Wild Drake Photography

Tag: Scotland

  • Top Ten (favourite) Photos of 2022

    Top Ten (favourite) Photos of 2022

    Well another year has come to an end and once again I have put together a collection of the top ten favourite photos I have made during that time. As always. it is not necessarily the technical ‘best’ photos of the year, but the ones that are special to me for one reason or another. Once you have had a chance to review them, I invite your comments or questions and would be interested in knowing which one(s) you liked best, and why. Please note, that these are not in order of preference. Without further ado, here they are:

    There you have it. I’m sure you wonder why I didn’t provide an explanation of my photos this year. That’s because I’m making some changes and trying something different. If you check out my YouTube video, you can hear more about the images and my thoughts.

    From the images above, you can see that 40% are black and white, 5 involve water, there’s an abstract one, one animal and one night shot. As for the cameras I used, they were the iPhone 13 Pro, FujiFilm GFX100S, the Canon R5 and the Canon 6D Mark II, with a variety of lenses.

    As I was mentioning, there are more changes coming, and I expect 2023 to be a big year in photography for me. I’ll let you know more about those things soon. I hope everyone has a very happy, healthy 2023!

    ______________________________________________________________________________________________________

  • Exploring Scotland with a Camera

    Exploring Scotland with a Camera

    Looking out from the castle over the city of Edinburg, Scotland
    Edinburgh

    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.

    Hogwarts express steam train crossing the famous viaduct as seen in the Harry Potter film
    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 view of the lush green valley and old man of storr on a wet, overcast day
    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.

    Old stone bridge with a river flowing from distant mountains in Scotland
    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.

    A variety of Talisker single malt Scotch whisky
    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!

    Beautiful rainbow over a woodland area on the Isle of Skye
    Could this be the Rainbow Connection?