Scotland trip - day 1

I have finished going through some photographs from day 1 of our trip. They are ok but it reinforces how I really need to learn how to use my cameras functions. Yeah I have got by so far on pre-set functions (shock horror - I know) but I really need to get out there with my camera manual and just go for it. The only thing that's stopped me so far is lack of inspiration for subject material and the fact that its so long since I last used things like shutter speeds and aperture settings that I've forgotten how and when to use them. So I think that will be my next job. I noticed that alot of my holiday photos were over exposed and it would have been good to be able to compensate for that at the time of taking the photos. This seems to be more of a problem with my zoom lens which seems to really overexpose the subject. But still I was pleased with many of the photos and especially the black and white ones. I've shown a few below (just click the image to see a larger picture).

On day 1 we set off from Yorkshire at about 7am and arrived in Inverness at about 3pm. The weather was lovely - very sunny (maybe a little to sunny really as we both got sunburnt noses). Little did we know it would be the only decent weather all trip. Thankfully we made the most of it though and snapped lots of pictures from the car on the drive up and then went to a beach somewhere near Fort Augustus (an army camp) and then onto Nairn and Nairn beach. Nairm beach was lovely but the beach at Fort Augustus gave us some terrain that was well suited to some monochrome photos.

I took these photos from the car while we were travelling up to Scotland. I just set the camera to sport mode because it has a faster shutter speed. I quite like doing this to get some "smash and grab" photos.








The following photos were taken at a beach somewhere near Fort Augustus army camp.



The light was really strong and was casting to many shadows on things so I tried a HDR shot (above) to help bring out the shadows. Later I tried a regular exposure picture because I thought the high contrast would be great for a black and white picture (below). Hence 2 versions of the same scene.




I was sat on the ground taking some macro photos (which didn't turn out grrrrrr) and looked up to see my husband looking out across the bay. I liked the unusual angle and how it gave a more interesting background and perspective.

Some more of the beach - I made some into black and white photos because I thought they would work well. I'll let you decide.







This one didn't really turn out very well but you cna see the effect I was going for. I think my husband was getting bored because when I turned round he was writing things in the sand :)





There was a farm next to the beach. The farm had a field which contained a few cows. I started snapping the cows and they were so inquisitive (or eyeing me up for a kill maybe?) that they started strolling over to the gate where I was standing. Once they got withing a tongue licking length of my lens I decided it was time to hot foot it out of there. I would of loved a better photo of the calf feeding from its mum - and I would of got it if they hadn't been so inquisitive that they all started walking off.


These few were taken with my zoom lens. I hadn't got a tripod which explains why they don't look very sharp. Also it was a hazy day so the other side of the bay wasn't very clear.






This picture was taken on the way to Fort Augustus. I really like this picture but can't explain why. It was heavily post processed though to remove bugs from the windscreen.



The following pictures were taken at Nairn beach. This is a lovely beach and reminds me of pictures I've seen of the beaches round New England. With sand dunes and long wispy grasses poking out of the sand dunes. It was a really hot and sunny day so there were loads of people about that it made taking pictures nearly impossible at times.


The light was very strong and overexposed everything since I don't yet know how to use the manual functions ont he camera. The sand ended up looking white and so was the sky. But the kids were wearing colourful clothing and I thought it would be interesting to highlight the colour of the clothes against a black and white background.



And a few pics taken in Nairn.