Image Details
This photograph was taken on a warm and windless summer's evening on the shore between Laide and Udrigle. I had deliberately gone out in the hope of catching a sunset. On this shore of Gruinard Bay the view is easterly, and in the above image in particular to the north-east. So there is no way I'm going to get the usual sunset of the sun going down to the horizon. and the spectacular effects resulting from that.
Sometimes at sunset, looking easterly over Gruinard Bay, the mountains turn bright red from the reflected sunset. On other occasions, as in this instance, the bay can be suffused with a warm light.
I had taken some shots, without feeling that they were going to be anything to get excited about, one usually knows when something special is in the bag. This feeling of disappointment was compounded with one of absolute misery as a result of the activities of the midgies - I had no protective gear on. It's really very difficult to concentrate on what you are doing when the midgies are all over you.
I had reached the last frame of film and was desperate to get away, but I also wanted to get the film processed, and rather than waste a frame I looked around for another subject. There they were - the seagulls and the mountains! I quickly grabbed the shot then raced back up the hill to the roadside where I had left the car, got in , switched on the engine, and turned on the fan. Aaaaaaah! Relief from the midgies, they don't like the wind, and in the car the fan full on serves the same purpose.
I think as a result of being distracted by the midgies I didn't have the feeling that I had managed to get a nice photograph, but when the film had been processed and printed, then I knew I had a good one.
This landscape view, taken from the shore between Udrigle and Laide, is looking over Gruinard Bay on Scotland's north-west coast to the long peninsula on which Achiltibuie is situated, beyond which are two of Sutherland's mountains, the long massif of Quinag with its many peaks, and to the right the whale-like shape of Suilven. On the far left can be seen the dark shape of Tanera Mor, one of the Summer Isles, and above it, faintly, are Foinaven, Ben Stack, and Arkle.
Copyright © 1996 Gordon C Harrison All Rights Reserved