# Best locations to shoot in Scottish Highlands?



## charlesa (Apr 2, 2015)

Any landscape photographers who have experience of the Scottish Highlands could kindly illuminate me? Glencoe, Loch Lomond, Trossachs, Cairgorns? Which would be best. I am not too keen on Loch Ness or whisky distilleries.


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## krisbell (Apr 2, 2015)

All of the places you mentioned are good and it really depends on what you are trying to shoot, but for masses of amazing landscape/seascape shots Isle of Skye is your best bet IMO. Cairngorms is great for quintessential British wildlife (capercaillie, red squirrel, deer, grouse etc).


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## charlesa (Apr 2, 2015)

krisbell said:


> All of the places you mentioned are good and it really depends on what you are trying to shoot, but for masses of amazing landscape/seascape shots Isle of Skye is your best bet IMO. Cairngorms is great for quintessential British wildlife (capercaillie, red squirrel, deer, grouse etc).



Thank you for the information. Mostly trying to shoot long exposure work so Loch Lomond and Glencoe would be best. Unfortunately I only have a day, so will have to make do. Isle of Skye would be a plan for a much longer holiday on its own later on.


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## keithfullermusic (Apr 2, 2015)

my wife and i live in glasgow, and we went up to loch lomond last summer with summer friends for a hike. it was awesome, and there are amazing views. she wrote a blog post here with some pictures - http://k2scotland.com/blog/loch-lomond/


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## ishootbokeh (Apr 2, 2015)

You can't beat the view from Elgol looking towards the Cuillins on the Isle of Skye. Then if the weather is good go for Loch Coruisk by boat for an even closer look. But it is quite a drive but well worth it, check the weather though!


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## ishootbokeh (Apr 2, 2015)

And I once climbed a mountain called Blaven on Skye, in the Red Cullin, the views all around from their are also breathtaking.

You ideally need to get high to get the best views unless you go to the coast and take photos looking back in. 

Torridon is also a fab area to explore and if you can get up onto Liathach to get a great view towards the north west highlands.

I just love it up there, i was up Ben Nevis when we had all that snow in 2010, it was like the Alps!


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## svensl (Apr 2, 2015)

Since you have only one day it all depends where you are staying. From Glasgow/Edinburgh you can be in Glencoe in about 2.5 hours (by car). There is a wide variety of shots available and many are close to one-another so you could maximize your picture variety. 

You could drive towards Glencoe and start with Buachaille Etive Mor, then strech your legs a litte and get a shot of the 3 sisters by walking up Am Bodach, then get some Loch shots at Loch Etive. Whilst driving to Loch Etive there are nice locations along the river. These will all be your classic shots and Flickr is staturated with them. 

Bridge of Orchy is also a nice place to stop on the way to or back from Glencoe. Loch Tulla can be quite nice and there are easy Land Rover tracks to walk along from Victoria Bridge at Loch Tulla.

Hope this helps. 

Here's my flickr stream https://www.flickr.com/photos/ssoell/ which will have some of the locations but I am mainly interested in walking up mountains rather than your classic touristy shots.


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## scotia (Apr 2, 2015)

To some extent it depends where you will be staying and what time of year you are visiting. You are right to not consider Skye if you are travelling for one day to and from the Central Belt - you will spend most of the time in the car rather than out with a camera. Having only one day doesn't really enable you to see the best of the Highlands, but, depending on where you start it should be possible to find somewhere. 

The weather in Scotland can be very unreliable, so I would suggest having at least Plans A, B and C if you want to increase your chances of having weather conducive to anything other than intimate details of streams. I have not been terribly impressed by Loch Lomond for photography so far. There is the lone tree at Milarrochy Bay, but there tend to be lots of people around the Loch so I prefer to head further north/west. Glencoe can be fantastic in the right weather, but in the summer I find the midges unbearable and there have been times when it has been so closed in that all I have seen is the road. The same can be true of Rannoch Moor. On a few occasions I have done the trip through Glencoe and Fort William and along the Road to the Isles (towards Mallaig) for a bit of variety - I do it in a day, but it needs lots of hours of daylight. The Cairngorm mountains tend to be more rounded than those on the West Coast and I find them more challenging to photograph. If the weather is horrible in the West there are places like the Linn of Dee and Glen Doll where you can access the mountains.


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