Chris Takes On Isle of Skye, Scotland
Capture Integration, partnered with Mark Maio, to take our destination photography workshop this year to the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Mark has taken up part time residence on the Isle of Skye and knows the land and weather to navigate to the best photographic locations. We started our journey by flying into Glasgow, where we coordinated our cross country journey through the Scotish Highlands, stopped over for a night stay in the Glen Gary Castle Hotel, then onto base camp on the Staffin Bay on the Isle of Skye.
I have been blessed to be part of many beautiful photographic workshops and locations in the world, but I have never experienced a gorgeous drive and tour like this one! As we drove on the opposite side of the road on A82 through Loch Lomand, I know why so many movies and films have been shot in this scenic location. Stopping many times to capture the beauty, we then came through Glencoe and I was just not prepared for the vast elevations and lush scenes that awaited us. Glencoe is where Harry Potter and Braveheart was filmed, so you can imagine the sheer beauty of the countryside and mountain ranges. Our first stop for the evening was the Glen Gary Castle Hotel. It had been raining on and off, like it does in Scotland, but when we arrived everyone took their tripods and cameras and started crawling all over the property taking spectacular images as the sun broke.
We headed out that morning after a proper Scotish breakfast and our first stop on the road to Skye would the famous Eilean Donan Castle. What another magical location to take our group of photographers to shoot for the morning. So many great images capture and then we were off to our base camp on the Isle of Skye, Staffin Bay. We arrived at Quiraing Lodge which is set in a stunning location on Trotternish Peninsula on the north end of Skye. All I could say was Wow, this was going to be a great week with great photographers, making memories!
Our first day we headed out at 600 am to the Quiraing. One could spend days shooting the various locations, weather conditions and stunning views. We then headed out to capture the ruins of a few different churches and graveyards dating back to early 1500. Then off to the country side where we would shoot croft houses and riverbeds on lush green surroundings. Each day we had four or five locations that we would travel to shoot and explore. One morning we set our alarm for 2:30 am to head out in search of Skye’s most epic image, The Od Man of Storr. The hike was about 2 hours to reach the summit before sunrise. As the sun came up that morning, it was well worth the early morning and physical effort. Just a spectacular view and scene to photograph, one that I will remember for the rest of my life. We also visited most of Skye’s famous photographic locations including The Fairy Pools, Neist Point, Fairy Glen, and Dunvegan. As the week went by swiftly, we revisited the Quiraing for another interesting view with different weather.
Driving over 1,150 miles, we covered the majority of Skye and made some great images together. Participants got to shoot with a variety of Phase One camera systems and lenses. I am already thinking about my next visit to Scotland so keep an eye out for Capture Integration’s events page for another Isle of Skye Landscape Photography Workshop coming soon! Enjoy The Images!!!
A Few Clicks Behind The Scenes
