In Search of The Needle

The Isle of Skye is magical and for the landscape photographer, it’s heaven. Like most of the Hebridean islands, it offers a lot of variety to adventurous photographer. You can photograph the coast and the mountains and everything in between.

Unfortunately, this blog post isn’t a story about how I spent many wonderful days on the island capturing portfolio images every day. No, this is a brief story about just one morning on Skye. Don’t feel sad for me though, I was on my way to spend 10 days on Harris and Lewis!

With just one morning on Skye, it can be difficult to select a location, but when your next stop is Uig and the ferry to Harris, it’s almost impossible to not be drawn to the Quiraing. I had photographed it on my last visit but I wasn’t completely happy with the photographs. I had unfinished business at the Quiraing!

So, would this trip yield any better results? Well, no, not really. I’m not unhappy with the photograph I captured. I did what I could with the conditions and light that I had. I just feel that this photograph lacks the drama that I would want to see from this view. Perhaps I’ve had my perception skewed from all the photographs I have seen of the Quiraing over the years.

I’m not going to worry about it though. It’s just inspired me to want to go back and next time with enough time for repeat visits.

While I was there though, and with the thought of coming back in my mind, I decided to explore a little more of the area. I particularly wanted to see The Needle, but managed to miss the path that takes you up to it. It wasn’t the end of the world though as the two hour circular walk that I went on revealed some very nice locations that would shoot well in the right conditions.

I might not have captured the most amazing image of the Quiraing, but it was definitely time well spent. It was goodbye to Skye, but I know I will be back one day. Soon.