Storm Shooting
Ferocious winds blow the tops of huge waves on the Isle of Skye. Leica Q3 1/250th f/5 ISO 100
I have a gap in the “Sea Views” section of my current project which needs to be filled with an image of very stormy seas. I’ve been waiting a while for the right conditions, and oh boy did they arrive yesterday. February is often quite “dynamic” from a weather perspective, and it didn’t disappoint.
Very strong southerly winds were forecast, gusting to over 70mph. This was excellent, as it would work well with the orientation of the composition I had been planning. I wanted large inbound waves with their crests getting ripped off by the wind, and a backdrop of dramatic cliffs with moody skies. I knew just the spot.
Additionally, a two-hour window in the torrential rain was forecast for 1pm-3pm, meaning my ideal shooting conditions were possible. Everything looked good on Saturday, so I got ready for a not-too-early departure at 10am the following day. Happily I was joined by my friend Paddy who hadn’t been to this particular spot before, and was up for some “energetic” landscape photography.
First stop just near Sconser to watch the loch getting blown into the air. Leica Q3 1/50th f/6.3 ISO 200
On Sunday morning the weather was doing its thing. I’m rightly cautious about doing anything other than hunkering down in conditions like this, and take everything very carefully with a respectful degree of caution. Approaching Sconser we found a tourist minibus had just been blown off the road and into a ditch. With multiple people and vehicles already in attendance we pressed on rather more gently.
The road from Sconser runs alongside Loch Sligachan, and the wind was howling down the loch as heavy rain lashed down. I have another gap in my project for “Water Features” so pulled into a layby to photograph the torrents cascading down the hillside on the other side of the loch, along with the big squalls lifting the loch surface into the air. Brilliant moody conditions.
I photographed the scene from the car as it was pretty much impossible to get out, so strong was the wind. Keeping the lens clear of rain drops is always a challenge in this situation but I’d been able to get the car at an angle to keep the driver’s side in the lee of the wind. This wouldn’t be the case just up the road at Sligachan.
The old bridge at Sligachan, with the river in full flood. An amazing sight. Leica Q3 1/8th f/5 ISO 100
I’ve already got nice images of the old bridge at Sligachan, but they lack atmosphere. Today the atmosphere was being thrown at us at speed so we took the opportunity to have another go and get another “water feature” shot.
Much of the year the River Sligachan is lovely enough, especially in the beautiful setting below the Cullin by the main road bridge and the Sligachan hotel and camp site. Thousands upon thousands of tourists take the opportunity to stop there and photograph the scene. Fewer will see it at its most majestic in heavy flood during storm conditions.
Despite feeling like we were at the wrong end of a fire hose of rain, and with the wind howling straight down the glen towards us, Paddy and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity of capturing the scene in such amazing conditions. We’d seen that there were short gaps between the rain squalls so we might have an opportunity for a photograph without getting camera lenses soaked.
I wanted a high vantage point overlooking the old bridge with the mountains and glen visible behind the bridge. I also wanted some movement in the water to get a better feel for how strong the flow was, so decided on a 1/8th second shutter speed as my primary parameter. A tripod was completely useless in these conditions. The wind was so strong I had to anchor my leg around the roadside barrier and grip onto the railings to stay in one place. So it would be handheld, relying on the excellent image stabilisation in the Q3 to help me. To make matters trickier for myself, I elected to put on a graduated neutral density filter to lower the exposure of the sky and match it better with the land, thus making an even larger surface area in front of the lens to get rain on.
And wow, I needed the stabilisation, as well as a dry lens cloth. Waiting patiently as squalls blew through at 70mph was quite demanding, but occasionally there was a slight lull and I could get a couple of shots off before the lens get too wet. The one above works very nicely and is just what I was after, showing a big incoming squall and the huge flow of water under the lovely bridge.
I always try a number of other compositions when on location. It’s daft to travel somewhere and not experiment with lots of alternatives, as you never know what you’ll find. Out of all of the pictures at Slig, I settled on the one I had in my mind as the best of the lot.
A stunning road heading into the wilderness. Leica Q3 1/1600th f/5.6 ISO 100
What a creative and productive day this was turning out to be. I was worried we’d be late arriving at my coastal location and would miss the weather window. Onwards and northwards we went, before heading off the beaten track down a tiny road through the hills.
As it happens, I have another theme I’m shooting for called “Roads”, and wow, did this look good. Skye is dotted with very picturesque roads and tracks, and I’ve made it a mission to document some of them at their photogenic best (it distracts from the horrendous potholes and general decrepit state of many of the roads here).
I’m a total sucker for a wet, backlit road stretching into the distance like a silvery ribbon. The sky was incredible. The scenery spectacular. And I was driving into the light which reflected off the rather crumbly tarmac (or what was left of it). Photographically, this image is simple enough from a technique perspective. Plenty of light and no rain to worry about. A decent aperture of f/5.6 to get a high shutter speed with a low ISO for the best chance of a sharp shot in the buffeting winds. I put the road on the left as this will be a double-page spread with the fold doing up the middle. The road disappearing into the distance balanced (ish) by the hills and clifftops to the right.
