So we woke up early on Sunday with a plan of heading to the Loup of Fintry before heading out to Doune Castle and finishing on the shores of the Lake of Menteith.
That was the plan.
But when I was packing the car I noticed that it was clear, there was a touch of mist hanging in the bottom of the Forth Valley and all in all it was shaping up to be an absolute belter of a morning. A new plan was quickly hatched and I decided to relocate the workshop to Loch Ard, I wasn’t sure on anything beyond that - but figured that given the weather simply starting with an idea and seeing how it developed seemed the best plan.
And did it turn out to be the absolute best idea?
Yes… yes it did!
Once everyone arrived and had sustenance from Kev’s apple and cinnamon rolls along with a good slug of life affirming coffee we started to get ready to head out… but first we popped over into the field to take a look up the Forth Valley towards Ben Lomond to capture something of the delicate beauty of the dawn mists.
A perfect morning was unfolding before us, and I reminded the photographers that it was often worth turning around and checking out the scene behind as well as in front.
And since we were on the farm… well… perhaps we should also take some photographs of the residents.
With dawn fast developing we were off to Loch Ard - Kev acting as navigator because it has been a while since I spent a lot of time in the area and I hadn’t really prepared this location ahead of time!
We parked up and set off for a walk around the southern end of the loch, my statement that we weren’t planning on doing much walking that day was looking a touch untrue by this stage! After a few minutes of walking and chatting we came to the outflow of the loch and a small collection of houses and boat houses all enshrouded by a dawn mist. It was utterly beautiful in that painterly and timeless way that you sometimes stumble upon.
We walked past the green boathouse after spending a good bit of time here and the scene just continued to evolve in the most wonderful ways!
This was all fantastic, quite technical, shooting. Yet whilst technical it also allowed a huge degree of artistic impression, choice and expression. This really did push the group quite hard, but in a really exciting way that everyone just thrived with. Equipment often became the deciding influence in how each approached the subject, but whether shooting wide or telephoto there was a captivating scene to be found and shot.
Once we had exhausted the possibilities we retraced our steps back to the main track and set off around the loch, stopping regularly when something caught out eye! We had this usually busy forest and loch almost to ourselves as the world was still sleeping which made it even more special!
We spent the entire morning in this small corner of Loch Ard taking us right up until time to return to Gartur for some lunch, a last chat and then everyone off home. It had been a great weekend and all the photographers felt that they had learned a lot and went off more confident in their abilities - and with a collection of great images too!
I must admit, a weekend immersed in Landscape Photography did me some good too, stepping away from the commercial world for a weekend and just concentrating on the art was a cathartic experience that I really needed and was an affirmation that this is the direction that I need to go more in for the future. It is a rewarding experience to feed the enjoyment and excitement of others as they learn new skills and techniques, or simply to introduce them to a place that they wouldn’t find themselves under normal circumstances, and certainly without the chance to immerse themselves in such a creative process!
