A number of weeks ago I was down in Glasgow for a (motor) bike meet and as it seemed reasonably dry I decided to take a longer way home than usual, heading up round towards Balloch and then travelling back home along the Stirling-Erskine Bridge Road. As I rode it got a bit wet at times but the sun kept making an appearance now and then from the west as it set lighting up the hills and looking up the glen formed by Loch Lomond. I couldn’t actually see the loch from the road but I could see the hills gradually fading in layers lit by the sun looking right back up into the Trossachs and probably the lower end of the western Highlands beyond. It was a very atmospheric scene and could make a nice photo if captured at the right moment. I could not stop, as I was already getting wet, it was getting dark and I was keen to get home.
I have passed the same spot several times since and tried to see some idea of where I might be able to stop, and where I would need to be to actually capture an image of what I was able to see that night. As is always the case a nice view in itself does not necessarily make for a great photo. Also, there was the not insignificant issue of light. What really made the view “special” that night was the soft directional light shining through mist and rain. This added so much atmosphere to what could look “nice” but nothing extraordinary.
Last week I was planning on a night out on the bike but the weather was very changeable. Whatever weather other parts of this island we call Britain have had, settled and benign is not a description we could use up here in Central Scotland. It’s been very windy, unseasonably cold at times and we have had frequent rain showers, sometimes pretty heavy.
So at the last minute, I aborted my bike riding plans and left myself at a loose end. Then I had the thought- why not head out and see if I could get a shot around by Loch Lomond? So off I went in the car. I found the spot where the view I caught that night on the bike was visible, it didn’t look half as impressive in the more direct light of a higher sun angle, but there was still a good hour or so before we would be in the frame of sunset. I found a small access road that looked promising but once at the foot of it, while I could see the hills I could not see a spot that lent itself to a decent composition. I spent a good 15 minutes looking but it wasn’t going to work. I could though “just” see the loch which had not really figured in my thoughts at all up to now.
There was a low hill behind on the other side of the main road, but heading back there I reckoned it would be a pain to get up and might not offer the view I was after. No, just need to keep looking. There was a low ridge to the north side of the road I was on but none of it looked especially accessible much of it looked a bit “private” and in view of houses scattered around the area.
I kept going along the main road heading further west and reached the village of Gartacharn which was about as far to the west as I wanted to go. I kind of know this wee village as my wife has relatives that used to stay here. Though I must admit to never having strayed off the main road. I found a road that initially I thought might be private access but actually once on it realised it was actually just a public road. This was taking me nearer the loch and then as if by magic I crossed a crest in the road and there in front of me was the loch spread out into the distance. There still wasn’t a great view but then I spotted a field that looked like it might get some sort of usable view. Alas, it did see the rough view of the hills I was after but there was no sort of composition as there were some trees surrounding the field that just didn’t frame the view well. However, there was a hill behind me and it looked like a Quad bike or Argocat had maybe been up there recently so there was a fairly clear “path” through the high grass. I am always a wee bit reticent to step out into high grass fields these days with the prevalence of Ticks and their even more unpleasant wee compatriot, Lyme Disease.
Also the field had a rather unsightly line of power lines traversing it- those would definitely not fit in the composition. I stopped at the foot of a power pole and looked out and it was “coming together” and to add to the hopefulness of the situation, the sun was starting to angle lower and lower cutting beams of light right across the loch. I took a few test snaps. The problem here though was that it was very difficult not to get much of the yellow grass of the filed I was in and beyond me, in the frame and it made for a lot of boring uninteresting dead space.
So I kept moving and in the end, I think I found a spot that did the scene justice. I managed two main images, one a panorama of the entire view, and the other was just the west side of the loch with the beams of late evening sunlight coming down on the western hills. It wasn’t “exactly the scene that originally caught my attention but I think they both make for pleasing images. I am going to explore more viewpoints in this area down the line. I do think it would make for a great scene when there is some snow on the hills as well.
