Guest Article – Scotland in the Rain

By Dougie Salteri

Link to his website: www.douglassalteri.co.uk

Note: Click on Any Photograph for a Larger Version

You need to have a philosophical attitude towards the weather if you shoot landscapes in Scotland, especially in the regions of the country to the West with it’s Lochs and mountains and all of the things we love to look at and enjoy.

I Hate Rain . . . but after rain comes rainbows.

Rain can be the most depressing of conditions in natures armoury, but to the photographer it should be welcomed with open arms. “What” I hear you cry, welcome. Well yes because without rain we wouldn’t have Lochs and Lake (we only have one lake in Scotland).

I Hate Rain . . .but let’s make waves.

We would never see a rainbow, or smell the fresh smell of a grasses freshly washed by a passing shower of rain. Wild flowers wouldn’t bloom, clouds wouldn’t float across blue skies and reflect so beautifully in the Lochs. No more boats bobbing at anchor in the rivers and sailing into the sunset.

I Hate Rain . . . but my Granny was a Loch.

So the next time you sit beside a Loch or wait for the clouds to part and let some light down on your particular bit of heaven on earth, ponder a while the World without rain.

I Hate Rain . . . but Noah was a photographer.

A drab hot place without lots of the elements which make the landscape work for photographers, and forget the dribble of water trickling down the little chink in your waterproof collar and think of all the fun you have doing what you love. The best hobby in the world. Keep enduring the rain because when it slows there might just be a spectacular rainbow arcing across that sky in front of your lens, don’t forget to wipe the filter.

I Hate Rain . . .but I do love beaches

I hope you’ve enjoyed my thoughts on rain and that it might just bring a little comfort  someday when you’re sure the Sun will never shine again, because it surely will.

*****

Douglas Salteri has 50 years of  photographic experience, mostly in newspapers. He first used a camera when he was 12 years old, a Kodak Brownie 127. He started work at 15, processing colour film and making prints for a couple of years, and then moved to newspapers where he worked as a photographer for 20 odd years using all sorts of cameras, Rollei’s, Pentax, Canon, Nikon and Hasselblad.  As he got older he moved to the Picture Desk and worked his way through the ranks, and finally became Picture Editor of The Herald where he retired in 2006. Now happily landscaping around Scotland with  A Canon 5D II and some lenses.  As he says: ” I worked at what has always been my hobby, it doesn’t get better than that.”

“Dougie,” to his friends, he is affectionally referred to as “Lord Douglas” by the PTR Team.