Winter Wonderland

With the snow all but gone in town, a trip to the Pentland Hills was required. So, donning the winter clothing and the waterproofs for good measure, off I went.

In fact, the trip served two purposes. In addition to shooting some daytime snow, it was really time to knuckle down and try to make a concerted effort to offload some of the Christmas excesses! With that in mind, I took the big bag and tripod with me. It was a little tough going and I'm absolutely knackered tonight (there's going to be some stiff joints in the morning) but it was well worth the effort.

Unsurprisingly, when I arrived at the Dregorn Ranges, it was a little busier than normal as many were taking advantage of the snow. Kids of all ages were making use of the lower slopes for sledging. The Army was out in force too. A group of cadets were just returning from a yomp and when I finally got to the top of the access road to Castlehill, the flags were up on the firing range. Fortunately you can see this from the foot of the hill, so I had to rethink my original plan of shooting the reservoirs from the top of the hill. I decided to head downhill, into the valley between Castlehill and Capelaw Hill.

The grass was showing through the snow across the valley that created an interesting pattern, with large areas of drift resting over the clumps. Another colour shot today. Again, I mostly processed in mono, but there were a couple of these shots taken lying down in the snow that I just liked better in colour. If you have time, you can see a few more of my shots from today here.

In other news...

You probably won't remember that back in July I mentioned I had one final lens upgrade to do. While the 24-105mm lens is a great piece of glass, and will remain my day-to-day walkabout fitting, I've missed the ultra-wide angle I got from the 10-22mm fitted to the 60D (17-36mm full frame equivalent). Soooooo, taking advantage of the winter cashback deal from Canon, I finally purchased the 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM tonight. Can't wait to get my hands on it!