Gneiss beaches

Harris, day five
We spent the afternoon in Lewis on a couple of (very Gneiss) beaches, one stony and one sandy. The local rock is Lewisian Gneiss, a metamorphic rock that, at 3 billion years old, is reckoned to be the oldest rock in Britain and one of the oldest in the world, two thirds the age of the earth. See HERE for a more detailed explanation. It is very attractive, with multi-coloured layers and patterns. I love pebbles, there's something so tactile about water-smoothed stone and I was tempted to put a couple in my pocket. (I know you shouldn't!) It was mainly the thought of my luggage allowance on the flight back that stopped me!

Wherever, there are stones, someone will have balanced a few...

I was fascinated by the patterns in the peaty water of a small stream running across the beach to the sea.

Pastel tones

Harris, day four
We spent late afternoon on day four on Scarista beach, a long crescent of pale sand in the shadow of Ceapabhal. The beach faces north and the sunset unfolded gradually in a series of pastel hues. I was busy again with my ND filter to smooth the water. The top photo is without it and the one below is using it to give a 1.5 sec exposure. Sometimes I prefer one and sometimes the other!

As the light faded the hills of Taransay across the Sound were tinted pink:

The clouds, lit by the setting sun, were a gentle fire of blues, greys, corals and pinks:

The harbour

Harris, day four
A little further beyond the church is the village of Rodel, once the historic capital of Harris, situated around a harbour that used to host the Skye ferry. Those accolades now fall to Tarbert and Rodel is much more tranquil.

I really enjoyed taking a few 'mini-landscape' shots here. There was much to inspire me: old boats, rusty chains, knotted ropes, seaweed and lichen. Some lovely colours too...

For some reason I can't quite define, this shot of seaweed caught in a gap in the decaying harbour jetty is probably one of my favourite images of the whole trip. The shapes and colours just seem very pleasing to me. I think it's an archetypal feminine image in some senses - a bit Georgia O'Keefe, albeit not a delicate flower. 

Luskentyre patterns

Harris, day four
One of the motivations that had me longing to visit Harris was seeing, some years ago, a series of photos taken at Luskentyre that had been printed on pearlised paper so that they shimmered. They were wonderful. Our best opportunity to see the incredible patterns of tide and sand was on the morning of day four of our trip, from the high viewpoint on the Seilebost side of the estuary. The tide was partly in (though I could never work out if it was on its way in or out!), giving shades of turquoise, grey and duck egg blue against the very light sand. Strands of seaweed made darker counterpoints, as did the flocks of birds feasting at the water's edge. Without binoculars, they were a little hard to identify but some were oystercatchers, some lapwing and some geese, though there were a few much smaller waders scurrying about as well. Hopefully these photos give at least some idea of how beautiful it was.

Early morning on the rocks

Harris, day four
I managed to drag myself out of bed on the fourth day to participate in the dawn shoot. (I'll never be a real landscape photographer!) We scrambled about on the rocks at Rubha Romagraich, not far from where we'd been the evening before. I like the photo below, even though it's an annoying composition and I want to move the hill.

The sun came up behind us, throwing a soft light on to the outline of Ceapabhal.

I also liked the effect and the colours in this ICM image:

Beach panoramas

Harris, day three
I discovered the panorama feature on my camera! The beautiful beach in the first shot is Tràigh Iar (where we went on our first afternoon). After we'd mooched about photographing Luskentyre beach (middle photo), we drove right round the estuary to the other side (third photo), past Seilebost where the tide had come in, and stopped for coffee at a brand new community enterprise centre, Talla na Mara, from where the top photo was taken. The centre is an exciting concept, designed to provide facilities for local residents, visitors and businesses. There is a restaurant, exhibition space, creative arts workshops and office space.

On the same site there were six new residential buildings, which appeared to have charging points for electric vehicles. I was a little surprised at that but perhaps I shouldn't be. Electricity is probably easier to access than vehicle fuel on Harris and the distances you'd need to drive are not huge on a small island. A lot of the older properties on Harris are functional, pebble-dashed bungalows, as well as many empty, derelict crofts. From what I can gather, the population plummeted by 50% since the 1950s and by 2007 35% of properties were holiday homes. It seems that there has been some fresh thinking and investment in the last ten years, resulting in an increase of 20% in the population of West Harris, and some very modern and innovative residential building projects. (See HERE for some examples, from the Skye-based design team that built the community centre).

And then there was another sunset, enjoyed from the dunes overlooking Seilebost:

Dunes

Harris, day three
The land edge of Luskentyre beach is a mass of sand dunes, held in place to some extent by marram grass. There were other plants too, like the pretty pinky mauve sea rocket (middle foreground of picture above). It's an interesting and challenging landscape to capture in photos. The shots I liked best were close-ups:

Some show interesting patterns in the sand. These are not the result of wet/dry patches or light/shadow but appeared to be produced by different tones of sand grains. Fascinating. 

