Articles » Mesmeric landscape with the power to stir emotions
No other landscape is as mesmeric, can stir the emotions and take us to a place where form and force exert such potent fascination and mystery. A mountain's inaccessibility and apparent permanence is the source of its power over us, speaking as it does of a time-span beyond comprehension in our impatient age. There is nothing trivial about mountains.
The upland habitat has survival at its core and I have felt more keenly than anywhere else how susceptible plants and animals are to even the smallest change in altitude, to a switch in bearing on a slope, and to the relentless duel with wind, water and ice. These same three sculptors of the landscape also have a huge impact on a photographer's inspiration and reward in the mountains. No other form of photography is so dependent on the weather (past, present and future) to the extent that on the low cloud no-go days the mountains are just not there to be seen.
The image alongside was made on a similar day, but one that redeemed itself in the end.
The A82 is a modern-day Highland artery, as vital to the economic health of North West Scotland as the landscape it slices through. Speeding drivers crossing Rannoch Moor blur a small road sign for Glen Etive, but what natural riches they miss.
Buachaille Etive Mor and Buachaille Etive Beag, two mountains that stand as sentries guarding the glen's entrance, are rightly the most photographed in all Scotland. But the lover of wild country should also make time to explore Glen Etive itself and enjoy an epic landscape of waterfalls and sculptured pools formed by its rock-gouging river. Continue past Dalness Lodge and the glen widens to a strath. Now sun can penetrate and as a consequence the land becomes more fertile, fringed by trees on its slopes.
After a cruel day of blinding horizontal rain and knifing winds, calm was restored to the glen just before sunset and my eye was drawn to settled waters on Lochan Urr. From the south shore across a small wooded island was Lairig Gartain's graceful curve sweeping between the two guarding Shepherds of the Glen. In addition to an icing of snow on their tops, my reward for persevering through a challenging day was a final splash of sunlight on the hillside.
Many have written about an irresistible passion for being in mountains and a similar urge is starting to grip me, albeit from the foothills. There are navigation and safety skills I need to learn before venturing further (and no small matter of a fear of heights to conquer or at least come to terms with). But I am convinced that the rewards will be great, not in terms of mere photography or the tang of summit, but in experience and appreciation of a hostile but pure beauty.
