Had big plans for this week, with a week off work and 2 or 3 trips planned, starting off with a visit to Loch Lomond and Millarochy Bay and also to climb up Conic Hill for the views across the loch. Unfortunately I seem to have came down with some form of nasty virus and have spent the whole week from the moment I got home until now, in my bed! Thats now 2 visits north and now twice came back with something other than what I bargained for, hope I've not become allergic to the Highlands!

The moment when you realise you've left the midge repellent at home in another bag... The Millarochy Bay Oak on the Eastern shore of Loch Lomond.

Milarrochy Bay can be found on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond just north of the village of Balmaha in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. There are lovely views to be had of Loch Lomond from the shoreline and this lone tree must be the most photographed tree in the area. No matter what, it is a splendid Bay to visit at any time of year.

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Loch Lomond, Scotland

It seems like ages since I uploaded any black and white images, and just looking it was actually back in November last year, so to break up the colour uploads I thought I'd share this one.

Taken back in February of this year this was a bitterly cold morning on the banks of Loch Lomond, with snow still on the mountains in the distance, not much of an issue if you are are just grabbing a passing shot, much more so though when your image exposure time runs into minutes, which with a heavily overcast day it was always going to as the ND filters were always going to be brought into play, jumping about near to the camera to keep warm wasn't an option for obvious reasons so I had to do it further along the shore, a few people were about walking their dogs, I don't know if they actually noticed the camera set up but needless to say I got a few strange looks..

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It seems to have taken me an age to get around to shooting at this location despite passing it several times going to various places. A very overcast day provided decent conditions for this sort of image and a chance to test out a 15 stop filter than I had yet to use.

I don't know who calculates the exposure times for the filters on the LEE system but I've never had one yet that is anything like the given times on the exposure sheets , this one is no different and I basically don't bother with the sheets and work solely off the histogram as it saves time in the long run despite adding minutes extra on top of the 'guide exposure', this one ending up being nearly 8 minutes long with the guide suggesting around 4 minutes from memory.

This is a really beautiful spot and definitely one I'll come back to again in different conditions, the snow on the tops was still visible and the tree totally bare giving a really stark feel to the image along with the long exposure. This tree must have had a good few batterings up here during Winter but as the title of the image indicates, it remains resolute and defiant. If you do visit the food in the nearby pub at Balmaha is fantastic after a cold morning stood on the shore here..

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