I woke up today with a confirmed cold which was resting mostly in my throat so it is more livable than a constantly runny nose. We met to eat quickly at 7:30 and wanted to be outside the hotel on the bay for sunrise or closely thereafter. It was clearing up nicely but with some remnant clouds for a bit of drama. I purposely asked more questions today and got more help with my new wide angle lens, which I think turned out nicely.
We spent a lot of time here and didn’t hit the road until 9:30. Our first stop was in Fort William where there is a shipwrecked boat right on the beach. I worked with Karl first and learned how to do exposure bracketing, which will help even out the darks on the ship and the highlights in the sky. The problem is I won’t see exactly how it worked until I get home and combine the three exposures into one in Lightroom. Ah well, something to look forward to! I also used my wide angle lens here to photograph the ship from a very low angle at the bow, which should look really interesting. The culture or history behind a lot of our stops gets a bit lost in the photography so I’ve been making a point to either ask or look it up myself. In this case, an inebriated captain beached the ship in a bad storm and the water has never risen enough to float the boat again, so it’s just been left. I saw another one further up the coast also just left to decay in place.
We ate another lunch from Karl’s cafe today. I had cheese and chutney sandwich with potato chips and a lovely slice of date nut pound cake.
From here we drove on towards the Isle of Skye. Karl stopped for us at a hairy coo farm. They had six hairy coos of various ages, which was cool to see (and quieted a few of the women who’d been repeatedly asking about them). But more significant for me was a wild deer sighting near the farm. I quickly swapped out my landscape lens for my longer lens and got some really nice shots. It was a truly handsome animal. I was thrilled to have seen it.
Next stop was Eilean Donan castle, which I must have seen on a million calendars over the course of my life. Never did I think I’d ever get to see it! We set up in a great spot and again I worked with Don on perspective and composition. Still using my exposure bracketing, I took a zillion photos even dabbling in some black and white. We moved our positions a few different times to get different angles. I’m really hopeful they come out well when I get them compiled back home.
It took another 45 minutes or so to get to Portree, where our hotel is. It was dark and (surprise!) raining again after being dry all day. The area looks really pretty but I’m really looking forward to seeing it in the daylight. The hotel is gorgeous. My room is huge with a big soft king bed. It is quite warm too so I turned the radiator off and opened a window or I’ll be coughing all night.
Dinner tonight was lovely. I chose the bleu cheese croquette with the potato gnocchi and the chocolate gingerbread with gingerbread ice cream. The croquette had a sliced fig which was a nice pairing. The gnocchi was unlike any I’ve had before, it was more like rigatoni stuffed with potato with a light almond sauce rather than tomato. The gingerbread was to die for. I’m a big gingerbread fan and this did not disappoint.
Early to be because I hope to beat the worst of the cold before tomorrow’s activities.
No comments:
Post a Comment