Luskentyre - Part 2 (2013)

The photography continued into the afternoon on the first day on the Isle of Harris with stops at various point along the river estuary at Luskentyre. The subjects were the amazing colours of the sand banks and the flowing water, which varied from turquoise to an emerald green depending on the overhead weather conditions. The darker the clouds the more intense the colour became. It was a fabulous scene that I appreciated more when I reprocessed the images.

Most of the images during the afternoon were taken with a compact camera. If I remember correctly there was a lot of stopping and starting, in and out of the car, dodging the rain, and the compact camera was the quickest and easiest way to record the conditions. When I returned home in 2013 and reviewed the images I reject quite a few on quality grounds, there was a lot of noise in the dark areas and I rather wished I had used the main camera and tripod instead of the compact camera.

Seven years later I am less fussy about quality issues and I am happy to make corrections in the software, treating each image on its visual merits, regardless of which camera I use. As a result, the reprocessing exercise made the following selection one of my favourites from the Scotland trip. I particular like the more intimate or abstract landscapes of the estuary and these would be the type of subjects I would major on today if I was ever lucky enough to return to Luskentyre:

Luskentyre (2013)

The first view of Luskentyre is never forgotten. The single track road from the ferry port at Tarbert cuts its way through a harsh barren landscape of ancient gneiss rock, lunar-like in appearance. But then, on a brow of a hill, Traigh Luskentyre comes into view. It is still some distance away but there is is stunning brilliance from the turquoise sea and bleach white sands. It is like someone turning the lights on in a dark room, absolutely fabulous, one of life’s ‘wow’ moments.

As for the photography, the advice was ‘if you don’t like the weather on the Isle of Harris, wait 5 minutes’, and never a truer word was spoken on the first day on the island. One minute it was lashing with rain, the next, bright sunshine. The only defence against the rain was turning your back to the weather, covering the camera and tripod in a plastic bag, and waiting for it to stop! Some of the best photography, however, was on the transition from rain to sun, as this first image of the day demonstrates. It was taken just before 7am looking from Seilebost across to the high dunes at Luskentyre followed by a wider angle view which includes the island of Taransay:

The rest of the morning’s photography was spent on the beach at Rosumol, a little further along the road from the small Luskentyre settlement. The subjects included the Island of Taransay, the North Harris hills and the wonderfully rounded peaks of Ceapabhal (Chiapaval) which, although some distance away, was often a good focal point when looking along the beach. Many of the images shown below were processed for the first time for this virus lockdown review of 2013. At the time, I didn’t think there was a great single image from the morning session and there were quite a few similar compositions, however I did enjoy preparing them for this blogpost seven years later and particularly liked the first photo below:

The photography continued into the afternoon, stopping at various points along the river estuary at Luskentyre to view the amazing colours of the flowing water and sand banks, plus some close up details of the rocks and sand patterns. Again, many of the images were processed for the first time in the last month but there are too many to fit into this post so I will continue with a selection of the results in the next blog from the first day on the Isle of Harris in 2013.

Hazelford Lock (May 2020)

Whilst enjoying a post-lockdown walk along the River Trent we stopped at Hazelford Lock and weir where I took the following set of abstract style images. This set marks the start of a return to creative photography having been dazzled by the spring scenes along the river - see my previous post.

What caught my eye were the shapes and colours reflected on the lip of the weir, particularly those from the odd single white fluffy cloud passing overhead. Then, perhaps less immediately appealing, were the textures of foaming river water, made more interesting however by including the shadow of the footbridge to the lock: