Framedlight

As we were coming off the beach in Happisburgh the sky darkened and we could see the rain approaching across the ocean, creating a rainbow and sometimes two. Just before getting in the car we stopped to take pictures of the lighthouse.

While we were walking down the sea defences in Happisburgh I noticed that a lot of bits and pieces had become attached to the groynes and thought they might make an interesting series of photographs.

After a stormy Friday night in February we made post haste to Happisburgh to see what was happening with the sea defences. The water was churned brown in colour and the waves were quite choppy but not as large as I would have liked. One of the caravans from the park at the top of the cliff had been damaged and it looked as if the nearer caravans should be evacuated. The weather was changeable with deep clouds and sunshine alternating. The first picture shows the colour of the water but the rest of these I have converted to black and white in Silver Efex Pro 2 using the Tri X preset to get a bit of grainy contrast. I included the picture of Alan as I only realised afterwards that he had a little man on his shoulder. It reminded me of one of the 'Ghost Stories of an Antiquary' by M R James -  'Whistle and I'll Come to You' which was set on the Norfolk coast. He is wearing the strange glasses to stop the sand blowing in his eyes!

The last day of our trip dawned well but turned very cold and windy. We started in a birch wood on the side of Loch Insh and then, after some well deserved coffee, moved to Loch Pityoulish where the wind was blowing a gale, sending the clouds scudding. This is a more remote loch which had some dead trees fringing it. The two ICM shots are from around Loch Insh. The dead tree picture was taken with the 24mm tilt shift lens and I found that I had to tilt up slightly to maintain focus on the top of the tree. We had lunch and then ended up at Loch Morlich, which I have to admit was not my favourite of the ones we visited. Here I managed to take pictures of the hills on the far side of the Loch using the 70-200mm, and then latterly to use my Holga pinhole to get something a little different. Finally we were staying at The Steadings, which belongs to Peter Cairns who runs wildlife workshops from here. Doug had rented it for the time we were there and it was an id...

We had a tour round of a number of places on the second day of the workshop, starting at Loch an Eilein where for an instant there was a most dramatic sky. We spent a couple of hours here as it was so interesting, but the sky reverted to plain blue. This was to be the finest day of the three. The next port of call was a gorge which you can view from a road bridge passing over the River Tromie. Walking up the path next to the river I was lucky enough to spot two people walking ahead of me who I could frame in the trees. Finally we went back to the local lochans near Balachroick House to catch the dying rays

Around lunchtime we headed to Loch Morlich which sits surrounded by trees (and a caravan site) with views towards Cairngorm. The trees were mainly pine and were picturesquely draped with green lichen. It was very misty at the end of the loch and not really terribly scenic. It's shore comprised of a gritty sand which exposed the roots of the trees. We moved from here to Loch Garten where we parked and walked though pine forest to a wonderful little loch called Loch Malachie which contained a number of dead trees. As the sky darkened this was a photographers paradise