In the earlier post, I showed a bunch of family history. In between looking at gravestones, mills, and census reports, we went sightseeing.
1) We went one day to Loch Muich, which is a gorgeous area. Walking in, the Loch suddenly becomes visible over a low rise..
LM Landscape 03
by a_mckenzie_4, on Flickr2) We managed to arrive at the height of the time when the red deer were passing through: we saw several small herds, probably 100 or so total. They didn't seem overly concerned by humans, although we didn't try to get close. I was glad I had the 70-300 lens.
Red Deer 04
by a_mckenzie_4, on Flickr(In retrospect, I should have cropped this differently... less space on the left would have been better. Perhaps I'll re-do that one later.)
3) Mostly they were focused on feeding, but generally at least one had his head up, keeping an eye on passers-by.
Red Deer 03
by a_mckenzie_4, on Flickr4) A puddle full of sky... (Taken near Loch Muich)
Puddle 01
by a_mckenzie_4, on Flickr5) This remains the most dangerous photo I've taken, and almost for the least gain. To begin with, I'd drained both batteries I had with me for the day at Loch Muich. One looked like it probably had half a few shots left, and the other had died just before we got in the car, five minutes earlier. It'd had 5 minutes to charge, but that's not much. Then, in order to get a good angle, I had to walk down a short slope to a place where I could look out over the river. "No problem! There's a clear path down, and I can see the whole route. It'll be easy!" Famous last words. As it turned out, the path was pure mud, and I basically slid all the way down... at which point I realized the bottom of that slope was actually a 20+ foot drop to the river. Oops. Anyway, I managed to stop (thank you, random tree trunk. Also, ouch.), turned on the camera, focused.... and the battery died. I pulled the just-charged one out... and it died, too. It turned out that if I turned off stabilization and the LCD, each battery had one shot left in it. And that was IT. All things considered, I'm pretty pleased with how it worked out...
The Spittal of Muich
Spittal of Muick 02
by a_mckenzie_4, on Flickr6) Red Grouse. These kept popping up everywhere we went. This one jumped up on a rock when we were almost past it (we were in the car), and we stopped so I could get a few shots.
Red Grouse 02
by a_mckenzie_4, on Flickr7) I have absolutely no idea where this one was taken. After leaving Loch Muich, we decided to just drive around the countryside for a while. This was somewhere in that run...
Bridge 01
by a_mckenzie_4, on Flickr8) And of course, I had to stand in the middle of the road to take this one...
Oncoming Vehicles
by a_mckenzie_4, on Flickr
