Landscape Photography in Northern Scotland Highlands | Isle of Skye Elopement Photographer | Scotland Elopement
It’s about time I blog about this trip! Back in March I headed off to Northern Scotland to explore the Torridon region and dig into landscape photography with Thomas Heaton and Simon Baxter. We were based out of Gairloch for our adventures, an area of the highlands that is to the east of the more commonly known Isle of Skye.
We had 6 days roaming around the ever changing landscape of Torridon. This part of Scotland is filled with lochs, mountains, oceans, rivers, woodlands, and anything else you could ever want for landscape photography. The group of people we had on this trip made it a great one too - it was a small group of us, I believe 9 in total, so things were kept intimate, and we got to know each other by the end of the trip.
The first day or two we had decent weather, catching glimpses of light here and there. Through the rest of the week, we had some super stormy mornings and days, but we still spent our time wandering to find potential compositions. This workshop taught me a TON about how to approach landscape photography - essentially the exact opposite of how you approach portraits + wedding photography. It was a much needed step outside of the wedding bubble I’d drawn into, and reconnected me with why I love photography, why I love the outdoors, and why I want to share my love of that through photos.
One of my favorite memories of the trip was on our last day, when it was just pouring sheets of rain from the sky, but it was our last day and we were determined to go out! We went back to one of the lochs that we had spent a lot of time at through the week, and I decided to wander around a bit more this time before I set my tripod down. I hiked around the loch for about an hour, until I was at the very end of it. Again, it was pouring water out of the sky. Not even a gentle rain. This was some intense rain, that made me vow to myself that I’d never travel (especially for landscape photography) without RAIN PANTS! The need to stay dry was real, but at that point, it was a lost cause so I was embracing it. Thomas Heaton, one of the instructors, walked down with me and we found a composition we liked, but to photograph it would mean turning around and directly facing the sideways rain that was happening.
We place our bags under some tree’s (nice try Nicole - still wet), tried to set up tripods, but quickly knew that it just wasn’t going to work like that. Tom is highly against hand held shooting in landscape photography (not using a tripod), but we both agreed that this was the only way this was going to happen. We thought out the composition, had our game plan, and marched our sopping wet selves into the boggy marsh in front of us (I legitimately felt like a soldier in this moment - quickly marching into a field for battle), with our backs towards the rain, and then a quick turn around - click click click, turn back around, wipe the lens, turn back, click click click, and repeat. We were laughing at how ridiculous but fun this whole scenario was, and ended up getting decent shots! The final image from that moment is the last in this gallery!
It was such a fun week, that changed my whole philosophy around landscape photography, and even photography in general. I’m excited to dig deeper into being more intentional with my landscape work, and being able to create images that allow people to experience the scenes I’m experiencing when I’m there in person.
To purchase prints of any of these prints, head to my print shop HERE.
Now I’m left wanting to do a similar workshop next year! Have you ever been on a landscape photography tour or workshop? Let me know below!