Glen Coe

Looking down Glen Coe towards The Three Sisters

The final destination on our Highland photo trip was the depths of Glen Coe.  We hadn't planned to stop in the Glen, instead we were heading back to Rannoch Moor, but the light hitting the Three Sisters as we traveled up the A82 between the steep sides of the mountains had us changing our plans quite rapidly.

The main problem we had was trying to find somewhere to park the car near where we wanted to be as the Glen was very busy with walkers, people sledging and, of course, other photographers.  We lucked in when we spotted a parking space near to a good spot. The view was back down the Glen towards The Three Sisters with some foreground interest provided by some snow covered boulders and an old stone bridge. 

The Three Sisters

Trying to find a suitable location to set up the tripod proved to be interesting as the snow was very deep, up to 24 inches / 60cm in places, which made walking very tiring. Skis or snow shoes were probably the order of the day.  After taking some shots of the boulders and the dramatic sky we headed further down the hill to the old stone bridge.

Firestorm on the ridge.  The sunlight behind the clouds provided a dramatic light display.

There are two stone bridge on the walkway through Glen Coe and we managed to get to the first one in the deep snow and there was no way I was trying to get to the second bridge.  The burn was not frozen over so I set about getting some images of the bridge and the water.

The underside of the bridge was covered in icicles, which were duly captured before getting one final wide shot of the scene before heading back to the car through the deep snow.

Driving the car a couple of miles further up Glen Coe we spotted another opportunity as the Glen opened up onto Rannoch Moor.  The sun by this time was fairly low in the sky and framed by Buachaille Etive Mor on the left and Buachaille Etive Beag on the right.  We headed down the track towards the River Coupall and took the opportunity to take a shot in the other direction of Beinn a Chrulaiste and an old ruined croft and wood in the foreground.

We followed the snow covered track down to a small burn that fed the river and with the reflections in the water of the fiery sky I decided this was going to be the shot of the day.  I waded into the burn and took a low level shot of the ice.  I was rewarded with this image, which I had posted on this blog on Sunday evening.

I then started to look for further opportunities and here are some of the shots I took as the sun set behind the mountains.

That was the final shot of the day and with the light gone we packed the car and headed home.

The X-T1 and X-Pro1 were not phased by the difficult wintery conditions and shot all day without missing a beat.  I did have to change two batteries because of the cold weather, having only got around 250 shots on a single charge.  However this was to be expected and I was carrying plenty of spares.

A great day and one we'll have to repeat in the near future.

The first location at the stone bridge and the view towards The Three Sisters 

The second location at the River Coupall

All images were taken on the X-T1 + 10-24mm f4 or 35mm f1.4 or the X-Pro1 + 55-200mm f3.5/4.8

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE

By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ALL IMAGES ARE THE PROPERTY OF MACLEAN PHOTOGRAPHIC AND CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION


MacLean Photographic run Tours and Workshops in East Lothian and the Borders of Scotland.  CLICK HERE for more details and availability

If you like what you see on this blog please visit our Facebook page and click 'like'