Briefly in Orkney
Recently I had a wonderful, but all too brief, stopover in the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland. Staying only two nights, and with family in tow, the photographic opportunities were even more restricted. But it proved to be an ideal chance to explore just a bit of these islands, and indulge my landscape photography habit.
The Orkney Islands are reached by a one hour ferry from the very north of the mainland, (you can fly in from Glasgow). My ferry to St Margaret's Hope, sailed into Scapa Flow, famous as the base for the British Navy during World War I, and for the later scuttling of many ships of the German fleet in 1919. Lots of warlike remnants litter the shoreline including gun emplacements and lookout posts. The natural harbour is a very popular diving spot for obvious reasons (though a bit chilly I imagine).With my time for landscape photography seriously restricted, I ended up with two dawn outings and one at sunset which wasn't too bad considering. And my my, what amazing light there was. There's a bit of a move against nuclear sunrises amongst the landscaperati these days. But hey, if it's stupendously, ridiculously fantastic, what else is there to do than take a picture of it?
I have actually reduced the saturation on the image above. Aside from that it's pretty much straight out of the camera. This sunrise was stupendous. I have never seen anything like it. The layered clouds, gaps for the sun to peek through and under light it all. Just gorgeous.This was a few minutes earlier at the huge ring of standing stones that make up the Ring of Brodgar.
And even earlier, I got to the Stones of Stenness well before sunrise hoping for a whole load of stars to be on show, but a full moon and high cloud cover put paid to my astrophotography ambitions. However, the spooky atmospherics made up for it, with sheep lurking about with their eyes glowing in the light of my head torch, and these huge stones (16 feet high) lurking in the moonlight.
The origin of these very thin slabs became obvious as I headed for the west coast, which is very rugged and lined with sandstone high cliffs. The strata of the sandstone creates layers which the Atlantic smashes to pieces, resulting in some of the most textured clifftops I've seen. Just looking about at Yesnaby was worth the trip to Orkney on its own (lead image).Yesnaby is superb. With sea stacks and arches, and the wild Atlantic swells crashing against the cliffs, it's a treat just to sit and watch the drama unfold. being there for sunrise is the icing on the cake, as the light starts skimming across the cliff tops and highlighting the form and features of the cliffs.To make things even more memorable, while shooting a set of 15 second exposures, a movement to my right caught my eye. Literally 10 feet away from me on the clifftop was an otter. An actual wild Scottish otter! These things are rare to see, let alone closeup. This chap was doing his morning rounds long the cliff and must have completely missed me as I was standing very still. As I turned and saw him (it took a while to figure out what this animal was - I thought it was a dog at first), he saw me and cleared off as I tried frantically to get the filters off my camera and attempt to get a picture of him. Too late - though I did manage a distant shot as he ran off, but at 28mm I have to say my kit wasn't ideal.Speaking of kit, for this trip my Leica M-240 was with me again. The majority of my pictures were taken with the amazing 28mm Summicron which is startlingly sharp and generally a beautiful lens. I also had 50mm and 90mm Summicrons with me, and a set of Lee 75mm filters. For this kind of accurate landscape work I do prefer to use the electronic viewfinder for framing.
This camera definitely has a hold over me. It is so enjoyable and involving to use. Everything is simple and well thought through. It takes a bit of time to learn how to get the best from it, especially when using the Lee filters, but this pays off big time. I have used many cameras over the years, and been annoyed by most of them. The Leica is simply a joy to use. I'm not even bothered by the mandatory wait for noise reduction on long exposure shots - I use the time to look about and work out if I can improve the composition of my image or move to a different location.When using the Lee filters, its impossible to focus with the rangefinder when they are in situ as the filters and holder block the window. What I do is get set up, find my composition, set my focus without the filters on (the adapter ring can stay on without blocking anything) moving the camera if necessary, then clip the filter holder on and regain the composition, then set exposure values. For anything longish exposure I'll use a cable release to trigger the shutter. For bulb exposures I'll just count the number of seconds I need.The amazingness of the Leica Summicron-M 28mm is nicely demonstrated in the image below from the tidally cut-off island of the Brough of Birsay (worth a little walk to, but watch the tide times!!!).
I know I'm repeating myself from other posts, but having such a superb quality camera and lenses, with filters and everything else that fits into a small shoulder bag, makes the whole exercise of walking miles to get a shot that much more enjoyable.I recommend anyone who goes to Orkney visits the World Heritage site Scara Brae. And rather than scooting up the side of the visitor centre and going to the site without paying, get into the centre, pay to support the upkeep of the site, and learn lots about it. The visitor centre is excellent. Saving this site from the ravages of the Atlantic is a key use of your money too - and it's worth saving. Stone age people living in Orkney, thriving, farming, and making big stone circles - it's all rather amazing really.I have a theory on the stone circle thing. I think it all started out quite innocently. One bloke found a pointy stone and put it up in his garden. His neighbour got quite jealous of this pointy feature, and went out to find his own, but a bit bigger. Over the years the feuding-by-monolith escalated somewhat out of control, with the neighbours getting bigger and bigger stones. Then the first guy decided not to have just one stone, but to have three of them. His neighbour upped the ante and made a ring of them. And away we go, leading to eventually Stonehenge. I know I'm right.Anyhow, back to the photography thing. I returned to the west coast for sunset, and had a hunch that Marwick might be a good spot from looking at the map. And wow - how fantastic it is. Worth the trip on it's own. The slabby sandstone creates gorgeous shelves and ledges that catch the light and the sea. I tried to channel my "inner Wardiness", and looked for strong compositions amongst the chaos of broken rock as the sun went down. Hugely enjoyable and challenging.
As you can see it all got rather triangular.I also happened upon a young Italian couple who were photographing the same scene. What nice people. They loved Orkney, and were getting married a few days later on the islands. They wanted to stay and live there. We had a great time chatting and exploring the coastline around Marwick.What a lovely trip. I've put Orkney on my "must go back for some serious photography" list. I only scratched the surface of this lovely place. It is so clean, so fresh, with super food and amazing landscapes, and small enough to get about easily, it's an ideal photographic destination. I've still got all the other islands in the archipelago to see, and the east coasts, the beaches, the wrecks. Love it.Here's the gallery for you...[photoshelter-gallery g_id="G0000IS0wk6lF9Jg" g_name="Orkney" f_show_caption="t" f_show_slidenum="t" img_title="iptct" pho_credit="iptc" f_link="t" f_enable_embed_btn="t" f_send_to_friend_btn="t" f_fullscreen="t" f_htmllinks="t" f_mtrx="t" fsvis="f" width="800" height="500" bgcolor="#AAAAAA" bgtrans="t" btype="new" bcolor="#CCCCCC" crop="f" trans="xfade" tbs="5000" f_ap="t" linkdest="c" f_constrain="f" twoup="f" f_topbar="f" f_bbar="f" f_bbarbig="" f_show_watermark="f" f_smooth="f" f_up="f" target="_self" wmds="llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f3hmYzgeWlvpcb0xeq4ATF60HCrK8TPUYIGjQ2PvM.3nGXQr7Qg--" ]