Glencoe & Back

For me, though, the adventure started long before I reached Scotland, with a solo eight-hour drive north that pushed me well outside my comfort zone, a rather unfortunate leisure battery incident near Dumbarton, and plenty of time wondering whether I'd made a very bad decision. Eventually, though, I arrived — and what followed was four days of snow, sunshine, wind, dramatic weather and some of the most spectacular landscapes Scotland has to offer.

Recently I agreed to join a couple of my photography chums, Mark & Pete, on a grand Scottish adventure: four days and three nights travelling the A82 around Glencoe, photographing some incredible locations. Now, that in itself sounds like a brilliant trip… but when I found out I'd need to sleep in a car for three nights with my mates, I immediately blurted out, “I'll drive myself!” I'm not entirely sure why or how I said it. Perhaps my subconscious was asking for help.

For those who know me, I struggle with travel anxiety — for want of a better term. Driving any significant distance on my own has always been a bit of a problem. The “what ifs” are endless: breakdowns, accidents, traffic, police, holding other drivers up… the list my brain comes up with seems almost limitless. It's stopped me doing a lot over the years, keeping me within the safety of home and familiar surroundings. I know it sounds silly, but it's real for me. But a promise is a promise… and sometimes the best therapy comes from facing your fears, right?

So after several days of planning — and ignoring every self-preservation instinct my nervous system was throwing at me — I packed the camper van, turned the key and started my solo drive north. Even nine miles up the road I was having doubts. For eight hours, one junction at a time… sometimes just convincing myself to make it through one more song on the radio… I kept the anxiety in check. Passing places I'd only ever seen on Google Maps, I kept telling myself: “You've made it this far. Nothing bad has happened. Just keep going.”

And eventually, Scotland started appearing through the windscreen.

Not entirely plain sailing

Unfortunately, the drive north wasn't entirely without incident. Around Carlisle, a strong burning smell started filling the cab. No obvious source. No warning lights. Just that sinking feeling that something wasn't right. Cue the anxiety kicking in again. “This was a bad idea. I shouldn't have done this…”

I tried to rationalise it. Maybe fumes from lorries. Maybe roadworks. Maybe something completely unrelated. For a while, opening the window seemed to help, but by the time I reached Dumbarton the smell had become overwhelming. I knew something was wrong. Thankfully, Mark and Pete caught up with me there. In -4°C conditions we checked everything we could think of — engine, exhaust, underneath the van — but nothing obvious presented itself. Eventually we turned our attention to the inside of the van. And found the culprit.

The leisure battery under my driver's seat was absolutely roasting and barely holding a charge. It had effectively boiled itself dry. Once disconnected, the smell disappeared. Problem solved… for now. So we got back on the road. From there we carried on towards our sunrise location and, despite everything that had happened, I'd made it. Tired, slightly knackered and emotionally exhausted… But I'd done it.

The wilds of Buachaille Etive Mòr – Stob Dearg

And this was why I'd driven all that way. The landscape around Glencoe has an almost ridiculous ability to make you forget about everything else.
Standing there with Buachaille Etive Mòr rising out of the landscape, the long drive, the anxiety and the slightly alarming smell coming from underneath my driver's seat all seemed rather less important. This is the sort of landscape that makes getting up ridiculously early and driving hundreds of miles suddenly seem like a perfectly sensible thing to do.

• The Wilds of Buachaille Etive Mòr – Stob Dearg
• Canon R5 Mark 2 Camera used:
• Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens used:
• 35mm Focal length:
• f/11 Aperture:
• 1/250th Sec Exposure time:
• 100 ISO:

Blackrock Cottage

There are some locations around Glencoe that are almost impossible to avoid as a landscape photographer. Blackrock Cottage is definitely one of them.
It's been photographed countless times, in every imaginable combination of weather and light, and I'm under no illusion that this particular image is going to win any awards for originality. In fact, the treatment I've applied is probably predictable as well.
But… I like it. Sometimes that's enough.

I came across this while going back through the images from the trip and it immediately caught my attention. It's a classic Highland scene, and although countless photographers have stood in more or less the same place, the landscape never quite gives you the same conditions twice.
This one will be printed A3/A2 on Natural Textured Art Paper.

If anyone is interested in a copy, do get in touch.

• Blackrock Cottage
• Canon R5 Mark 2 Camera used:
• Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens used:
• 43mm Focal length:
• f/13 Aperture:
• 1/250th Sec Exposure time:
• 100 ISO:

Loch Ba

Sat right in the heart of Rannoch Moor, Loch Ba isn't your typical loch. It's a sprawling, shallow maze of water, peat and ancient ground that feels more like a living landscape than something fixed. Most people travelling along the A82 towards Glencoe drive straight past it, but stop for a while and it's a very different world.

