Old Man of Storr, Winter Sunrise

Old Man of Storr, Winter Sunrise, a photo by Ally Mac on Flickr.

Alarm for 0530 (isn't landscape photography easy in the winter!), bite to eat and out the door of the B&B by 0615. A 30mph crawl on roads of sheet ice to park up at 0630. Pile on the layers, hats, gloves and head torch and head up the path to the old man. On the way up query the torch lights at the top of the hill, the only car in the car park had snow on it so these fools had either camped or been up there a while - and it wasn't exactly the weather for sauntering around on a mountain. Get to the top around 0730 nod at the three photographers already set up (what's that about remote?) and scramble up the side of the icy cliff face to get to a position where each of the points of the old man were separated from each other.

Nowhere to put my bag, my legs or my tripod so a sort of crevice straddling tripod setup and my legs as a bag holder I managed to get my camera out and attempt to put some filters on (Lee 0.6 Hard) without them blowing away to Mull. Marvel at how windy and blooming cold it was and wait for some clouds to roll into the top of the frame. Brrr!

Conditions in the sky weren't ideal, a band of clouds on the horizon and very little overhead. Eventually a few clouds came overhead to sit at the top of the frame but by this time I was struggling to move my hands never mind my fingers and I was concerned my next fumble would send my tripod and camera to its death. So I admitted defeat and scrambled down to a slightly more sheltered spot where the Storr merges into 3 peaks. I couldn't find a sheltered spot I was happy with the view from, I thought the sun looked like it was likely to break through the clouds but there was now no clouds overhead and I couldn't face climbing back up to my freezing cold spot from earlier. So I headed back to the car watching the rays of sun beaming out the clouds wishing I'd put on a few more layers.

– Alasdair McIntosh