Corpach – Knightshoots Landscape Photography

Corpach Boat and Lighthouse and Back to Glasgow

Scotlands Highlands 2020: Part Twenty Six

17 & 18 August 2020

So my last location was finally here!

After I ate my food, and checked the weather, I looked out to see big looming clouds building. It didn’t bode well, but at the same time, the sun was still trying to flick in and out. I ended up having a massive debate with myself… Should I try the boat shot after all – or not. I really don’t want to – but this might be your last chance – but I am SOOO tired! – but you might regret it if you don’t, but … and on and on it went for about 10 minutes… full on arguing with myself (!!!) and then, as if some unseen spirit took over my body, I just grabbed my bag and left the camper. Once out I felt the full power of the exhaustion, but told myself that it was just a 5 minute walk, and at least I would have tried to get a classic shot off the bucket list.. even if I didn’t find boats exciting to photograph. The walk wasn’t hard, but I found myself plodding laboriously through the tiredness, and when I got to the boat, I took position and framed up without much enthusiasm. Then suddenly, out of the grim clouds, one beam of light broke through and hit just the boat, nothing else! I couldn’t believe my eyes at the sight. Something boring and drab, suddenly looked magical! I took the shot instantly, and a second, by the third the light was noticeably less, and by the 4th it was gone.

The Corpach Boat. Often photographed, and a definite bucket shot collectors piece for me

At the same time, rather randomly, thoughts of my dad jumped into my head, which I felt very comforted by. Part of me felt he was giving me this – having been a sailor he would have loved this place. Yes I know, that’s probably just me being an emotional softie, looking for meaning in unusual moments, but I have to say, the whole thing suddenly energised me, and I was able to continue working the scene for another hour without any problems… well, that’s not quite true…

The light may have gone, but there was still a great, moody feel about the scene, which I loved. As the clouds behind the boat split further, revealing more of the mountain (which incidently is Ben Nevis), I got all excited and fired off several shots before realising that there was a large family of people that had walked into the scene. I stopped and waited, hoping they would leave quickly, as the higher clouds were beginning to go a gorgeous peachy colour.. ‘this might just kick off!’ I quietly thought/hoped. Half the group split off and climbed onto the boat, and for the next 20 minutes the family took their time venturing all over it (with torches at some points) and all over the shore, while the cloud was doing beautiful things around the mountain. When the party on the boat finally climbed down, I noticed the cloud really picking up colour, glowing incredibly, with the lower cloud staying grey. It looked amazing, but wait… Now the group is posing in front of the boat for photos, this way, that way, and another… lets all look at the photos… lets take some more… this way, that way… and again, and again… I nearly cried as I watched the amazing colour start to fade away, and decided to fire a shot anyway, and just prayed that I could remove each person in the editing stage. The light finally went altogether, and the group left the beach… but wait… what’s that?!! 2 of the group gave me a hearty wave showing me they knew I was there all along…(#@$&#!!!) At the time, I was so frustrated at the inconsiderate way they had just stayed there (when they could have stepped aside while checking their photos at least)… but they had every right to be there of course, and in all honesty, they probably had NO idea that the sky was doing something stunning that I had been desperate to capture. It was one of those great frustrations you occasionally experience being a photographer.

Corpach Boat, just as the colour in the sky was fading.

Shortly after, I too left, as now the light was ebbing away quickly into blackness with the mix of night and building clouds. The promised storm however, never happened thankfully, and I ended up with a really pleasant light rain on the camper for the large part of the night.

The next morning I was up bright and early for the dawn, with my fingers crossed that the tide was high, and the water still. The rain had stopped, the worst of the cloud cover had passed, and it no longer looked angry. There was cloud, but it didn’t heavily blanket the sky any more, so I felt hopeful that I might be a bit lucky. When I turned up, the water was the perfect height, and although not perfectly still, there were continuing moments when calm just crept over the surface in patches. It was fascinating watching this happen, it was almost as if it had a life of its own, breathing in and out across the water. I stood embodying the full levels of emotions in this scene, hope rising and falling with the growing stillness, breathing when a breeze shattered it, holding my breath when the still patches grew, and suddenly, there it was… the scene still and beautiful, and by some miracle it coincided with a glow in the sky and my pressing the trigger on the camera.

Corpach Marina. This was my one and only chance to get this shot. The amazing view doesn’t exist now!

