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Soldato
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Has the tree/that spot got a name? It's regularly shot and the view looks great.

Yeah i've seen it stacks of times, I've never actually shot it before - so I thought i'd have a go, although the sun wasn't really in the right place for it. It's a nice hike if you go all the way around and back across the Trotternish ridge, great viewpoint.

Unfortunately the weather for the rest of the week sucked pretty bad, Skye drizzle, grey, rain - so I drove about a bit and had a go at some gloomy shots, the only thing of any real worth was a nice jetty I found, the rest of the time we got wrecked on gin and tonic in the cottage :D

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@Screeeech your photos are amazing - I have some holiday that I need to take in January and you've pretty much single handedly persuaded me to take a trip up to Skye. Have you had a chance to get out to Eilean Donan castle, or the fairy pools? Those are pretty high up my list of places to visit!
 
Soldato
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@Screeeech your photos are amazing - I have some holiday that I need to take in January and you've pretty much single handedly persuaded me to take a trip up to Skye. Have you had a chance to get out to Eilean Donan castle, or the fairy pools? Those are pretty high up my list of places to visit!

Thanks man!

I'm not a huge fan of Eilean Donan castle for photography, it's always very busy - but there are some good nearby shots if it's in good light.

The fairy pools are really good, but the conditions have to be right - you don't want too much water, otherwise it's quite muddy and the pools are all covered by a torrent of water, but if the conditions are right it's stunning, really deep, fluoride blue pools - with the black Cullins as a background. I've been up there a few times but I've yet to capture anything decent from there.

I was lucky enough to go to Skye back in 2010 when it was freezing, it snowed like hell (which is unusual for Skye) and was about -10 so everything looked phenomenal, I managed to dig out a couple of shots I took ages ago, on my old camera; (5x4 large format + Velvia)

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January should be a good month to go, if you're lucky it will be cold - the colder the better on Skye, because it's an island it tends to be warmer and suffers more from long periods of drizzle and misery, that the mainland doesn't - if it's cold and the Cullin gets a good dusting of snow, that whole area will produce amazing shots.

I've got to go away to LA for 6 weeks at the end of Jan, which is a bit annoying as I'd like to hit Skye again when it freezes (sometime around Jan and March) but if it does freeze before I go away, I'll be up there immediately. Skye is absolutely world class in good conditions, it's just getting those conditions..
 
Soldato
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Cheers!

Found one last one from my old large format collection, I miss that camera - shooting Velvia 50 felt like traditional cooking, like cooking lamb or duck in butter in a pan - traditional, pure, rich, simple - but so bloody tasty! Compared to all this modern stuff :D

Barely processed at all, practically right off a scanner (hasselblad drum scanner - I used to get them done professionally)

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I've got to go away to LA for 6 weeks at the end of Jan, which is a bit annoying as I'd like to hit Skye again when it freezes (sometime around Jan and March) but if it does freeze before I go away, I'll be up there immediately. Skye is absolutely world class in good conditions, it's just getting those conditions..

Message me if that happens :)

Seriously.
 
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Yeah I will do, it'll be short notice though - these January freezes tend to come with only 2-3 days warning at the most, there's talk of it maybe happening next week - but I take those reports with a pinch of salt.
I can be pretty flexible with that :) - if when it happens I have plans then oh well, but if not. I'll meet you at an airport! :)
 
Soldato
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I can be pretty flexible with that :) - if when it happens I have plans then oh well, but if not. I'll meet you at an airport! :)

Yeah, the last year or two when it's happened - it's been really cold, dumped a huge load of snow and iced up, but it's all gone within 5 days - so if it does happen, we'll have to be quick - but it mark my words it'll be worth it lol :) keep your eye on the forecasts.. My only worry is it'll happen after January when I have to go away, but meh.
 
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Yeah, the last year or two when it's happened - it's been really cold, dumped a huge load of snow and iced up, but it's all gone within 5 days - so if it does happen, we'll have to be quick - but it mark my words it'll be worth it lol :) keep your eye on the forecasts.. My only worry is it'll happen after January when I have to go away, but meh.
If that happens, it happens, It cannot be controlled. But I'll FB you later in the week and we can get scheming.
 
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Thanks for the warning re. fairy pools and water levels - will be careful of that!

Sounds like a fair few of us planning on heading up in the near future, so will keep an eye on the thread just in case visits overlap :)
 
Soldato
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Tower of London image using the wall as a leading line works very well.
It looks exceptionally sharp so is it a high mega pixel image and what camera did you use ?

Cheers,

That was shot with my Phase one technical kit, (which I've now sold) it cost me about £25k, it was a fantastic piece of kit;

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The digital back was a Phase one IQ260 (60 MP) but the best part about it, was the Rodenstock Digaron HR 32mm (19mm 35 equivalent) that lens cost me £9k and honestly, it was worth every penny, sharpest lens I've ever seen corner to corner, absolutely insane.

Required a lot of practise though, I'd say it was harder to shoot than 5x4l large format film, as the tolerances for focus are so tiny with medium format digital, the slightest issue and everything is soft, but get it right - and you enter another world of detail and images that just look unexplainably great.

In the end, I sold it because - despite being very fit and strong, the whole kit combined weighed around 40lb (and that's just camera kit) so going on longer hikes, camping in places like the desert etc - ended up being a massive chore, the insurance cost was also more than my car, I also became terrified after I almost knocked it over a cliff.... Those factors combined with the fact I can get 85% of the quality with an A7riii meant it was just too much to justify...
 
Soldato
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Screeech, wanna come shoot the Matterhorn with me in the next few months?

Yeah - could be a laugh, I've got quite a complicated few months coming up though, got to go to LA for 6 weeks next week, so I'll know more when I get back after that.. It's mostly work related, but I imagine I'll end up in some frightening place in the middle of death valley in a Jeep at some point :p
 
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Yeah - could be a laugh, I've got quite a complicated few months coming up though, got to go to LA for 6 weeks next week, so I'll know more when I get back after that.. It's mostly work related, but I imagine I'll end up in some frightening place in the middle of death valley in a Jeep at some point :p
Cool. I'm going to start looking into it, see when the "best" time to go is depending on the kind of conditions you want to shoot. I'll FB you about it when I know more. I can't go realistically until March-ish-April kind of time anyway!
 
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Yeah - could be a laugh, I've got quite a complicated few months coming up though, got to go to LA for 6 weeks next week, so I'll know more when I get back after that.. It's mostly work related, but I imagine I'll end up in some frightening place in the middle of death valley in a Jeep at some point :p

I think we should have a forum meet in London perhaps doing a full days shoot. It could be a scream !
 
Soldato
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In Death Valley at the moment, took a few days to go and give it a go, lots of weather and rain for the last few days, it's also really cold, 14 degrees in Death Valley is the coldest i've ever experienced it, it was 49 last time I was here.

Spent the evening in Badwater Basin, which looks amazing with some weather in it, had a good sunset too. Going to do some 4x4 driving tomorrow, might go to a ghost town called "Chloride city" or I might go to the Eureka dunes, gonna have a lay in as I've been driving since 5am..

A7Riii 16-35 GM

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