My photographic subject just now is to try to picture moving water.  It is wonderful the patterns and effects you can get if you fix your camera rock steady on a tripod and use a slow enough speed to blur the moving water.   Sometimes it can be quite ethereal!  The lack of light is not a problem either.  Some of the pictures I have taken recently were in mid-afternoon when it was getting quite dark.

My first problem is to find the right water.  I would love to find a local waterfall like the one I managed to photograph in the Fairy Glen at Rosemarkie on the Black Isle.   But I have not found a waterfall in Cruden Country.  Perhaps someone can point me to one?

That leaves me with two choices:  water moving over stones in a burn, or the waves on the sea.

My first attempt was near the bridge at the Mill of Auchleuriches.  I had been here before in the spring time when I was doing my piece about the Bridges of Cruden Country.   To show the moving water at its best you need to look for a fixed focal point to add contrast.  I noticed a big stone, and cheating a little –  I added some leaves to the top.   I think the one with the big green leaf is the best shot and I am calling it “Marooned”!

I have added for contrast a picture of took in June of the same location.

Residents of Hatton may have seen me gazing down into the water of the local burns, but I have not found a location here that fits the bill.  The Water of Cruden flows too slowly, with so sign of the rapids and white water I am looking for.   A little better is the little burn that flows beside the Hatton Mill.  You know the one that caused all the problem on 23 December last year when it undermined the bridge.   Today the water was shallow enough for me to wade in, park my tripod in the middle of the water and try a few shots.  But nothing quite produced the effect I was looking for.  Here are a couple of them.

We went down to the beach a Whinyfold last week, lugging camera bag and tripod.  It was strange to be there without grandchildren.  I seem to have taken lots of pictures of the children there these past few months.   But there were no waves to speak of.   I will need to go back when the tide is further in and there is more swell.  Still I came away with a couple of pictures, including the one taken just as the sun broke through what had been a grey overcast sky.  Now the sky was bathed in colour in stark contrast to the black rocks in the foreground.  Quite a contrast in the two pictures taken just minutes apart.

When we got back to the car everything was bathed in orange light, cliff, sea, not to mention boats.  Pictures are about being at the right place at the right time.

This is still a work in progress.

Things to do before Christmas:

• Look out for a local waterfall to photograph.
• Go back to the shore when there is more of a swell, perhaps at the rocks at Port Erroll Harbour
• Find some rapids on some of our local burns.