Much as this looked beautiful, I felt a little heartbroken that it wasn’t perfect. (don’t want much do I?!! LOL) There were mounds of soil spoiling it, metal fencing, bright orange diggers and cones all well within the shot. I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on there. I initially thought they were doing some repair work, but I looked it up yesterday, and have seen that they have built a whole new marina here. The only photo I have seen to date, is an aerial one, so I am not totally sure what it might look like now, from the position that I had used. From the air though it looks like the reflection of the two buildings has now been obliterated, as the new bit of marina seems to come out as far as those. That’s not to say it won’t be a beautiful view when they are done – I understand they hope to build a cafe and marina facilities building, which may, or may not, make an awesome reflection for future photographic ventures. As it stands though, this does mean that I will never be able to capture this shot looking like this ever again… and nor will anyone else.

*update… apparently the bit I have seen online, is just phase one… the car park and shop part… they have yet to build a further floating section for up to 45 boats, which, looking at the diagrams, will cover this entire area.

Photo done, this morning left me feeling extremely satisfied and that my journey for this trip, was complete.

I left and drove back to my daughter in Glasgow. I bought a takeaway for us all with the £20 note I had found outside on the very first day, and we chatted about the adventure. We looked River over and found one singular tic on her, which we gently removed, but other than that she had fared extremely well I felt. I enjoyed my first full bath, slept in a real bed and drove home the next day fully rested and ready for home, singing happy songs pretty much all the way.

My Adventures

Glenfinnan, Castle Stalker and Corpach

Scotlands Highlands 2020: Part Twenty Three

14 & 15 August 2020

The drive to Glenfinnan took just an hour, which was really pleasant, and the whole way I was excited to see this highly iconic location, made famous by the Harry Potter films. This is SO well photographed here, that I wasn’t expecting any original shots, but I did hope I might be able to at least capture the gorgeous steam train, the Jacobite, for myself.

I started off parking in the National Trust car park and had a look around for any pay and display signs, only to discover there was no overnight parking allowed. This was going to cause me an issue. I wanted an evening and morning shot if I could, but if I couldn’t stay here, I needed another plan. I got back into Fred and drove up and down the road for a bit but no other possible parking spots caught my eye. There was literally nowhere to park BUT the NT car park! Then I noticed a car driving into an open bit of land next to it, and followed to investigate. Here I found some rough land where there were a couple of campers and several other cars parked up. I looked around and saw a sign asking for donations to stay here. I was happy to pay a bit to these people because this was far more suited to my needs. I believe they were hoping to build a car park with the funds… if so, I can only hope that they are going to allow overnight stops in an Aire fashion, because that’s what is needed here.

Glenfinnan Viaduct from the path up to the viewpoint

After I was parked up, I decided to go for a wander, and headed towards the viaduct. As I began my walk the first thing I saw was the Jacobite steaming across it in the distance! It looked fabulous, so I excitedly followed the pathway closer. As I got to the bottom I took a few photos of the viaduct itself -built in 1897/98 by Robert McAlpine & Sons and carrying the railway line from Fort William to Mallaig – and then I headed up to the viewpoint.

Here I sat with a bunch of people for the next hour or so, waiting to see if the train might return. It didn’t, but I learned that it passes through here only 4 times a day, once in each direction in the morning, and then again 4 hours later in the afternoon. It clearly is more of a tourist trip than a regular train ride with a frequent timetable as I originally thought. Once I knew the times however, I planned to be back here first thing, to hopefully get the iconic picture I dreamed of! I went back to the camper for some dinner, and then took a short walk to the Glenfinnan Monument that is also near this location. The light was failing by now, with no strong colour in the sky, so I just planned a position to take some photos for tomorrow, and went back to the camper to settle down for the night.

In the morning I was up bright and early, and took the hike back to the viewpoint. I was one of the first here, and there was at least an hour to go, but the area started to fill really quickly. As more people arrived, so did the heat for the day, and we were all plagued horribly by hungry midges. None of us wanted to move though, steadfastly hanging onto our precious spots that clearly became more precious as each minute passed. Eventually we were rewarded with the sound of a steam train chuffing in the distance… and then it appeared! It looked awesome from this spot, but to my disappointment, the daytime heat meant that the beautiful plume of smoke I hoped for, wasn’t visible. I snapped a constant stream of pictures anyway (see header pic) just so that I could at least get something that reminded me of this magical moment. The train slowed and tooted, released a big bit of (invisible) steam, and the driver and fireman both gave us all a big hearty wave before the Jacobite picked up speed again and chuffed off on its way to Mallaig. Something about all of this was highly magical despite the pictures not being perfect. If you are ever here in the summer months, (the train runs from April to October) I highly recommend coming just for this!

