Colin Prior Mountain Man - North West Highlands The Adventure Show


Colin Prior Mountain Man - North West Highlands

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This is one of my favourite parts of Scotland.

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It's known as the Great Wilderness,

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and it's got a majestic grandeur

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that never fails to touch my soul.

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That's a sentiment shared by an old pal of mine.

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Colin Prior is not only

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one of the most influential landscape photographers

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in the world, but he is also a man who, for 25 years,

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has shaped the way we hillgoers look at Scotland's mountains.

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The very first picture I took with my panoramic camera

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was an epiphany for me.

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The light that I witnessed that evening

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was like light I have never seen before.

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From that point onwards,

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I refocused my life so that I could pursue this type of photography.

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Colin Prior has photographed many of the world's iconic landscapes.

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Three years ago, we followed him to the heart of the Baltoro Glacier

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in Pakistan's Karakoram.

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Here, he was capturing some of the world's most famous mountains.

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Now he's back home in Scotland and he's a man on a mission.

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He made his name with a set of panoramic images

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that defined wild Scotland for a generation.

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I pinch myself, just being here.

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The clouds are beginning to pink up now

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as the sun rises,

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and this is going to be orchestral.

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But he's not someone to rest on his laurels.

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Using the latest digital technology,

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he's starting out again with the aim of making a definitive record

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of these special places.

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For the last six months, he's been working in the north-west Highlands.

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Part of the process of shooting these images

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is understanding how we perceive this landscape.

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How do we perceive the natural world?

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And it's not actually what's in the photograph,

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it's where the photograph takes you.

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It's the middle of February.

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Much of the Scottish Highlands is still shut for the winter season.

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There are no tourists about,

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and the hills are virtually devoid of people,

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but it's at this time of the year,

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between the winter and the spring equinoxes,

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that Colin Prior does most of his work.

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People imagine the summer is the best time to take photographs

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because the weather's better, but everything is green,

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there's lots of midges, and if you get good weather,

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it tends to be the result of an anticyclone,

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and you've got blue skies,

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but haze build-up as well.

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Colin's photography relies on that rare combination

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of being in the right place at the right time.

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Yet everyone who goes into the mountains knows just how fickle

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the Scottish weather can be.

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And that's made harder when your home is just south of Glasgow.

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Colin's set himself an ambitious target.

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He wants to produce a set of world-class images,

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and he's chosen three particular mountains

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for this winter's project.

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He's keen on an evening shot of our most remote Munro,

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A' Mhaighdean.

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But to get this means an ascent of a rarely visited peak,

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Beinn Airigh Charr.

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Then there's what many would consider our finest hill,

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a mountain range in miniature, An Teallach.

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But that's all to come.

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Colin is beginning his work

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on the highest of the Inverpolly hills, Cul Mor.

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To produce photographs of his standard,

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determination is as important as talent.

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So the walk in begins well before dawn.

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Of all the areas in Scotland, this is where my heart is.

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There are lots of undisturbed places here,

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and that's really what I thrive on.

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GROUSE CRIES

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The early part of the walk in this morning was quite remarkable.

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The sun came up and glowed in the east.

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And we stopped briefly and listened to the grouse.

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They were sparring with each other.

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We could hear the "Go back, go back, go back".

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Just for a period of five or ten minutes,

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we stood and listened,

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as the sun continued to rise.

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The glens are a bit colder

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and there's mist lying in the bottom of the glen,

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and that's giving the mountains a real ethereal feel.

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Cul Mor rises above that,

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and it's just such an enigmatic mountain,

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and it seems to dominate the whole of the Assynt area

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until, of course, you drive into Elphin,

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and Suilven just rises from the moorland.

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That's what really attracts me to this area.

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And it's not just the visual information that you're after -

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you need to absorb everything.

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I remember reading a blog of a photographer,

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and he had this fantastic moment and he said,

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"And I put my earphones in,

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"and I listened to my favourite track."

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And I thought, "How can you do that?"

