Image Details
A heavy fall of snow the previous night followed by a dawn which promised a fine day ahead made me anxious to be out and about and make the most of it. Roads were impassable so wherever I went it would have to be on foot. I decided to walk north from my house along the Mellon Udrigle road stopping first to capture the view over Gruinard Bay.
Next I came across a clump of trees not far from my home and I knew instantly I had to photograph them. In the past I had not paid much attention to them but the snow seemed to emphasise the fractal nature of their branches and twigs. As usual with this kind of scene there are a myriad of choices to be made about which part of the scene to select. I can't explain how I make a selection, except to say the selection has to 'feel right'. Sometimes I'll photograph a second choice 'just in case!'
Even the larger images on my website can fail to reveal the beautiful detail in them. To overcome that I've cropped a small part of the above image and displayed it below so that the detail can be better appreciated.
The side of the trees nearest me were in complete shadow while the far side was brightly lit by the low morning sun. This added further interest to the scene with the snow colour varying depending of the light it was receiving. It also made it critical to get the exposure just right, the sort of scene, probably unrepeatable, that in the days of film would have left me agonising about it till the film was developed!
North-west Highland Place Names
The landscape of the North-west Highlands and the Gaelic language are intimately connected. Other languages have contributed to the richness of our place names, notably Norse, but the North-west Highlands have for centuries been a Gaelic landscape. In listing the meanings of place names I have relied on authoritative sources wherever possible. For further information about sources please refer to North-west Highland Place Names in the main menu.
Gruinard Bay; possibly from the Norse grunnfjörðr meaning shallow firth.
Laide; In Gaelic it is An Leathad meaning ‘a slope’.
Mellon Udrigle; A hybrid Gaelic/Norse name meaning ‘Udrigle's Hill’. Udrigle is possibly a Norse name, however Professor Watson suggests it may be derived from the Norse útargill, meaning outer cleft or gully.
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