Photos in the 2016 Scottish Field Calendars
2016 approaches and you’re going to to need some way to remind yourself not to scribble the wrong date on your cheques (if you still write cheques). What better way to do it than with some lovely images from Scotland?
A few of my photos are featured in two of the Scottish Field Calendars for 2016 including my image of Dunvegan Castle on the cover of the mini version of the calendar. You can preview/buy the mini calendar here and the regular one here. Below, you’ll find the images they’ve used.
And there are plenty more of my images of Scotland here and here.
Scots Magazine Cover
Readers of the Scots Magazine can see a big version of one of my photos of Scotland’s Rannoch Moor on the cover of the June issue available now.
And for anyone interested in seeing more of my pictures from one of my favourite countries to photograph, check out this gallery of images from Scotland. And here’s a second one if you can’t get enough!
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Second Gallery of Scotland Photos
My photos of Scotland are some of my most popular, so I saw that as an opportunity to visit that magical land again (and again) to get more photos to share with you. Here’s my second instalment of photos from Scotland.
And as a bonus, my original Scotland gallery has also received a few new additions. Enjoy!
Crovie, Scotland
Photo of the Day
The tiny village of Crovie was one of my favourite spots on my most recent visit to Scotland. This former fishing village has only one walkway that is too narrow for cars, so everyone has to park at one end of the town. But even given that fact, apparently Tesco will still deliver groceries there! I saw a couple of delivery people carting a load of food up to the last house in the village while I was there. It’s not recommended that visitors drive all the way down the steep slope to the village, so they did a good job to get there.
The quiet row of houses is a magical place.
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Dunnottar Castle
Photo of the Day
The sun rises behind Dunnottar Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
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Bow Fiddle Rock
Photo of the Day
The sun rises behind Bow Fiddle Rock off the north Coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
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Glen Affric
Photo of the Day
Glen Affric is sometimes described as the most beautiful glen in Scotland. Since I haven’t seen them all, I can’t officially comment, but if there are glens that surpass this place in beauty, I want to see them.
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Dusk at Eilean Donan Castle
Photo of the Day
I’ve posted a few photos of Eilean Donan Castle here so I won’t bore you with my waxing poetically about the beauty of the place. Here’s a panoramic image that should speak for itself.
Click here for more of my photos of Scotland.
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Fingal’s Cave
Photo of the Day
The jewel of the the uninhabited island of Staffa is Fingal’s Cave, a giant sea cave formed entirely from hexagonal basalt columns. The small island is west of the Isle of Mull and attracts visitors mainly for this natural wonder.
Tempestuous waters jostled our boat while we attempted to moor, but expert guidance from our boat’s crew allowed all of us to safely hop onto the jetty so that we could make the short walk to the cave. The basalt columns formed by ancient volcanic eruptions serve as the pathway to the cave and you almost feel like you’re walking on a giant batch of french fries.
Once we arrived at the main attraction, the high tides pushed waves into the cave where they thunderously crashed against the walls. That awesome roar from the waves was quite a show and easily made up for the choppy seas we faced getting on and off the boat.
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Blackrock Cottage Panorama
Photo of the Day
Scotland’s dramatic vistas attract landscape photographers in swarms. The dependability of certain spots is clear when you scout out locations on Google Maps: you can often find photographers with cameras set up on tripods pointed at prime locations on the street view.
The Blackrock Cottage, just east of the entrance to Glencoe, is another one of those iconic views that every photographer has to grab if they’re anywhere nearby. On a trip into the highlands, you pass within a mile or two of this picturesque home, so of course, on the way up I had to stop and try my luck.
I tried to put my own spin on the oft-photographed view by making it into a panorama and capturing a little more of the stark surrounding countryside and not just the cottage with the imposing peak of Buchaille Etive Mor in the background.
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Lunga Island Puffin Call
Photo of the Day
Some of the tiny, uninhabited islands off the western coast of Scotland make ideal fare for a boat excursion thanks to their wild, isolated landscapes and some excellent wildlife opportunities. The Treshnish Isles, a group of small islands west of the Isle of Mull offer the opportunity to get up close and personal with one of the cutest of all birds, the Atlantic Puffin.
These hilarious waddlers stumble along the edges of the island’s cliffs and trip over themselves to get into the small holes they call nests. With how ungainly they are on land, you’d swear they were related to penguins. And while penguins show their grace in the water, the puffins get to be quick and nimble in the air. Darting from cliffs to sea and back, they move in blurs. It’s only when they get back to the cliffs that they start flopping around in an effort to get one foot in front of the other.
While you can’t exactly cuddle with them (and believe me, you’ll want to), they’re surprisingly tolerant of human presence on their island. Us big mammals have the habit of scaring away some of the puffins’ predators, so they don’t mind if we’re getting a few feet away from them with our cameras whirring away like paparazzi on the red carpet. The one in the image below was calling out to one of his puffin compatriots, perhaps wondering who they guy with the big lens in his face was.
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Ardnamurchan Point Lighthouse
Photo of the Day
Recent adventures to Scotland took me to the Ardnamurchan peninsula which features the most Westerly point in mainland Great Britain. Narrow, winding roads rise and fall over the stark, wavy landscape to reach Ardnamurchan point which features a picturesque lighthouse as seen below.
This shot required manoeuvring over a rough terrain full of tiny creeks, slippery stones, and tidal inlets as well as around sheep that looked unhappy to have me in their presence, but those rocks in the foreground along with the long exposure of the turbulent water gave this photo more texture and depth than I might have gotten from a more accessible location.