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If you want to be a great photographer,

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you need to switch on all of your senses.

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It's not just vision -

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we've got to smell things, and we hear things,

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and that all informs the photograph.

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Today, Colin is taking a different route up the mountain.

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He's keeping to the north-east ridge,

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and that's proving a good choice.

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He planned to go straight to the summit,

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but suddenly, there's a possibility of a photograph.

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I might put it on the sticks and have a shot.

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Because of the conditions today, we've got something really special.

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We've got this wispy cloud,

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and it's just floating over Sionascaig there.

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So I'm going to give it a little shot.

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Just get the legs down.

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We'll have a look.

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OK, I just need to do the focus now.

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It's ironic, in a way, that you've got these...

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..very sophisticated cameras that have got automatic everything,

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and yet I'm choosing to focus manually and to expose manually.

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The key is to be in control of the camera

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and not having the camera control you.

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The histogram is perfect.

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And...

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..the focus is perfect.

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The rest is down to me.

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I don't like it very much.

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There's too much of a contrast between the foreground,

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which has got no light,

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and the background, which has got light.

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What I plan to do now is use a telephoto lens

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and maybe try and isolate some of that movement down there.

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Just don't really have enough light in the foreground,

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but I'm going to shoot this anyway.

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It's certainly not going to win any awards, this picture.

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Colin believes the key to his success lies in meticulous research.

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That includes working out the best day to be on the mountain,

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and the ideal time for his shot.

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But there's more to it than that.

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He needs to understand all the different aspects of a landscape.

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Few people know this area better than Duncan MacKenzie.

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Once he was a policeman, but now he has the stalking rights

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to an area of land south of Lochinver.

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The two men have been friends for years,

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a friendship built on mutual respect.

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There's not a lot of people like Duncan,

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that spend the amount of time that he does in the natural world.

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He's helped me find locations in the Assynt and Coigach area,

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and more recently, he has introduced me to stalking with a camera

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and got me very close to some fantastic beasts

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that we've photographed during the rut.

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On you go.

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As I said to Colin,

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it's all about sensitively managing the deer herd.

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They're here a long time.

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They deserve better than they get, I think.

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In some parts, they're treated more or less as vermin.

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But they're a fantastic animal

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and this landscape, this backdrop,

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just is part of the deal.

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And I love every second I'm up here,

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just looking after these beasties as best I can.

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My job here on the ground is actually to keep these beasts -

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it may sound strange - but keep them happy.

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They have to be killed to keep the numbers down.

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But it has to be done carefully

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and sensitively.

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So what you're looking for are some of the older beasts,

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some of the weaker beasts that have not had good winters

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and you're just harvesting them.

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What I do is I crop the deer all the way through,

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from three years of age,

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right through all the age range,

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and I'm shooting these from July 1,

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so by the time the rut starts,

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I've shot maybe 80-90% of the deer that's to be shot.

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So we're trying to keep the animals pristine on the ground

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and by the time the rut starts,

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my job's done.

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What an incredible mountain that is, isn't it?

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Fantastic, yeah. It's wonderful.

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Colin likes climbing big, high mountains.

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I used to do that a long time ago, but I don't do it now.

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Stags tend to be lower down, and hinds.

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But we do bond together really well,

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and we have a great time on the hill.

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There's lots and lots of people up in the north-west,

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and they all come looking at the hill,

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looking at animals, looking, looking constantly,

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but not necessarily seeing.

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Colin is one of these guys who's very perceptive in what he sees.

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He is constantly looking at light and he will say, "Stop, stop, stop,

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"there's a fantastic light here,

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"can you just give me two seconds?"

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and he'll take two or three shots,

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and that'll be the shots of the day.

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I'm an amateur photographer too,

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and I might have a huge mountain in the backdrop,

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but the light is wrong, and that's not the shot,

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but you think it is, but afterwards, when it's on the computer,

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and you look at it again, you say, "No".

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He knows exactly the right time to take the shot.

