Blog/News

Not long back from a weeks trip to the Misty Isle of Skye. stayed in a cottage at Elgol and had the best light for a couple of years. I was joined on the trip by Claire Carter a friend from England who does the most marvelous landscapes and close images of water wherever she goes. I call her the Mermaid she loves the sea so much.

We were graced by weather that ranged from snow storms to brilliant sunshine, some rain and hail, high pressure which can give almost cloudless skies but also flat mirror like Lochs and Lochans. During the winter the day is shorter so no really early starts or late finishes needed. We never got a dramatic sunrise or sunset but we did get some grand light and the trip was a wonderful success we produced several gigabytes of images and quite a few worth showing too.

A winter trip has added problems when packing, extra layers and waterproofs are essential, we both tend to wear wellies of one sort or another I've just been using Muckboots lately and they are brilliant, warm dry and the advantage of being able to wade into water without much worry about wet feet. Don't forget decent socks for inside the boots. The wind was cold as well and my face and hands took a battering, some protection there is essential during shooting and afterwards. I'm prone to always have gloves, equally always in my pockets till my fingers scream at me. Going prepared makes your trip that much more comfortable and enjoyable if you stay warm and dry.

We go self catering which gives you the freedom to eat to suit the weather and when the sun rises and sets, plus you don't have to creep around in case you wake others at 5am. We buy our food from the nearest supermarket and get fresh milk, bread, eggs etc locally, the shop at Elgol sells everything from fruit & veg to clothes pegs, coal, and plasters for skint heels. We also share a car as often as possible sharing the costs makes the trip quite reasonable and allows for more chances to get away and explore the country and do what we all love, shoot landscapes.

Hope this helps your interest and enjoyment of the countryside and Scotland in particular, and anything that makes photography more interesting and fun for you all.

The Images are at Gallery Skye 2010 Trip.

Claire Carter is at http://www.carterart.co.uk/

Enjoy...

Dougie


this is Claire enjoying Loch Cill Chriosd's reflections.

still missing from my map of the World with photographers...

Alabama
Hawaii
Oklahoma
North Dakota
South Dakota
Nebraska
Iowa
West Virginia
Vermont

If you know anybody in these 9 states ask them to click on this website and fill in the gaps across The United States of America. If they leave their name I'll put it on the list, but they don't have to.

www.douglassalteri.co.uk

Thanks
Dougie

Afghanistan, Naseer Fedaee in Pakistan.
Argentina, Marta Boro
Australia, John Pitman
Canada,Yvonne Carefoote,Carol Trivett,Craig Robertson, Dora Bruce
Belgium.
Brazil, Marcia Malmstrom.
Cambodia. No name.
Chile, Dora Bruce
China, Mark Hildrey,
Colombia
Cost Rica, Dora Bruce (traveling)
Croatia
Cyprus. Welcome
Czech Republic, No name,
Denmark, Kim Simonsen
Egypt, Wahid Noureldin
England, George White, Colin Cartwright. Jon Gibbs
Estonia, no name sadly.
Finland, Marja Konimaki.
France, Philippe Boite
Georgia,Tamri Briko,
Germany, Johanna Braunschweiger
Greece,
Hong Kong
Hungary, Laszlo Bollo
Iceland, Tony Prower
India, Shailesh
Indonesia
Iran, Welcome
Ireland, Pat Gantly
Israel, Zeev Scharf
Italy, Nando Mondino, Tomaso Rusmi
Japan, No Name
Kazakhstan?
South Korea, Steve Garrigues
Lithuania, Kristijonas Tumas
Malta...Welcome Malta.
Netherlands, Huub Linthorst
New Zealand, Phil Armitage.
Northern Ireland
Norway, Peter Jaktlund.
Oman
Peru, Daniella Puente
Philippines, Dennis Fabros
Poland
Portugal, no name.
Romania, Sorin Onisor, Elena Ilisei,
Russia, Mikhail Ordin Welcome Mikhail
Saudi Arabia, Riyhadh,Mohammad Al Omar
Scotland, Peter Chisholm, Phil Restan, Robert Thomson
Singapore, Hu Yinghui
Slovakia, No Name
South Africa, Challice Walsh.
Spain, José Salas
Sweden,
Switzerland, M.S.
Taiwan
Tunisia.
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates, Mhic Chambers, David Deveson.
U.S.A
Wales
Yemen, no name
-----
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California, Michael Robertson, Carl Main
Colorado
Conneticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida, Bill Lockhart.
Georgia
Idaho
Iowa, No name
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Ohio, Bonnie Steinbach
Oregon
Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, welcome
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin
Wyoming

there are still a lot of gaps, one day I might fill them all in.
Thanks again to all who took part so far.
Dougie

Good morning and a very Merry Christmas to you all, I hope that Christmas will bring everything you hoped for. I hope your expectations were not too unrealistic.

My wishes for Christmas are quite big but hopefully doable it always sounds possible when you think of them, but here we go.
Firstly I hope to get better at helping other photographers who may be struggling to learn our hobby. You don't have to be pushy but if somebody looks like they need help, you can offer a hand.
Secondly I'm going to try to take better pictures, no more pointing and hoping the camera will work some minor miracle for me.
I could go on but it's Christmas and you don't want to listen to me telling you what you already know. just be the best you can and know that you tried your best.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year 2010.

My Christmas Card and an image from Rannoch Moor taken yesterday Christmas Eve.

Dougie

2009 will go down as one of my best years so far as a landscape photographer, it started off very slowly, still recovering from pneumonia which I think started from a trans Atlantic flight home from a great holiday in Canada with my family. I met kids who I had only heard about via my Big Sister Yvonne, she's actually 5 ft 1 inch but still my big sister. 34 years since I had been to Canada, and a wonderful 4 weeks sped by, family, friends, meals in great restaurants and travelling the great Ontario trail so many have tramped before me. Survived the collapse of my airline carrier and got home a few pounds heavier & with a mountain of images to process.

Then I was on a field trip with new friends and it was shaping up nicely when I fell ill and had to leave them, ended in the Hospital on the way home after dialling the emergency services. ( Marvellous people who deserve nothing but praise )
Took 3 months but eventually life gets better and I turned a corner and suddenly seemed so much better. "Relief".

The new Year dawned and come February I was due to meet again with my friends from the interrupted trip plus a couple more.

Since then I vowed that if the sun shone somewhere in Scotland I'd be there, a new day arrived for me. I'll never be able to repay these friends who kept me going and gave me the power to see life as it is.
Melanie, Claire and Bill have brought me a new life, back from the brink and in the nick of time. Life is sweet again and hopefully you can see the difference in my images on the site here.

So 2009 has found me travelling a different trail and opened up my horizon, Northumberland over the border into England and down to Wales twice. But still Scotland is my home and I'm always drawn back, the bagpipes call me to the Glens and Lochs and the wonderful single track roads that sometimes lead to a magical place where the sun shines over a hillside and glints on the water where some marvellous fish swim in the cold waters.

The west coast is my favourite haunt, Rannoch Moor and Glencoe the jewels in Scotland's Ancient crown, and many more further north into Wester Ross and Sutherland where the mountains were carved from the living rock by glaciers, millions of years before man set foot on the land.

The Scottish Highlands never fail to inspire, mountains and tumbling water. Great hills as in Skye and Torridon, Lochs on Rannoch Moor, Perthshire Assynt and beyond.
The Islands on the West and North, wild and sometimes hard to get to by ferry, sometimes interrupted you never know what the weather will do from one minute to the next. On the East the bird sanctuaries are crammed with life 150,000 birds on the Bass Rock, and there are many, many more. The misty isle, Skye where Eagles and Sea Eagles are always there just on the edge of your sight. The Island of Mull, steeped in history and with so many Castles of the Clans, some still working and inhabited to this day, Iona which has a history that is almost lost in the mist of time, the connection with Ireland and the Viking raiders.

I think I have enough to go on with in what's left of my life to have an exciting and hopefully productive retirement. So here's to all of you who read this, near or far, if you have some Scots blood or not, Scotland is a fine and unique country that I love. Come see it with your own eyes & Hail Caledonia! ...remember, bring your "wellies" with you.



A very Happy Christmas & a prosperous New Year, Lang Mae yer lumb reek,

Dougie

Links to Melanie, Claire & Bill are on the links page, they all contribute to Photo Travel Revue.

I'm hoping to fill a map of the World with at least one photographer from every country around the World. Each photographer who clicks on the site will add their country to the map if it's not there already,if you want to be on the map leave me a message and I'll add you to the list and let you know to look.
Please leave your name when you visit & I'll add it to the list. We still have a way to go, if your country isn't there you can add it by clicking on this website. www.douglassalteri.co.uk

Map courtesy:- Google Analytics.

All the very best to you all, whether you get involved or not,
Dougie

...you have to try to look differently at the more popular photographic spots or you go home with the same as everyone else has done.

Sometimes it 's the light or a different viewpoint, or you take your image from the totally opposite angle from the rest.

I used to love when I was a working press photographer to include the other photogs in my image, sometimes caused a bit of shouting and rivalry to get the shot.

