilchurn Castle
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.
The Old Man of Storr
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.
Sligachan Old Bridge
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.
The tasting bar at the Talksker Distillery
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!
This will be the fourth consecutive year I have compiled a list of the top ten favourite images of the past year. I was first inspired to do so after seeing Jim Goldstein’s blog project on his JGM Galleries site, where he encourages photographers to participate by linking a post with their top photos of the year. There are always a lot of great images there and I’d encourage everyone to go check them out.
This year I could have picked more than ten images, but I was able to narrow it down. I list them as my “favourite” images rather than “best”, because while they may not be technically perfect, each one is special to me, in some way.
As quick as it came in, the water recedes
The first image is from Botany Bay, in Port Renfrew. This is a fascinating area, as the adjoining Botanical Beach features some amazing tide pools and geological features. I liked the effect from the receding water taken with a longer shutter speed here which produced interesting patterns. I have only recently started trying to sell/market my images, and this was the first large print that I sold.
Catching a wave
For this image, I was sitting on a small island (at least it is at high tide) in Cox Bay, Tofino, BC, watching surfers in the distance. It took a fair bit of patience to get this image, where the wave was large enough that it provided a nice curl behind, and looming over the surfer, but eventually I got what I was hoping for and was able to retreat to the beach before the rising tide was able to trap me on the little rocky island.
Rainbow over the beach resorts
The day after I captured the image of the surfer at Cox Bay, I was out on the beach with the intent of getting some sunset images. There was a light rain falling and when I turned back towards the resorts, there was a beautiful double rainbow above them. While the second rainbow was not as bright, it was also above the brighter one and I couldn’t easily fit it in the image. While the sunset images were okay, they were not nearly as special as this lovely rainbow scene was/is to me.
Sea Stacks Rising
The west coast of the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington state, is only a short trip south from Vancouver Island, but this year was the first time I made the trip “down south” to visit it, and I’m glad I did! what a beautiful place. It was a foggy/misty day and these sea stacks in the distance almost seemed to be floating in the pastel shades of sunset.
Sea Stack Sunset at Ruby Beach
Ruby Beach, on the Olympic Peninsula, is a popular location for photographers, as I found out, but it is still easy to get some interesting images without other people in them. Photographing in a location like this left me wanting to search out more sea stacks!
San Josef Bay sea stacks on a cloudy day
My quest for sea stacks to photograph led me to the farthest northern tip of Vancouver Island. While it was a long drive, including some brutal gravel roads at the end, it was well worth it. The hike in to San Josef Bay was pretty easy, but the rainstorm that started just after we arrived on the beach was brutal and kept us in the tent most of the time until the next day. In the morning, the tide was out and the sea stacks looked magnificent, with interesting patterns in the sand around them.
Simple lines of a pier reflecting in calm water
At various times throughout the year we can get a lot of fog around the water. While this limits some types of photography, it opens up others to explore. I like the simplicity and symmetry of this image.
I have not done a lot of astrophotography, primarily because I keep finding excuses not to, even though I enjoy it. I wish I had a wider & faster lens, or that there was more interesting scenes in the foreground, or that it wasn’t so cold, or cloudy (okay, that last one might be a little more legitimate)… One of the few times I did get out this year was during a meteor shower and once again, I was glad I went out. After no success capturing much in the way of meteors, I thought I’d try getting a couple images of a portion of the Milky Way over some of the trees that were getting a bit of light from the partial moon (I don’t remember the phase, but know it was not a full moon). As luck would have it, not only did I get the shot I wanted, it included two meteors streaking side by side, just over the trees.
Historic Aircraft Flypast of BC Legislature
After a quarter century, last year was the first year I wasn’t in the military during Remembrance Day (Veteran’s Day in the US), however, I wasn’t able to attend a ceremony. This year I had the opportunity to attend the ceremony at the BC Legislature grounds, where there were huge crowds and it was hard to be in a good position to capture interesting photographs. When I saw the historic aircraft were doing a flypast of the Provincial Legislature building I quickly adjusted my position so that I would be able to capture this image of a plane on either side of the dome, with Captain Vancouver (the gold statue) standing above & between them.
Standing On Guard
This WW I soldier, stands on guard above the memorial with memorial plaques tributing the fallen Canadians of past conflicts. The Canadian flag above flaps rapidly in the wind and is well lit on a dark night. Beyond any artistic merit there may be in this image, it means more to me than all the rest.
I hope you enjoyed this years top ten and that you go to check out the other photographers lists on the JGM Galleries Blog when they are posted in January, 2019. Hope to see you all back here next year!
Tofino is always one of my favourite places to go to get away. No matter what time of year you go, there’s always something interesting to do… or you can just relax in nature and escape the hectic pace of everyday life. This trip I went in search of gray whales, with Jamie’s Whaling Station, onboard the Chinook Princess.
Wild Drake Photography 