6 Days On Skye

Sat 1st November
The drive to Skye didn't fill us with enthusiasm, it was blowing a gale and driving a monsoon before it and to make matters worse the forecast for Sun wasn't much better.

Sunday :- Day 1
5am rise and a 1 hour drive to the Quirang in the north east of the island for sunrise, hope it does, and it did - in style. The pleasure of being in a spectacular location coupled with the magic of sunrise cannot be put into words or captured with photography, this is a fabulous place to be at this time of the morning, not just my opinion, I have never seen so many people with cameras in one place in my life, we were there from about 07:00 to round about 11:00 and there must have been another 30 photographers during that time and they were still arriving when we left. The Isle of Skye can be a nightmare for photography especially in the winter months but our first morning was glorious. From the Quirang we went to the impressive falls of Rha at Uig and from there to the Fairy Glen but by that time the weather was back, heavy rain was blowing through, by 2'o' clock the light was well and truly busted and by 3'o' clock we were back on the road heading for home

Quirang at sunrise

Monday :- Day 2

Another 5am rise with the plan to head south to Ord, Tokavaig and Tarskavaig, the day promised so much, we could see stars when we were loading the van, half an hour later it was raining and it rained all day at the south end of the island. The area of Ord, Tokavaig and Tarskavaig has a lot of potential if the weather gods are in a good mood but not today so we headed back north and made for Lovaig Bay just north of Dunvegan for the last of the daylight and salvaged the day with some nice reflections and a reasonable sunset.

Morning at Ord

Tuesday :- Day 3

Late rise this morning as we were planing to shoot at the Neist Point Lighthouse area. Morning was very windy but dry and our early sojourn took us to the south side of the lighthouse ( not the classic shot but worthwhile ), from there we drove to a small harbour at Lower Milovaig where the shore is covered with large stones which are black when wet, the shore is also frequented with sheep which graze on the seaweed and don't mind the occasional photographer, then on to what was our prime target for the day :- the lighthouse at Neist Point at sunset and predictably the rain was off and on and the wind was doing its best to blow us and half a dozen other photographers off the cliff. we stayed for the sunset which the colour junkies enjoyed. The weather forecast for Wed is good all day so Arthur and I decided to return for morning shots before heading to Talisker Bay to meet up with the other guys.  THAT'S THE PLAN !!

Wednesday :- Day 4

Well it did what it said on the tin.

Gordon, Martin and Phil headed of south just after 06:00 and had to scrape ice from the windscreen, Arthur and I had another hour then set off to Neist Point for sunrise and it was well worth the return trip

Neist Point taken on Tues

Tues at sunset there were about a dozen photographers at Neist Point but on Wed. morning there were two and sunrise wins hands down.

Arthur and I as planed headed for Talisker Bay while Gordon, Martin and Phil were shooting at Silgachan Bridge then meeting us at Talisker Bay. The tide was out early doors so the sand was uncovered giving us some wide shots with good lines in the sand then when the tide came in flowing through the rocks the photography was all about slow shutter speeds, AND the sun stayed out all day :- 5 happy guys.

Thursday :- Day 5
TOTAL WRITE OFF
Gale force winds and horizontal rain put paid to any photographic aspirations today so we all huddled round Martins laptop and he gave us an idiots guide to Lightroom. Thanks Martin.

Oor Digs for the week

Friday :- Day 6
The forecast was promising so we drove south to Elgol for 09:00 another one of the iconic photographic locations on Skye, we stayed there for a couple of hours waiting for the light or the clouds or the tide all in pursuit of the photographers dream, needless to say it didn't happen but we all took some OK photographs. We took to the road again stopping at every other "passing place" for a tree or a lochan or a wee hoose and finally made it back to Tokavaig for the last of the light on our last day with the intention of covering some stuff we were unable to on Monday when the weather was only slightly better then horrid

Iconic Elgol

The Isle of Skye has many iconic locations Quirang, Storr, Fairy Glen, Neist Point and Talisker Bay which are a must visit for any photographer but once these "bankers" are in you must seek out your own images and this is not always easy when it's lashing down with rain and blowing a gale but this is our drug of choice.

DO WE REALLY DO THIS FOR ENJOYMENT