Highland Wildscapes

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Highland Wildscapes

Landscape photographer and adventure guide, lover of the Scottish Highlands landscape and culture.

25/12/2024

Photographic highlights of 2024, in no particular order:

1. A magic moment of transient winter light over the Torridon hills. It took me 3 years to get this shot after first visualising it.
2. A view of the Torridon hills amid winter snow showers.
3. More Torridon scenes, enjoying dramatic dark light in the hills amid spring colours. A scene to return to in future.
4. A puffin on the wing over the island of Mingulay in the Outer Hebrides.
5. The Sun rising over Carn Etchachan above a sea of cloud in the Cairngorms.
6. Sunset light on the summit cairn at the top of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides.
7. Storm light as the sun sets high in the Cairngorm plateau in winter.
8. A white tailed eagle on the wing as it dives from its nest to take a fish from the water.
9. The shapely granite pyramid of Cir Mhor from Caisteal Abhail on Arran, in gorgeous autumnal blue.
10. The most impressive aurora I’ve ever seen, captured unexpectedly and without a tripod in the woods.
11. Evening light over the Cairngorms in autumn as we followed the river down to Loch Avon on what turned into a slightly epic camping adventure.
12. The flanks of Beinn Airigh Charr and Beinn Lair from the waters of Loch Ewe.

It’s been quite the year, with lots of adventures and lots of life change. Lots more of both to come next year I’m sure.

#2024

13/12/2024

When I was a kid I had a place in the woods near home that was 'my place'. Everywhere I've ever lived since then, I've never felt truly settled until I find it again. It's always in the woods. I visited an old one today, and seeing how much it had changed made me feel how much I had changed too. In my mind and memories they stay the same, and when they no longer quite fit - when I no longer quite fit the old one - I know it's time to move on in the world. So here I am. A new beginning in a new place.

09/12/2024

Holy cow. Monday's hill day turned out not just to be a success, but was possibly the best hill day I've ever had, fulfilling several long held ambitions. I slept in the van so I could get an early start, beginning at 6.30am. Conditions were initially very difficult, with the snow only semi frozen on top, so I kept crashing through to knee or thigh depth until I could finally haul my way up out of Coire Cas. Conditions improved immensely once above the ski runs and I made good progress up to 1141 while the last stars began to fade. The northern coires were washed in pre-dawn light as I reached 1141 and hustled onward, drawn by the views of cloud filling the glens and even the deep trench of Loch Avon (sadly it didn't stay there). The pre dawn light was exquisite, and I believe I must have been the first person on the mountain today as I saw no-one else at all until halfway home.

I reached the Feith Buidhe just after the sun peeked over the horizon, and with plenty of time to spare I decided to head to Ben Macdui. I kept to the shade as much as possible, concerned the snow might soften in the sun and become a nightmare to wade through if it got too warm, but I needn't have worried. It stayed firm and was ideal for microspikes. By 10.15am I was on the top of the second highest mountain in Britain, above a seemingly infinite sea of clouds.

A quick dash back across the plateau, enjoying the views across the Lairing Ghru, and finally done around 1pm. 16km and 900M of ascent. Not a bad morning's work.

27/11/2024

A walk in the white room today on the Cairngorms. Despite the lack of views it was amazingly beautiful, with hardly a breath of wind to disturb the gently flowing clouds. Walking in a whiteout can be quite wonderful actually, but it's so difficult to photograph in a way that conveys the magic. No reference, no colours, no contrast - just pure space on all sides, and all the lines of the mountain softened into an endless blend of land and sky.

The cloud thinned very briefly near the top of Lurcher's Crag, but I was well on my way home again before it finally lifted completely. Stunning scenes as the curtain of mist pulled back to reveal the high crags of Coire an Lochain in the late afternoon light. I found a young Scots Pine today growing there at about the 900m contour - wonderful to see!

22/11/2024

Finally returning to the Torridon/Kinlochewe/Loch Maree area in the last few days. I always seem to return here, despite many other equally dramatic areas being just as close if not nearer. I guess the heart knows what it wants.

One of the joys of returning to places you know well is feeling less pressure to try and capture an 'iconic' view, and instead feeling more free to scout out unusual and potentially overlooked spots.

I set out this time to visit a location I've had my eye on for some years - a group of small pine trees that grow practically straight out of the rocks alongside an impressive mountain-side waterfall.

