Sharon and I were on our second trip to Scotland together, and our second time on Skye. It was one of those Scottish days that inspires the phrase, “There is no such thing as bad weather in Scotland, only incorrect clothing.”
A brisk wind kept the clouds rolling and the occasional drops of moisture necessitated frequent cleanings of eyeglasses and lenses.
We were driving north out of Portree on the A855 around The Trotternish Peninsula. Shortly after we passed the “Old Man of Storr” formation, we pulled in to the Rigg viewpoint, which was wet and muddy from the precipitation of the day.
Looking back towards the main part of Skye, I saw this incredible view and when I looked through my 70-200mm lens, the composition seemed to form itself. I immediately knew that this would end up as a black and white image, the only question was could I keep the long lens steady in the wind.
Hanging the camera bag on the tripod steadied it enough to expose a number of frames, and it was this one, with the best cloud formations of the lot that revealed themselves in the processing back home on the computer, that became one of my all-time favorite images.
And one of my most honored, having been included in a number of exhibitions, including The Center for Fine Art Photography’s “B&W” Exhibition in 2018; APA Los Angeles’ “Off The Clock” Exhibition in 2023; and Black and White Magazine’s “Single Image issue in 2022.
Oh, and “Raasay”comes from the Norse language and means "Isle of the Roe Deer,” The Isle of Raasay being home to an endemic subspecies of bank vole. And now to a new distillery!