I've said before that postcards are a good point to start off with if visiting a new place, but don't let the standard view rule your thoughts of this new place. Use them as a starting point to see what there is around to be photographed in the area. These guys have probably been here for years and know every good spot well.

As well as the standard view, look closer and see if a detail shot will do the trick for you, at home you can combine a few images into a pleasant mosaic of memories. Flowers, animals, nice pebbles on a beach, things in shop windows which will instantly remind you of a place you visited maybe years earlier.

Get out there and look is the idea, something fresh, from your own imagination. This is a view of a place I and many other landscapers visit regularly, I've never seen this viewpoint before, unless you know better of course?

All the very best
Dougie

Sorry it's been so long since I wrote a blog, been traveling, Wales, Isle of Arran and Northumberland in England.

My wanderings in Wales produced some nice sunrise and sunset images, the countryside was very quiet where we visited and we had many places to the 2 of us. Arran was busier but not at 3.30am when we set up for the sunrise shots. Bamburgh Castle beach was a different kettle of fish entirely.

It's been a practise of mine for years to look at the postcards in shop windows to get a look at whats around for the camera. The postcards are usually a good cross section of the area and a starting place for your "own" work.

I've noticed a growing trend at places of interest. People just don't look for their own images from beauty spots, they just jump out and click away. Even worse are the ones that follow others around shooting what they shoot without looking at what is in the frame.

My friend and wonderful landscaper Melanie_M was wandering the beach on our last morning in Northumberlnd when we were joined there by 3 young guys, they zoomed around the sands like locusts, then spotted us in the gloom and were soon alongside us. I had just shot an image of Melanie against the sunrise when this guy appeared in my frame, almost on Mels shoulders, not the way to get an unusual image, try not to do this ever.

Dougie

Top Tip: when shooting sunrise or sunset photographs, use the cloudy setting on the white balance, it produces warmer images. Remember to set it back when finished to daylight white balance.

Been away North for a few days so missed a blog, sorry. I had a great time in a small place called Mellon Udrigle in Wester Ross with a very good photographer friend Melanie who's a Doctor in the Lake District.
Some good weather and some a bit less than brilliant, we did a bit of driving during the few days and saw a few places I'd missed in the past, the Lighthouse just North of Ullapool, Achiltibuie which is part of Assynt, revisited Gruinard Bay which is a gorgeous place, but the star of the trip was at Mellon Udrigle, a tiny community where the best view of the Scottish mountains is just across the water.
We were living in a chalet just yards from the water, I could sit up in bed and see what the weather was doing before my eyes were open properly. Second evening the sun decided to play for a sunset which was pretty good and we had something in the bag, planned for the next day was a run to Assynt and the lighthouse.
Blustery weather and some sunshine according to the weather man, so off we went. Got some good stuff at the Light at Rhue, reflections and good light, so onwards to Assynt, the sun was a bit high for decent landscapes so we pottered about, had a look at Ardvreck Castle and Loch Assynt and then decided to head back in time for the sunset at MU.
We stopped off for a look at Gruinard Bay on the way and more good stuff. The sunset was pretty good gorgeous wee red clouds sitting under a dark sky, dinner at 10pm again and in to bed with the alarms set for 3.30am. I woke up about 20 minutes later (or so it seemed) with Melanie going Oooh Aaaah OOooh and falling about trying to get into her boots in the living room. The sun had arrived early in the Eastern sky. I jumped into my clothes and across the beach in pursuit, checking I had all my gear.
The sun was illuminating Quinag and Suilven at the top of assynt with red and gold light, we took loads of images and were praying that all would go well.The sun kind of hid behind some high dark clouds, I shouted along the beach to Melanie "it's not as good as last night!" Well somebody upstairs heard me and turned up the light and the colour big time, this is what we got. Enjoy.

The mountains l-r are Ben Mor Coigach, Beinn Ghobhlach and An Teallach.

Way back when I was but a lad I worked as a press photographer for the Daily Record newspaper in Glasgow. You get all sorts of jobs to cover hence the title of the article. I covered many of the big murder trials and some of the murders as well.
Bible John was a famous one back in the 60's, he murdered quite a few young women near the Barrowland Ballroom in the East End of Glasgow and was never caught despite a huge police investigation. They say his body is under the Kingston Bridge, killed by the Glasgow crooks who were feeling the heat from the police involved in the murder investigation.
A prisoner escaped from Carstairs Secure Hospital in the middle of a freezing cold night, murdering 2 prison officers and a Policeman in the process. Guess who was there when they discovered the murder weapon used. Lying at the side of the road and covered with frost a Police car was blocking the view, so the reporter spoke to the lone PC on Guard while I crept round the car and snapped the knife lying there. When I got back to the Paper at 2 in the morning, my picture was on the front page, showing the knife and 3 caps, the dead prison officers and the PC's I never knew they were their in the darkness. The picture is still on the wall, in teh Police HQ's Black Museum.
Of course it wasn't all scoops and murders, we covered road accidents, fashion shows, football, rugby you name it. Flower shows and Cat shows Dog Shows, Animals at the Zoo, kids starting school. Images to fill the holes when it was a quiet news day.
They say that owners grow to look like their pets and vice versa, this lady who was a breeder at the Kelvin Hall Dog Show seems to destroy that fable, this is her picture.
Hope you enjoyed my little story.

Back in 2204 I decided that instead of having all sorts of camera gear in a bag gathering dust from lack of use, I would sell it all off and buy a small digital camera that I could carry all the time. The Nikon Coolpix 5700 was purchased.

Very soon I really got the camera bug again and started the climb back up the digital camera ladder, Fuji S3 pro, some Nikkor lenses followed. Then the Nikon D200, more lenses. Discovered Canon and after some long involved web searches and pondering the pages of many magazines, I bought the Canon Eos 5D & the Canon 24-105mm Lens, then the battery box, a 100-300mm Sigma followed then a 16-35mm Canon, which was replaced later for the mark 11 spec. Lots of memory cards angle finders tripods, heads and more gadget bags than the local camera store, know the feeling?

The Canon eos 5D mark 11 came along eventually and in I went, great camera, I held back from buying the battery box (so far)on the grounds that it added more weight around my old neck and to date you can't buy batteries for it for love nor money. While I was ordering my new 5D 11 Canon announced the G10 compact and I was hooked.

So now I have gone the full circle, back to a compact, carry everywhere camera, I'm keeping the 5D for it's wonderful quality, but at times the G10 is just the job, light great image quality, it'll never take the place of a DSLR but for the web it's a peach of a camera.

This is a shot from the Nikon Coolpix 5700, 4 images stitched. Sometime I'll post a shot from the Canon G10, watch this space.

Many years ago I visited my family in Toronto, Canada, during that trip I was lucky enough to go on assignment with a colleague from the Toronto Star newspaper, up the CN Tower then being built.
This was before the strict rules that Health & Safety nail us down with nowadays, hard hats and safety boots were issued and we were allowed onto the platform below the Dome Restaurant where the joiners were cutting away the platform ready for dismantling.
Graham Bezant a brilliant photographer from The Star, decided that he "had" to sit on an I-beam which was at the edge of the platform about 1400 feet off the ground, so I "had" to sit on the other end.
We were wearing safety belts attached to the core of the building, had I gone over the edge I would have died of fright I'm sure. Graham then edged out to his end of the beam and his feet were dangling over the drop, I decided that was a step too far even for me, I wouldn't even venture onto the platform now. Age brings caution and some wisdom too.
This is one of the images I got at the time, & I still wake up screaming at the thought of being up there now. The I-beam is the red bar in the right hand corner of the frame. The view from up here, looking straight down.

I've been experimenting of late with HDR not something I love, but then there are ways of doing it and ways not to.
We all have trouble from time to time with matching the sky with the landscape. This is another way of doing it.
My technique is 3 exposures bracketed 1&1/2 stops apart, merged and tone mapped in Photomatix and finished in PS CS4.
Keeping the image looking like a natural scene is the hardest task here, you can make it look fantastic but unreal easily. Small steps at a time is the safe way to go, no swoops with the sliders or you will have disasters.
Try it, it's easier than you think, you can always use the defaults to start with.
This is one I made in Glen Etive just the other day, see what you think.

Last Thursday I took a run up to my favourite stomping ground Glencoe, it takes 90 minutes to get there, but always worth the journey. I wandered around my normal spots, not finding anything new, everywhere I went I found the light in the wrong place, ended up down the Glen at Loch Achtriochtan where light was just beginning to shine up towards the Aonach Eagach Ridge and down onto the water.
I had seen many images of the falls here but never plucked up the courage to get down to them before . So over the wall I went and slithered down to the largest rock farthest out into the River Coe.
As I looked over the top of the boulder I instantly wished I had my 16-35mm lens with me & glad I didn't bring the tripod, even the small Gitzo. I didn't feel too comfortable on the rock so took a couple of 5 frame panos, then a couple of 5 frame stacks altering the exposure and aperture to be sure I had something decent. I returned to terra firma quicker than I got down there.
This is one of the panoramas I shot.

5ximages stitched PTgui.