100 Weeks of Scotland: Natural Scottish landscapes

The photography I feel most comfortable with is portraiture and urban landscape. It’s the type of photography I seem to do most of and it is the photography I enjoy best of all.
A footbridge over the River Garry. Picture: Alan McCredieA footbridge over the River Garry. Picture: Alan McCredie
A footbridge over the River Garry. Picture: Alan McCredie

I don’t really consider myself particularly good at traditional landscape photography, as the time and effort involved always seem far to daunting to me.

I love looking at other photographers landscape work and am always in awe of it – I know how difficult it is to get some of the images they end up with and the dedication they show to getting the perfect shot is wonderful.

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So you will have to forgive me over the next few weeks as I will be making an attempt at some landscape photography as, looking over what I have covered so far in this project, it is an area that is probably a little under-represented.

The first image this week is a shot from the Ballachulish bridge, looking east toward Glencoe as dusk, or the gloaming, approached. Sometimes the landscape really does help you out as a photographer, and in this case it did me a very big favour.

Image two is another view from a bridge, this time looking north from the bridge over the River Garry a few miles north of Pitlochry. The colours in trees as they change to their autumn glory was wonderful. The little footbridge in the centre is what makes the image for me. It looks like it could be in the jungles of Borneo, not rural Perthshire.

My favourite image of the week is the third photograph. This was taken somewhere along the road between Killiecrankie and Tummel Bridge, and the darkness and presence of the trees as the encroach upon the picnicker made me feel very uneasy. Too much like Twin Peaks, too much like The Blair Witch Project.

Finally this week a very lucky shot. Sometimes you plan and plot and research to get an image, and sometimes you take the dog for a walk in the park and there suddenly is a steam train dangling from a crane. The locomotive was being positioned onto tracks in Pittencrieff Park, Dunfermline. Two minutes either way and I would have missed the image – which instantly makes me think: ‘what on earth have I missed at other times?’ A rhinestoned Tony Blackburn fleeing in a powerboat chase from a mob of angry Wombles?

Don’t think about it – that way lies madness…

• Alan McCredie began the ‘100 weeks of Scotland’ website in October last year, and it will conclude in Autumn 2014. McCredie’s goal is to chronicle two years of Scottish life in the run-up to the independence referendum.

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McCredie says ‘one hundred weeks...’ is intended to show all sides of the country over the next two years. On the site, he says: “Whatever the result of the vote Scotland will be a different country afterward. These images will show a snapshot of the country in the run up to the referendum.

“The photos will be of all aspects of Scottish culture - politics, art, social issues, sport and anything else that catches the eye.”

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Watch our slideshow of some of the photos from ‘one hundred weeks of scotland’ above, and follow the project at www.100weeksofscotland.com. You can also follow Alan on Twitter.

All pictures (c) Alan McCredie/100 weeks of Scotland

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