When I was in Cairngorms hiking, I had a plan each day for where I wanted to be when the sun either rose or set. That didn’t always work out as you can tell if you read my previous blog post about Craigellachie. Having never been there before, I mainly relied on research for this planning and the research led me to Loch Morlich for sunset and Loch an Eilein for sunrise. Also, on at least two mornings it was raining with complete cloud cover when I woke up, but I was going to try my best and deal with the rain.

---

Sunset at Loch Morlich

Loch Morlich is a large loch with a beach on the north and east side of the water that is easy to access. It seems to be a popular spot for camping as well as boating. On the day I hiked up Cairn Gorm, my plan was rest up at the hotel a bit and show up at this loch before sunset and scope the place out to get some sunset photos. There are a couple of carparks near the loch with machines that will happily collect parking fees, so I drove over and walked out to the beach. In the image below taken from the Windy Ridge path up Cairn Gorm you can see Loch Morlich in the valley below and maybe the hint of a beach on the far right side of the loch. That was the beach I stood on for sunsets at this loch.

That evening brought heavy clouds in the west and I didn’t get much to photograph, but as this loch was very close to the hotel, I showed up again the following evening when the sky looked a bit better. I walked around the beach with some ducks for about an hour with my tripod taking photos and the best I got was with the sun just peaking under the clouds right before it set. After the sun set, the clouds on the distant horizon blocked all the light and the clouds went dark gray.

The difficulty with this composition is perspective, I suppose. To take in the clouds in the sky, I had to shoot wide at 24mm. But shooting wide results in the distant mountains being minimized and not really showing well. I experimented with longer focal lengths, but I was unhappy with the thick haze in the distance. So, I settled on the above as my favorite for the clouds and the sunlight streak across the water. I think I needed closer foreground elements to make this work better.

---

Loch an Eilein

Loch an Eilein is slightly smaller loch with a lot of hiking trails around it. It was only a couple of miles from the hotel and so on my first afternoon after flying and driving in, I hiked over to this loch to have a look. In addition to lots of ducks, this loch also has a small island with a castle on it. So, I hiked up and down the shore a bit and found a few places where I could potentially shoot through the trees in the morning at sunrise. The below photo is the castle on Loch an Eilein in the late afternoon.

The next morning, it was raining and I didn’t see the point in going out there. But, the morning after than I decided to go whether it was raining or not. And as luck would have it, it wasn’t raining. There is a carpark at the loch, so I didn’t do the 2 mile hike from the hotel in the wee hours before dawn, but drove instead. I was the only one there when I arrived, and I walked down to a place on the bank and hoped for something nice.

I got a few nice clouds that caught the morning light, so I was happy about that. But, from the position where I could shoot, the castle was mostly facing west and away from the morning light, so it was quite dark. In the photo below, I brightened up the castle a bit so you could see it. I also got the color from the clouds reflected across the water, which was nice.

One nice thing about sunrises this far north, is that they last a long time as the sun rises as such a shallow angle. I had lots of times to wait for clouds and try different positions and focal lengths. The low clouds were racing across the sky from the right of frame and dissipating as they encountered the sunlight. But they were generally catching some nice warm light above the castle. I am used to the sunrises and sunsets where I live in central Texas in which you might get a good five minutes of light and then it’s gone, so I was quite pleased with the relaxing slow sunrise here.

---

I did other hikes around the Cairngorms through forests and up waterfall trails, but the last three blogs are the photos that I was happiest with. So I don’t guess I’ll blog about the other photos. But, the Cairngorms wasn’t the end of my trip. The next stop was the Isle of Skye, which I have been looking forward to for years. I’ll have more on that next time. Thanks.