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Earlier in the autumn,

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Duncan's skill as a stalker and Colin's with a camera

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resulted in a photograph that now takes pride of place

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in Duncan's house.

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It's more than just a classic image of the annual rut.

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For Duncan, it tells a complex story about this particular deer herd.

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The most important thing for a stalker

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is that all these deer are not looking at the stalker.

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Or in this case, the photographer.

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It's just a natural scene.

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At this time of year, he's at his lowest ebb,

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cos there's nothing on his mind but the girls,

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so he's got to check them for the smell.

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And although they are in season for maybe about three weeks,

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they are only actually receptive to the stag for about 20 hours,

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24 hours maximum.

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So he's got to go around each one, sniffing, he wets his nose...

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..to enhance the smell, as you do.

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Whisky tasting and whatever else.

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As we do.

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So you got him perfect,

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because you got the back leg here coming down the hill,

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and he's just licking his nose and he's planning this girl here.

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It was such a privilege to get that close,

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because the following day, I went off on my own,

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and I found out very quickly how difficult it was.

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Because not only is their eyesight better than ours,

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their sense of smell is, you know,

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innumerably more sensitive.

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If I'd tried to do this myself,

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I'd have been betrayed very, very quickly by my own inexperience.

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But you got the photo.

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You were on the knoll, you pressed the shutter.

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I mean, you couldn't get better than that.

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You've got your diagonals, you've got this,

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what I keep going back to is this, it's so natural.

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A few stalking pals have come in and said, "Wow, that is fantastic."

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You've got his tongue coming out, totally natural,

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this girl saying, "Oh, no, here he comes again."

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This one saying, "Just stand, it's OK."

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THEY LAUGH

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"It'll be over quick!"

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Back on Cul Mor, Colin is on the final part of the ascent.

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And then it's a waiting game

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until the light gives him the images he needs.

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Plenty of time to reflect

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on his life as a landscape photographer.

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I don't know what I would have done had I not been a photographer.

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I started off life working in my father's business

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as an operations manager,

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but it wasn't something I had any affinity with.

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I left with no photographic training and the naive assumption

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that I could become a professional photographer,

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and here I am, 30 years later.

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It's been a fabulous journey.

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I'm one of the few professional photographers

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that have had the opportunity to follow their dreams.

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And after all this time,

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I'm still as enthusiastic about photography as I was

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the day that I first picked up a camera.

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To be here on a day like today is completely unique.

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I mean, this is a world-class landscape.

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It is up there with Machu Picchu and Torres del Paine,

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it's there with the Pyramids.

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It's just amazing, and we've got it on our doorsteps.

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Wow.

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Colin has come here today not just for the view -

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he wants to explore the surreal sandstone towers

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that litter the summit plateau.

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Just the shapes, look at the curvature and the moulding.

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I mean, it almost looks man-made, that.

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And look at these shapes here.

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It's like a giant Play-Doh set.

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There's a nice composition here.

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Yeah, that's good. We'll do this as a shot later.

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This is another area that is potentially suitable

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for later this evening.

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The sun's too hot.

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It's still too bright

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and there's no relief in the mountain.

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It's all very flat illumination.

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The visibility is excellent,

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but I guess we photographers, we're never happy.

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This kind of photography is all about the quality of the light,

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and that means waiting until just the right moment.

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That elusive instant before it's too dark

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and when the sun turns this landscape

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from something impressive to a place that is absolutely magical.

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The light's beginning to come off that tor -

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do you see that, on the left?

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So I think we're probably about the best time.

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The light will get warmer, but we're going to get more shadow.

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So I feel that...

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..we're going to very quickly be past our best.

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Perfect.

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CAMERA CLICKS

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Yeah, I quite like that.

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This is our last shot, we'll just let that light drop down a little.

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And I'm going to get some beautiful colour in this stone.

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I need to do this justice, and I'll try my hardest.

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I think the sun is just about in its final stages of descent there.

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Any longer, and it's going to drop into that cloud,

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and we're going to lose the intensity.

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We've got lovely yellow light here,

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and I think it's about time...

