Moray – Knightshoots Landscape Photography

Lossiemouth, Duffus Castle, and Findhorn

Scotlands Highlands 2020: Part Nineteen

10 and 11 August 2020

I was a real grump bag today.

No idea why. I slept really well, although I woke up several times, finally waking at 4am and looking out to see the sky was full of cloud. Dawn wasn’t worth getting up for this morning, and I went back to sleep for a few more hours. Maybe it was the broken sleep, maybe I had physically done enough, but everything was getting really hard. Bending/crouching was really hard, just getting motivated was hard, my back ached, my foot hurt, and I really couldn’t focus properly. I felt like both my body and brain were ceasing up.

Saying all that, I started off chill and just taking my time cleaning up, doing some laundry and so on, so I wasn’t feeling particularly stressed. Once ready, Lossiemouth and Duffus castle were on my list for today, and I hoped to end at Findhorn for the evening, so I headed off feeling fairly good. I arrived at Lossiemouth and started off by taking River for a long walk near the harbour, and onto a beach there (East Beach) It was quite pretty here and I devoted all my time to her, rather than to some photography, although in hindsight I wish I had gone back with my camera, as the view was nice enough to get some shots I think. (Phone snap in header) Once River had enjoyed a good walk, I popped into a few shops, got a few gifts, treated myself to an ice cream, (Yum!) and then went back to the camper to continue my day. From here things seemed to start deviating from the plan… and a debilitating downward turn soon took hold.

I hoped to find some awesome looking caves that photographer Kim Grant had mentioned in her video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sCLEkupBrI&t=563s&ab_channel=KimGrant (8.40 minutes in) and I think near there were also some stunning rock formations that I had seen in some photos (possibly from above the cave section). This should have been quite lovely, but no matter how I tried, I just couldn’t find the caves I liked, nor the rock formations. All I found was one long sandy beach. This left me very disappointed and confused. I tried to park at the lighthouse to get a shot of that at least, but their car park was closed off today and nearby land was owned by the RAF and a touring park, so I struggled to find anywhere else to park. Instead, I went back to Lossiemouth and decided to walk to the Lighthouse from there, to check out the caves that were apparently underneath it. I had the gut feeling they weren’t the ones I wanted, so I left all my kit behind and just walked the route. I am so glad I did because not only were they NOT the ones I hoped for, with all the beautiful colours and lines in the varying rock shapes, but the walk took over an hour. Just there. And the same back. Don’t get me wrong, this beach was great for holidaymakers, absolutely beautiful. There were no rocks to hurt feet, its a huge expanse of gorgeous gentle sand, and the water was lapping so gently in the sun, it was a perfect holiday day out. There was little to my eye to photograph though, although I did find a curious looking purple jellyfish just at the waters edge. I sent a snap to the family WhatsApp group, because I had only ever seen clear jelly fish before and I thought this one looked really pretty!

My grand daughter replied with one she found on google, a Pelagia noctiluca, also known as mauve stinger purple stinger, purple people eater or nightlight jellyfish. (On reading ‘Purple People eater’, I confess I did step back a little…LOL!!!) I looked it up myself later and this is more likely to be a Cyanea Lamarckii or ‘Blue jellyfish’ which likes the colder waters off the Scottish coasts apparently. Although I confess, the idea of a jellyfish that glows in the dark sounded absolutely beautiful so maybe its a shame it wasn’t the purple people eater! With little else to see or do for the two hour walk, all I could do was think – which in part was nice, but it also gave me far too much time to mull over the frustrations I had struggled with today. By the time I got back to Fred, I had lost all my focus, and had no clue where to look or go to next. I tried to think of a different location to get me excited but none took my fancy. So, I went back to my original plan, settled back on Duffus Castle and full of disappointment, completely gave up on Lossiemouth.

The drive was quick, the location easy to get to, free to enter and open for anyone to go in, any time of day. This all picked me up a little bit. It was so nice to visit a complication free location today! From the car park, it looked really nice with the sun now out, and beaming on one side. I took a walk around with River, and found several boards telling me all about it, and some of its history that was so interesting I sent a video back to the kids to watch. It was the first motte and bailey castle I had seen, having learned about them from when my children were young and having to make multiple models for their homeworks.

River, however, was being very badly behaved and was extremely distracting. I got highly irritated by her constant barking at other people, and especially, other dogs, and where there were quite a few visitors here today, it got to be a little too much! Eventually I snapped and left her in the camper where she would offend no one. This time out, I took the camera. There was one spot in particular that I really hoped to get a photo from. One of the first images I saw of this location, was actually a painting, with the Castle in the back, and a small bridge in the foreground. I found the spot, but the moat was so overgrown with huge reeds and algae, that it was totally impossible to capture a photograph from the same position. That was disappointing enough, but when trying to take an image from the cobbled hump of the bridge instead, a whole bunch of people turned up and just kept getting into my shots. Eventually I gave up there, frustrated with my efforts. The sky wasn’t very pleasing anyway, with the sun directly in my eyes, just to add more agitation to the situation. I continued wandering around the edge of the moat where I captured a token image that, at the time, didn’t particularly excite me. (no idea why to be fair, I quite like the image now!) Seconds later, even that view was crawling with the bus load of visitors. In a completely disheartened mood by now, I just gave up and went back to the camper, trying to work out what was going wrong with me today. As I sat there I suddenly felt exhausted, and I decided that it might be best if I didn’t push it. I would see if I could go out for a nice sunset shot here, and perhaps just stay the night. After I settled on that plan, I completely flaked out.

