Thanks to the wide spread of family across Britain, we get to spend time in some pretty wonderful places when we visit. We spent a little more time than usual with family on the Isle of Skye in Scotland this year and so we got to visit some of the prime spots across the island when we were there.
Some might prefer to visit in summer and enjoy wonderful weather, but as a landscape photographer, my definition of “wonderful weather” is different to most people. I want sunshine, of course, and pleasantly warm weather. But I also want wind and clouds and drama. Sitting looking at a comparatively stationary view of the coast is less inspiring to me, and I much prefer the drama of a coastal landscape.
One of my favourite aspects of visiting the island of Britain and the smaller islands in Scotland is rain squalls. Being on a headland or near the shoreline, watching and photographing clouds brushing sometimes heavy rainfall across the landscape. Winter on the west coast of Scotland is one of the best places to do this, because of the contrast of headlands and sea. Heavy clouds forming above the Atlantic and then dropping to the Earth as they reach land.
There is one caveat, of course, when it comes to such weather. Swiss friends who have visited Britain have often mentioned the wind and the sudden rain which arrives to scupper your plans and, although I have spent a lifetime at the coast, I was caught out when flying my drone in the face of a heavy oncoming rain storm above the Trotternish Ridge and Portree.
Concentrating on the scene I was filming and photographing from some distance away, I had neglected to realise that the rain squall wasn’t just ahead of me, but also coming in from the side. My drone was still a few minutes away when I felt the first drops of rain where I was standing, so it was a great relief that I managed to get it back without the electrics shorting out.
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