Elgol / Skye Trip

I've just returned from the Isle of Skye after leading our annual photo tour - 'Highlands & Eagles'. I'm not a landscape photographer but when in Rome....

It was an epic trip with two evenings of amazing Aurora Borealis and some incredible wildlife experiences with white-tailed sea eagles and northern divers / common loons.

In the past I have taken some GFX gear, but this year I decided my goal was to be able to move around as lightweight as possible so I opted for a X-H2 as a second body with the XF10-24mm as my primary wide angle. I used my X-H2S for the wildlife stuff.

I've also been using new tripods and associated accessories, again driven by trying to lighten the load on my back! This made a big difference! I managed to climb up past the Old Man of Storr in record time this year! It's a hard walk in the darkness with head lamps starting around 5.45am to climb up difficult trail up past 600m for sunset. I also felt a huge difference in mobility getting around the rocky shore at Elgol which is also a bit of a scramble at times. We're not getting any younger!

All in all, a succesful trip with a few images to whip through Capture One and a very happy group of photographers!

Cuillin hills looking north from Elgol...

XH2 | XF10-24mm | Firecrest Ultra 3 stop ND grad

Alan Hewitt Photo wrote:

I've just returned from the Isle of Skye after leading our annual photo tour - 'Highlands & Eagles'. I'm not a landscape photographer but when in Rome....

It was an epic trip with two evenings of amazing Aurora Borealis and some incredible wildlife experiences with white-tailed sea eagles and northern divers / common loons.

In the past I have taken some GFX gear, but this year I decided my goal was to be able to move around as lightweight as possible so I opted for a X-H2 as a second body with the XF10-24mm as my primary wide angle. I used my X-H2S for the wildlife stuff.

I've also been using new tripods and associated accessories, again driven by trying to lighten the load on my back! This made a big difference! I managed to climb up past the Old Man of Storr in record time this year! It's a hard walk in the darkness with head lamps starting around 5.45am to climb up difficult trail up past 600m for sunset. I also felt a huge difference in mobility getting around the rocky shore at Elgol which is also a bit of a scramble at times. We're not getting any younger!

All in all, a succesful trip with a few images to whip through Capture One and a very happy group of photographers!

Cuillin hills looking north from Elgol...

XH2 | XF10-24mm | Firecrest Ultra 3 stop ND grad

Lovely pic, Alan. We were fortunate enough to travel to Skye a couple of years ago and were just gobsmacked by the beauty of the place. Wish we'd had more time there, but it's definitely a photographer's paradise.

Alan Hewitt Photo wrote:

I've just returned from the Isle of Skye after leading our annual photo tour - 'Highlands & Eagles'. I'm not a landscape photographer but when in Rome....

I've also been using new tripods and associated accessories, again driven by trying to lighten the load on my back! This made a big difference! I managed to climb up past the Old Man of Storr in record time this year! It's a hard walk in the darkness with head lamps starting around 5.45am to climb up difficult trail up past 600m for sunset.

I should have added, I work alongside a fantastic landscape photographer on these trips so I'm not solely guiding a landscape photography trip! I tend to handle the wildlife element.
Also, I meant sunrise, not sunset!

You may not call your self a land scape photographer Alan yet that image has clastic landscape composition and is quite nice.  That sounds like quite a climb you made to the limit of decent air for most people and it sounds like it was worth it.

Morris

Jerry-astro wrote:

Lovely pic, Alan. We were fortunate enough to travel to Skye a couple of years ago and were just gobsmacked by the beauty of the place. Wish we'd had more time there, but it's definitely a photographer's paradise.

thanks!
It's amazing. I've taken a few groups there and there aren't many places in the UK that has so many locations which can be so dramatically different each time!

Thank you , I do like Elgol. I prefer it at sunset thoughrather than sunrise. That sai, it very much depends on the tides.

Cheers. Ironically, once I got up there the camera didn't come out of the bag as the sunrise didn't happen! I had shots from last year that were much better light so I didn't see the point in taking any more for my own work.

Nice.

WeirdSheep wrote:

Morris0 wrote:

You may not call your self a land scape photographer Alan yet that image has clastic landscape composition and is quite nice. That sounds like quite a climb you made to the limit of decent air for most people and it sounds like it was worth it.

Morris

You need to go past 3500 metres before the air starts thinning enough to affect most healthy people, 600m is basically a hill, just sayin'..

Correct, I converted incorrectly.  It's 10,000 feet or 3,100 meters for me having been born and living at sea level my entire life.

Morris

Very nice! Waiting for my 10-24 to arrive. This photo makes me giddy to get out and shoot with it.

Hi,

Nice image, and in good light!  It's been a long time since I was there.  My recollection is mostly of clouds from the ground up and days of pouring rain.....  Nice to know that paradise was somewhere out there in the mist.

Cheers, Rod

Perfectly done image for a wildlife photographer.  My experience with the area is the same as Rod's.... overcast and rainy.  But, no matter....digital photography did not exist when I visited in 1978.  However, the images from that trip are in my slide collection waiting to be scanned one of these days.

Thanks, yeah... it can be challenging at times but it's always worth keeping an itinerary fluid and reacting to conditions and forecasts on different parts of the island. It can change dramatically in places that are relatively close.

BobsYourUncle wrote:

Perfectly done image for a wildlife photographer. My experience with the area is the same as Rod's.... overcast and rainy. But, no matter....digital photography did not exist when I visited in 1978. However, the images from that trip are in my slide collection waiting to be scanned one of these days.

Thanks Bob, I'd be interested to see those if you ever get around to scanning them.

Beautiful location and a beautiful capture.

LoomWiz wrote:

Beautiful location and a beautiful capture.

Thank you