TRANQUILLITY

Loch Lomond, Stirlingshire.

This shot is pretty special to me, because my Dad accompanied me on this trip and it had been a couple of years since we had gotten to shoot with each other. It was great to have that shared experience, and getting a good image from that was brilliant.

It required a bit of planning, and took several failed attempts over a period of around three weeks before getting the right conditions. Keeping an eye on the satellite weather forecast, and having my photography “go bag” ready to grab and head out. Thankfully on the day, we had a very small clear patch of sky that blew in just as the sun was setting and gave us around 40 minutes to get an image. The blustery wind proved a bit challenging, and the final image is an exposure blend of a fast shutter speed to freeze the leaves on the tree, and a slow shutter speed to smooth out the ripples in the water. For the slow shutter speed I used a 5 stop neutral density filter to extend the exposure time, with a 2 stop soft graduated neutral density filter stacked on top to even up the lighting levels between the foreground and sky.