West of Scotland or Costa Brava?
Monochrome can be quite majestic!!
Life at the top can be hard, cloudy even!
Who said old is not beautiful?
Not played King or Queen of the castle yet?
Late evening sun in it's glory! Whats not to love?
For the non Scots readers, the North Coast 500 is Scotland's answer to the famed Route 66 across America? Not quite as long so not so much of an endurance test but well worth considering to experience the majestic views of the Northern Highlands.
A welcome break in August 2020 after the first COVID 19 lock-down afforded booking several hotels and embarking on our first ever tour of the North Coast 500. Despite spending 4 years on the Moray Firth in the 1980's, never before ventured any further north than the Black Isle.
The 500 last summer, 2020, was busy but no where near as busy as summer 2021 due to the easing of the second pandemic lock-down in the UK and Scotland and the unavailability of foreign travel for the sun seekers.
My first regret was not having being in possesion of a decent camera other than a Samsung S8. Second regret was booking only 5 days to do the journey. May be next time then. While the S8 resulted some stunning pictures in my unbiased opinion, yearned for a decent SLR.
See below link to find out more about the North Coast 500, although there is far more to be found on line. Plenty of content worth checking out on YouTube as well.
Find out more about the North Coast 500.On return from doing the North Coast 5oo and having toyed with the idea of actually investing in renewing my teenage fascination with photography, a decision was made to go for it. A lot of watching tutorials on social media from professional and amateur photographers contributed a lot to that decisive move.
Next up, which camera. Further research and videos from users on social media on an entry and intermediate camera gear followed resulting in the purchase of Canon 250D (SL3) and the standard kit lens plus a telephoto lens for good measure.
Preparations were made to get some practice when the second lock down due to Covid 19 started to kick in. Getting out and about was confined to the weekends due to winter daylight hours and work through the week. This was further hampered by an unexpected medical revelation not related to Covid taken priority over the following months. A good time to catch up on videos on both photography and photo editing again in social media whilst awaiting treatment and the subsequent recovery.
The itch resurfaced in the spring 2021. Excursions to local areas of interest were made, usually late evening. Weekends away to Scotland’s beauty spots were par for the course with camera in hand so to speak. Did do not get out and about as much as intended, hopefully as the bounce back from both treatment and the pandemic proceeds, that will change.
Looking for a home on the web to showcase images taken to family, friends and acquaintances and not being taken to Instagram and other photographic free storage facilities available, we had a conundrum over how to proceed. Was a no brainer really. By profession as a software engineer and with both a domain and Virtual Private Server to spare, where else would it go. It also gave a chance to develop some of our own space out there. This website is the result.
What you will find here is not of the standard you would expect to see produced by professionals. With content taken by someone who is at best a knowledgable beginner. Feel free to browse the results of excursions around the locality of the area and Scotland that were visited over the last 12 months and going forward. Feel free to comment, try and keep it complimentary. Constructive criticism, feel free.
Images posted here are copyright protected and trademarked. At present there is no intention of placing images up for sale. Do hope you enjoy.
© Updated September 2021.