silverpenguin7
16-05-2007, 16:48
Well I'm back from my week on Mull, on the west coast of Scotland. We were in this area last year but on the mainland opposite Mull and to be honest it was a very dull location for photography. This year however was very different indeed as Mull is full of potential. Literally every direction you look there is a photo opportunity and if there isn't, you only have to wait 10 minutes for the weather and lighting to change and the chances are what wasn't a photo opp will soon become one!
Below is a selection of photos from the week. I've still got loads and loads of pictures to go through but these are some of my favourites along with some that help tell the story.
Mull itself is an island apprx 20 x 30 miles in size although driving around it can be long and hard work as most of it is single track, twisty and sometimes bumpy road. The only down side to that is you'll often want to stop and take a photo but you won't be able too as there is nowhere to stop or there is something obstructing the view when you can. Its defiantly worth either riding around (which would be a killer with all the hills/mountains etc) or going with a few people and having a non-photographer type drop you off at places so you can explore on foot. Having said about the bikes though, we did drive 300 miles in total during the time we were there so it would be a very hard slog on bike with camera equipment!!
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP03542.jpg
We had to take a ferry from the mainland and did so from Oban, getting to Oban was a lovely drive through some mountain roads and along several lochs. We had to be at the ferry by a certian time as it was pre-booked so no time to stop. I did however take a few pictures from the window as we drive along:
This loch was so still it was like a mirror, I wish I had a chance to get out and take this one properly rather than at 40mph from a car window! lol. I thought it was a bit wonky but its the small bit of land that comes out in front of the house making it look so as I zoomed in and the house appears to be straight...
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP02442.jpg
We also went past a few castles, again I wish I could have stopped rather than taken this from a moving car!
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/Pano- 6-copy.jpg
You go past Duart Castle and this light house on the ferry, unfortunately the weather wasn't very good on the left side of the boat so my castle shots were pretty naff - yep the weather was bad one side of the boat and reasonable the other side lol
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP02523.jpg
Wildlife is everywhere in Mull, its superb. However...trying to get shots of the things you see can be very difficult. You see all kinds of birds and sometimes hare and even deer in the fields, in the mountains or on fence posts and tree's as you drive down the roads (only the birds are on fences and trees of course...lol) but as soon as you stop or slow right down they scarper so its very challenging. But to be honest the fact you can even see all this activity and the surroundings your in mean most of the time your just pleased to be there and to see it full stop. A photo is sometimes just a nice bonus. There are sheep and cattle all over the place, by the road and IN the road:
We had to sit for 10 minutes watching this big old fella chew some grass until he eventually got bored and moved over lol
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04419.jpg
This little chap was in one of the trees on the drive way leading up to the house we stayed in. I was looking for macro stuff along the wall and he just kept flying about right in front of me, sometimes almost within arms reach. He was very fast though so trying to focus on him with the Sigma 105 macro lens was very difficult, although I did manage to at least get this shot of him which I like as it shows his surroundings and I also like the few rain drops here and there. I've alwats been a fan of inviromental wildlife shots so this type of image with the bird not filling the frame is fine by me - it may not be to everyones taste though.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP02897.jpg
There are also a LOT of oyster catchers on the island, and in some places you can drive along very close to the shoreline and see them walking around trying to catch food. This was my favourite shot as he has water droplets on his back as it was just starting to rain.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04386.jpg
There are also a fair few heron on the island although they are very hard to get close as unlike the ones you find in London they are not so used to people. I did however get this one shot of one sitting on a rock scouring the area during a low tide. I didn't really give this shot much thought when I took it, it was just a grab shot from the car at the time but looking at it now I really like the surroundings and think it makes a nice change to the usual heron shots I have of them in trees or just flying around.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04384.jpg
The house we were staying at also had a little bay just down the road and some field with sheep grazing in. On our final day it was really overcast and miserable so we put our water proof gear on, wrapped out camera's in bin bags and headed out to the field/bay. We saw a couple of Rock Pipits darting around collecting food and after watching them for a while worked out what rocks they were perching on. So I waited for one to fly away and crawled very slowly to one of the rocks they kept flying back to. I had just got myself in position and was looking through the viewfinder to set manual metering up when this chap practically landed in site of the lens! This is a full frame shot (although I was in the D2x's high speed crop mode so its actually a %50 crop if your being technical) and two of my favourites, I was lucky that this is the only time out of 3 landings they made where one of them had food in its mouth!
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04630.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04621.jpg
Walking across this field to the small loch behind revealed an island that seals spent all day long sitting on. The first day we saw them I only had the 200-400 so it wasn't very easy to get close shots, so the second day we went back armed with the 600mm which made things slightly easier!
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP03411.jpg
On one of the last evenings we pulled up to the house after a day out to be treated to some young lambs playing around, they were jumping up and down like they were on trampolines and head butting each other and just acting all hyper. It was all we could do to stop laughing as most the time we couldn't leep the camera's trained on them because we were laughing so much lol. I caught this one is mid jump, a perfect spring lamb! First time I have ever seen them acting like this so was pretty pleased to capture the moment as I only grabbed the camera half heartedly as a laugh whilst watching them. I'm not sure what crop I prefer here:
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04448.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04448_portrait.jpg
My bird I.D is not very good so not sure what this bird is, although I'm on the wrong side of the sun for this shot I still quite liked it as an out take:
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04330.jpg
More to follow...
