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

Traveling to the gate

I decided one day, when i lived in south korea, that i wanted to travel through japan, first to go to Kyoto to see the famous bamboo road, take my iconic photo of it and tick off as many other famous places as i could from my dream photography locations list. Though my ultimate goal was to get to Miyajima island and to see the centuries-old Itsukushima Shrine and floating tori gate. This little island is opposite Hiroshima, which you can see in the background, where we all know what happened, back in the 2nd world war. I believe this was the gate used in Wolverine when you saw the atomic bomb dropped and he takes the Japanese officer down the man-hole to save his life.

The shrine and its tori gate are unique for being built over water, seemingly floating in the sea during high tide. The shrine complex consists of multiple buildings, including a prayer hall, a main hall and a noh theater stage, which are connected by boardwalks and supported by pillars above the sea.

Because the experience of Itsukushima Shrine involves the water over which it is built, it is good to be aware of the timings of the tides during one's visit. At high tide the shrine and its gate appear to float above the water, and this is certainly the time at which they are most picturesque. No one told me this and i never really researched it, just saw where it was and headed that way. I’m a spurious traveler and never make plans, i just go and sometimes this backfires on me. With a bit of planning, i would have seen the warnings on the site about the tide and about renovation work they were doing. I could have kicked myself for having traveled all that way to see it covered in scaffolding at low tide.

One thing about the island though, that doesn’t get much attention, is the very friendly deer that just hang out on the street corners and squares of the village.

The border

The Col De Bessata is the border area between france and spain and has the most stunning drive from Pau, along the valley and up through the Pyrenees and into spain. There was once a border, but that no longer exists and now the only remain reason to stop there is for the duty free shops, who sell hugh bulk items at amazing low prices. The sking in these areas is now almost non existant and ski towns remain empty most of the year. These town are spooky nowadays as no one lives in them in some cases and just boiarded up windows and old signs remain to show you that once, these were bustling towns during the winter season.

A few people do come to this area during winter, mainly to walk into the fabulous mountains and pehaps find places to ski. Being in amongst so much snow, is on occasion, pretty odd, as everything is white and a sense of depth in the landscape is missing and there is nothing to focus when its white out conditions.

The contrast between the dark road here and white snow covered mountains, is just so appealing to me and to stand and admire nature in these conditions, just takes my breathe away somedays