October: month in review
'Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower' - Albert Camus
Stag, Glen Strathfarrar
Sony A7R V | 400mm f/5.6 1/640s ISO 500
What’s this month’s image? It’s a rather magnificent stag captured halfway up Glen Strathfarrar, caught in the light and the mist.
Did you do anything to it? It’s been cropped and the contrast adjusted. Apart from that there’s very little that needed to be done - it’s all in the capture.
What’s it doing here? Photographically it’s been a very quiet month. The (hopefully) impending house move has left us a little in limbo and while there’s been paperwork to sort through, we don’t feel that we’ve made much progress. It was a relief, therefore, to grab a few days up north around the Glen Affric area towards the end of the month. While Scotland in October can be a bit of a lottery in terms of the weather - it’s equally likely to be glorious or atrocious - if anywhere is going to give you a chance of autumn colour, it’s Glen Affric.
This is an area I’ve been to before - I wrote about my last trip on an Mc2 Photography workshop here - so I knew that I wanted to revisit Glen Strathfarrar. Access is restricted, so the only day that worked was the Monday. In the event we were lucky with the weather. Not only did the rain stay away for the majority of the trip, we had an absolutely fabulous day on the Monday with a combination of mist and, later, the sun starting to break through the mist.
About halfway up the glen we spotted a small herd of deer not far from the side of the road by a small copse of trees. We managed to park up and I was able to grab a few shots without spooking the animals. The mist in the background helped separate the stag from the wood in the background as well as muting the colours. The final element is the sunlight breaking through the mist and picking out the deer.
This was just one highlight of our day in Glen Strathfarrar. The combination of frost, mist and sunlight really showed what is already a very special place at its very best. I’ve included a few more from the day below, as well as a selection from the following day. The conditions were less spectacular, but a heavy fog in the morning on the Tuesday yielded some interesting results.
Have you been up to much else? As mentioned at the top of the post, we’ve felt a little bit caught waiting on other folk for the house move. The result is that I’ve been out with the camera a little less than normal. That said, we did bookend the Glen Affric trip with a couple of stops in Glencoe and a visit to Urquhart Castle and towards the end of the month spent a lovely morning up at Loch Katrine, which was a great way to close out the month.
Although the month was quiet, the club did manage an afternoon outing to Overtoun House. While it’s a great location, the conditions on the afternoon were, frankly, a bit disappointing. I was delighted, then, when I returned with Helen the following week to be met with a lovely mist rolling in over the hills. A great walk was topped off with a few images that make up this month’s panel.
Lang Craigs
Fujifilm X-T3 | XF 18-55mm + XF 70-300mm, various settings
Coming Up
We have a few days in the North East towards the end of the month, but apart from that it’s looking like a very quiet month indeed…
