Normally when you go on holiday you hope for good weather I suppose. But the interesting thing I have come to realize as a landscape photographer is that nearly all weather is good - as each brings with it something interesting to photograph.

As we packed for our family trip to Scotland, we warned the kids that we that were not joking about their need to pack full rain gear. We even suggested that they may find they “live” in said rain gear. And to be sure, it did rain (we were in Scotland after all) but to our delight we never needed to pull out the rain pants.

Of course the fantastic thing about a place that gets a regular amount of rain is that you get every shade of green in the flora. Oh - and waterfalls!

The lovely little spot pictured above is in Glen Brittle on the isle of Skye. You may have seen other images from this place (as I had). One image in particular caught my eye when I was planning our trip. It’s often labelled “Scotland - Fairy Pools” and shows an unbelievably turquoise river, lined with purple trees (if you haven’t already, you can see it here: Elle Bruce Pinterest Board.) Now - if you know Scotland - you know that there is a good variety of landscapes and depending on the season you can find many colours other that just green. But turquoise water? Purple trees? My interest was piqued and I decided we would have to check out the “fairy pools” for ourselves.

As we made our start on the hike from the car park to the pools, my husband commented that folks coming back down the foot path looked distinctly disappointed. We looked at the rather steep incline ahead and wondered if we would soon be joining their ranks with grim faces.

Sadly we didn’t find pools of turquoise nor purple trees - and not for a lack effort looking I might add. I later discovered this website that debunked the photo I’d pinned, but in the field, I had rationalized that such colours were perhaps possible given the right conditions. I surmised that we were likely too early in the season for the purple heather to be in bloom and that the overcast sky meant that the pools filled with crystal clear water and lined with curiously light stones remained a normal dull colour instead of that lovely turquoise that comes from reflecting a bright blue sky.

Luckily as we hiked back to the car I noticed this little waterfall - and so we were saved from becoming another four “frowny” faces on the trail back to reality.

Do you love the colour green? Waterfalls? Wild and rugged landscapes that look like the perfect place to house magical creatures? Then let me suggest you might love bonnie Scotland!

Check back here again soon for more images from our adventures in this lovely land.

And please don’t be a stranger. As always feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment.

TECH DETAILS:

Nikon D700, 14-24 mm, f/2.8
Bracketed set of 7 shots, some processing in Lightroom
later blended in Photoshop

REALITY IS GREEN