Location:- Buchanty Spout falls Time:-  1300-1430

Wee falls at Buchanty

I had the day off and the weather was mostly nice, though a bit changeable in true Scottish style. The wee one was in Nursery so we decided to try and get some good shots somewhere close to home. Ian suggested Buchanty spout which are lovely waterfalls in the Small Glen. We had been there a couple of winters ago when it was snowing so being there in spring sounded like a great idea. Once there the sun decided to come out the place looked beautiful and as not snowing or frosty I did slip around all over the place this time. I left Ian to do the main falls while I clambered down to the lower falls. Apparently Salmon leap up these falls to reach their spawning grounds , which is pretty impressive as they are pretty steep and very fast flowing. I’m sure anglers just pick them out as they go which make it even harder for them! As the slope down to the wee falls was pretty steep and slippy I left my bag at the top not really many dry places to put it at the bottom, however it did mean I had to clamber back up every time I wanted to change lenses. I again used RAW format as the light was a bit unpredictable and as usual I had forgot my tripod, really need to put it somewhere obvious in the future. So it was back to balancing the camera and me on rocks and trying to stay still to use the low shutter speeds that give the moving water that lovely smokey effect. It was great to back to the hanging off of rocks photograph, just me kinda thing.

After 15 mins or so I headed back up to the main falls to see if Ian was still alive and not in the river, though I would of seen him float passed if he wasn’t. I found him in conversation with a local artist that had turned up to paint the falls. Ian also knew the painter and as the painter didn’t even manage to acknowledge me, how rude, I went on with some photo fun, climbing and lying over the rocks to capture the rapids. Do love what I do! After Ian disengaged himself from rude painter he took our new banner shot, which was one of my safer positions. We then decided to try and access the other side of the bridge and river and after a little bit of exploring and a trip through a very spooky tunnel with an iron gate like something out of a horror movie, we found a way down to the river on the other side. Now it wasn’t exactly a path we followed down to the actual riverside but it was close enough for us. Am a little surprised we got down unharmed, but it was worth it. The water was just a fantastic colour and the lower falls were very photogenic and the big rocks totally accessible to stand on, well ok maybe not totally but good enough with a bit of courage. But time got away from us and we had to head back to pick up the wee one, so it was a scramble back up the hill, which was not easy and there was a moment when we weren’t sure if we could get back up. We made it though and after a little rally drive back and a quick cycle we got to the nursery just after the doors opened.

Old mill ruins at the back of Blairgowrie

After this little adventure, my father came to meet me and we headed up to Blairgowrie where the rain that had been threatening all day and had been rushing over in showers had decided to show us its fury. Wow we got wet. Strangely as we headed out to the local Lochs, which until recently we didn’t know existed, the rain eased up a bit just as we passed Blairgowrie town limits. We walked through the Ardblair woods and down to the Bluebell woods, which are aptly named and are ancient oak woods according to the sign. We talked philosophy and religion and put humanity to rights as well as agreeing on what a farce the recent election had been. As usual we got a little lost and went the long way around. I got a little worried when we came across of little clearing with loads of small boxes sitting together with stones on top of them. As in each box had one large stone on top of it. We considered investigating but decided that maybe we didn’t want to know what was in them, it was Blairgowrie after all! We walked a bit faster though out of the damp deserted woodland. After walking through a very rural looking farm we found deserted building, unfortunately the light was pretty miserable so I couldn’t get a good shot. There was however an old mill with its lade system  and the water was rushing over the missing wheel and I managed to get a shot of this by lying on the ground and balancing the camera on the edge of the bridge over the lade. We also found 2 anglers Lochs where you are not allowed to feed the ducks off of the pier, though it didn’t state you couldn’t feed them from anywhere else. We decided that it was time to head back and as we walked back into rainy Blair we agreed that it would be a good place to return to when the weather was a bit more on our side. By the time I got home I was shattered as I had climbed, cycled and walked most of the day away but must admit it was well worth it.

Another sunny day in Luncarty! Sarah brought the tank (volvo) and picked me up to go somewhere nearby for a photoshoot and I remembered about a wee place called Buchanty Spout. We have shot their before but the weather was a bit on the terrible side so I was hoping for better results this time.

Square rock with the water tumbling over it

After setting up the tripod and assembling my various filters into the Cokin holder, the sun finally made an appearance from behind the various shades of grey clouds. It had been snowing near Edinburgh in the morning (had been to South Queensferry to pick up a new skid lid from Forth Gear).

I got quickly down to business as the good weather doesn’t seem to last very long here anymore. Aperture priority mode at f22 was giving me shutter speeds of between two and five seconds – exactly what I was looking at to blur the water! This was only achievable by using both my polarising filter and my 8x ND filter to block out as much light as possible. The side effect of all those filters is the amount of lens flare from the sun reflecting between the filter gaps, but a well placed hand/towel/whatever will soon prevent that issue.