100 Weeks of Scotland: Out on the west coast

I was lucky enough to have a photography job over on the west coast this week so managed to grab some other images as well while I was there.

Picture: Alan McCredie

Week 68

The weather was cold and bleak, but for the first time there was the slightest hint of spring in the air. It has been a long winter, and although not the coldest it has been wet and dark, and sadly completely free of snow where I live in Edinburgh.

I have mentioned before that landscape photography is not my strongest area. I know that many of the best landscape photographers spend days in the field to get the perfect shot, and to be honest, I just haven’t the patience. For me, it is always people, or the presence of people in the landscape, that interests me most.

The first five images this week are from Argyll and the area around Oban. The last photo, once again, was taken on Portobello Beach. I need to leave my camera behind when I walk the dog there as there always seems to be something to photograph and I fear my project may end up being called “One Hundred Weeks of Portobello”…

What always amazes me about Argyll is how close it is to Glasgow and the central belt, and yet how wonderfully far away it seems to be. Head west out of Glasgow for twenty minutes and you will soon be consumed in a world of hill and mountain, river and loch. What looks like a short drive on the map is anything but on the ground. The landscape draws you in and speed, distance and time seem to have less meaning here than they do in the restless atmosphere of endless noise and dirt that is life in the city.

My favourite image this week though is the lamppost against the red sky. I had a beautiful wilderness at my fingertips to photograph, and I am happiest with a lamppost, in a carpark, on the outskirts of Glasgow. No accounting for taste...

• 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.

Alan 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.”

Follow the project at 100weeksofscotland.com. You can also follow Alan on Twitter @alanmccredie.

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