Springtime photography in the Trossachs
Working with spring colour and foggy conditions
A source of continual excitement for landscape photographers is the prospect of fog. These conditions can create some of the most atmospheric and rewarding scenes to shoot, made special by the fact they don’t come around all too often.
When I noticed that fog was in the forecast a month or so ago now, I made sure to take full advantage of it, and planned a last-minute trip to the Trossachs area, about an hour and twenty minutes drive away from my home in Glasgow.
I booked a motorhome pitch (I stay in a TentBox on my overnight trips) right next to Loch Achray, which meant I wouldn’t need to walk far if the right conditions materialised.
When I arrived in a rush the night before, I did so just in time for golden hour, and managed to capture the image below.
I settled on this scene after a bit of trial and error, opting for a square crop shot in landscape orientation, which seemed to suit it best.
Happy with this image, I went to bed, hoping that I would wake up to completely different conditions in the morning.
Sure enough, the next morning, fog had gathered over the loch and looked likely to linger for a while. I shot the image above before moving to another spot, hoping to get a better view of either Ben A’an or Ben Venue.
The peak of Ben A’an was briefly visible when I first woke up, but by the time I had moved to my next vantage point it had completely disappeared. I focussed instead on Ben Venue, which was reflected perfectly on the water, with subtle pink hues visible in the sky.
As I was taking the image the fog was thickening, and I was faced with the typical dilemma of sticking around or moving to another location.
I decided to move on, hoping to capture bluebells in a woodland on the other side of the loch. This was nearly a fatal mistake, as I was about two or three weeks too early, and the bluebells in the area were yet to make an appearance.
Thankfully, I wasn’t far from the shores of another nearby loch, where I managed to capture this image of mist still clinging onto Loch Venachar.
On another day I might have stayed and tried to drag the conditions out, but I was more than pleased with the photos I had captured, and so I decided to call it a day while on a high.
Having not really done much landscape photography in the springtime, I wasn’t too sure what to expect. The lighter colours of the foliage, the just-about-manageable sunrise time compared to summer, and the excellent foggy conditions all contributed to a fantastic wee trip away.
In the end, being on location the night before paid off, and this superb area of the Trossachs lived up to its landscape photography potential.