Towards the end of last year I managed to get one last trip in the van to try another wet plate landscape before the snow fell.

I ventured up to the Isle of Skye – specifically to try and make a plate from Elgol looking North to the Cuillins as they emerge from the Sound of Soay and Loch Scavaig.

It’s one of the most breathtaking places I’ve ever been in the world. The road to Elgol from Broadford rises quite steeply winding up and around Ben Meabost to Ben Cleat before plunging very steeply down into Elgol itself. From there the views North are stunning – actually breathtaking!

I had to hang about for a few days because the winds were battering the coast so hard that the camera was just moving too much for a wet plate exposure…BUT……I eventually managed to get some plates made on the third day of waiting and love this one below: –

The wind was still pretty strong but I managed to park the van at an angle and get some shelter behind it. Given collodions sensitivity to UV light landscapes with lots of skye are proving tricky! I’m going to try and mock something up that will hold a grey graduated filter over the lens when I next get out to make some landscapes.

Another interesting dilemma I’ve had is whether or not to correct the landscapes I make from the negative when I’m scanning and reproducing them. I’ve decided that I will. If this doesn’t make sense I’ll explain. Making collodion images onto black metal or glass gives you a positive photograph – but it is actually a negative. It’s reversed, but you see it as a positive due to the black backing – and slightly different chemistry. I love this for portraits – as do subjects – because they see themselves as they do in the mirror. You look the way you think you do. If you check back on some of the portraits posted earlier – like the boxer Davey Savage Jnr – the letters on his top are reversed.

For the landscapes I think I need to reproduce them as you would see the landscape if you were to visit it – so this view has been flipped.

Anyway, delighted with the day I travelled back up from Elgol and parked on a vantage point overlooking Loch Slappin. I set up and varnished the plates and then made a wee spot of dinner before jumping into bed to read a book. About an hour later I could hear the wind picking up again. It really started banging into the side of the van which at one point seemed to lift onto two wheels. Not wanting to end up sleeping in the Loch, I jumped out into the freezing wet darkness in my attractive long johns to move the van into shelter. On opening the van door the wind blew it out my hand with such force that the door buckled and is now twisted and dented. All part of the character 🙂

On finding shelter at the mouth of Loch Slappin I decided it was too early for bed anyway and had a wee party. Slainte Mhath! 🙂