by As you travel along the single track road that meanders across the Dava Moor, and rounding a bend on a brow of a hill you get the first glimpse of Lochindorb. A silvery-grey oasis high up on the moor and to add to the drama, a ruined castle nestles on its own wee island in the middle. How Scottish, atmospheric and fairytale-like can you get?
During the Summer Holidays, a load of us would cycle up here and muck about. Lochindorb, “Loch of Trouble” in Gaelic, seems quite an apt name for the Loch at times with the stuff we used to get up to!
As we got older, we used to camp out along its shores (some even within the stone walls of castle), got eaten by midgies, and laughed whilst drinking beers or cider. We had so many laughs over the years here – these were more uncomplicated times, pressures of life far off in the distance, and all that mattered was when the next laugh was going to come.
I remember wondering what these boulders were for and, through the years, I didn’t really care enough to find out. They just looked interesting in this desolate setting high up on the Dava Moor. At one time, I considered ,maybe, they were connected somehow with the Castle in the middle of the expansive waters of the loch like some remnants of a mystical causeway. I could imagine the sight of the Wolf of Badenoch and his army riding out over it to their security of the Castle’s stone walls after a raid or something. Who knew they were for fishing from!
Then there’s the skies………
The skies here are so vast overhead and, at night, those stars………oh, the stars! I don’t think I’ve seen so many other than from this place. So bright and numerous, even the constellations are lost in the show. Those skies have to be witnessed and savoured. If that’s not enough, it’s also an amazing spot to see the Northern Lights from when it decides to show and dance for us.
So many memories, so many laughs, so many good times.
It took me a long time to get this image. No matter how often I’d visit, something wasn’t quite right. I couldn’t do it justice – there’s a certain light, a calmness, a depth that only the right emotion can be reached. How do you capture that within a frame of a flat surface?
A few years of persistence and hundreds of captures later, I finally caught one. A long exposure to calm the waters to allow the echoes of laughter to be heard, the tones of Black & White for me to colour in with those memories from what seemed like never ending Summer Holidays, and those Boulders somehow anchoring me to this place.
I named it “A Prehistoric Land” as it looked like it was a strange, otherworldly landscape. The boulders disappearing into a Scottish Loch’s waters like a skeleton of long dead prehistoric beast – maybe a distant cousin of a dweller of a not-so-far Loch?
Lochindorb and the Dava have a special place in my life. Like Findhorn Beach, it has witnessed so much of my experiences and history that it triggers a feeling of “Home” within me. Now that I’m going to be living nearby, I’ll get to feel that in a way it brings me comfort and connection again.
I suppose we all look for that in our lives at one time or another.
The Craft
As the story goes, this capture took me years to achieve. Conditions, light, weather…..you name it, it didn’t work for what I wanted. The stupid thing was that I didn’t really know what I wanted either.
A late friend of mine used to say that “Photography was like Fishing. You need to keep visiting places and casting as you don’t know what you may catch sometimes.” This is certainly true in this instance.
It was one of those flattish, grey days where the Sun struggled to break through the heavy clouds the seemed to hang over the moor. I wasn’t very hopeful in getting very much out of the day but I don’t go out to these places just for the photography.
I drove past this spot and something clicked. Setting up the tripod was done in record time and began to frame the scene. The Boulders were an obvious leading line and needed to be the central focus for the symmetry.
It was the brighter area on the horizon that made the scene for me, so it needed to be handled delicately in the exposure. The waters of Lochindorb were quite choppy as well, so the decision was to use my ND10 filter for the long exposure, which meant I really needed my 0.6 ND grad for the upper part of the frame.
I think I took about twenty different captures in various different settings and compositions. As usual though, this was the first one that I took.
I knew I’d bagged what I’d been looking for when I eagerly peered at the feedback rear screen of the camera. I can remember that mix of excitement, nervousness, and impatience as I drove home with my precious spoils on the back seat.
The digital developing was, as usual, minimal – a bit cleaning up of dust spots here and there, quick adjustment in Curves and Levels to give slightly more contrast and depth, and then the I processed for Black & White. A wee bit of Unsharp Mask to define it better. Finished.
I can remember, as if it was this morning, sitting back in my chair and realising I’d captured what I had been searching for all those years.
Exif:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mk2 Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM F-stop: f/14
Shutter Speed: 70 seconds ISO: 100 Filters: Lee 10-Stop, 0.6 ND Grad, Circular Polariser
Where I Stood (Click on the icon below you prefer to use)
Kevin Skinner Photography 
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