I found a tiny toadstool too, which I think is a Dune Waxcap (Hygrocybe conicoides):

Maybe that is what gives the islanders the idea of putting bright orange corrugated iron roofs on their buildings. I'm glad they chose a blue front door here! 

Tarbert and Luskentyre

Harris, day three
I knew I needed to catch up on my sleep by this stage, so I stayed in bed whilst most of the others (younger, by and large!) went out on a pre-dawn shoot. Rested and refreshed, I had a little before-breakfast wander round the village of Tarbert where we were staying. It's a ferry port for Uig on Skye and also has a distillery, opened in 2015, where they make the seaweed-infused Isle of Harris Gin. I don't drink alcohol so I didn't try it but my fellow photographers enjoyed it in the hotel bar in the evenings. The sun was catching the heather on the bank opposite our hotel and the colours really reminded me of Harris tweed. It's easy to see where the inspiration comes from for the lovely subtle colours of the famous woollen cloth they weave there.

When I got down to the harbour, the air was very still, making for lovely reflections.

Our day out began at the famous Luskentyre beach (Tràigh Losgaintir), a shallow estuary where the tide ebbs and flows to create wonderful and ever-changing symphonies of turquoise water and silvery sand.

The Golden Road

Harris, day two
Our second day on Harris included a tour of the Golden Road, a scenic route that winds its way around the east coast from just south of Tarbert to the village of Rodel, linking many tiny settlements at one time only accessible by boat. The coast is indented with sea lochs and studded with lakes, and affords some lovely vistas over rocky islets and gentle hills, with views across to the Isle of Skye on the horizon. 

The picture above is Loch Plocrapool. (The place names have many spellings, hovering somewhere between the traditional Gaelic and more anglicised versions.)

Below is a view over Manish. The building with the rusty, decaying roof is apparently an old post office that at one time held the only telephone in the area.

All the roads on Harris are narrow and winding, with passing places marked at regular intervals. Most drivers were very considerate, especially since we were travelling in a minivan that took up quite a lot of space! I was glad I wasn't driving. There was the added hazard of free-wandering sheep. Most of them looked very white and fluffy, almost as though they'd just been shampooed, so they were not too difficult to see, even in the dark. Perhaps it's all the rain that keeps them clean!

A gentle dawn

Harris, day two
Our pattern for the trip was to rise early, when it was still dark, and leave the hotel about 6.15 am for a dawn shoot. We'd then return about 9 am for a hearty and much appreciated breakfast. An hour or so 'recovery time' after breakfast gave us chance to regroup practically and mentally, then we'd be off again, exploring and taking photos until after sunset.

The first morning, we went to the beach at Tràigh Rosamol, just around the corner from the celebrated Luskentyre beach. I rarely see sunrise in these heady days of retirement, so it was pretty amazing to experience it there. The island of Taransay was again on the horizon. The light got gradually more blue as the sun came up behind us.

When the light got brighter, I was attracted to the patterns and textures on the beach. There was a stream flowing into the sea, creating some intricate motifs of dark and light sand. 

First Harris sunset

Harris, day one
We stayed on the beach at Tràigh Iar until after sunset, enjoying how the light and colours changed. It was just magical, and photos can only hint at the beauty. It was a delicate, cloudy sunset, subtle in its majesty.

Tràigh Iar

Harris, day one
Don't bother looking at my posts for a few days if you get bored of sky, sea, sand and rocks... because basically that is all there is to the Isle of Harris. Sky, sea, sand and rocks of the highest order though, one has to say. It's not an environment that I'm familiar with, living so far from the coast, and initially I felt rather frustrated at my lack of ability to 'see' photographic compositions beyond the most obvious. It was, however, exhilarating simply to be there and experience it - the clear air, the amazing colours, the sound of the waves. Harris is famed for its turquoise sea and light sand. You could be forgiven for thinking you were in the tropics, if only it were a little warmer. To my surprise, the sea even looked turquoise when the sky was dull, so it can't simply be to do with the light.

Our first afternoon was spent on the beach at Tràigh Iar, a pretty little crescent with views over to the Isle of Taransay.

I spent a bit of time experimenting with my ND filter to blur the movement of the water and also played around with some camera movement, both quite satisfying. The soft blur seems, perhaps paradoxically, to suit the scenery.

I've spent as long again trying out different ways of processing of my photos and that is very much a work in progress. Subtle alterations can really make a difference so I can see I'm going to keep going back and tweaking them.