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Caledonia Photography

Scottish Fine Art and Limited Edition Prints

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Our starting point is at Forest lodge car park, we set off on a cold but calm day; the mountains looking wonderful with the snow line down to about 1200 feet and a lovely Hoare frost covering the trees and grass.

We headed over the bridge and looking to your right is Loch Tulla and on your left looking towards our destination Loch Dochard,  with the mountains of the black mount including, StobGhaber 3565Ft, Stob Coir an Albannaich 3425Ft, Ben Starav 3285Ft to name but a few. The path is an ancient right of way and is marked with an appropriately old sign (footpath to Glen Etive), passing through an area of old Scots pine trees the path quickly opens out. The track meanders along by the banks of the river Shira with a pine wood on your right and more open views to your left, keep your eyes peeled for red deer, it’s not known as the great deer forest for nothing and you may get a lucky sighting of a golden eagle.

It was just about 8.45 am and there was a lovely pinkish light to the sky, so just beyond the small green Glasgow University climbing club hut we stopped for some photographs, getting our tripods set up low down to include some large boulders in the river as a good foreground leading the eye to the mountains beyond.  A quick cup of tea and a sandwich and we resumed our journey, you now leave the relatively good path and start on a rough track alongside the river. This is a truly wonderful area and on a day like this you get a true feeling of wilderness, we never saw anyone for the rest of the day till we returned to the car park.

Another mile or so along the track the path splits, you can go over a deer fence into a small woodland, or you can continue to your left back towards the river, both eventually lead to a recently constructed suspension bridge (you should have seen the old one (real Indiana Jones stuff, and with the river swollen in winter it was white knuckle stuff just to get across) Time for more photos looking back across the river towards the great bulk of StobGhabar and further along Meall Nan Eun. You are now on to a rough but sturdy path again, a little further along you begin to hear the roar of the many small waterfalls that tumble out from Loch Dochard, I always look forward to any rivers or waterfalls after a good rainfall or snowmelt, and never tire of setting up the tripod usually in the middle of the river below the waterfall and selecting a nice slow shutter speed to capture some of the water movement. Another twenty minutes or so brings you to a little ruined cattle byre, last year about this time we found a young red deer hind dead inside, she must have perished with cold or lack of food, It brings home just how harsh and unforgiving It can be in these remote areas. 

We head on to another of my favourite landmarks the remains of an ancient Scots pine tree on the edge of the loch, there are a number of stumps around the loch but this is the only remaining one with some semblance of its once proud height. It makes a brilliant foreground to the loch and hills, I have photographed it many times

In all seasons over the years and can remember when it had a small living area on top like a large birds nest. The geology of this area is there for all to see, with huge boulders some weighing many tons strewn all around. The glaciers sculpted some amazing scenery as they relentlessly progressed. You don’t realise how cold it is when you stop moving and concentrating on your photography and the wonderful scenery, the time flies as you move slowly round the loch looking for other viewpoints it’s then you give a shudder, you  are chilling down , time to move and get the circulation going again. This was the first time for a while that I didn’t fall into a burn or river, I am usually too busy looking through the viewfinder, then your boot lands on that slimy rock, and much to the delight of my son, I’m in!

All too soon the light is fading as we make our way back to forest lodge. This time the sunset didn’t materialize as so often happens the clouds started to build. This is what makes Scotland so special, the weather; it gives us the wonderful landscape and the amazing light that we spend our life trying to photograph.

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