It's always interesting when imagination comes up against reality. I couldn't quite realise my imagined composition this time (I know I can do the climb, but doing it in the snow with a dog is another matter) but I did manage to capture a hoped-for rainbow in the falls beside one of the trees. Shame it barely stands out against the rock with so much contrasting snow and rock.

But the more you learn the more you know for next time, and while the intended shot may not have worked out perfectly this time, the journey there and back was filled with jaw dropping moments.

Beinn Eighe feels like it's becoming my favourite mountain to photograph. Under a fresh covering of snow, shining in the sun, it always seems so crisp and perfect.

Feels great to be back among the winter mountains. Hopefully lots more to come.

19/11/2024

"Beautiful was this world, looking at it thus, without searching, thus simply, thus childlike. Beautiful were the moon and stars, beautiful was the stream and the banks, the forest, and the rocks, the goat and the gold-beetle, the flower and the butterfly. Beautiful and lovely it was, thus to walk through the world, thus childlike, thus awoken, thus open to what is near, thus without distrust. Differently the sun burnt the head, differently the shade of the forest cooled him down, differently the stream and the cistern, the pumpkin and the banana tasted. Short were the days, short the nights, every hour sped swiftly away like sail on the sea, and under the sail was a ship full of treasures, full of joy."..
"All of this had always existed, and he had not seen it; he had not been with it. Now he was with it, he was part of it. Light and shadow ran through his eyes, stars and moon ran through his heart."

- Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

15/09/2024

Sgurr nan Gillean - definitely one of the most dramatic and impressive of all Scottish peaks, illuminated by a brief gap in the clouds earlier this summer. This felt like an ideal scene at the time to process as a black and white image, but I've included the original to compare.

13/09/2024

Playing mix and match with some images shot over the course of ten years, but in the same place, same time of year, and same conditions. There's hundreds more in the archive but I don't have time to track them all down right now!

Nature informs imagination; imagination pursues nature; nature exceeds imagination.

11/09/2024

Misty minimalism.

It's hard to put a finger on exactly what makes a Scots Pine such a compelling subject. Maybe it is the fact that they are themselves so naturally artistic?

07/09/2024

The finest experience that can be had as a landscape photographer is the realisation of a beauty that has been long imagined. Nature informs imagination; imagination pursues nature; and then nature exceeds imagination. Such is the process, and it is the only process in landscape photography which matters.

I have been fascinated by this tree for years. Like all the best Scots Pines, it is totally individual. A silhouette that falls somewhere between elegance and awkwardness. I knew from the first visit that it would be a rare sight to photograph it amid the golden glow of an autumn mist. But its location - so far up a steep slope above a high and remote glen - made it difficult for many reasons. It's rarely misty in that spot, and when it is the mist is usually fleeting. The location is just difficult enough to reach that it requires forethought and commitment to do so - making those brief magic convergences of weather and light all the harder to pin down. Many times I tried and failed, arriving drenched in sweat with my heart thumping in both effort and frustration at the mist that had just vanished like a ghost seconds before.

Yesterday, though, was exceptionally foggy. The cloud filled the glen to a depth of at least 600 feet, and lasted until well into the afternoon. So I waited with the tree until the gently receding mist lapped on the edge of our hillside, rising and falling like waves on the shore. Where threads of fog drifted up and down the slope like breath, i felt the light grow and shrink with each crest and trough.

With neither warning nor effort, the mist suddenly withdrew, finally revealing blue sky and the tops of the mountains above a sea of white. And although nature did not quite align with the imagining (it never does), without the imagining I'd have never been there to see the nature.

02/09/2024

A morning of autumnal alchemy in the Caledonian forest. Ten years almost exactly since I first enjoyed such a morning in this place, and it is wonderful to see all the ways in which it has changed, as well as the ways it has not.

Autumn photography is a game of colour and light - of finding the most extraordinary combinations of both. It is a rare delight to see so much gold in the landscape already before the purple of the heather has faded, and to me an acceptable gift to make up for one of the wettest summers I can remember.

12/08/2024

Machair meadows blooming with wildflowers in the summer months - one of the treasures of the Hebrides. A mix of shots from Vatersay and North Uist here.

07/08/2024

Catching a good shot of a white tailed eagle was a long held desire of mine, and I hope this will just be the first! Although I've seen these magnificent birds many times, I've never before had a day like this. We had a pair of eagles following us as we cruised around the waters near North Uist, following us from skerry to cove and always keeping a beady eye on what was going on in their territory. And it was a lot! The eagles were frequently being harassed by kestrels and crows, and at one point we even had to choose between photographing the white tailed eagle, the golden eagle, or the red deer stag on the shore! An absolutely superb afternoon, with thanks to for their knowledge and their fantastic vessel. Happy Highland Guiding clients and a very happy guide!

