​A collection of images taken in each month of 2022 that portray the varying landscape of this unspoilt part of the north-west coast of Scotland

Read the story behind them in my blog titled “A Year of Recovery”

Spring Daybreak
​Loch Sunart, Glenmore, Ardnamurchan

I took this shot when returning from what turned out to be an unproductive late-night trip out to the west end of the Peninsula. I’d didn’t get any images that I was happy with, but I was compensated by this one captured on the early morning drive back. It was taken from the side of the road at Glenmore and shows the first light of the day beginning to break over the distant hills beyond the island of Oronsay, bathing them in a warm glow.

Light on Risga
​Loch Sunart, Glenborrodale, Ardnamurchan

This is the second image taken on the early drive home following my unproductive photo trip out to the west end of the Peninsula the night before. Taken a few miles further east towards home and about an hour later, at a time when the Sun had risen high enough to light up the island of Risga and the skerries around it. My eye was drawn to this scene as I was passing, so much so, that I was compelled to stop and capture it.

Crowning Arienas
​Camas Allt a' Choire, Loch Arienas, Morvern

April is pretty much the last month in the first half of the year during which you can photography the Milky Way, but you need to be a night owl to capture it because the best time to do so is in the 3 or 4 hours after midnight. During those hours it arches across the northern sky at a relatively low angle of about 30°, meaning that you can capture its entirety in a panoramic image like this one taken looking northeast over Loch Arienas. When looking at the Milky Way, it seemed to me that the loch was adorned with a star filled crown.

Celestial Pink
​Camas Allt a' Choire, Loch Arienas, Morvern
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April is when shooting stars reappear in the night sky after a break of several months, starting when the Lyrid meteor shower gets going around the middle of the month. I spent the night of the shower’s peak on 21/22 April over at Loch Arienas and managed to photograph a number of shooting stars as the sped across the north-eastern sky above the loch. However, perhaps my favourite image from the night is this one, taken when I turned the camera to face north to catch the pink tinge from a waning Aurora that was rising from behind the hills that surround the Loch’s northern shore. If you look closely, you can see the two shooting stars that found their way into edge of the frame.

Cobalt and Amber
​The Small Isles viewed from Fascadale, Ardnamurchan

From April onwards, the setting sun finds itself on the northern side of east and begins to create colour in the skies above the Small Isles when they are viewed from the northern coastline of Ardnamurchan. A great place to go and watch these sunsets is Fascadale. This is where I headed on an evening towards the end of April to capture this image of the amber hues of sunset in the sky behind the isles of Muck and Rùm mixing with the cobalt blue of the clouds and the sea which was being caused by the approaching Blue Hour.

Amber Isle
​Isle of Muck viewed from Fascadale, Ardnamurchan

This is another image that taken on my late April evening visit to Fascadale to watch the sunset. It was quite a windy evening, so I was fascinated to see long streaks of calm water leading from the rocky foreshore at the end of the headland and out towards the Isle of Muck, which was sitting beneath an amber sky on the horizon. A little bit of research revealed that these calm strips of water are known as "cat's paws" or “wind shadows” and are caused by the wind is blowing in the opposite direction to the waves and cancelling them out.

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