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..I took that final shot.

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CAMERA CLICKS

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Fantastic.

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What an end to a perfect day.

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This winter has been one of the most unpredictable in years.

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In the north-west, snow-covered mountains were a rarity,

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yet it all started out with great promise.

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In November, the temperatures plummeted,

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and there was a week of outstanding weather.

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Colin was here, joining photographers

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Adrian Hollister and Eddie Ephraums.

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They were running an innovative workshop

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simply called A Portrait Of An Teallach.

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It attracted people from far and wide

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and invited them to express their own vision

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of a mountain that dominates the landscape.

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Few people can fail to be awed by its grandeur.

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Capturing it in a single image is a far more difficult challenge.

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It's like food for the soul.

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This is when you wonder about taking photographs,

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because photographs actually won't convey this.

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You know?

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For me, it's just the shape and the colours.

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They're simply breathtaking.

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I know it looks black and white there,

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but you can see how the shades work together

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to give you that impression of colour.

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And it's trying to capture that, in one single image.

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I've started by taking the whole thing,

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but now I'm just looking at individual details.

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You can't describe it, so you have to be here.

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And whilst we try and take pictures home

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and people say, "Wow, that's wonderful",

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it's difficult to really project what you feel when you're sat here.

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Colin has chosen a location that is ideal

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for capturing this huge mountain.

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The group are up early and begin their walk in darkness.

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It's a big effort for everyone.

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But soon, the rewards are obvious.

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We've just been so incredibly lucky this morning,

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with the conditions we have.

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The sun is just breaking the horizon at the moment,

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and you can see it's picking up on Lord Berkley's Seat.

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Just fantastic to have the group out here and witness this.

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There's very few days each year...

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..where you've got conditions like this,

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and I pinch myself, just being here.

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The clouds are beginning to pink up now

0:19:540:19:56

as the sun rises, and this is going to be orchestral,

0:19:560:20:00

the colours that will appear on An Teallach.

0:20:000:20:03

Just really being spoiled for choice, I think,

0:20:060:20:09

knowing where to photograph,

0:20:090:20:11

because everywhere you look, it's just stunning.

0:20:110:20:13

There's only a small opportunity before the light changes.

0:20:140:20:19

It's trying to make the most of it, before it all goes.

0:20:190:20:22

Just been really wonderful at the top here. Really wonderful.

0:20:250:20:29

That light over there,

0:20:290:20:30

I've not seen that orange light for a very long time.

0:20:300:20:33

We've got the, sort of, Antarctic thing,

0:20:350:20:37

with all the hills around in the snow,

0:20:370:20:40

and the light just clipping the tops of the mountains.

0:20:400:20:43

Photography's all about trying to take an image of something

0:20:440:20:47

you see and feel, and I don't think you ever quite achieve it,

0:20:470:20:51

so you're always striving and reaching.

0:20:510:20:53

Can't quite believe I'm here, can't quite believe I've made it.

0:20:550:20:58

For me, this is an Everest moment.

0:20:580:21:00

I never thought I'd be able to achieve anything like this.

0:21:000:21:04

And I'll look at this photograph and it will unlock everything,

0:21:040:21:07

I will look at that, and I'll be able to re...

0:21:070:21:10

..revisit - feel the cold, feel the wind, and be here again.

0:21:110:21:16

It was just breathtaking.

0:21:190:21:21

You could hear the wind, you could hear the...

0:21:210:21:24

You could hear the silence.

0:21:240:21:25

At the end of the week,

0:21:300:21:31

there's an exhibition in the new gallery

0:21:310:21:33

at the National Trust for Scotland's Inverewe House.

0:21:330:21:36

It's a tense moment for the photographers,

0:21:360:21:39

as the audience of local people have an intimate knowledge

0:21:390:21:42

of this mountain.

0:21:420:21:43

Thank you all for coming.

0:21:430:21:45

This workshop was entitled Portraits Of An Teallach.

