Serendipity's day off - a photo on Flickriver

            I've wanted to take one particular photo for a while now, this is not it.Like many stone circles Callanish is enigmatic and I've been planning a night shot to add to it's magical aesthetic.

Planned serendipity is a phrase I have heard a few photographers band about lately. That is plan your photograph so the elements come together rather than turn up and hope. This in mind I kept a few annual leave days specially for a trip to Lewis, when the conditions were right. 

We'd had a mini dry spell and the night sky was forecast to be clear again. The moon was"new," so no lunar light spillage. Those good folk at Lancaster University were even predicting a possible aurora. I booked the days off, booked the ferry ticket, packed a bag, kissed the dog goodbye and patted my better half on the head.What could go wrong?

Sat at the ferry terminal, to take me across to Tarbet, the ferry hove into view. It was then that the first raindrops hit the car windscreen. The sailing was a little lumpy and bumpy. The drive north through Harris and Lewis was one shade of grey. Not 50, which at least would have been photographically interesting. To use a good Scottish word, it was "dreich."  In fact it was pure dead dreich, it was double dreich.

I stopped at Stornaway for some supplies, to see the Lewis Chessmen in the exhibition at Lews Castle and to visit the chippie. If I'm going to sleep in the car it best smell of things other than just me! I ventured west where the rain slowed and the storm was mainly at sea. Hence my "beach study" trio.

What little colour the sunset offered was in the wrong place! It was in the east! So as dark began to fall I headed to Callanish. Not only did the skies remain cloudy, the aurora was very faint. Also there are street lights at the Callanish Visitor Centre and along the main road. But the icing on the cake is that they are currently doing some well needed preservation work. So the inner circle is roped off with bright floresent traffic cones strung together. 

So rather than a magical starscape encrusted Callanish stone shot, I give you a b/w of the sunrise! So much for the planning. One of my favourite guitar instruction book titles as a teenager was "learn to improvise." Not as oxymoronic as it sounds. Oh, and I never did become a rock god. Apparently you need talent, ambition and musical ability!

Taken on: March 30, 2017

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Sets appears in: • Harris and Lewis, mini break • Scotland

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