A Year of Recovery

I would never have thought that a seemingly innocuous slip on a wet rock at Ardtoe would have resulted in a debilitating injury requiring surgery, 4 months of immobilisation, 12 months of physiotherapy and a further 6-12 months of recovery time to get me back to a point where I can freely walk in and photograph the landscape here on the Peninsula. However, this was indeed the case, and I am thankful that I had my photography to use as the motivator to get active and aid my recovery. It also resulted in the creation of a collection of 72 images that portray the varying landscape and moods of the Peninsula throughout 2022. This blog contains 12 of these images, one for each month of the year, and I hope to share the remainder of them over the course of 2023.

The Backstory

On 6th July 2021, I slipped on some wet rocks at Ardtoe, dislocating my knee and tearing my patellar tendon in two. Following an operation to repair the damage, I found myself immobilised and in a knee brace until early November and unable to get out and do any photography.
 
While laid up in the brace, I set myself the target of getting back out with the camera by the start of 2022 and the objective of taking 5 or 6 images each month that captured the varying landscape and moods of the Peninsula throughout the year.
 
With limited mobility, especially at the start of the year, I had to think carefully about locations I could safely go that would provide me with opportunities to take the photographs that I had in mind. This was a bit of a challenge at first, but I found that this limitation helped me with my creativity.
 
By the end of the year, I had visited enough locations and taken enough photographs to enable me to create a collection of 72 images, or six for each month to reasonably portray the Peninsula over the course of 2022. Twelve of these images, one for each month, are presented in this blog and I plan to share the rest of them over the course of the coming year in a new section on this website titled “A Year on the Peninsula”.
 
As well as the collection of images, the project provided me with the motivation to get “out there” and get back into my photography and aid my recovery. When pulling these images together, I was certainly reminded of how far I have come since that day in January when I gingerly made my way down the jetty at Salen with the help of a crutch to take the first photograph in this collection. I still have a number of months left in my 18-24 month long recovery period and hopefully, as my ability to walk on uneven ground and also downhill improves, I’ll be able to range further afield and photograph locations that I have not been able to get to since that fateful day in July 2021.

The Images

Anticipation I - Loch Sunart, Salen Jetty, Ardnamurchan

I started the year with some early morning visits to the old jetty in Salen because in January, the sun rises well round to the south-east and is able to cast beautiful light and colours onto the waters of the bay and the jetty itself. On my final morning, the sun seemed to take an age to appear from behind the hills of Morvern, but it was well worth the wait.

January

February

Distant Lighthouse I - Port na Carraidh, Ardnamurchan

Mid-February brought Storm Eunice along with its record-breaking winds and widespread disruption. The day after the Storm had passed, I headed out to Port na Carraidh at the western end of the Peninsula with the aim of photographing a distant view of the Lighthouse and after much searching I settled on this composition that used the stream on the sandy beach to lead the eye out to it.

Tioram and the Zodiac - Castle Tioram, Dorlin, Moidart​

In March, the Zodiac rises steeply from the horizon at dusk, making it a great time for spotting Zodiacal Light. Caused by light from the sun reflecting off a fog of tiny interplanetary dust particles that fill our inner Solar System, it shows as a faint triangular glow rising steeply from the western horizon just like in this image I took at Castle Tioram.

March

April

Light on Risga - Loch Sunart, Glenborrodale, Ardnamurchan

This shot was taken on an April morning when I was driving back home from an overnight photo session out west. As I approached Glenborrodale, the first light of the day was falling on the island of Risga, the skerries around it and Carna behind it. A sight that was simply too beautiful to not stop and photograph.

Caisteal nan Con I - Bagh Caisteal, Killundine, Morvern

Caisteal nan Con (Castle of Dogs), overlooks the Sound of Mull on the eastern coast of Morvern. I have passed it a few times on trips out to Drimnin and it has always caught my eye, so I decided to stop when passing it late on an evening in May and photograph just as cloud was rolling in from the west and catching the pinks from a setting sun.

May

June

Day's End, Land's End - Ardnamurchan Lighthouse, Ardnamurchan​

Three days after the longest day of the year, in late June, I was out at the lighthouse for its 25th anniversary of community ownership. The day had started with wind and rain but the afternoon cleared and I decided to capture the day’s end a good few hours after the anniversary celebrations ended. The sun set in the northwest shortly after 10:00 pm.

Sundown Blues II - Sailean Dubh, Ardtoe, Ardnamurchan​

A “must do” thing to do in July is to watch the sun set directly behind the Small Isles of Eigg and Rùm from the headland on the western side of the beach at Ardtoe. I had spent a very peaceful time doing just that in the couple of hours before I took this image of the blues of the emerging blue hour mixing with the golds of sunset.

July

August

Return of the Stars - The House Pool, River Shiel, Blain, Moidart

In August, the lengthening nights mean the return of stars and up until early October, you can marvel at the sight of the Milky Way filling the sky with a cloudy band of stars. This image shows it soaring above the House Pool on the River Shiel on a night in late August when I must have seen around a dozen shooting stars from the Perseid meteor shower.

Harvest Moon Reflections - Ardtoe Pier, Kentra Bay, Ardnamurchan​

In September, the full Moon rises in the southeast and if you watch it from Ardtoe Pier at the western end of Kentra Bay, it will appear above a distant Ben Resipole and cast reflections onto the water in the bay as it does so. In 2022, it was the nearest full Moon to the autumnal equinox, earning it the title of 'Harvest Moon'.

September

October

Lilac Dawn - Loch a' Choire, Kingairloch, Ardgour

Loch a’ Choire is at the heart of Kingairloch Estate and in October the Sun rises in line with its east facing entrance and can create some beautifully vibrant sunrises there. I had hoped to capture one of these sunrises on the morning I was there, but haze and cloud on the horizon subdued it and instead created some lovely lilac hues on the loch’s surface and in the sky above it.

Two Bridges - River Shiel, Blain, Moidart

The 2.5-mile-long River Shiel flows from Loch Shiel to the sea and forms part of the boundary between Moidart and Ardnamurchan. It can be crossed by either of the two bridges shown in this image which was taken on a November afternoon when the light bathed the autumn-coloured trees on the Moidart side it. Ben Resipole can be seen in the distance.

November

December

A Year Ends - Kentra Bay, Gobshealach, Ardnamurchan

Early December brought clear blue skies and sub-zero temperatures which were followed by two weeks of milder weather, wind and heavy rain. Fortunately, this broke for a little while on New Year’s Eve to allow me to capture dusk falling on the mouth of Kentra Bay as the end of the year approached. The Small Isles of Muck, Eigg and Rùm are in the orange glow on the horizon.