ShowcaseGlen Affric on a very wet day, autumn colour just coming in

Took Friday off and drove up to Glen Affric for the birches. Forecast said "showers". It meant "Glen Affric is now a loch".

Still, the colour's properly starting. The birches along Loch Beinn a' Mheadhoin are maybe a third turned, the bracken's gone that rusty orange, and the larches haven't really started yet, so I reckon another fortnight for the peak.

What I came home with, roughly. The footbridge at Dog Falls with the river absolutely roaring underneath, 1/4 sec handheld, which the OM-1 II's stabiliser did without blinking. A row of birches on the far shore with the cloud sat halfway down the hill behind them, very moody, very grey. A single yellow leaf stuck to a wet rock, the only time I got the 12-40 close enough to anything to be pleased with it. And Plodda Falls on the way home with Live ND, 2 seconds, water like smoke.

What I'd like opinions on is the far-shore birches. I think the grey sky is half the mood, but I keep going back and forth on cropping most of it out. Would you crop down to just the trees and their reflection, or leave the cloud in?

Bex

Leave the cloud in, but I'd want to see it printed before deciding. A grey sky that looks like nothing on a phone can carry a lot of quiet tone at A3 on a matte paper, and the birches only read as bright because of what's behind them. Crop the sky away and you've got pretty yellow trees, which is fine, but it's a postcard.

Print it both ways, small, and pin them both on the wall for a week. You'll know.

Know that weather well from this side of the water. A fortnight sounds about right, the birches round Connemara are at about the same stage. The leaf on the wet rock sounds like my kind of shot.

gwyn_ap said:

Print it both ways, small, and pin them both on the wall for a week

That's a good shout. I've a wee A4 printer I hardly use, I'll do both versions tonight.

Leave the cloud in.

1/4 handheld at the footbridge with the river going mad, that's the whole MFT argument in one shot right there. Grand stuff Bex

Dreich said:

I keep going back and forth on cropping most of it out

With gwyn on this. Leave the cloud. You drove all that way for the weather, may as well show it.