Great composition and a different vista of a blue hour shot of the castle

What a wonderful set of images.

170 frames taken over an hour and a quarter are stacked to create star trails. Taken at the Infinity monument in the Starlight Reserve on La Palma, Canary Islands. Pentax K1 with 15-30mm lens, each exposure was 25 seconds at ISO 800 f2.8. Processed with Startails software. Foreground single shot of 15 secs at ISO 400 f5.0 and illuminated by a head torch.

Great shot

Grip arrived safely. Thanks. Now need some clear skies for some astro photos

Will pm you

Thanks for your kind comments. It's not easy to get going doing photo tours, but after many years of processing images of the Earth from space, it is nice to appreciate landscapes from ground level.

Thanks, I'm undecided about the Castle Stalker shot. We wanted to capture the foreboding sky over the castle, but may taking a right off on the right might help

A spell of cold weather and snow in Feb 2019 coincided with a reccie trip for future photo tours to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Our first night, after taking the ferry from Ireland, was spent in our Land Rover Defender in Glen Etrive, near Glen Coe, where temperatures drop to -10C and ice formed inside the vehicle! But this didn't deter us and the Land Rover formed an ideal base for getting great early morning shots. The weather stayed kind to us for most of our 16 day visit, although high winds and rain came in for the last couple of days and the ferry crossings to Lewis and Harris weren't the smoothest!

We hope to run a photo tour here, pehaps later this year.

Some of our facvorite photos are:



The pyrotechnics of dawn begin their spectacular light show on the eastern horizon, with streaks of vermillion, scarlet and pink shooting across the sky, casting a violet glow over the snow-covered landscape at the Old Man of Storr, the Isle of Skye's most famous site.



Skye's most famous landmark is the Old Man of Storr: an isolated gnarly basalt pinnacle, which featured in the opening scenes of Ridley Scott’s blockbuster movie, Prometheus. We were so taken by this location that we made two dawn trips up to the Pixabel viewpoint within a week. The first time it was like the Arctic, but calm although still rather cold the second, by which time the snow and ice had almost disappeared.



A vertical shot taken at dawn of the famous lone tree at the top of a gully at the Quiraing, Totternish Ridge, Isle of Skye. It was pretty difficult getting a shot here, as the gully was swimming in sticky, slippery mud and full of water from the melting snow which blanketed the high ground.



The wreck of the trawler, MV Dayspring, outside Fort William in Scotland. She was built in 1975 and undergoing renovations when she unfortunately ran aground near the Caledonian Canal Sea Lock at Corpach during a storm on December 8th 2011. Scotland's highest mountain, Ben Nevis, is wreathed in mist in the background



Blue hour at the superlative thirteenth century Eilean Donan Castle near the village of Dornie in the western Highlands of Scotland. Built on a small tidal island where three sea lochs - Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh - meet, it was the former stronghold of the Clan Mackenzie and was restored in the early twentieth century. It featured in the Hollywood blockbuster, Highlander (1986).



Castle Stalker sited on a small island at the mouth of Loch Laich is one of the best-preserved medieval tower-houses to survive in Scotland. The original castle was a small fort, built around 1320 by the Clan MacDougall who were then Lords of Lorn. Around 1388 the Stewarts took over the Lordship of Lorn, and it is believed that they built the castle in its present form around the 1440s. It featured in the film, 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'. We managed to get this moody shot close to sunset as a rain storm swept up the valley.



The Callanish Stones are located on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Erected in the late Neolithic era, this iconic circle forms part of a much larger ritual and sacral landscape and was a focus for ritual activity during the Bronze Age. We witnessed a spectacular sunrise here. The atmosphere was electrifying as the pyrotechnics of dawn began their spectacular light show, radiating streaks of vermillion, scarlet, orange and pink in the eastern sky.



Another shot of the Callanish Stones on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. As the sun climbed above the horizon, this sun star erupted between two of the monoliths. A lone Golden eagle made the visit even more memorable by circling in lazy 8's above the site.



At foot of the Black Cuillins near Glenbrittle in Skye are the Fairy Pools, a series of enchanting waterfalls and deep pools in the River Brittle. It’s a fabulous location at any time of the day or year, and in any weather, and one where you can spend many happy hours shooting an endless variety of compositions.



Kilchurn Castle is situated on a rocky peninsula at the north eastern end of Loch Awe in the Scottish Highlands. It was first constructed in the mid-15th century as the base of the Campbells of Glenorchy. Kilchurn fell out of use and was in ruins by 1770, and is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. Our visit coincided with a period of very cold snowy weather, and the loch round the castle was frozen, making it look like a scene straight out of a fairy story.



Elgol Blues. The Cuillin Mountains look chilled and cool in this long exposure blue hour capture from the rocky beach at Elgol.



A snowy late-afternoon shot of the famous Blackrock climbers’ cottage in Glencoe, Scottish Highlands.

Thanks, Kris. I want a tilt lens to control depth of field

Regards martin