The Buachaille

[weepete]

Buachaille Etive Mor, meaning "The Great Shepard of Etive" sits at the Southern end of Glen Coe and is very iconic due to its triangular profile when approched from the south. It's probably one of the most photographed mountains in Scotland, but allways a welcome sight to me as I have many fond memories of this area.

The Buachaille by wee_pete, on Flickr

The day wasn't ideal for photography and we had hoped to get some nice sunrise shots but the cloud cover was too much so no reward for our early rise this time. I'll be keeping an eye on the weather forecast and will get back up to this location on a better day.

 

[xDarek]

Amazing, nice shot!Love it!

 

[weepete]

Thanks mate, I just wish they sky was a bit better. The location isn't far away from my house though so I can go back there with a wee bit of planning

 

[Tim Tucker]

Nice, I like that you've not tried to turn it into something it wasn't. Cheers.

 

[thereyougo!]

Nice. I just wish there was a tiny bit more detail in the water. They are just a little too blown for me. It's one of favourite mountains for me too.

 

[weepete]

Nice, I like that you've not tried to turn it into something it wasn't. Cheers.

Thanks Tim, I was quite keen to try and process these shots sympatheticaly and thats pretty much what is was like that day.

Nice. I just wish there was a tiny bit more detail in the water. They are just a little too blown for me. It's one of favourite mountains for me too.

Thanks mate, i knew the water wouldn't be everyones cup of tea. A long exposure time combined with the recent snow melt and rain meant the river was high and there was a lot of white water.

 

[Tim Tucker]

Nice, I like that you've not tried to turn it into something it wasn't. Cheers.

Thanks Tim, I was quite keen to try and process these shots sympatheticaly and thats pretty much what is was like that day.

Please excuse the edit, this is just an idea you may wish to explore. I don't know if it were a conscious or a sub-conscious recognition that the shape of the rocks that the water cascades over is a 'development' of the shape of the mountain itself. It's like a model of the mountain but from slightly above and rotated a little clockwise, almost like a 3D expansion of the outline shape, if you see what I mean...

By using a selective edit that's ever so slightly different to the background you can create a subtle and invisible separation and maybe bring this out a little more?

 

[Kalyt]

Hi

Really like the picture. A good contrast between the white mountain, the darkness in the middle, and the white water in the foreground. The only thing I'm not so crazy about, is the tree at the waters edge. It breaks the mountains contour. But overall a really nice picture.

 

[weepete]

Nice, I like that you've not tried to turn it into something it wasn't. Cheers.

Thanks Tim, I was quite keen to try and process these shots sympatheticaly and thats pretty much what is was like that day.

Please excuse the edit, this is just an idea you may wish to explore. I don't know if it were a conscious or a sub-conscious recognition that the shape of the rocks that the water cascades over is a 'development' of the shape of the mountain itself. It's like a model of the mountain but from slightly above and rotated a little clockwise, almost like a 3D expansion of the outline shape, if you see what I mean...

By using a selective edit that's ever so slightly different to the background you can create a subtle and invisible separation and maybe bring this out a little more?

View attachment 116131

Thanks Tim, I like what you've done with it

Hi

Really like the picture. A good contrast between the white mountain, the darkness in the middle, and the white water in the foreground. The only thing I'm not so crazy about, is the tree at the waters edge. It breaks the mountains contour. But overall a really nice picture.

Thanks Kalyt, there was much discussion about that tree during ghe workshop, apparently Scottish Natural Heratage takes a dim view of altering the natural environment just so we can take skme photos

 

[weepete]

One from a slightly better day:

Buachaille Etive Mor by wee_pete, on Flickr

 

[Altamirra]

Is it real? Respect to the photographer who climbed down these rocks

 

[Kalyt]

One from a slightly better day:

Buachaille Etive Mor by wee_pete, on Flickr

Defiantly different, the weather really changing the whole impression of the mountain. It looks more friendly

 

[weepete]

Is it real? Respect to the photographer who climbed down these rocks

Oh yeah, its real alright. The two places these were shot from are pretty easily accessable, though there were a few overturned lorries on the way up that had been caught in the high winds and icy roads.

Defiantly different, the weather really changing the whole impression of the mountain. It looks more friendly

Thanks, it may look friendly but it is not. The scree slopes and avalanch risk can make dangerous conditions. Two climbers died on Bidean nam Bian, which is a peak just behind this one a couple of weeks earlier, both experienced climbers and one was a member of the mountain rescue team.

 

[Tim Tucker]

Great photo, but I'll raise you a bigger mountain.

Again, this is not to say that one thing is better than another, just to throw some different ideas about.

Sometimes I think that photography can become a bit formulaic, as in we have a checkbox of requirements and quite often rely on the tools at our disposal to provide the solutions. For instance, foreground interest with dramatic sky, all in focus. For that shot often photographers turn to their ultra-wide-angle lenses to provide it. Nothing wrong with it but your subject invariably gets pushed into the distance, swallowed in scale by the said foreground and the sky. This is what the UWA does, it's what it always does. When I approach Stob Dearg I'm always thinking about how I can communicate it's size. One thing I've noticed is that mountains always look bigger when the tops are blanketed in cloud. Odd when you think of it as bigger if you don't see it's full height, but not so odd if you think of the big sky being capped, the mountain is now above the sky instead of being dwarfed by it. My mountain is not any different in any way except relative scale within the frame, and it's just interesting to see the difference in how the elements relate to each other.
Given that we've stood in the same spots so often I'm surprised we've not tripped over each other.

 

[weepete]

Oh that's a belter of a shot mate. I particularly like the way the clouds are threating to envelop the Buachaille and the seperation you've got between the clouds and the snow.

That exact point has been playing on my mind after that trip, Colin pointed it out in my shots when we were there too. I'll need to do a bit of experimenting to see what I prefer. But given mountains are all about scale and that relationship in the landscape it does make sense. Your observation about the clouds is interesting, I've never noticed it before but I'll be on the lookout for it now. Thanks for the input, i really do appreciate it, I'm always open to different or new ideas though sometimes they need a bit of time to percolate in my head.

It's grand though, I've been on a couple of workshops in the last year and I do think I'm a better photographer than I was even 6 months ago. I'm much happier with the shots I'm getting lately. Still a fair bit to go yet but things are starting to come together.

And aye, we seem to share some some of the same haunts and a liking for good whiskey as well. my only conclusion is that we must have impecable taste!