My Summer project took place in Inverness in the Scottish highlands, where I set myself the task of a landscape project. The landscapes were not supposed to just be generic hills and trees, but I wanted my photographs to show the historical side of Scotland and showing where everything began. The visit was also a chance for my parents to drum into us where we came from, which doesn't sound great, but I've always been proud of where I came from and Scotland is where I have always thought of as my home, and after taking this trip I really got to know Scotland for what it truly is, and I'm hoping my landscapes will tell the story too.
As you do when you walk around places as beautiful as this I took thousands of photographs, so I narrowed everything down to my final images, that I think are suitable landscapes to represent Scotland, which can be found in this post, and after my essay (also part of the summer project), and the landscapes I took to support it.
Landscapes -
The photographs below are my final landscapes and a little bit of background so you know what they are about.
Urquhart Castle -
On our first day in Inverness, we walked two miles from Drumnadrochit to Urquhart Castle. In history, Urquhart Castle was blown up by William of Orange in 1692 to stop it becoming occupied by the Highland tribe the Jacobites, and after the attack the castle was never re- built. The ruins are now owned by National Trust Scotland and is a large tourist attraction for Inverness as it looks out over Loch Ness.
Glen Affric -
Above is a series of photographs I took after each other of Plodda Falls, just outside the village of Tomich.
I set my camera so that it would take a sequence of photographs just seconds apart. When I went back through the photographs I could see the photographs in my head in a quadriptych sequence to show the way the water fell in a short space of time.
This photograph was taken looking down onto the waterfall. The view from the top and the bottom of the waterfall was absolutely breath taking and I think that photograph looking down the waterfall shows how beautiful it really was.
A photograph of my brother on the rocks on the water at Dog Falls, a bit further down the road from Plodda falls, still at Glen Affric.
Fort George -
After the battle of Culloden in 1746, and defeating Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite army, (see post below) the British Government built Fort George under the orders of George II to make sure there was no more unrest for the Jacobites. Fort George is still a working army barracks, as well as being open to the public to visit and get a better idea of 18th century army life. The first photograph above shows a landscape looking out from one of the Fort walls over the water at the top of the walls at Fort George. The second photograph is a landscape including some of the cannons used again on the top watch tower walls when Fort George was first built, and the third is a Landscape looking over the walls to the area where you can now watch for dolphins and whales.
Loch Ness
The first two photographs show a view of Urquhart Castle from across Loch Ness. The final photograph isn't actually part of my landscape project, but this duck swam most of the way across the Loch...then sat on our boat the rest of the way, which I found quite funny!
Loch Ness is the biggest lake in the UK, and near Urquhart castle holds the deepest point at 227m (almost 755 ft). Overall, Loch Ness holds the greatest volume of fresh water in the UK, more than in England and Wales together. There is also the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, and the search for this creature goes back to 1934. Many people have witnessed something described as a 'Whale like object' but nothing has ever really been proven. There is also the tale of the Christian missionary to King Brude of the Picts driving away 'a certain water monster' in the River Ness, dating back to 565 AD.
A Landscape looking out from the house we were staying in, and faint rainbow.
Finally, on the drive back down we pulled over and stopped to have a look at Glencoe. (My dad wanted to stop on the way up but it was raining, this is Scotland, remember!) Glencoe is one of Scotlands most historic and scenic Glens, and is also famous for being the set location for one of the Harry Potter films.
Evaluation
When my parents first told us that our holiday for this year would be at Loch Ness I honestly thought they were joking, but they weren't. But I went because I knew Glasgow because it's where I'm from, but I never new Scotland. I'd never really seen the trees and the hills and the water and learned the history, and all of it was really amazing and some of the scenery really was breath taking. These were also the kind of holidays my parents took as children, so it seemed like a right of passage too. I took so many photographs, but for my project I chose the ones that I felt reflected the places I went the best. My favourite thing about some of these photographs is some of the cloud formations, they're amazing. My favourite place was Culloden Moor, just because of all the history behind it which all really stuck in my mind. I never used to like Landscape photography much, but setting myself this small project has shown me that Landscape photography can be interesting if you learn about the history of the Landscape itself, and I'm glad I chose to focus my project on an area that I wasn't so comfortable with, and in the future I'm looking forward to exploring more landscapes in different places and in different genres within the subject.
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