Below is a selection of photos from the week. I've still got loads and loads of pictures to go through but these are some of my favourites along with some that help tell the story.
Mull itself is an island apprx 20 x 30 miles in size although driving around it can be long and hard work as most of it is single track, twisty and sometimes bumpy road. The only down side to that is you'll often want to stop and take a photo but you won't be able too as there is nowhere to stop or there is something obstructing the view when you can. Its defiantly worth either riding around (which would be a killer with all the hills/mountains etc) or going with a few people and having a non-photographer type drop you off at places so you can explore on foot. Having said about the bikes though, we did drive 300 miles in total during the time we were there so it would be a very hard slog on bike with camera equipment!!
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP03542.jpg
We had to take a ferry from the mainland and did so from Oban, getting to Oban was a lovely drive through some mountain roads and along several lochs. We had to be at the ferry by a certian time as it was pre-booked so no time to stop. I did however take a few pictures from the window as we drive along:
This loch was so still it was like a mirror, I wish I had a chance to get out and take this one properly rather than at 40mph from a car window! lol. I thought it was a bit wonky but its the small bit of land that comes out in front of the house making it look so as I zoomed in and the house appears to be straight...
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP02442.jpg
We also went past a few castles, again I wish I could have stopped rather than taken this from a moving car!
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/Pano- 6-copy.jpg
You go past Duart Castle and this light house on the ferry, unfortunately the weather wasn't very good on the left side of the boat so my castle shots were pretty naff - yep the weather was bad one side of the boat and reasonable the other side lol
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP02523.jpg
Wildlife is everywhere in Mull, its superb. However...trying to get shots of the things you see can be very difficult. You see all kinds of birds and sometimes hare and even deer in the fields, in the mountains or on fence posts and tree's as you drive down the roads (only the birds are on fences and trees of course...lol) but as soon as you stop or slow right down they scarper so its very challenging. But to be honest the fact you can even see all this activity and the surroundings your in mean most of the time your just pleased to be there and to see it full stop. A photo is sometimes just a nice bonus. There are sheep and cattle all over the place, by the road and IN the road:
We had to sit for 10 minutes watching this big old fella chew some grass until he eventually got bored and moved over lol
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04419.jpg
This little chap was in one of the trees on the drive way leading up to the house we stayed in. I was looking for macro stuff along the wall and he just kept flying about right in front of me, sometimes almost within arms reach. He was very fast though so trying to focus on him with the Sigma 105 macro lens was very difficult, although I did manage to at least get this shot of him which I like as it shows his surroundings and I also like the few rain drops here and there. I've alwats been a fan of inviromental wildlife shots so this type of image with the bird not filling the frame is fine by me - it may not be to everyones taste though.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP02897.jpg
There are also a LOT of oyster catchers on the island, and in some places you can drive along very close to the shoreline and see them walking around trying to catch food. This was my favourite shot as he has water droplets on his back as it was just starting to rain.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04386.jpg
There are also a fair few heron on the island although they are very hard to get close as unlike the ones you find in London they are not so used to people. I did however get this one shot of one sitting on a rock scouring the area during a low tide. I didn't really give this shot much thought when I took it, it was just a grab shot from the car at the time but looking at it now I really like the surroundings and think it makes a nice change to the usual heron shots I have of them in trees or just flying around.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04384.jpg
The house we were staying at also had a little bay just down the road and some field with sheep grazing in. On our final day it was really overcast and miserable so we put our water proof gear on, wrapped out camera's in bin bags and headed out to the field/bay. We saw a couple of Rock Pipits darting around collecting food and after watching them for a while worked out what rocks they were perching on. So I waited for one to fly away and crawled very slowly to one of the rocks they kept flying back to. I had just got myself in position and was looking through the viewfinder to set manual metering up when this chap practically landed in site of the lens! This is a full frame shot (although I was in the D2x's high speed crop mode so its actually a %50 crop if your being technical) and two of my favourites, I was lucky that this is the only time out of 3 landings they made where one of them had food in its mouth!
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04630.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04621.jpg
Walking across this field to the small loch behind revealed an island that seals spent all day long sitting on. The first day we saw them I only had the 200-400 so it wasn't very easy to get close shots, so the second day we went back armed with the 600mm which made things slightly easier!
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP03411.jpg
On one of the last evenings we pulled up to the house after a day out to be treated to some young lambs playing around, they were jumping up and down like they were on trampolines and head butting each other and just acting all hyper. It was all we could do to stop laughing as most the time we couldn't leep the camera's trained on them because we were laughing so much lol. I caught this one is mid jump, a perfect spring lamb! First time I have ever seen them acting like this so was pretty pleased to capture the moment as I only grabbed the camera half heartedly as a laugh whilst watching them. I'm not sure what crop I prefer here:
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04448.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04448_portrait.jpg
My bird I.D is not very good so not sure what this bird is, although I'm on the wrong side of the sun for this shot I still quite liked it as an out take:
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c22/richardmpeters/Mull/_RP04330.jpg
More to follow...