May: month in review
Each month I aim to pick an image that, in my mind at least, captures the flavour of that month. It might not be the best image from the month, or the most spectacular of subjects; it just needs to illustrate something about the month.
Sunset at Laig Bay, Eigg looking across to the Isle of Rum. Probably my best shot for quite some time…
Fujifilm X-T3 | 10mm f/13 1/2s ISO160
What’s this month’s image? It’s one of the shots from the trip to Eigg with Mc2 Photography. I’ve written about the trip, with more images here.
Did you do anything to it? The in-camera capture was good, but it did need a little work. This is a high dynamic range scene, so I’d exposed for the highlights. The shadows, then, needed some lifting and the saturation has been boosted slightly. I’ve done some dodging and burning, particularly around the pool, to emphasise the white edging against the dark of the pool. Finally, there was another photographer in the edge of the shot who needed to be disappeared…
What’s it doing here? I’d hope that the answer to that was obvious - I just think it’s a bloody good image. The story behind the shot is outlined in much more detail at the link above. I guess the only thing to add is that it was a massive relief to finally get out of the local area and spend some quality time in a stunningly beautiful location. Hopefully, this is the first of a few trips, rather than a brief respite between lockdowns…
What I haven’t shown on the Eigg post are any of the shots from the journey. The drive from Renfrewshire to Mallaig, where we caught the ferry, takes you through some absolutely stunning landscape, including the Glencoe region and some of the iconic landmarks in the area. I’ve shown a few of the images from the journey below.
Have you been up to much else? It’s been quite a busy month; in addition to the Eigg trip we managed a trip down to Manchester to see family and friends. We didn’t see a huge amount of people, but after so long it was really good to catch up and spend some quality time talking face to face.
Any recommendations? A couple…
Reading: A second month where I’ve not really troubled the scorer, but for what it’s worth Scottish Island Bagging by Helen and Paul Webster provided me with some good background and ideas ahead of the Eigg trip. I can see myself dipping into this again and again over the coming months and years.
Listening: The musical accompaniment on the drive up was largely provided by Taylor Swift and, in particular, the Evermore and Folklore albums. Obviously, nothing I can say will add to what’s already been written, so I won’t bother apart from to say I really like both the albums.
Viewing: I had my eyes on a screen, editing the Eigg images, for a chunk of time in the second half of the month. Ragnarok on Netflix provided a good diversion…
Lastly, any final words? Yes - more of the same please.