0:21:450:21:50

The main reason for that is that

0:21:500:21:52

a portrait says not only something about the subject,

0:21:520:21:56

but also about the person that's taking the photograph,

0:21:560:22:00

and also the relationship between the two of them.

0:22:000:22:03

And what we were really hoping for this week

0:22:030:22:06

is to have photographs which really illustrate the relationship

0:22:060:22:10

between the photographer and the mountain,

0:22:100:22:13

as well as illustrating the mountain.

0:22:130:22:15

Every member of the course

0:22:170:22:19

has interpreted An Teallach in a different way.

0:22:190:22:22

Colin's photographed the mountain on many occasions,

0:22:220:22:25

and his panoramic views are amongst the most acclaimed work.

0:22:250:22:29

But he's not satisfied,

0:22:290:22:30

and is keen to take an image that'll do justice

0:22:300:22:33

to the complexity of this mountain range.

0:22:330:22:36

This winter, he wants to be right in the heart of the mountain,

0:22:360:22:40

and has decided to head up to the summit.

0:22:400:22:43

That means starting in the early hours of the morning.

0:22:440:22:47

It's the sort of thing you do every night, don't you?!

0:22:470:22:50

Ten to three. Hopefully we'll be there before the dawn.

0:22:500:22:54

There's nothing quite like chasing the sun.

0:22:540:22:57

I've always said that photography is a form of meditation.

0:23:020:23:06

And the walk in helps create that.

0:23:080:23:11

There's been occasions when I've worked commercially

0:23:140:23:17

where I've arrived on mountain tops by helicopter,

0:23:170:23:21

and the whole experience overwhelms that.

0:23:210:23:24

This connection that's created as you walk up the mountain

0:23:280:23:33

gets you into the pulse of the natural world.

0:23:330:23:37

And I do believe that it helps inform you, in a subconscious way,

0:23:370:23:44

to create better images.

0:23:440:23:45

Originally, Colin had visualised a picture

0:23:470:23:49

where the peaks would be covered in snow.

0:23:490:23:52

But the superb conditions during November didn't last

0:23:520:23:55

and for weeks, the weather has been appalling,

0:23:550:23:57

with high winds and driving rain.

0:23:570:24:00

Today has been a gamble,

0:24:000:24:02

and already, things are not looking good.

0:24:020:24:05

It's really clear, we're going to have great visibility,

0:24:050:24:08

but the winds are just going to make it impossible.

0:24:080:24:11

There's just no chance of us going to the summit

0:24:120:24:15

and being able to shoot a thing.

0:24:150:24:18

I don't think we're even going to be able to stand up,

0:24:180:24:20

we're beginning to struggle now, we're being blown around,

0:24:200:24:23

and the chances of putting a tripod up

0:24:230:24:26

and a camera on top of it are just not going to happen today.

0:24:260:24:30

Today has been a failure

0:24:310:24:33

and Colin comes down off the mountain.

0:24:330:24:36

There's An Teallach now - there's hardly any evidence of snow,

0:24:380:24:42

it's just been blown off it completely,

0:24:420:24:45

which is unsurprising, given the winds that we saw this morning.

0:24:450:24:48

The weather over the last 15 years has changed quite significantly,

0:24:500:24:55

and what was typical,

0:24:550:24:57

particularly at this time of the year,

0:24:570:25:00

would be four, five days of really evil weather,

0:25:000:25:05

dropping down lots of snow in the mountains.

0:25:050:25:08

And there would be a day at the end of that bad period of weather

0:25:080:25:12

where it was absolutely breathless.

0:25:120:25:16

That stability in the weather just doesn't happen any more.

0:25:180:25:22

If we get snow,

0:25:220:25:24

the wind tends to swing round into the west or the south-west,

0:25:240:25:29

and the snow's gone very quickly.

0:25:290:25:31

Colin's following in the footsteps of a pioneer

0:25:330:25:35

of Scottish landscape photography, Robert Moyes Adam.

