Loch Meadie

Today's afternoon expedition was to Loch Meadie. I'd checked it out on the map and there was a farm track running alongside it and a layby to park in, so I packed up my camera rucksack (including tripod for once) and set out.

We'd had the most amazing stripey sky all morning, which was just starting to pass:



I didn't see a single piece of wildlife all day, though I heard a couple of birds. Not sure whether it was the time of year, the place or the fact that the tripod clanked loudly - probably the latter! So I became a landscape photographer for the day:



Until the sky went flat grey and I had to turn to lichens:



and water:



I'm having a play with Lightroom 2.2 at the moment and so far am very impressed. Not quite got to grips with it yet (I've had it less than 24 hours), but I'm finding it a lot more intuitive than Photoshop Elements.

Photography club

I went out to Crosskirk last night with Thurso Photography Club. The weather was pretty horrible, a flat grey sky and drizzle, so we stayed out for an hour and then gave up.

Because of the lack of colour, thanks to the light, I had to think about what would make a good black and white photo. These are my three best attempts from the night (and if you click on any of the pics to go through to Flickr, you'll see the fourth as well, which is another dead sheep!). The building is an old snuff mill.