The Story Behind…..Dava Moor – The Scottish Weather

When you think of Scotland, what comes to mind? 

Take a moment. Close your eyes, then picture a typical Scottish Landscape.  I wonder what you’ll see…….

For me, I’m tainted by the fact I’ve travelled most of this wonderfully, beautiful land extensively. Even though, I’ve been lucky enough to, also,  have travelled around the world as well, I’ve never really witnessed a land that changes with the weather as the Scottish Landscape. Of course, the weather changes any landscape – however, the Scottish ones are almost filled and charged with emotion. It almost talks to you as if to tell you its story and how it feels.  It rarely translates to your typical postcard or shortbread tin view.

There’s many a time that I’ve heard moans about how bad the weather is in Scotland at times. However, without it, we wouldn’t have all those lush green forests, wonderful flowing rivers, Whisky, waterfalls, lochs, Salmon, the sculptured Glens……..it is a rich land because of the weather.

There is a saying that goes something like, “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” This can be so true and, sometimes, you can experience four seasons in one day. 

This capture was taken in late June one year. I remember waiting for the hail to cease (for safety reasons!) and then, I could get out of the car to setup the camera. In places with larger skies and some elevation like the Dava Moor has, the clouds can hang low and drift lazily across with the light breezes quite often. With these larger skies, it brings opportunities to see beyond between the land and the greyness – being Scotland, it is usually a promise of a different story.

Even in this image, it tells a story of isolation that comes with a harsher way of life. The trees express their need to be there: the small copse to give some shelter for the dwelling and evidence of the frequency, as well as the relentless strength, of the winds is in the tortured shapes of the lone pines that have survived defiantly in their own sort of exile from the others.

I’ve often wondered about the folk who live in these isolated houses, or crofts. Having witnessed the harshness of the winter here, there must be a certain steel in the character needed to live and thrive here. Often that steel must be tested with that isolation and the inability to easily travel to get supplies that we all take for granted in our modern lives – hence, the sparseness and scattering of ruins across these moors.

Throughout the year, if you accept and let it, the weather will play and sculpt so that the Land can, indeed, tell you a story. A story that just keeps giving and one that you play a guiding role in.

So if I ask again to take a moment and close your eyes. Picture a typical Scottish Landscape. I wonder what you’ll see now………..

The Craft

The composition in this frame has always spark interesting debates. This result was a more pulled in version than I originally envisaged. The starting point was actually the represent the ribbon of light between the Land and the rolling cloud to give a sense of expanse – the result just didn’t work somehow.

Using the Croft and its tree gave the view scale and shows how low the clouds are. The story is important here and the simple silhouette adds to impact of the scene.

It has been said that the amount of clouds don’t really add anything to the frame and could be cropped down. For me, it is integral to the story and feel of the scene – the clouds have some texture and still gives an impression of expanse.

Post-processing was very simple and mostly straight from the RAW file. 

Most of the work was done in the field and in-camera. Virtually, this is all about composition to tell a story that the Land and the Scottish Weather were willing to tell.