Frozen Fairy Pools At Sunset

I was on the way to the Isle of Skye and getting ready for a week away with some great friends (all photographers – mostly film), I managed to meet one of them, John at Glencoe and travel in convoy. We drove through some beautiful scenes along the way and stopped off just before heading across Skye bridge.

We made a plan to head straight to the fairy pools and hopefully we might just make it in time for a sunset photo. We dropped John’s car off at the cottage and we set off in my Range Rover not knowing what the roads were going to be like once we were off the beaten track. There were quite a few icy patches along he road so we just took it steady. Everywhere was covered in snow and ice, it was so beautiful.

We parked up and set off walking towards the middle mountain point on the photo above, we had to cross two streams by walking across boulders. Everywhere was iced over, sheets of ice floating were floating. I was getting excited! I have previously visited the fairy pools but I was eager to get a different type of shot and with all the snow and ice this was becoming more and more likely if only we could make it up the icy paths.

We arrived and the majority of the waterfalls were frozen, it looked fantastic! I set up with the Bronica ETRSi and John had his Hasselblad 500C (which I kept pestering him to sell me). He never did!

I nearly always take a behind the scenes shot looking down through the waist level viewfinder. It helps me remember my settings, but I also love the viewfinder shots too!

Below: The developed shot. ‘Frozen Fairy Pools’

Kodak Ektar 100, 4th Sec and F22 on the Bronica ETRSi with the 50mm lens.

I hope you like the shot, I’ve not seen one quite like it before. Id love to hear your thoughts.

It was just after the shot above that we turned around and saw the river behind us heading back to the car glowing oranges and reds from the beautiful sky above. We couldn’t believe the colours that the ice was reflecting so we set up in a different position and finished with a few more shots. I’ve had a problem with the other negatives so they need re-scanning but once I get around to it I will share those photos too.

This was one of the first shoots from an absolutely fantastic week away with my friends all doing what we love to do – shoot film!

More shots from the trip and Scotland can be found in my Scotland photo gallery