Sunnyside Studio

What is needed here is the sun; perhaps to light up the dark green Scots pines and exaggerate the contrast of the yellows, reds and browns of the deciduous trees along the river bank. Maybe also to bring out the folds in the hillside with patches of light and chase shadows across the mountains.

The sun teased me the whole of this day. There would be a splash of light on some distant peak; a lightening of the grey and a patch of blue above. I would set up the camera, focus on the chosen scene and wait and wait. Perhaps next year the sun will enhance the scene (for there always is a next year and a reason to return) but today the colours must speak for themselves.

There is a problem in taking a shot like this; apart from the purely physical one of setting up camera and tripod on slippery wet rock, inches from deep fast flowing water. People are curious. They may even be interested in cameras. Perhaps they are taking bets on whether or not my camera and I will end up in the river. Whatever. They stand and watch and stick their heads over the parapet of the bridge. Sometimes they wave or shout things down which I cannot hear because of the rushing water. I smile and nod and wave back, probably a bad tactic. I want them to be bored. But as soon as one lot eventually wander off a new set of heads pops up. There must be a queue! Someone is making a fortune selling tickets!

Believe me; this shot took a lot of effort and a lot of time.

Within a sunlit wood there is a mixture of bright sunlight, dappled shade and deep shadow; beautiful to the eye. The result on a photograph can disappoint and often does not recapture the image as it was remembered because our eyes can encompass a much bigger range of "exposures" than film.

A grey sort of day is often a good time to try to take pictures in the woods because of the soft, diffused, even light. Success is even more likely when the trees carry their Autumn colours.

Once upon a time a glacier filled this valley and the rubble it once carried is now left, here and there, in untidy heaps. They stand out amid the green of the flatter land, through the bracken, orange-brown at this time of year and even without the sun, almost glowing.

What initially caught my eye here were the two tributary streams, tumbling white and fast down the steep valley side.

A volcanic dyke of harder rock resists the river's erosion, forcing it into a narrow cleft. The narrowness of the river at this point, plus the firm foundation of solid rock create an ideal bridging point.

Thus do nature and man combine to aid the photographer. One provides the spectacle, while the other, the perfect platform from which to photograph it.