Just great conditions for my type of moody, atmospheric photography.
Excellent ferocious seas. Leica Q3 1/250th f/5 ISO 100
And so onto the main event, the coastal photography that was the whole point of the trip. I was very happy to have three quality images “in the bag” albeit not the ones I was originally intending. A nice bonus.
After parking up and then squelching through fields and crossing engorged burns, we arrived at the spot I had planned. The wind was ridiculous, and the promised break in the rain had thankfully arrived. We stayed dry from the knees up. Below the knees, it was a good day for wellies.
We had to be extremely careful in this area. Cliffs, high drops, slippery rocks and raging seas are not good bedfellow. The wind was the main problem. It would be very strong, and then occasionally a ludicrously powerful gust would suddenly body-slam you. It was enough to knock both of us off our feet several times. A lot of caution was taken as a result, avoiding edges by some distance and staying off wet rocks. Neither of us wanted to get into trouble, not just for our own sake but also to avoid having to call out any rescue services to the remote area we were in.
The shot above is the “money shot” that I had envisaged. Strong winds whipping the crests off the waves as they crashed into the shore. A dramatic cliff backdrop. A special bonus waterfall cascading down the cliffs, like a miniature Gasadalur in the Faroe Islands.
Spot the difference! The huge cliffs and cascading waterfall at Gasadalur in the Faroe islands from my visit in 2012, before it got all trendy and full of Instagrammers. This shot entailed crouching on an extremely steep and uneven set of crumbling concrete steps with extreme exposure on the seaward side and a rusted-through iron railing no longer attached to anything on the landward side.
The location we were at is what I’d call a “target rich environment” for photography. As I’ll describe in detail in an upcoming article, I love creating a multi-part image while still trying to keep it as simple as possible. It’s a real conundrum, and something I enjoy puzzling over. How can you remove as many detracting elements from a scene, while that scene itself impresses due to the combination of elements that make it up.
In this case I had:
Coastline
Epic cliffs
A waterfall
Huge waves
High winds blowing the tops of the waves
High tide filling the bay
A great, dramatic and moody sky
Too much? It felt a bit like it there in that bay. What to photograph? How to piece these elements together in some coherent manner. There was action happening in front of me, to the left and to the right. Round a little headland huge waves were smashing into rocky outcrops. On the right the waterfall was spewing into the sea. In front the wind tried to blow the waves back out to sea.
I had everything I wanted from the scene and the environment, but was having a hard time piecing it together.
I elected to get a “documentary” shot nailed and in the bag, which is the one above and at the head of this post. This meant freezing the action, no fancy shutter speeds or intentional camera movement. Just capture the majesty of the whole thing in a simple fashion with a huge curving swoop designed to take the eye from the foreground wave around the bay to the right, to the waterfall, and then up the cliffs and back down. I did try and get rid of as many foreground rocks that made things rather messy. Overall, I think this shot captures the feel of the place, its remoteness and the power of the environment.
I then experimented, trying multiple alternative compositions while ensuring I didn’t get blown off a ledge or swallowed up by the waves. Below is my favourite of the alternatives.
A longer exposure. Leica Q3 30 sec f/13 ISO 400
On went the Lee Seven5 filters (graduated neutral density and 10-stop neutral density), and out came my new Kingjoy tripod (which I’m really delighted with). It was long-exposure time. I was very conscious that a long exposure would eradicate much of the feeling of harsh wind and storm seas, but it was worth a shot. I was just using my Leica Q3 for all these pictures to keep things simple, and maximise my use of this excellent little camera.
To keep out of the wind I found a decent spot behind a large rock and set up the tripod. My usual method of shooting for a long exposure is to decide on the shutter speed I wanted (about 30 seconds - longer would be nice, but not shorter), and then set up the aperture to ensure everything would be sharp (f/13 is good) and ISO to be as low as possible. Add filters to taste to get to 30 secs or more.
I did try over 30 seconds but found that, even with my body, hands and a large rock shielding the camera and tripod, there was just too much wind blustering around to keep everything still for long enough. So 30 secs max, and I somehow ended up with ISO at 400 after some on-the-fly adjustments to the changing conditions.
I do like this last image. It’s got plenty of mood and drama, but has lost definition in the sky and obviously in the sea. This is a good example of where it isn’t good to try and over-simplify by removing elements as you lose the essence of the experience of the place that you are trying to convey. I know I could have improved the composition by eliminating some of the foreground rocks which are a bit “crunchy”, but I’d have got myself too close to the churning maelstrom that was the sea, so that wasn’t going to happen.
So there you have it, a rather spectacular and productive day out. After the long walk back to the car Paddy and I were duly knackered but rather pleased about the whole thing.