On the last day of 2015 I went to the Scottish Highlands for a day hike with destination Shenavall Bothy, just  between the peaks of An Teallach and Beinn Dearg Mor.

This journey was more a hiking trip than a landscape photography project. However, I did take a camera, a tripod and a couple of lenses and I took a few photographs on this great journey.

A Paradise For Landscape Photographers

Shenavall is one of the many accomodation bothies of the Mountain Bothies Association and is available to hikers free of charge. It is nothing more than a cottage built of stone with only very minimal comfort. Bothies are usually not equipped with kitchen or bathroom facilities and they usually don’t even provide toilets. Some of these bothies are equipped with a couple of chairs and a table and most of them have a fire place you can sit in front of on cold winter days, but the one thing all these bothies have in common: there is no comfort.

Everyone who loves hiking might find in the bothies in Scotland and Wales a great opportunity to find free shelter for the night without the need of making any pre-bookings. Particularly for landscape photographers the Scottish bothies are an invaluable help for their sometimes adventurous work.

Click here to visit the website of the Mountain Bothies Association.

The Light.

The photograph above was taken near the bothie looking over Loch na Sealga.

I took it on a rainy day on which the sun didn’t want to join the party. However, the light even in grey and hazy days is amazing and can lead to wonderful photographs. Photographers who are not afraid of getting wet and who enjoy working in uncomfortable conditions will find in the Scottish Highlands an incredible source of inspiration and a fantastic natural light that does hardly require any additional gear apart from the camera and a lens.

For my next project in the Highlands I will take only the basics needed for what I have in mind. Camera and a good fast lens or two, a little battery powered flash as a little support on really greyish days, a camera tripod, an expandable Lastolite reflector, lots of storage and a backup solution. That’s it in terms of gear. On top of that a small cooker, a tent, an insulation mat and a sleeping bag.

A very close friend of mine. Scotland, 2015
Somewhere in Scotland on my way to Shenavall bothy. Scotland, 2015
“The Travelling Four” as I called the four French guys Ben, Florian, Ludovic and HA (in the picture above together with my friend John) who I met in the last days of 2015 in the Scottish Highlands. These guys travel the world and they’re big fans of the Scottish Highlands. We all stayed in Shenavall Bothy and had a great time playing with cameras, and torches tasting the differences between multiple Scottish Whiskies in between.

The Scottish Highlands, Edinburgh and Glasgow

The Scottish Highlands offer endless opportunities for not only landscape but also portrait and even fashion photographers. With Glasgow and Edinburgh just a couple of hours away these major cities offer everything needed for pre-production of any kind of project. Both of them serve well as a base camp for multiple-day projects in the Scottish Highlands as well as an incredible source of creativity and inspiration.