Winter in Loch Muick

Dylan Thomas once wrote a poem called “do not go gentle into that good night” and he was raging, quite rightly so, that his father was dying and it wasnt fair that such a good man should pass away?

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light..

And so it is in winter, that photographers shout out “rage, rage against the dying of the light” as winter brings shorter days and flat light. The only bonus through the 4 or 5 months of winter, is when the snow arrives and most landscape photographers leap out of bed and dress up warmly and head out into the wilds.

I’m a lover of loch Muick in the depths of winter, and often head there to chance my luck with the light, as loch Muick has its own climate and until you arrive into the glen, you can never tell what the weather is going to be like.

Glas-allt-Shiel is a royal hunting lodge on the shore of Loch Muick in Aberdeenshire. Its name is Gaelic, and means "Green (or grey) stream lodge" and it sits at the far west side of loch Muick, in the most stunning location between two mountains that sit at the base of Lochnagar.

Although I have walked past this house hundreds of times over the last 7 years or so, i never fail to be amazed at the different beauty of it in any season. Winter though, with snow covering the hills, is the most stunning time to photograph it.

The boat house at loch Muick is owned by a local angling club, but in all the time I have ever been too loch Muick, I have never seen anyone fish there, though they say there is some fabulous trout lurking in the dark waters.

This boat house has always been one of my favorite compositions, with that little tree just adding to the remoteness of the place and on my visits, I have seen it in its autumn glory, covered in snow or just shinning in the morning light. There are days, I walk the full circuit and never see another soul.

The walk from the car park at loch Muick, has only one direction for me (mainly because I walk early mornings) and is along the south side of the loch, so I can view Glas Allt Shiel from the opposite bank, when the sun rises over the hills behind me, bathing this beautiful house in warm morning light.

I don’t think I have ever walked the opposite rotation, yet every time I walk it, it always takes my breathe away when the light appears apon the loch. Stormy days I feel are always best for the light there and on some occasions, I’ve found myself high up on the top of the surrounding mountains, in conditions that scare me, which I should never put myself into, but the search for a different composition drives me higher in worse conditions.

I am always fully dressed for any conditions, but often think of the film where the guy got his arm stuck in a rock and had to cut it off with a penknife. I’m not sure I’m so tough and nowadays tend to be a bit more responsible on where i go.

I walked into loch Muick this day, with only a short walk in mind, as the weather was dull and misty, but the further I walked into the glen, the further I wanted to go as the light was so sublime, i can honestly say, I’ve never seen such good light for a long time, so was sucked into the far end of the loch, stopping often to look and photograph as the mist lifted and the sun started its light show over the loch.

There are large herd of stags and hines around the hills of loch Muick and if your lucky enough, they seem to have no fear and will stand until you can get quite close, albeit with a large zoom lens fitted and on occasions, I seem to recognize their faces from previous shots I have taken of them. There is nothing better than standing in the presence of these magnificent beasts, though don’t get too close during rutting season, as they have been known to attack people

Loch Muick

Loch Muick, the place i decided to try and capture photographically, over the last two years has all but worn me out. I walked around it many times with my 15 kg camera backpack laden on my sore shoulders and i took some images i was more than happy with during these years.

Its a 7.7 mile walk around the Loch and and nothing too strenuous, and the views on dark stormy days, especially with snow on the mountains of the far end of the Loch, are just beyond awe inspiring. I remember many times two years ago, when you could arrive at Loch Muick car park and find a space no problem. Nowadays its chock a block with visitors and most likely, there is just no where to park. Perhaps its my fabulous photos of this place that lurk on the internet somewhere that have attracted so many people? Perhaps its just the fact that we are all becoming more and more conscious of our health and heading to the hills and outdoors space on a regular basis.

One of the main places on the walk, is Glas-allt Shiel house. This fine property was built by Queen Victoria after the death of Prince Albert, and used as a quieter retreat from Balmoral Castle. Its no longer used and remains boarded up. I do wish they would open it up and invite passing walkers to come in for a look.

Then when you get fed up walking around loch Muick, you can tackle the mighty Lochnagar and although this is as far as i have ever got, as it was always so cold to go further up. I plan to do the top very soon, with full camera gear, which will be a feat itself, as this is a round 8 hr trip and im not sure if my poor feet can cope. I did it in winter snow conditions once with a friend and it was just stunning under the dark ominous skies. If your a city dweller and fancy a day in the country to boost your well being, then head out here, as its just stunning.

Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance

Summer in scotland

On a dark stormy summers day, the beach at Aberdeen is always the best place to go to see muted contrasty colours, between the dunes, the sand and the sea. So looking at the sky this day, i headed towards where i thought the storm might go and ended up at Balmedie beach. Having walked along to the higest dune i know there, i turned and looked back towards Aberdeen in the far off distance.

My composition needed a 50/50 balance between the sky and land and i thought a long exposure would suit this contrasty day very well. So i set up my composition to run from left to right and placed the sand and sea, as near to the bottom left as possible, to draw your eye along this line, past the windmills and on, into the distance and Aberdeen. I fifted a Lee 6 stop filter, to help me blur the water, creating my water colour look i like down here and fitted a Lee 0.9 grad filter for holding back the skys exposure.

Having taken my exposure, the rain started as the big storm hit me and i packed and headed back through the wet dunes, down to the sand and along back towards the car.

As i was about to turn off the beach for the car, i saw the sun break through, just about where these kite surfers were, and decided to head back into the dunes for some height perspective, as the light just looked outstanding, with dark stormy clouds, rainbows and these guys kite surfing.

Im not shy when it comes to getting what i want in an image and having spoken to this guy called Ross, he agreed to do some posing for me. Low and behold, while im messing about with compostions, there appears a rainbow.

Having my neutral density filters on, i dont normally use my circular poloriser at the same time. So with some speed and trepidation and constant looking to see if the rainbow would last, i changed to my polariser, got Ross to stand in position and turned the polariser till the rainbow stood out.

A polarizing filter, if you dont know, simply filters out unwanted reflections from non-metallic surfaces such as water and glass in addition to light reflecting off moisture and pollution in the atmosphere and for rainbows, its the go to tool.

All in all, by the time id left, my shoes were full of sand, my jeans were soaking wet, but i had noticed none of this as i was so focused on capturing these guys having fun out there, on what was almost a winters day at the beach. But when you focus, you forget, because your in the moment and on days like this, with the fabulous light, i am glad i was the only photographer out there, seeing and capturing this moment in time for me and the other 3 people who were out there having fun.