30/07/2024

Spending a few hours watching puffins on the uninhabited island of Mingulay in the Outer Hebrides is without a doubt one of the best wildlife experiences you can have in Scotland. Who doesn't love puffins? We were incredibly lucky with the weather, basking in the sun as puffins by the dozen whizzed right over our heads and brought their catch home to their burrows. This was the first day of our first official Highland Guiding adventure! More to come.

05/06/2024

West coast scenes from last week while guiding for on the Mull, Staffa and Iona wildlife trip. Thanks to a fantastic group, who made the trip a joy to guide. We enjoyed a full spectrum of Scottish weather and wildlife, along with plenty of spectacular castles, great food and wonderful accommodations. Hope I'll get to guide this trip again next year!

12/05/2024

I'd often pondered exactly where and how I'd like to shoot the perfect aurora. None of it happened that way. After a brief foray into the garden at midnight I found myself in an unfamiliar field with nothing but my trusty old Nikon, phone and a headtorch. No tripod, no ultra wide-angle lens. Just my semi-wrecked sigma lens that has so much dust inside I can't go over F8 without ruining every shot. No modern phone to make it easy. How on earth was I going to do this?

Luckily I chanced across an old pine and a rowan, with nice simple silhouettes. As the sky directly overhead was erupting with light in all directions, I found myself lying on my back beneath their branches, shooting 4 shot panoramas at shutter speeds of up to 1 second. Desperately, I focused on the vague shapes of branch and cloud as the coronal aurora blazed above like the eye of god peering down at me. With nothing else to work with I used my own head to stabilise the camera, jamming my face into the eyepiece and bracing my head in the grass as I shot each frame in the space between breaths.

Illuminating the branches with the focus light reminded me I could do more than just observe the scene - I could also light it. I could at least act like someone who had a plan for this night! Grabbing my torch and phone I placed them carefully around the trees to evenly illuminate front and back, and framed the trees as the sky danced.

As the glittering sky finally clouded over, the hooting of tawny owls and the barking of roe deer broke through the darkness of the surrounding forest. The sky was so bright there was no need for illumination as I eventually walked home, with no idea if any of my shots would have worked at all. Yet I knew that it didn't matter if they were trash. There are few global events that draw people together to share in joy, and even fewer that bring so many together in shared awe and appreciation of nature's beauty. So even though I was alone this night, like many others, I feel privileged to have shared it with so many.

08/05/2024

Every year I'm struck by how remarkably similar spring can look to autumn here in the Highlands. When the birches have young leaves on the tips of their branches, the moor grass is still brown, and the hills still carry a dusting of snow. Some gorgeous moments found lately in Torridon.

02/05/2024

Scotland in black and white.

I very rarely edit my images in black and white, but I'm really feeling happy with this set of images. I shot this set over the last 12 days or so, while guiding for 2 excellent humans on a trip around some of my favourite locations in the Highlands and Islands. We enjoyed absolutely fantastic weather mostly, but the constant sun combined with the relatively dull springtime colours in the landscape made for very high contrast light conditions. Since these conditions can lead to images that look flat and washed out, the answer was to shoot with black and white edits in mind; searching for gorgeous silhouettes and nuanced patterns. I especially love the scene of the Old Man of Storr (pic 2 in the set).

In order:
1. Red deer stag, Applecross beach.
2. Old Man of Storr
3. Loch Eilt
4. Black Cuillin
5. Glen Nevis
6. Glen Sligachan
7. Quiraing
8. Liatach, Torridon
9. Sgurr na Ciche, Knoydart
10. Allt Dearg Beag, Skye

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About Me

Hello, my name is David Russell. I am a full time pro landscape photographer, videographer and writer from the Scottish Highlands. I specialise in photography from Scotland’s ancient Caledonian Forest. Woodland photography is sometimes considered one of the most difficult types of landscape photography to master due to the complexity of the habitat, but after 10+ years of dedicated passion to the woods of the Cairngorms, I am now more comfortable in this environment than any other. Why not join me for a woodland photography workshop? I’ll help you discover places you never imagined and show you how to create evocative images. Fancy something new for the wall or that special someone? Check out my print store for some first class art and gifts. Love the Caledonian Forest? Follow my page and I’ll share daily images, inspiration and insight from the woods. Thanks for checking out the page.