Cairngorm Milk and Honey

I've often considered Scotland to be my photographic land of milk and honey so I felt compelled to photograph this beautiful winter scene overlooking the Cairngorm mountains with a very harsh frost, coating stubble and birch trees beneath a glorious patterned sky. The icing on the cake was the low angled honey coloured light streaming in and bathing the scene chucking out long black shadows.

Pentax 67II, 55-100 zoom, polariser (backed off from max), 0.45ND grad, F22 at 1/2 sec, Velvia and some very careful lens shading.

what a superb image cameron. maybe it is the hour i'm looking at this, or the golden colour, but i was convinced i was looking at a sand dune scene when i first looked, until i read the text it's quire rare doon sooth to get such an interesting sky with a frost, or at least on the coast, the winter tends to render the sky slate grey or washy flat empty blue.

i really like the inclusion of the large fency post things, which really finish off this composition.



regards,

mark

Absolutely no reason why but I think this is a very nice image .

John

I remember days/light like this Ian.........from my days in Fife, and its a wonderful memory!

I like this enormously, and agree with Mark, regarding the fence inclusion/positioning within the frame



Any plans to go digital {maybe you already use that medium sometimes though }.

Alan

Hi Ian,

Very nice image. The colours and light are superb, with a nice composition. The only thing which is a shame and totally out of your control, is that the distant hill tops are slighty lost within the cloud.

Nice work

Regards

Rob

Wow, a beautiful image, well done. Fabulous light and sky, as has been said its a pity the far mountains peaks just are obscured by cloud but there's not much you could have done about that - but maybe they give just a hint, which plays well against the beautiful colours of the fields and trees, so I think it works anyway.

Great stuff

Paul

Lovely light and a great composition.
Rene de Heer

Lovely light and a great image.

Phillip.

Lovely composition and viewpoint and the light is excellent. I think there is an overall lack of contrast in the image and some judicious PWL (light painting) in PS would bring out the distant hills and darken the shadows. Will look great on a calendar.

John

Beautiful. Its almost dreamlike. Think you've nailed a calender shot there.

All the series of these shots you posted last year will remain in my memory Ian, just wonderful. A classic example of when a simple composition pays homage to the light and clouds. Could post a few more of this series again?

Hello Ian

Wonderful shot full of interest.

Danny

Fantastic!

There is little to say here as the light and composition are just spot on. Excellent image - would be great to see more. Tristan

Frost is a great subject in itself and you did perfectly with this scene! As Dave mentioned, sure I too would like to see more of this series.

Cheers,
Marko