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Over Eilean Donan Castle
Photo of the Day
I’ve recently returned from another great week in Scotland. They all seem to be great, but this one even had the weather contributing to the quality of life. Sunny skies have browned my arms while hiking through gorgeous glens, trekking up and down hills overlooking lochs and castle, and spotting just about every bit of wildlife that the UK seems to have on offer.
One of those lochs and castles visited was the magical Eilean Donan on Loch Duich. It’s one of my favourite places in the world and I keep hoping I get to be in its neighbourhood every time I go up to Scotland.
For today’s photo of the day, I embarked on a little trek that quickly got a lot longer than anticipated when I was struggling to get the view I wanted. Driving up the tiny country road that provides views above the castle wasn’t quite good enough for me, but I couldn’t find an accessible path up to the hills. A couple miles of driving, a hefty climb, and then a couple of miles traversing steep slopes back to almost where I had started and I wound up in the spot I wanted just as the sun was descending.
The result is below showing the sun touching the mountains in the west while the colours sweep across the panorama of the lochs and castle below.
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My Photos in Countryfile Magazine
Check out the May issue of Countryfile Magazine and you’ll find one of my images of the Old Man of Storr. It’s a big, two-page spread image that’s part of their article on Scotland’s Isle of Skye.
I don’t have a copy of the issue yet, but here’s the image for your viewing pleasure (click for a larger view):
And I neglected to mention my last appearance in the magazine – in the March issue, another photo from Skye got a two-page treatment:
Here’s the photo of Skye’s Sligachan Bridge on its own (click for a larger view):
Lastly, check out my gallery to see a bunch more of my photos of Scotland.
Dunvegan Castle and MacLeod’s Tables
Photo of the Day
This view of Dunvegan Castle on Scotland’s Isle of Skye required that I grow a few feet to get a line of sight over the trees. I’ve been trying for years, but I don’t seem to be getting any taller, so I took to the branches to gain some height.
I can’t say I recommend precariously balancing yourself in a prickly tree with a camera in one hand trying to keep steady enough to take a photo, but sometimes that’s just the only way to get the shot. It was no more than a few feet off the ground, but those few feet made all the difference.
My goal with this shot was to be able to get the castle and MacLeod’s Tables in the same shot. They’re the two unique flat-topped hills you see in the middle of the background.
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Evening in Glen Coe
Photo of the Day
As I trundled up a boggy hillside soaking myself up to the ankles while being swarmed by midges, I thought to myself, “I have to come back here and spend more time.” No, really!
I only had one all-too-brief evening in Glen Coe, Scotland and much of my time was actually spent in nearby Rannoch Moor. So, I owe Glen Coe another visit. I need to climb some of those hills. Just look at ’em! Great walks are sure to abound in these stunning Scottish highlands.
So, until I get back there, I will gaze longingly at this photo and know that some gorgeous sights await me.
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Neist Point Lighthouse
Photo of the Day
Here’s another one from the beautiful Isle of Skye in Scotland. I could explore that place for weeks…
This image is from Neist Point, a rocky promontory that extends out from the Westernmost part of Skye. The drive there follows one of the island’s ridiculously narrow roads covered in sleeping sheep and stops a short walk from the cliff tops towering over the ocean. There is a walk down to the lighthouse pictured below, but I was more interested in this dramatic perspective with the cliffs rising above the land and sea.
Click to see the image on a black background:
Panorama of the Storr
Photo of the Day
A while ago I posted this image of the Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.
Today’s image comes from the opposite side of the Old Man. It was a breathtaking walk to get all the way around that took me to the summit of the Storr where a crystal-clear day allowed me to see almost the whole Isle of Skye in a 360-degree view. As evidenced by this photo, the views didn’t stop as I made my descent. This brilliant day gave me a great view of the magnificent rocks towering over the landscape.
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Rannoch Moor Sunrise Panorama
Photo of the Day
The great views from Scotland’s Rannoch Moor keep coming. All of these spots are just off the road that leads into Glen Coe. I hope I get the chance to go back and explore more of the area to see if I can find any good walking trails.
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Rannoch Moor at Dusk Panorama
Photo of the Day
From near the same spot as the previous photo of the day, the sun has set and the dusk colour paints the sky over Rannoch Moor.
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Rannoch Mooor at Panorama at Sunset
Photo of the Day
A perfectly colourful sunset breaks over Rannoch Moor in the Scottish Highlands.
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Eilean Donan Castle Evening Panorama
Photo of the Day
Here’s the last one for now from Eilean Donan Castle. This is also from from this evening that threatened to kick up a serious storm with these brooding clouds. The rains never came in force, so I was able to capture this without getting too wet, though I did have to clean off the lens a few times. Scotland’s dramatic weather made for a colourful, moody background to this gorgeous location.
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Eilean Donan Castle at Dusk
Photo of the Day
Stormy skies gather in the evening above Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland.
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The Bridge to Eilean Donan Castle
Photo of the Day
The last photo of the day was a bit far away from Scotland’s Eilean Donan Castle, so we’ve moved closer and in this shot. Now, we’re ready to cross the bridge on the way out to the little tidal island that is home to one of the UK’s loveliest castles.
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Darby Sawchuk is a Canadian-born photographer who currently resides in Manchester, England. He has travelled to over 40 countries and is always adding more to the list. He creates stock for multiple agencies and is available for assignments.
+44 0790 992 8932
