Tim Parkin - Landscape Photographer

The forestry commission guides made a big thing of Taynish, near Tayvalich as a great destination for old growth forest and with a large moor topped hill it provided a little interest in being able to see across to Rhum. Up on top of Barr Mhor and the wind picked up surprisingly. With nothing shielding the Atlantic weather, the top of the hills around Knapdale can be bleak indeed. We dropped down at the north side of Barr Mhor down some incredibly steep rock steps (you have to admire the people who made the path through here, all volunteer effor too) and found a tremendous area of sheltered old growth oak woods. The below taken just as a cloud was starting to pass over the sun. Although I compensated for bellows factor, the shadows have dropped almost to black (although a drum scan may save something). I’ve included a picture taken with Portra 160NC and converted in ColorNeg for comparison. I’ve clipped the blacks on the Portra as there was a lot of shadow detail available that I didn’t want. I had made the mistake of thinking that the range of neg material was the same above and below and hence that I probably had +4stop and -4stops. in actual fact, I reckon that it’s more like +2.5 stops and -5.5stops. I’ve since spoken to Mike Stacey who says he rates Portra 160 NC at 100 and exposes highlights at +2 or possibly higher.. (in short, this is probably a stop over exposed). Interestingly, the Portra is damned sharp, at least as much detail as the transparency film, if not more. I’ll be playing with Portra more and will post about how best to scan and convert..

Me and my dad stopped by at Barluasgan on the way back so that I could finish off my ‘levitating branch’ shot. I brought my new waders as I guessed I would end up standing in the loch at some point in order to get the right angle. I’m using stocking foot fishing waders which although fully waterproof, are surprisingly comfortable ( if you get a decent pair). Mine are a pair of Scierra breathable waist waders in which I’ve comfortably hiked a couple of miles. Coupled with a pair of Korkers guide wading boots, they make a very comfortable wading (or just kneeling down in crap) setup in which you can very easily walk four or five miles in comfort even in late summer (I walked the last part of Skye with these waders pulled over a pair of jeans).

It was a good job I did as the angle I really wanted involved wading out thigh deep about ten foot away from the bank. Taking pictures in such a location under tree cover at dusk in Scotland is a recipe for a midge mauling but I’d come prepared again with some Avon Skin So Soft Bug Guard. The original story about Avon moisturiser stopping midges biting is true to a certain extent (in that you have to have a 1mm thick coating over your skin to acheive the effect) but has since been disproven by the US FDA during trials of Avon’s newly formulated anti insect cream called Bug Guard. This takes the component of the moisturiser that did have some little effect, concentrated it and combined it with an insect repellant which is a LOT nicer than DEET – and one that doesn’t melt plastic (they actually have two brands with two different repellants). I’ve got some spray stuff and some towelettes and they also do a combined repellant and sun block – very handy. My dad being my dad though just said “Insects don’t bite me” and so I carried on taking my pictures.

The picture is one of the first ones that has got me really excited for a while; I could immediatly see the potential but the composition I had thought about yesterday where I had included the horizon was just a little too complex for such a great subject. Any distractions from the log itself would detract from the abstract, natural illusion of the log. I took one composition with a wider lens to create the photograph I was imagining the day before but then used my 110XL to get right into the subject and line the log itself up with the dark reflection, drawing the eye to and accentuating the dead end of the log. Meanwhile my dad was looking slightly flustered by the midges that weren’t biting him and so once I’d passed my dark cloth and meter to him, I withdrew for the evening, wondering just what I had captured.

p.s. Just for the record, the midges didn’t leave a line of bites along my dads forehead and definitely hadn’t caused him to moan about them for the next couple of days..

UPDATE: I’ve added a Portra vs Provia comparison for the levitating branch picture.. The raw portra picture (as ‘auto colord’ in ColorNeg) is on the right and the raw provia is on the left. The Portra balances up very niceley though and renders great colours and ones with an especially rich red/orange flavour.. I’m starting to like Portra now I know what to do with it Click for a bigger view..