Just a pictutre or two

Was working in Caithness and Sutherland, in the North of Scotland last week, managed to find a little time to take a couple of pictures between the rain showers, mist, and high winds. Even saw a few shafts of rare sunlight. I put them on page 9 of the website if you fancy a look.

http://web.mac.com/john_md/

Hi Galoot,
I really appreciate such beautiful images at this early hour (1.30am). What's your secret for such mood and clarity?
As a very average photographer I would give a lot to know,
Kind regards,
Philip.

Having seen your previous work, of course I went for a look - and I wasn't disappointed.

TOP NOTCH as always!

Lovely, moody pic.

I f I were to change anything, I might crop a bit off the left hand side, but that's just me. It's gorgeous as is.

George

Thanks for the comments, and if I knew the secret to good photography, I wouldn't post it here, I'd sell it and make a million. To be honest, I'm quite lucky, in that my job takes me all over Scotland and I always carry the camera. Last week I did 1,400 miles in the car. I've photographed the hills in the picture above on many occassions, and due to the changing weather conditions in Scotland, each picture is different. In fact the pictures I have on page 9 of my webpage show the hills as I passed them in the morning, and again as I came back passed them in the afternoon, there was a little sunlight later in the day, and the mood had changed. I was on a tight schedule, so I only took about 20 pictures over a ten minute period before I had to go. If I had the time I would have stayed till the sun sunk lower and lit the hills from the West, maybe next time. . .
If there is a secret, it may be as simple as just take more photos, if they are not right, take them again.

Hi Galoot

Some real crackers on your web pages, the "Twatt" one made me and my wife chukle quite a bit, suppose you have have to be a scotsman to get the true meaning, same with your monicker

Some really nice photos on your site. Must be a real pain (not) having to drive through all that scenery for work purposes

Andy

The "Twatt" picture took me 3 years to get ! The small village of Twatt on Shetland is always getting the sign-post stolen by tourists. Every time I went there to get my picture taken with the Twatt sign, it was gone. Eventually got the picture one cold, dark day in January. Was it worth the effort . . YES !!!

p.s. Galoot, ( Galoot-Colognuh ), is from an old Frank Zappa song / album.

Ha! and here's me thinking it's reference to the scots meaning i.e.

GALOOT
(gah-loot) Dialect, chiefly Scot. ~n. 1. (trad.) bumbling fool; slow witted person (as in "Och that's no a tour guide. It's a naked rambler, ya daft goloot!". 2. awkward, clumsy or gangly.

To haul this thread back to the photograph what lens / settings was it taken with? Good depth of field too. Did you use a tripod?

The picture above was taken with the 18-55mm kit lens, set at 26mm - 1/250 @ f11. I know a lot of people are not very keen on the 18-55mm, but @ f8 - 11, I seem to get reasonable images. All the landscapes on 'page 9' are taken with the 18-55mm kit lens. The pictures of the harbours were taken with a Tamron 28-200, that I picked up when I called into 'ffords photographic' a few weeks ago. All the pictures were handheld. I cleaned out the car before my trip North, and the tripod forgot to jump back in.
The picture may look like I walked miles over the hills into the wilderness, but I just stopped in a layby to take it. Infact I could probably have got it out of the car window, but I did make the effort to get out of the car.

Great picture. Amongst other things I really love the tonal qualities. Like you I'm pretty happy with the kit lens but I wonder if they vary enormously in quality, you and I have good ones but others may not be so lucky.

BTW are you a big galoot or just a wee galoot?

Ken

I too love your photos. I can see Scotland will be my next holiday destination If only I could be sure of a bit of sun and no midges I'd be happy

I am happy with my kit lens too. Some of my best photos were taken with it. That and my Tamron 28-300 are my favourites, not that I have a huge collection, but those are the two I use the most.

Off to the Edinburgh area for a few days on Sunday - fingers crossed for some good (or even better, dramatic ) weather.

Thanks for the inspiration Galoot.

Dan