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The weather at the beginning of October was superb and luckily it tied in with a weeks holiday I had booked from work. A last minute decision saw myself and my mate Sean grab our cameras and tents and headed to the Isle of Skye for a wild camp and photography trip!! I was on Skye for the first time earlier this year on a family holiday and instantly fell in love with the place. I knew I had to come back and dedicate some time to landscape photography.
We left central Scotland at 6:30am on Sat 8th Oct and headed for the Fairy Glen, towards the north of the island. To break the 6.5 hour journey we stopped at Eilan Donan Castle to get a few pictures.
1 by
Graham Williamson, on Flickr
17 by
Graham Williamson, on Flickr
The next stop was the Fairy Glen, near Uig. As soon as you cross the Skye Bridge and start to head towards Portree you instantly forget about the travelling as you pass through the beautiful landscape. We arrived at the Fairy Glen about 15:00 and decided we would spend two hours exploring and photographing this enchanted area. To be honest, I could have spent a full day taking pictures here, so many compositions to choose from. We climbed to the top of Castle Ewen, which is a great vantage point, took a few more pics and then decided we would head across country to The Quiraing to set up camp.
37 by
Graham Williamson, on Flickr
28 by
Graham Williamson, on Flickr
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Graham Williamson, on Flickr
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Graham Williamson, on Flickr
We parked the car at the bottom car park and walked over towards the famous Quiraing tree to find a pitch. As we were pitching our tents the sun was setting to the west of the island. We decided to pitch the tents on the east coast, so we could capture the sunrise in the morning. As the sun was setting we looked across to see the sun clipping the tops of the Quiraing hills. The tents got left lying flat as we rushed about trying to capture this incredible scene that was happening right in front of us. The light faded very quickly, but I was lucky enough to get one image!
30 by
Graham Williamson, on Flickr
The weather was pretty cloudy, but the clouds were supposed to clear at around 23:00. I was hopeful of an amazing Astro shot with my tent lit up in the foreground, the hills of the Quiraing behind the tent and the milky way towering above...not one star appeared. After "a few" shandies I went to bed gutted the stars weren't out.
After a couple of hours sleep my alarm went off at 5:30am. Time to get up and head to the Quirang Tree for Sunrise. It was still pitch black with some faint light appearing on the horizon. It wasn't until I started taking photos of the tent lit up that I realised the potential for an amazing sunrise. I was taking some long exposure shots of the tent and the camera was obviously capturing more light than my eyes could see. I knew at this point we were in for a spectacular sunrise!
Quiraing - Wild camp by
Graham Williamson, on Flickr
Quiraing Sunrise by
Graham Williamson, on Flickr
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Graham Williamson, on Flickr
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Graham Williamson, on Flickr
Quiraing Sunrise - Looking East towards mainland by
Graham Williamson, on Flickr
Isle Of Skye - Quiraing Tree by
Graham Williamson, on Flickr
What we witnessed that morning truly was a one off sunrise - the light was soft, the cloud cover was perfect which created amazing colours across the sky, there was no wind at all and as it was early October there were no midges!!! Nine times out of ten whilst shooting landscape photography in Scotland you face problems, usually with the weather, but that one time when everything comes together is a very unique and rewarding experience.
After flying my drone about for a bit we headed to the Fairy Pools on the road home, stopping off in a lay by to get a quick snap of the Old Man Of Storr. What a great experience wild camping on one of Scotland's finest islands.
Isle Of Skye - Old Man Of Storr by
Graham Williamson, on Flickr
Isle Of Skye - Fairy Pools by
Graham Williamson, on Flickr