Duffus Castle. My mood at the time left me dissatisfied with this shot, but I am not unhappy with it now.

When I awoke an hour or so later it felt quiet enough for River to come out, and I thought I might retry the cobbled bridge with a possible sunset. Unfortunately as each negative thing happened today, I’d felt more and more beaten, and even as I was setting up, I couldn’t get things to go right. The castle was still in a warm evening sunlight, but the sky was just really bland, with just a flat blue cloudless view. The sunset was clearly just going to be a pink strip on the horizon, as there were no clouds for it to bounce off. In my head all I could hear was ‘Why am I even bothering with this?!!’ A family appeared, walking with their two dogs, and River kept barking every time she caught sight of them. It was really hard to work with her constantly trying to run at them. Then, just as I was nearing the end of my tether, she decided that a dip in the stinky moat would be a good idea, and just wouldn’t listen when I called her to stop. Frustrated with everything, I was feeling like I was about to snap, so I packed everything away, hauled her out and made my way back to the camper totally dejected with today. When we got back, I was just packing the camera bag inside, when she barked nastily and went to lunge at a little kiddie on a scooter. She had NEVER behaved like that before, and in a mix of complete horror and despair, I grabbed her and threw her into the camper, shut the door behind us, and burst into tears. This had been the final straw today, and I was totally confused as to what was wrong with me, and everything.

I didn’t set foot outside again until long into the next day.

11 August 2020

I woke up this morning totally without aim. Thinking proved to be the most difficult thing, so I did what I needed to do. Absolutely nothing. The sky was a flat cloud, so there was no chance of a sunrise or dramatic shot here. When I looked at the map, nothing excited or drew me. So I left it all, and just chilled in Fred. I looked up why dogs bark in the way that River was, and read how to help control it. I then decided that today I would simply try to practice the techniques they suggested, and maybe try a simple shot at Findhorn later. Nothing more than that. I knew I needed a high tide for the shot I wanted of the tidal breaker – water moving around it, a long exposure, and a minimalist shot. Nothing too hard, a photo that had been done numerous times before, by other photographers, but a good practice for me for the minimal technique that I so loved. At 3, I left Duffus without having touched my camera, and by 4.30 I was parked up at Findhorn beach, having had a quick stop off at a small local store for a couple of supplies. High tide was in an hour, so I explored the beach a little and practiced the dog training ideas I had read, with River. If I saw a dog, I simply stood between her and the other dog, made her sit, and made her look at me until the other dog had passed. When she did as she was told, she got a treat. We did this continually with every dog, for the hour and she gradually got the hang of it, and stopped barking. By 6, she happily walked by the other dogs, with barely a sniff in their direction! (YAY!! Progress!) At high tide, I got myself back on the beach, and my heart sank yet again. The water was so low it didn’t even reach the wave breaker that I had come to photograph. (So much for ‘high‘ tide!) I snapped the pitiful scene with my phone, feeling complete and utter resignation. ‘Yep, that’s about right!’ I thought.

The final finger up from Fate on this day. High tide barely even touched the breaker, never mind cover it!

I turned around and walked right back to the camper. This was my only photo at Findhorn.

My Adventures

Dulsie Bridge, and Bow Fiddle Rock

Scotlands Highlands 2020: Part Seventeen

8 August 2020

Today was changeover day number 3!

With 3/5ths of the trip complete, I was now leaving Ross and Cromarty, and heading out of the Highlands over to Moray for a few days. I started off as usual by sorting Fred, and to do so I visited Highland Campervans (https://www.highlandcampervans.com/motorhome-service-point) in Inverness-shire to empty the loo, grey water and to fill up with fresh water… if you have been following this, you know the drill by now. I was there bright and early, and the guys were really helpful and happily just left me to it. For just £5 it was well and truly worth visiting here.. so much so, I came back here after Moray for changeover number 4 as well!

I hadn’t really thought of the order in which I might visit any of the locations I had plotted in here, so I basically thought I would just head on down to the furthest and work my way back up towards the coast. I was aiming for Glenlivet initially, but spotted another location I wanted, literally on the way, and diverted myself towards Dulsie bridge instead. This looked much closer, and it didn’t take me long to get there. I squeezed Fred into a small layby before climbing over a wall, (daft move, I should have driven to the other side of the bridge -there’s loads of parking there!) and following a small worn footpath down to the water. As I clambered down, I heard several voices, and once under the bridge found myself sharing the space with about 6 young men, all jumping from various heights into the river below. Freejumpers! I have never seen these before! Fascinated, I spent ages just watching them, and even cheering one on at one point.. well… until they all started encouraging me to have a try..(!!) .. whereby I politely declined, citing that I sadly (!!) didn’t have my swimming costume with me… (I know – shame right??!!!)