Quiet. Vast. And surprisingly alive.

What really struck me was how wild it still feels. On the surface it looks empty, but spend a bit of time there and you realise it's anything but. Deer moving in the distance, birds calling across the moor and that constant sense that the ground beneath you isn't quite as solid as it looks.
It's the sort of place where you can stand around with a camera for an hour and still feel as though you've barely scratched the surface.

• Loch Ba
• Canon R5 Mark 2 Camera used:
• Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens used:
• 83mm Focal length:
• f/11 Aperture:
• 1/20th Sec Exposure time:
• 125 ISO:

The less travelled path – A classic Highland journey

One of the great things about travelling through the Highlands is that sometimes the journey itself becomes part of the adventure. The A82 around Glencoe and Rannoch Moor is obviously a well-travelled road, but step away from it and the landscape quickly feels much more remote.

There is something particularly satisfying about finding a composition that isn't necessarily the obvious postcard view. Sometimes it's simply a path disappearing into the landscape and the feeling that there might be something interesting around the next corner. Of course, there usually isn't. But you have to look anyway.

• The less travelled path – A classic Highland journey
• Canon R5 Mark 2 Camera used:
• Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens used:
• 24mm Focal length:
• f/10 Aperture:
• 1/100th Sec Exposure time:
• 100 ISO:

Blizzard on Rannoch Moor

We'd left the Clachaig Inn after breakfast in bright blue skies and sunshine. By the time we'd reached Rannoch Moor, the temperature had dropped by several degrees and a fast-moving snowstorm had swept across the A82, plunging us into some rather challenging driving conditions.
Thankfully, there were a couple of parking spaces at the viewpoint just as the worst of the weather hit. Looking out of the van window, being buffeted by strong winds, I spotted a small tree standing in defiance of the weather. It was exactly the sort of scene I'd been hoping for.

I quickly grabbed the camera, lowered the window a little and rested it on the edge of the glass. I think I managed about four frames before I had to close the window again as the cab started filling with snow. Landscape photography isn't always about standing around in beautiful light with a tripod carefully positioned on a mountainside, sometimes it's about sticking your camera out of a van window before you freeze the inside of it.

• Blizzard on Rannoch Moor
• Canon R5 Mark 2 Camera used:
• Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM Lens used:
• 105mm Focal length:
• f/4.0 Aperture:
• 1/125th Sec Exposure time:
• 100 ISO:

Dressed in Blue – A82, West

With lorries thundering past me, I managed to crouch down low enough to get the bare tree branches aligned against a rare patch of blue sky. It was one of those compositions that only really worked from one particular position, which meant getting rather closer to the edge of the road than was probably sensible. Surprisingly, neither I nor my camera went into the drink. It was quite the precarious position.

• Dressed in Blue
• Canon R5 Mark 2 Camera used:
• Canon RF 14-35mm f/4 L IS USM Lens used:
• 29mm Focal length:
• f/7.1 Aperture:
• 1/250th Sec Exposure time:
• 200 ISO:

Castle Stumpy

Unusual weather conditions for Scotland…Or so I'm led to believe. The honest truth is that whenever I've travelled into Scotland, I've always managed to enjoy the best of weather.
Rain. Sleet. Snow. Ice. Wind. Sunshine. Blue skies. Pretty much everything gets thrown at the Scottish landscape... and I'd argue it handles all of it with remarkable ease, perhaps that's part of what makes photographing Scotland so addictive. You can return to the same location several times and never quite know what you're going to get.

• Castle Stumpy - Castle Stalker
• Canon R5 Mark 2 Camera used:
• Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Lens used:
• 60mm Focal length:
• f/11 Aperture:
• 1/60th Sec Exposure time:
• 100 ISO:

Castle Stalker – enjoying a warm spring afternoon

After all the snow, wind, freezing temperatures and general Highland abuse, it was rather nice to eventually find some sunshine. Castle Stalker sitting out in the water is another of those scenes that feels almost too perfectly Scottish to be real. But after everything that had happened on the journey north, there was something particularly satisfying about standing there in the warmth of the spring sunshine with the camera in hand.

Four days. Three nights. Hundreds of miles. One rather unhappy leisure battery. And one very long drive home still to come. But the important bit was that I'd gone.

I'd said I'd do it, battled my way through the anxiety, dealt with a van problem halfway there and eventually found myself standing in the Scottish Highlands with Mark and Pete, doing exactly what we'd set out to do. Sometimes the biggest achievement from a photography trip isn't the photograph you bring home. It's getting yourself there in the first place.

• Castle Stalker
• Canon R5 Mark 2 Camera used:
• Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Lens used:
• 110mm Focal length:
• f/11 Aperture:
• 1/125th Sec Exposure time:
• 100 ISO: