# What I did on my 2010 summer vacation (photographically)



## MikeScone (Oct 3, 2010)

I spent three weeks in Scotland with the Scouts this July, and took 2900 pictures. I thought I'd post a few of the more photographically interesting pictures here, with some notes on how I took them. If you're interested in the story or want to see more of the pictures, you can find them on my Blair Atholl Jamborette website. 

One of the problems with digital cameras is that they never seem to have a wide enough lens for landscapes. Luckily, you can merge two or more pictures together to get the picture you envisioned. Photoshop has the Photomerge feature built-in, and I sometimes use the shareware program Panorama Factory. 

Normally, you think of this technique in panoramas, where put together as many as eight or ten pictures to cover 180 degrees or more - like here, in colorful Tobermory on the Isle of Mull:






You don't need an image that wide, though. This is Melrose Abbey in the Borders, with a picture stitched together from three separate images. 





Or the opening ceremony at the Blair Atholl Jamborette, only two pictures wide: 





The trick is to be sure to overlap your pictures by 15-30 percent and keep the horizon level and at the same place. What I usually do is frame my first picture to put a landmark in the right-hand third. Then, after I take that picture, I turn right to move the landmark to the left edge. When I shoot that one, I look for something on the right third, move it to the left edge for the next picture, and so on. 

Sweeping landscapes can be beautiful, but often they seem to lose something when you bring the picture home. One way to make a picture more interesting is to include some detail in the foreground. This picture is from Hadrian's Wall:




The picture's also an example of "rule of thirds", which says to mentally divide the picture into thirds, vertically and horizontally (think tic-tac-toe board), and put the point of interest on one of the thirds lines. 

Here's another example, Carraig Fhada lighthouse on Islay (the southernmost of the Inner Hebrides - it's pronounced "Eye-Lah"):





This is the round church in Bowmore on the island of Islay (it's said to have been built round so the devil had no corner to hide in):




This is an example of another composition technique - "leading lines", to lead your eye to the subject. 

Here's another - the road on the Atholl Estate just makes you want to follow along and see where it leads:





I like to take pictures under "difficult" lighting conditions - just after sunset is a really nice time, with saturated colors and interesting light. This is Port Ellen on Islay, around 11PM:





This is the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh:





The Blair Atholl Scout Jamborette, at moonrise:





Or, Scouts at a candlelight ceremony:





In each case, the trick is to keep the camera as steady as possible. If at all possible, support the camera on something rigid - for Port Ellen, I wadded up my jacket on a grass hummock and put the camera on that. The other pictures were hand-held, but I leaned on a flagpole or lamp post or the like. If you have a lens or camera with vibration reduction (VR to Nikon) (sometimes called image stabilization) it can help a lot with hand-held shots. If you have a large aperture prime lens, the extra light gathering can be the difference between making a shot or not - the candlelight shot was taken with my 50mm f1.4.

Generally, you want to avoid blur, and if a subject is moving you want to use the highest shutter speed possible to stop motion, as here at the Thornton Highland Games, where I shot at 1/2000th to freeze the competitor throwing the hammer:





Sometimes, though, blur can add to the feeling of motion:




This technique is called "panning" - I used a low shutter speed (1/60th) and moved my camera with the running Scouts, keeping them steady in the moving frame. Thus, the Scouts are sharp and the background is blurred. One tip here - don't stop panning when you fire the shot - make sure you follow through afterward. 

Finally, a few I just particularly like. 

I took this one from the ferry to Islay, the sunlight breaking through the clouds over the neighboring island of Jura was so dramatic I took dozens of pictures as the light changed from moment to moment:





Bowmore Harbor: The color contrast between the boat, and the distant Paps of Jura makes this picture, I think:





One more favorite, the sunlight and clouds near Blair Atholl make for an ever-changing view of the Atholl Glen:


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## Pet_Bunny (Oct 4, 2010)

Fantastic pictures Mike! And an excellent website.






I am amazed with the 2800 ISO setting onyour NikonD300.

Have you been to a World Jamboree?


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## Nancy McClelland (Oct 4, 2010)

Great pictures. We bought a new Sony that you can do a sweep with for the panorama shots as we were going to take a trip to Scotland, Ireland, and Wales but 3 back surgeries and a MRSA infection took care of our whole Summer off. Didn't even get to wear my new Kilt.


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## jujub793 (Oct 4, 2010)

wonderful pics! i can tell you really enjoy photography (and it shows):goodjob


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## MikeScone (Oct 4, 2010)

*Pet_Bunny wrote: *


> I am amazed with the 2800 ISO setting onyour NikonD300.
> Have you been to a World Jamboree?


The D300 does a very good job at high ISOs - it's noticeably noisy at 6400, but if you're up that high, it's enough just to be able to get the shot. 

I've never been to a World Jamboree - seven National Jamborees and eight Blair Atholl Jamborettes, but no Worlds. I had the opportunity to go to the one in Thailand, but it was just more money than I could afford at the time.


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## MikeScone (Oct 4, 2010)

*Nancy McClelland wrote: *


> We bought a new Sony that you can do a sweep with for the panorama shots...


One of my assistant leaders had one - amazing technology. He'd just sweep the thing around, and presto! Instant panorama.


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## slavetoabunny (Oct 6, 2010)

Awesome pictures as always Mike. Maybe you should give up that attorney gig and become a professional photographer.


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## PepnFluff (Oct 6, 2010)

Agree with Patti! Everytime I see your pictures, I instantly love them! Especially love the lighthouse one and the one with the boat with the contrasting colours, another great set of pictures


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## BSAR (Dec 24, 2010)

Excellent photos Mike! I love the panoramas and the dirt road one!


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