I felt quite self conscious about getting my camera out to take any photos for a while, and when I did, the photos were rushed, and not really what I wanted. Very little thought went into them, and at the time I resigned myself to naff ones that wouldn’t amount to anything. They would still serve as a reminder of this location for future ventures here… so I wasn’t worried about it.

Dulsie Bridge. This edit came out way better than I thought it would!

Ideally, I would have gotten my filters out so that the bubbles in the water would have made delicate streaks, and I wanted to have a good clamber closer to the waters edge… but too shy to do much, I contented myself with my token snaps (which in hindsight were way better than I expected) and just watching the lads. This bit turned out to be the highlight of this location!

After about 20 minutes of watching them jumping off near a waterfall, they ventured to another spot nearer the bridge, when another group of about 5 arrived. Unfortunately these guys left their bags and stood, right in the middle of my scene, so any further photo opportunities would be pretty impossible. However, several of them were far more adventurous and had no qualms about jumping off the bridge itself! This was clearly a winner with everyone around me! Two other lads briefly dropped past, but I suspect they were just hikers as they left shortly afterwards, then a third group of about 7 arrived, with some girls, and also picked a spot in the middle of my scene to settle into. I packed everything away, but fascinated, I videoed their shenanigans instead and sent it back to the kids to see. Then I felt it was time to move on. I could try here another date no doubt, and maybe, (if I pick a cold season), I might get this to myself too…maybe!

(I re-edited it for this blog… my first attempt at editing… hope you like it! Music is Punky by Bensound.com)

No idea why, but I abandoned the Glenvilet idea, and decided to look for Cullen. There were basically two reasons I came to Moray, one was to see Bow Fiddle Rock, and the other was to try home made Cullen Skink from its actual birthplace! Well Bow Fiddle was my aim for sunset and sunrise, and since there was still a fair bit of time, I thought maybe I could try Cullen Skink for tea! I went, but the cafe I hoped to get my skink from was closed (I missed it by 5 minutes – gagh!) and the pub which was my second choice wasn’t serving for another two hours. Disappointed, I took a quick walk across the sea front instead and decided to just go to Bow Fiddle to make my own tea while I waited for the sunset. Cullen Skink would wait for another day..

When I arrived at the sat nav coordinates for Bow Fiddle, I was absolutely amazed to find this well known photographers hotspot literally at the end of a residential street. I parked up, walked across the green, and saw it standing there in the ocean, looking just as lovely as all the photos I had seen. I was not at all disappointed! I hoped to stay here for the night to get an evening, and sunrise shot so, looking around the area, I found a nice spot tucked away from the houses – the last thing I wanted to do was disturb residents at 4am with slamming camper doors. I saw another van down here and stopped for a brief chat to discover another man hoping for a sunrise shot. Fingers crossed we both get the pictures we hoped for.

As the evening progressed into golden hour, I gathered my kit and River, and took the short walk down to the small cove and had an explore. There was another older gent here already taking photos, and when it looked like it was just going to be the two of us (I was a little surprised not to see Camper fella), a large group of foreign tourists turned up. I held off taking any more pictures for a while as they filled the scene, then one younger fella decided that he would climb the rock itself. I was really sad to see all the gulls that had been settling down for the evening startled into flight and they continually circled the rock as he made his ascent. I suddenly realised however, that this might be a good opportunity to try taking a shot while attempting to keep speeding birds in focus. This wasn’t easy. I hadn’t read how to do this, and ended up faffing with the controls. I knew I needed to get my shooting speed up, but kept fighting to get the light correct. I finally settled on shots with 1/1600 sec which seemed to have sharp birds and the better lighting. (header pic)

A beautiful, gentle sunset at Bow Fiddle Rock

Thankfully the group all left shortly after that, and the older chap and I were left to our photos in peace. The sun didn’t really kick off, but it did give a delightful pink hue to the wispy cloud, which reflected perfectly in a pool around a line of rocks. I was sad the tide had gone out, as I think it might have made a nicer shot, but I had a good explore of the angles here ready for the morning instead. As the evening drew on I tried to spark up a conversation with the man, but he seemed very quiet. I did eventually manage brief discussions on filters and the oncoming dawn with him, and as the conversation grew, I showed him the dawn photo I had taken at the Mermaid of the North yesterday. “Where is THAT?!!” he asked. Now, he looked experienced, and he was a Scot from this neck of the woods, so this question really surprised me. Even a local photographer didn’t know this spot?!! What was wrong with it, that the Mermaid wasn’t well known to people?! I told him where she was, so I hope he visited and caught some cracking shots of his own…

He left shortly afterwards as the evening darkened and a few minutes later, I decided that bed was calling for me too. It was going to be an early one tomorrow…