Paul and Colin had talked about running all the Torridon tops in a day and when I spoke to Claire at Trail Running mag she was keen that I shoot it so it would be a main feature in the mag . So, as I was also shooting for an article in ‘Climb’ magazine in the same area , we managed to coordinate our schedules to mean that we could get both shoots done in a week . If you dont know that area of Scotland here’s a brief rundown , its miles from anywhere but the most incredible landscape you’ll ever see . Most people heading north stop at Glencoe or the Ben as its a very amenable 2.5 hours drive from Glasgow . Torridon is another 2-3 hours depending on how many caravans you get stuck behind along the side of Loch Ness but its worth it . Here’s a tip , if you’re driving out of Glasgow , head up the A9 past Perth and avoid the A82 , at least an hour faster that way !
I was also hooking up with Mike Guest from Stash media , a film maker who is keen to collaborate with other creatives and make films about the adventurous side of life. If you dont know Colin and Paul , they’re both 50 somethings that would shame most 20 somethings with their level of fitness , machine doesn’t quite do it justice . Paul had recently just run the whole of the Cuillin ridge from Slig to the end and then back to Slig , all in 16 hours . And Colin had run the watershed of Scotland in 2012 , a mind boggling 740 miles of running, holy compede batman !
Any shoot in Scotland is going to be a dance with the weather playing its merry tune which isn’t always the tune you want to dance to . So day 1 was setting of in T shirts , then within 2 hours being virtually blown of the mountain by gale force winds and rain . Still , as we headed down , the rain stopped , and an area I had clocked on the way up became just the perfect area for a photoshoot that , for me , made the whole trip . I was shooting with the 400ws flash Quadra S head and had hypersynced the Pocket wizard TT5s to allow me to shoot at high shutter speeds . I had visualized some shots before hand and feel satisfied that we managed to achieve what I had set out to . I had also got the Canon 8-15L fisheye shortly before leaving for the NW and was still getting a feel with how it handled chromatic aberation and how sharp it would be . I’m really pleased with it on all levels and it is super sharp and fast focusing.
Rab had sent the guys some of their light weight gear , the Aeon tee and super light weight waterproofs and overtrousers and La Sportiva had provided the running shoes.
Day 2 had been a plan to head into Corrie mhic fhearchair as the forecast was good and we were keen to shoot against the back drop of the Triple Buttress , however good the weather was when we set out metamorphed into drizzle , no wind and midge carnage , not even a peep from the triple buttress , followed by a 2.5 hour walk out while being slowly eaten by midges. And on top of this I had badly twisted my ankle a couple of days before so was taking Nurofen to keep going. All in , a bit of a flop of a day but thats just the way it goes some times and part of working creatively in the outdoors is just rolling with it .
I sent all the images we had shot to Claire who was more than happy that we had enough for the article even though we hadn’t managed to shoot the pinnacles on Liathach, another time . Any way , the article comes out next year and thanks to Paul , Colin , Josh and Mike for their input.