December 2019 Digital SLR Photography 63
beautiful – the sun sets behind the Black
Mount and in calm weather you get the
mountains and sky reflecting in the lochain.
Just over the road from Lochain na
h’Achlaise is Loch Bà, often overlooked but
equally photogenic – in fact more so in
some ways. There’s a handy parking area
very close to the loch and on the same side
of the road. Get there 30-40 minutes before
sunrise, explore the shore for a good view
and get set up. Wear wellies as the ground
can be very boggy here, even in winter,
though the same can be said of most of
Rannoch Moor! The soft predawn light can
be incredibly photogenic. In winter the loch
tends to be frozen and as it’s down in a dip,
the temperature can really plummet so
hoarfrost isn’t uncommon and makes the
bare trees look magical. Get right down to
the water’s edge and fill the foreground with
reflections or, if there are none, look for a
partially submerged boulder. This is also agreat location to shoot ice patterns with a
telezoom – the water freezes and thaws
repeatedly, creating amazing patterns.
Once the sun comes up you can move
around the shore to capture a sunlit view,
though if the sun rises into cloud you can
carry on shooting towards it. In clear weather,
scramble up the small hill by the parking area
and shoot over Lochain na h’Achlaise
towards the Black Mount bathed in morning
light or head over the road to the lochain.DID YO U K N O W?
Rannoch Moor is the
approximate location of the last
great glacier in the UK, which was
around at the end of the last Ice
Age. As a result of this, the
landscape is rising by about
3mm per year.3 4