Rural Church

Rural Church, originally uploaded by www.bazpics.com.

With so much of the scenery in the highlands and on the islands of Scotland featuring never-ending fields of greens, yellow and browns it's no wonder that when you find a pristine looking building to offset against those colours you try to make full use of it.

In this case not only did I have a bright white church to include in the frame, but also the water of Loch Harport and blue skies with white fluffly clouds rolling on past overhead on our drive over to towards Fiscavaig.

Green Pasture Up Ahead

Green Pasture Up Ahead, originally uploaded by www.bazpics.com.

One of the funniest, yet true sayings that you hear quite often in the highlands and islands of Scotland is "If ye dinnae like the weather right noo, just wait 20 minutes".

I've multiple examples of just how much the weather changes in such a timeframe, but at the same time, when you find yourself standing with a decent view ahead of you, unless it's wall to wall blue skies, then you will most likely see a mixture of grey clouds and random spots of sunbathed colour.

Highland Road

Highland Road, originally uploaded by www.bazpics.com.

With our Scotland trip in mid May getting nearer and nearer it's hard to choose photographs from elsewhere in the world to edit and upload, so it would appear that I'll be sticking with images of Scotland for the next few days.

For those of you who have been to Scotland and have ventured off of the main roads into the amazing countryside that covers the highlands, you will be used to seeing the road bob and weave in front of you, and the prospect of another fantastic view awaiting you turning the next corner up ahead.

I was looking through my photographs from the Isle of Skye for a specific photograph that I could still remember clearly in my head, which fulfilled the above conditions perfectly.

We had spent the day visiting the area of Tarskavaig on the Isle of Skye, and had been working our way around the coastline past Ord and had started to turn back inland again slowly snaking our way across the heather and peat rich fields.

We turned a corner near the brow of a hill and the view that greeted us was nothing short of perfect, the road disappearing down into fields of yellows, purples and greens. The rolling hills slowly dropping downwards towards the Sound of Sleat in the distance, with the final hills of Skye reminding us where we were and then further still, the dark shadow of the mountains back on the Scottish mainland.

It's all too easy to fall into visiting the real "tourist traps" when out in the Scottish highlands, when in fact some of the most picturesque locations are those that you just happen to find while exploring the scenery.

Callanish Sunset

Callanish Sunset, originally uploaded by www.bazpics.com.

Still on the Isle of Lewis for todays offering, this time catching the final rays of the day with the standing stones at Callanish silhouetted against the colour-rich sunset sky.

What you don't see here is the fun of myself and Mireille running around like crazy behind the camera trying to escape the seventeen million, four hundred and thirty six thousand midgies which were a little unpleased at us occupying "their spot" to watch the sunset.

Midgie bites galore, but well worth it for some of the shots captured of the glorious Hebrides sunset.

Beached

Beached, originally uploaded by www.bazpics.com.

Time to go back a little further into my archive of photographs to 2009, and today it's time for Scotland to feature with our countdown to our latest trip sitting at just a little over two weeks away, and more importantly it's time to feature a photograph from what was probably the most enjoyable and relaxing holiday I've taken in the last few years.

Most people head for the warmer climates when it comes to planning holidays, but for myself and Mireille we had our sights firmly set on Scotlands Outer Hebrides. Kicking off on the Isle of Skye we made our way over to the Isle of Lewis and then over the following 2 weeks, worked our way South island hopping all the way down to Barra and Vatersay which is linked to it by a single causeway before making our way North again and back over to the Isle of Skye.

This photograph was taken on the North coast of Lewis, at the beach which sits on the edge of the Atlantic at Port Ness. A rock which had found it's way onto the beach had undergone a transformation over hundreds and thousands of tidal changes into a colourful masterpiece of seaweed, moss and little shells.

Hopefully the weather will play ball for us in May, and we'll have a whole new batch of photos to share with you all from our favourite location of all on the Isle of Skye.

Half Dome (Yosemite National Park, California)

Half Dome (Yosemite National Park, California), originally uploaded by www.bazpics.com.

There's nothing quite like sitting back at the end of the Glacier Point road, with Half Dome sticking out like a sore thumb in front of you and just watching the clouds roll overhead on a warm summers day.

Definitely one of my favourite places to visit in California, never mind just within the confines of Yosemite National Park itself.

Colourful Valley Floor

Colourful Valley Floor, originally uploaded by www.bazpics.com.

After having exhausted almost all of the main locations that were on offer to me during my first main stay in Oregon in the second half of 2010, I set my sights a little further afield to allow something new to be added to my ever growing portfolio of landscape images.

It was purely by chance that I even found out about the Painted Hills in Central Oregon, as there was a family event due to take place at one of the other areas that make up the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The story made me check the internet to see where the park was actually located and then while doing a google search a photo from the mid 1970's caught my attention.

A little digging later and I had found some up to date images and the info on how to get there and back and most importantly I was already dropping POI's into my satnav software on the laptop to help guide me to the right spots once I reached the park.

Just heading off to visit such an awesome place wasn't enough for me, by now you'll all be well aware of my crazy daytrips and weekenders which see me cover hundreds or thousands of miles just to take some photos, so I set the alarm for early o'clock in the hope of a nice sunrise over Trillium Lake, which lies just to the South of Mount Hood which itself is located South East of Portland.

Sunrise came and went, and I must admit I was a little disappointed in the lack of colour in the sunrise, but a few decent shots of the morning mist dancing on top of Trillium Lakes surface with Mount Hood's snow covered peak in the background made the early start worthwhile.

Onwards to the Painted Hills as a couple of carloads of weekend fishermen arrived to relax in front of natures spoils, and within a couple of hours I had passed the small town of Mitchell and was turning off the main road into where I hoped the clay-coloured hills would be hiding.

After visiting so many huge mountains the previous year I was kind of expecting a dramatic scene to unfold way off in the distance, but that wasn't the case, after turning a few lefts and rights, all of a sudden the small hillocks to the right of the road started to burst alive with reds and oranges that sparked new energy into me.

As nice as it was, I found myself thinking "surely this isn't it?", and ventured a little further along the snaking road until a small building came into view in the distance over on my left, with an American flag flying above it's roof.

As I was about to pull into the small dirt road that led to the building I had spotted a minute or two before there was something else catching my attention, straight ahead I could already see the sweeping hills with red clay flowing over and under, creating patterns that just screamed out to be photographed.

Considering the painted hills section of John Day National Monument is relatively small with several short and a few medium sized hikes, it just gives more power to the patterns and colours which were on show being 110% of the reason that I spent the entire day there until the sun began to drop documented the changes in the colours and textures as the light changed throughout the day.