Shoot portrait or landscape format?

One of the first decisions we make as photographers when taking a picture is to shot in portrait or landscape format. Portrait versus landscape depends much on the scene and photographic motif. The right choice of format should add to an image, rather than detract from the picture. Most photographs are taken in landscape format.

A horizontal picture usually appears calmer and allows the viewer to explore the motif and photograph, as the eye naturally wanders from left to right in accordance with people’s reading ability in the western hemisphere. The horizontal photo appears more natural to the human eye, which comprehends wider easier than higher.

Eas Fors Waterfall, Isle of Mull

The dramatic Eas Fors waterfall is located about a mile north of Lagganulva on the B8073 where there is a small car park. It is a spectacular sight, especially in spate. Eas Fors comprises of a series of waterfalls, the upper falls above the road and the lower falls below.

Access to all parts of the falls can be difficult, particularly after rain when the ground will be soft and slippery.

The lower falls in particular can be a dangerous place to reach, there is no access down to the beach directly from the car park.

Birds of Iona

My recent trip to photograph some of the birds of Iona, in particular I was keen to see and hopefully photograph the Corncrake, one of the most sought after birds on the island. The Corncrake is a summer visitor to the UK and several had arrived on Iona from mid April onward.

It took a while to locate one, first by the incessant, loud rasping ‘crex crex’ call and finally a few brief glimpses as it moved, almost hidden, amongst reeds and grasses. However, patience eventually paid off when it moved into a more open area, this allowed the opportunity to get several shots, including the one below of a calling male.

Monochrome with Silver Efex Pro

Silver Efex Pro is really good software for creating beautiful black and white conversations. I use it as a plugin for Adobe Lightroom 3 and have been very happy with this set up, it works seamlessly without any problems at all.

After processing to black and white I save the finished image as a TIFF file and it is then automatically re-imported back into the Lightroom catalogue to sit alongside the original.

It matters little how much equipment we use; it matters much that we be masters of all we do use. Sam Abell

I particularly like the array of tools available, giving the opportunity to be as creative as you wish. There are a number of preset conversions that can act as a starting point, though I prefer to do each conversion singly and take each on its own merit.

Treshnish Isles Puffins and more

This trip to the Treshnish Isles via Staffa started at Ulva Ferry on the west coast of Isle of Mull. It was a clear sunny day with a keen northerly wind as we left Ulva Ferry at about 1145 to head round the south side of Ulva and out toward Staffa.

On the trip to Staffa we had really good views of a group of 4 Bottle-nosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) as they accompanied us for a while, occasionally leaping out of the water in spectacular fashion.