21 Aug 2015

Scottish wild flowers along the A82

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July is a great time to go exploring along the A82 in Scotland. Scottish wild flowers are at peak season and buttercups line most of the roadside verges.  It's even better when your choice of road - A82 in Argyll and Bute is listed as one of the top ten most scenic routes in the UK. So join with me as I take you out on the open road and see a little bit of Scotland through my eyes ...

 

Professional landscape photographers scout their location. Either get up before dawn or stay around until sunset. No doubt some walk for miles 'off the beaten track' to get that all important shot. However I'm not a landscape photographer nor a hiker. Therefore it's usually a 'stop the car' exclamation from me in the passenger seat.  

 

All of my landscape work is done while going on my way somewhere else. I'm always aware that there are other passengers who are waiting patiently to reach their final destination. I enjoy what I do and for me whether it's perfect or not isn't the issue.

Having fun with my camera is the important part.

 

this is an image introducing my Out on the open road along the A82 series of images
At the foot of Beinn Dorain
this is an image of our route in Scotland along the A82 from Tyndrum to Glencoe - marked in red
Our route from Perth along the A82 from Tyndrum to Glencoe - marked in red.  

Scottish Wild Flowers at Loch Tulla

this is an image of the pink foxgloves growing on the hillside along the A82 road
Foxgloves, daisies, buttercups in the foreground ...and if you venture onto the marshy grass it's full of wild orchids!

 

I always seem to associated foxgloves with woodland areas and shade. So it was a lovely surprise to find digitalis flowering at their peak up on the moor beside a native silver birch. While yellow hawkweed and daisies in bloom intermingle through the grass. AND yes that is still snow up on the corrie of Stob a'Choire Odhair.

this is an image of pink foxgloves growing in July in the Scottish highlands.
Looking down at the A82 road from Rannoch Moor with pink foxgloves and other wild flowers in the foreground.
this is an image of Native Scottish Pink Foxgloves - Digitalis purpurea in flower in July along the A82
Native pink foxgloves - Digitalis purpurea with Stob a'Choire Odhair in the distance
this is an image of Northern Marsh orchids in flower
Northern Marsh orchids Dactylorhiza purpurella in flower with Loch Tulla in the background.
this is an image of the Scottish wildflower Dactylorhiza maculata - Heath Spotted-orchid
Dactylorhiza maculata - Heath Spotted-orchid

A Sense Of Place

 

I didn't have a macro lens with me up on the moor but had a 50 mm instead for taking the wild flower images. Thankfully I had a clip-on macro filter in my kit bag and I managed to get a little closer.

 

I really like the way the 50mm gives the viewer a 'sense of place'. Particularly as you can still see the faint outline of Loch Tulla in the background in the above photograph.

 

I wasn't dressed appropriately for getting down on wet marshy ground. As a result I had very wet knees after I'd taken these orchid shots. I hastily retreated once a persistent horsefly sought to 'feed from me'. It ended up in the car with me momentarily. Thankfully that was the only beastie I encountered. Better still there wasn't a tick nor a midge in sight.

 

It's far easier to photograph the Northern Marsh Orchid that grows in my own garden. Though I have ants to contend with instead!

 

More photographs from along the A82 to follow.

Follow Rosie Nixon:

Photography Tutor and Gardener

Rosie is a garden photographer, writer and nature lover. She enjoys soaking up nature and is easily distracted from doing the weeding by anything that flutters, flies, buzzes, creeps or crawls! She enjoys sharing the beauty of creation through her photography. Rosie has been featured on TV on BBC2's The Beechgrove Garden and she uses the outdoors as her natural light studio. Her work can be seen at one of Scotland's only photography galleries - Close Gallery, 4b Howe Street, Edinburgh.

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2 Responses

  2. Ida
    |

    Oh how pretty. – I just loved several of the photos here today. Scottish Wildflowers and the Fox Glove were gorgeous.