A Walk to Loch Ordie
A walk in the winter sunshine can be a great way to clear your head and get a much needed mood boost, and Loch Ordie is one of my favourites for its open moorland views. Although it’s not that remote, it has the feeling of wilderness and isolation, its high altitude—sitting above the stunning little village of Dunkeld—defining its landscape and weather.
For this particular trip I’d decided to shoot some film rather than take my digital camera. Film is by far my preferred type of photography. I had been saving a colour positive film for just such a jaunt, so I loaded it up and set off with a sense of adventure and a pocket full of snacks. Colour positive film is slightly tricky to shoot, the exposure has to be just right and there is far less margin for error than other types of film. But when you get it right the colours are just sensational!
The conditions were typical of a sunny day in winter. The sun, when it appeared, was stunning. The warm soft light gave everything a glorious pop of colour. The advantage of slide film is that, when you get the right lighting conditions, there isn’t really anything else than can capture colours like it. Even my modern digital camera would struggle to match it. With very bright winter conditions though, you can have some problems with the photos you take looking very different when in the sunshine compared to the shadows. I decided to stick to the sunny side of the loch, both to try and keep warm in the sub zero temperatures and so that I was making the best use of the available light.
The loch itself was looking magnificent. The icy water was changing colour as the light was everything between vivid blue to steel grey and then back again. All those tones of blue looked fabulous against the greens and rusty browns of the adjoining landscape. It takes around an hour to walk right around the loch, but it’s well worth the time and effort. The little row of cottages, now used as a fishing hut by Atholl Estates, make for an iconic composition, but it is also worth going to the far side of the loch. In the winter it’s the far side that captures the best of the light. I also think I like the view from that end better.
Along the loch shore there were lots of ferns, all brown and dry, still standing upright despite the wintery cold and biting wind. I’ve always found these ferns to be an extremely pleasing form at any time in the year, whether they are vidid green and unrolling themselves at the first signs of spring, wearing their bright autumn colours, or the glorious russet browns of winter. I had just one frame left on my roll of film and wanted to use it on one of these ferns. To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting the photo to be that great, but when I got it back from the lab it was one of my favourites I’ve taken in a long time. I shot the photo with the lens aperture wide open giving a very shallow depth of field, the one fern is the only thing in focus, the rest of the image being a swirly mass of bokeh that is the sort of thing that makes a vintage lens enthusiast weak at the knees. If you shoot film and get one of these calibre of images per roll, you’d call it a win.
After a happy hour or so of wandering around and taking photos, I headed home. Whenever I go to Loch Ordie I am always struck by how beautiful it is and wonder why I don’t go there more often. The feeling of wilderness you get from the area really is wonderful, and you really don’t have to walk very far to achieve it. Perthshire is full of these little pieces of wilderness and areas of natural beauty, it’s good to take the time to enjoy them.
