Preserving A Lost Scene

For me, one of the magical things about photography is its ability to capture scenes and moments in the present for the viewers of the future, before they are lost forever, just like the scene in this photo I took in August 2019 of an old sailing boat high up on the rocks at Samalaman Bay near Glenuig.

Image 1: On the Rocks I - Samalaman Bay, Glenuig, Moidart

​I am so fortunate to be able to live where I do. This special corner of Scotland is a photographer’s paradise with its diverse landscape of mountains, moorland and woodland and an amazing coastline that is home to beautiful white sand beaches and dramatic rocky shorelines. It is a place that has something to offer the photographer in all seasons and in the summer months, the northern coastline of Moidart and Ardnamurchan is the place to go with the camera. In these months, the late evening sun sets in the northwest and brings beautiful sunsets to this part of the West Highland Peninsulas.

I spend many hours there on late summer evenings, watching the sun set beyond the stunning silhouette of the Small Isles of Eigg and Rùm, marvelling at the natural beauty that is all around and waiting for the perfect moment to press the shutter button on my camera. However, it is not just nature that contributes to making the perfect picture. Sometimes, the evidence of the presence of man can add to the story behind the image and one such place where this was the case was at Samalaman Bay, near Glenuig.

“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”
​- Karl Lagerfeld

r a few years, an old sailing boat had sat perched high up on a huge, rounded rock on the southern edge of the bay, in a position such that it combined with the edges of the bay and the distant silhouette of the Small Isles to create the perfect composition. I visited the bay on a perfectly still August evening in 2019 when a high spring tide coincided with sunset. Even with almost 5 metres of tide, this old sailboat was high enough up on the rocks to remain steadfast in its position. After taking in the scene for a while, I set up my camera on its tripod, set the exposure time to 90 seconds, pressed the shutter button to capture and freeze 1½ minutes of the most magical west coast sunset to create the image at the top of this blog titled “On the Rocks I”.

I was privileged to visit Samalaman Bay that evening because the scene I captured has now been lost forever. A few months later, in January 2020, a winter storm surge combined with a high spring tide to create a sea high enough to lift the old boat from its rocky perch and leave it rather mournfully lying on its side on the muddy bank beside the rocks. A few months later, in the October 2020, it was lifted from this muddy resting place and taken to the “boatyard in the sky”.
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Image 2: The old boat being taken from the bay
(Image Courtesy of Loch Shiel Garage)

When I now visit this spot in Samalaman Bay, it certainly feels that something is missing. That old boat sure was essential to the picture-perfect scene that I captured and although I was saddened at its departure, I seek great comfort in knowing that I did manage to capture it before it was gone forever. To me, this ability to capture the present for the viewers of the future is the power of photography and is summed up by this quote by Karl Lagerfeld:

“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”