You know you’re getting old when your daughter rings you and says “Dad! You’re going to be a grandad!” Oh great I thought! Grandad!
It was only 37 seconds ago I was holding my daughters hand in Seahouses, Northumberland!
And 15 seconds later taking her photo at Eilian Donan castle in The Highlands….
And here she is now, having children of her own. She’s actually older than me now!
Time flies….
I’m weird. The easier things get the less interested I am!
I got interested in photography about 1994. I bought a Canon EOS 1000 FN from Dixon’s as I was looking for a new hobby.
I’ve always been interested in The Lake District since my first visit in about 1984. So…
First photographic adventure, the most photographed bridge in the world…
I shot the original image on the Canon EOS 1000 FN with a CRAB bracket (Google is your friend if you’re not sure what that is) on Kodak film (I can’t remember what stock)
I was working at Kellogg’s at the time and I’d showed someone the photographic (6”x4”) – they asked for an enlargement – so off to Max Spielmann I went.
I brought the enlargement into work. And someone else saw it….and asked if I’d photograph their wedding!!! What!!! I’d no idea what to do. I told them that! However….it was a small civil ceremony in a registry office so thought…I’ll give it a shot!
Then…through word of mouth I got asked to photograph more and more weddings!
Scary. I thought. Things got serious! I bought 2x EOS 5D and a decent flash!
Photographed a lot of weddings on film….
Carried on shooting on film for years. Carried 2 camera bodies up most mountains in The Lake District (and Ben Nevis) – one with Fuji Velvia and one with Ilford Delta 400. with a Benbo Trekker tripod!
Then…
Moved to digital. An EOS 10D.
Shot a wedding on (two) Canon EOS 10D’s.
What a game changer! So much easier. No stress wondering what the image was going to turn out like!
Then I had to learn the image editing process.
I carried on photographing weddings on 20D, 40D, 7D and 7D MKII. Until I got bored.
Everyone had a digital camera, everyone was a wedding photographer. The democratising of photography whilst a good thing, devalued wedding photography.
So…I gave up eventually. I got bored with it.
However I carried on with some portrait photography…
And my landscapes
However…the easier things got the less interested I became.
And now everyone on YouTube is an expert…
I’ll start watching a video and usually after 5-10 minutes I’ll switch it off as I’m not learning anything,
Maybe I need to learn more!?
I’ve watched this movie a few times now. Not sure if it’s because I like the idea of solitude on a Lighthouse or because of the fantastic performances. Anyway, well worth a watch…
I’ve just recently watched (a few times!) the recently released (on DVD) Macbeth.
All copyrights belong to their respective owners.
It’s a fabulous story for those of you who are not familiar with it plus it’s shot in some fantastic locations.
It just so happens that I visited most of them in 2015!
Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland 
The Quiraing in Skye 
And around Sligachan and The Fairy Pools in Skye
So, watch the movie and who knows, you may be tempted to visit the shooting locations!
Here are my less cinematic movies of my visits to these locations in 2015.
I’ve been looking forward to this trip for months! I picked up my friends and we set off for Skye from Manchester at 0800 hrs. on Friday 26 April. As usual, we stopped off at Inveruglas then later at the Commando Memorial just north of Spean Bridge.
We arrived at Roskhill Barn around about 1710 hrs. We had a lovely meal of homemade Spaghetti Bolognese and a couple of bottles of beer before we hit the sack, extremely tired after a long days drive.
We woke up on the Saturday, bright and breezy, full of anticipation of what the day would bring. I had already planned some walks in the previous weeks. Today’s was going to be Coire na Creiche and the Fairy Pools circuit. I had selected this walk from the Walk Highlands website. This website is a fantastic resource for anyone planning to do some walks on their Scottish holiday!
The actual walk details are available here.
We arrived at the car park and got into our walking gear by about 1000 hrs. The scenery from the car park itself is stunning, with Sgurr an Fheadain which sits in Coire na Crieche, in the central Cuillin on view.
It’s a short, enjoyable, not too strenuous walk to some rather stunning waterfalls.
To give you a sense of scale my friend David is standing at the top of the waterfall…
He looks fairly insignificant, yet he’s about 6′ 4″ tall!
There are some great views over to Sgurr Thuilm from here too!
After we’d taken our photographs and had a lunch break, we went to visit the Talisker distillery.
This is my idea of heaven!!!
And here is ‘Team Skye’…
Sunday was a bit of a washout, with squally showers all day. We did manage to visit Duntulm Castle though…
We then visited Portree and had lunch at ‘The Lower Deck’
All in all a thoroughly enjoyable trip – can’t wait for the next one!
UPDATE – October accommodation is booked!!!
I’m off to Skye next week, and I cannot wait. By about this time I’m hoping I’m not too far from the commando memorial at Spean bridge… I always stop here when on the way through the Highlands…
I’m staying at Roskhill, here to be precise 
It’s a lovely cosy place. Last time I was there, whilst relaxing on the evening, I asked my colleagues to break out the nightcaps…. 
Ovaltine wasn’t exactly what I had in mind….
Anyway, let’s some hope for some photographic splendour!!! 
It was a boiling hot July day in 2005 when I parked up at the car park in Glen Torridon and removed my kit from my car boot
I stooped down to fasten my tripod to the side of my Berghaus Crusader rucksack.
Rrrrriiiiiiiippppp – my pants split from my waistband to the bottom of my arse cheek on the right hand side.
After due consideration I decided that I couldn’t really continue walking up Coire Dubh Mor with my pants flapping about and my undercrackers on show, so…
I put all my kit back into the boot of the car and drove along Glen Torridon to Kinlochewe where I found a walking kit store. After carefully choosing some pants that actually fit I jumped back into the car, drove back to the car park and started all over again…
I captured this image at the end of a wonderful walk…
I’ll be on my way to The Isle Of Skye….
I’m in the early stages of planning another Skye trip for next year, hopefully get some better weather than the last two trips where the photo output was pretty low!
stormseven 