Scotland Holiday day 2 Rannock Moor Glencoe

Monday morning, Day two in Scotland, After staying at Inveruglas over night, a quick walk with the dogs near the visitor centre before we head off up towards Glencoe .  A coachfull of American tourists had just arrived and they all wanted photographs of Chester , I guess spanials are popular in the us.  Mollster was unaware of his fame   haha

          And a short drone flight for this 9 frame panorama, not a breath of wind at the moment but it will not stay this calm for long.

               Stunning scenery here as expected, and the weather forecast if for a warm sunny day .
                                                                 5dsr  100-400mm L

Our next stop will be Rannock Moor, just past the Bridge of Orchy. about 30 miles from here up the A82.   After stopping off at the Green Welly Stop to top up with fuel we are good to get up to the highlands now.     Parked up at the Loch Ba viewpoint, its quite windy now unfortunately but I will risk a short Drone flight.

Here is the view from the drone,  since its windy I am staying fairly low altitude and shooting this nine frame panorama manually .  Fabulous clouds at the moment and still a small amount of snow left on the peaks.

                                                             

I have walked around to find a good composition for an image, the water levels are extremely low, and all the boggy areas are almost completely dry.    I have found this interesting log which makes good foreground interest.

                                                                 60 seconds  f14

And a little further around to the left I have shot this again with a 6o second long exposure to show cloud movement  using the 10 stop nd lee big stopper filter on my 5dsr/17-40L set up.

Next stop will be Glencoe , which is only about 10 minutes up the road.   The Ski centre has a large car park , and as it turns out we can empty the vans waste and fill up with water , with a honest box.  how great is that!      as we drive up towards the centre the Famous  "Black Rock Cottage" is on the right hand side , everyone shoots this and I obviously need to also.  

                                           Jan has taken this image on her phone .

                                                                     My camera image.

                      5 frame drone Vertorama , this scene doesn't look as good from the air imo
                  Lack of sun does not help though in this comparison compared to camera image.

Back at the van , in a near empty car park  we are going for a walk up the track behind the Ski lift, the blue sky has been replaced with cloud now but its still very warm.

                             It is very warm, but the stiff breeze is welcomed up here.

                                                        Chester Standing to attention

That's far enough Jan says ,  no point going any further!   Ok  lets go back down and fill up the water in the van.   The famous Etive waterfall will be the final stop for today , it is only a few minutes down the road under with Stob Dearg directly behind it , part of Buachaille Etive Mor .  We can wildcamp right next to the waterfall , if there is space.  It looks like there is only room for about 4 vehicles on google maps .

Arriving at the waterfall, there are 2 vans and a car in the small car park , so we have to drive past but just over the bridge is a perfect parking spot for one vehicle, level and surrounded by trees.    yay
Dinner time now , while watching the sun slowly set above the mountain opposite us.

After dinner a short walk up the road to take a drone flight , the light is really nice, but without any clouds there is not going to be a sunset tonight.

                            Up in the air , a nine frame panorama , the river looks almost dry!  

                                                                5 frame vertorama

Topdown over the falls, not much water by looks of it so will be difficult to get a decent waterfall image at sunset or sunrise.  our van is in bottom right surrounded by trees.

Down at the river just above the waterfall with very little water , where I am standing is usually the waterfall that everyone shoots with the mountain behind. I am limited in what I can shoot, and with a cloudless sky  it just isn't going to be any good unfortunately.
The sun has sunk below the mountain, so I can try to shoot now.

          B&W conversion is the best option I feel   5dsr, 17-40L  little stopper and 0.9 soft nd grad.

                                                  Colour version taken well after sunset.

That's a disappointing end to a great day , I am going to get up early for sunrise , that will be difficult as I don't do early!

Last day in Prague

 It is our last day in Prague,  but our flight is not until 9 pm so have the whole day until about 6pm before we need to go to collect our bags and await the taxi.
  Time to go for breakfast first, and we are meeting up with a facebook Friend, Tom, who lives here, who is a photographer also.   So its Arcadia café again for hot chocolate and caramel waffles. After meeting up over breakfast Tom suggested we take a walk up river to Vysehrad and the Cemetery.

    We have walked up river on the castle side and eventually cross over the Palackehor most  bridge .

Having reached our destination, google maps shows a couple of different paths to take up to the top. this set of steps appears to be the best way up.

                            We are at the Top,  the Vysehrad Cemetery is next to the church.

Walking around the crypts ,which are all very lavish around the outer perimeter.  there are supposed to be quite a few famous people buried in here.

                                                                        B&w conversion

                                                     A famous Composer I believe.

                                             Around the back of the park looking upriver.

Time to make our way back now,   I had to get a shot through the arch with the Castle in the background.  Pity about the tree branches !

                                                                              Selfi time .

      I have put the 100-400mm L lens on to look down towards the Castle.
but first a shot with wide angle lens 69 seconds exposure to blur the water and show a little cloud movement.  it hasn't really worked out how I wanted though.

                              Now the long lens close up , Dam branches in the way again !

                                                                  View through a hole.

                    A Snow storm is approaching fast!   cant see the castle and Cathedral now.

                                                                      Bridge gone now!

The snow came through quickly and  has cleared just as fast, with blue sky now and the snow has already melted on the ground.

Heading back along the river now, the cloud is building nicely and is looking very interesting.

                                             These Granite paving setts look fabulous.

                                                      Look at that cloud now,   fabulous!

 Heading past the "Fred & Ginger" building , I need to get up to Charles Bridge to get a couple images while this cloud is looking so good.

                                      This is the Cultural centre and concert hall on an island .

Having reached the weir just before the bridge, I have set up the tripod and started to take a few long exposure images with the Lee Big stopper  a 10 stop nd filter and I noticed this large animal down on the wooden structure, it is a Cuypu (giant water rat)     quickly putting the 100-400 mm lens on managed this image .

Back to the long exposure shots now.

5dsr  17-40L 

90 seconds f14 Big stopper

Now we have just enough time to see if there will be any colour at sunset , down where the Swans are I think .  They are Very inquisitive  lol

A quick run up onto the bridge,  but the colour didn't really develop where I wanted, it looked good behind over the Cathedral and Castle but not over the bridge.

Back to our apartment to get the bags, but not before stopping to shoot the "Memorial to Victims of Communism! monument which is at the top of the road from the apartment.

The end of our New Year trip to Prague .