Glenfinnan and Loch Shiel from further up the path from the viewpoint

Everyone began to wander away, and I headed up further on the path, finding a fantastic view of the whole valley with Loch Shiel in the distance. There is another viewpoint, that goes up from the National trust car park (I think you need to pay to go on this walk though), but I didn’t take that today, and will try that one next time I am here. I suspect it’s better for photography than this one, with the monument and the loch more central to the view, but I was happy with this sight for today. As I stood taking in the view, I considered what I wanted to do with the rest of the day. I was disappointed in there not being any smoke, so it seemed a good idea to try again a bit later, but maybe from the other side – and so, as I had about 4 hours to kill, I decided to have a casual walk all around, and to go and see the monument in more detail.

The Glenfinnan Monument, erected in 1815, commemorates all those that died during the Jacobite rising in Scotland in 1745. The rebellion started here with a gathering of the first clansmen who awaited the arrival of (‘Bonnie’) Prince Charles Edward Stuart and raised their standards in support of his claim to the Scottish throne. The figure on top of the monument is of a generic Scottish clansman, representing all who joined in support, and was added a little later in 1835.

Monument to the Clansmen who died in the Jacobite uprising of 1745

You can visit, and climb to the top apparently, even standing next to the clansman, but as we were still in the midst of the Covid pandemic, it was closed to the public today. For me, this was probably a bonus, as getting this photo tourist free might be a much greater challenge normally. I preferred the morning light on the monument too, as the sun was now shining on the clansman’s face rather than on his back. With the hills behind in contrasting lights behind him, this was a much better photo for me than the snap I had taken the night before. I took River for a casual paddle in Loch Shiel and then gently wandered back to Fred for a spot of lunch.

After this I made my way back to my second viewpoint, and fell in love with the view from this position. It looked incredibly beautiful from this side of the glen, with more of the mountains visible from this side, and the viaduct setting clearly visible and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I could see all the crowds beginning to gather in the spot I was at this morning, and was quite amazed at just how many people the spot attracted. As I waited the familiar sound of a chuffing steam train approached, and I relished the fact that I was here all on my own on this side. I think I am much happier with the shot from here too, although as the train slowed to toot its horn, the steam at that point evaporated to nothing very quickly. The best steam came before it slowed I feel.

The Glenfinnan Viaduct in its full setting

Once the train left, the crowds on the other side started to leave, but I waited… and sure enough, 10 minutes later, this mornings train came through on its return journey. I took a few photos of this one too, until I realised the locomotive was back to front. I hadn’t realised steam trains did that!

Once this train left, I made my way back down and looked at leaving myself. I really liked Glenfinnan, and I am sure there was a lot more to explore here, but for now, I was just playing tourist. Next time, I will plan on stopping longer if I can, and to really have a deep look into the area. I really hope this car park is still here when I do! I looked at my map, and realised that most of this section of my tour was pretty complete, so I decided to see if I could take a leisurely drive down to Castle stalker, and see if I can get an evening or dawn shot of that.

I did the drive, taking a thoroughly enjoyable 2 and a half hours getting to Portnacroish at 6pm, but I really struggled on where to park. I found ‘Castle Stalker View’ on the hill before the road wound down closer to the castle. It had a view overlooking the loch alright, but it was too high for what I hoped for. I drove to a lower spot, but there was nowhere to pull over, except at ‘The Old Inn’, which had a tiny car park for patrons only. Beyond that it looked to be a private road to some cottages. After I drove up and down for a little bit, I didn’t know where to go, and in the end, feeling a little frustrated, I just left! I wasn’t sure WHAT I could do! If anyone knows where to park for a photo lower down, please let me know!

With only Corpach still on my list to do, I drove back there in the hope that I could at least get the shots here that I wanted. It took another hour of driving and I got there just as the sun was setting. I grabbed my camera and headed to the canal lock quickly, realising when I got there, that I had mere seconds before the sun would be gone, I didn’t try to get any closer to the boat because of this, and instead grabbed the only shot that I could, without loosing this light. It looked SOOOO beautiful with all the colours tonight, but it was already fading!

Corpach Basin on Loch Linnhe looking at Ben Nevis

…and then it was gone. I considered going to the boat and taking the shot there, but the light looked flat already, and I was very uninspired. Did I want to try the lighthouse shot… well, no, not really. The water wasn’t smooth because of the ripples here tonight and nowhere near reflective enough for the shot I had in mind there, so I left that too. I went back to the camper realising suddenly how tired I was now, and decided that I would simply have some tea and check out the next highest tide for the dawn shot. It looked like the best time for this was actually going to be in 2 days… so I stopped here for the night and planned a different location for tomorrow instead.