Snow in Glencoe

On how simple pleasures are sometimes best

2009 was my third visit to the old Kingshouse Hotel on Rannoch Moor. On previous trips I had not really experienced snow there and when it fell mid-week I was like an excitable puppy!

The forecasts on the Tuesday had been confusing - an occluded front was spinning over us with no clear indication of what was going to happen to us and the wind was getting up. So Dave and I visited Loch Leven woods for a session to investigate the trees and to avoid the wind. On the Wednesday morning however, snow had arrived. There was no chance of light at dawn so after breakfast we walked out into the streams at the back of the moor to see what was going on. It was clear that I would want to make pictures so I headed back into the hotel for my gear.

It was freezing cold and snowing heavily but I made a couple of images. The first, a close-up of grasses that Dave assisted with an umbrella. Then the main image above made whilst Dave went back to the hotel to dry off. It was still snowing but I was able to make it unassisted by not pointing into the wind this time (doh!) and employing a technique I had picked up on the workshop in the Yorkshire Dales - placing a sacrificial filter on the lens and removing it at the last moment. I had intended to photograph a rock I had seen the day before but instead I turned my attention to the clump of grasses next to the rock - a lovely curling shape. Simple and effective.

My abiding memory of the image is - as well as having frozen fingers at the time - decanting back to the lounge to join Dave. It was a scene with all my photography gear (lenses, TK, bellows, tripod, lightmeter and filters) laid out on a table drying and a wonderful cup of tea and scones being consumed. Sometimes the simple pleasures are the best.

As the snow continued to fall, Dave and I headed down Etive again - first to the birch trees where Dave made a superb image and I was less happy and then on to the deer enclosure where we had made some successful images earlier in the week. Dave made this memorable image of me - the alternative image - set up with the TK totally absorbed by what I was doing and in heaven.