0:25:350:25:40

Adam spent his professional life as an illustrator

0:25:400:25:43

at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh

0:25:430:25:46

but throughout his life was a keen photographer

0:25:460:25:49

who kept copious notes about his work.

0:25:490:25:52

In 1908, he had a half-plate field camera

0:25:520:25:55

made to his own specification

0:25:550:25:58

and, with this, produced landscape images

0:25:580:26:00

that are still considered as classics.

0:26:000:26:03

His collection of glass negatives is housed

0:26:030:26:06

at the photographic collections at St Andrews University.

0:26:060:26:10

I will just ask that you wear gloves.

0:26:100:26:12

They are original objects,

0:26:120:26:13

and the issue with glass plate negatives

0:26:130:26:16

is that they are still chemically quite active.

0:26:160:26:19

It's important to preserve them with some integrity.

0:26:190:26:23

Very excited to see these.

0:26:230:26:25

That's obviously An Teallach.

0:26:250:26:28

Robert Moyes Adam usually did quite long exposures on his negatives

0:26:280:26:31

to get the most detail in the landscape,

0:26:310:26:34

which usually blew out the sky.

0:26:340:26:36

So, over... It was very overexposed skies.

0:26:360:26:39

So, typically, he would then take another negative just of the sky,

0:26:390:26:42

and then work them together in the dark rooms.

0:26:420:26:44

And when you say a long exposure, typically, how long would that be?

0:26:440:26:47

Really, it depends on the light that day, but...

0:26:470:26:50

-Ten seconds.

-No, you're probably looking at several minutes, really.

0:26:500:26:53

-Really?

-Yeah. So, none of his...

0:26:530:26:55

He never had any action shots, really, in any of his work.

0:26:550:26:59

So, there's another one for you.

0:26:590:27:02

That's a more distant view of An Teallach -

0:27:020:27:03

I know where that's taken from as well.

0:27:030:27:05

These are tremendous, just to see them.

0:27:050:27:07

He wouldn't take many unexposed plates up the mountain with him,

0:27:070:27:12

because he would wait for the perfect shot.

0:27:120:27:15

And there is this legend now that he climbed the same mountain every day

0:27:150:27:19

for five days, waiting just to get the one shot,

0:27:190:27:22

and didn't take a single shot until his last day.

0:27:220:27:26

And he was sort of looking at the time, because he says,

0:27:260:27:28

"I have to get down, my train back to Edinburgh is in a few hours,"

0:27:280:27:32

and the skies cleared just in time for him

0:27:320:27:34

to take the shot that he wanted.

0:27:340:27:36

Just fantastic to see these negatives,

0:27:360:27:38

just like stepping back in time.

0:27:380:27:41

All of these were actually digitised in the '90s,

0:27:410:27:43

when we acquired them from DC Thomson,

0:27:430:27:45

as part of the Millennium Project,

0:27:450:27:47

to catalogue all 15,000 of his negatives.

0:27:470:27:50

-15,000?

-15,000 negatives.

0:27:500:27:52

-So...

-Incredibly prolific photographer,

0:27:520:27:56

to have shot that number of images.

0:27:560:27:58

Yeah. Robert Moyes Adam was probably one of the first photographers

0:27:580:28:02

to go out and thoroughly document the landscape -

0:28:020:28:06

and photographing the landscape with the passion...

0:28:060:28:09

..that he did, it really comes through.

0:28:100:28:13

I was reading up a little bit on some articles

0:28:130:28:15

that we have in the archive about him,

0:28:150:28:18

and they said, "He really is Scotland's photographer."

0:28:180:28:22

And pretty much everyone in Scotland had, at some point, in their house,

0:28:220:28:28

one of his photos.

0:28:280:28:29

This is a lovely image, isn't it?

0:28:290:28:31

-Mmm.

-Just really fantastic to see that,

0:28:310:28:33

and just to learn a little bit more about this great photographer,

0:28:330:28:36

who's, I suppose, one of Scotland's unsung heroes.

0:28:360:28:39

Yeah, I think so.

0:28:390:28:40

Colin's not simply content to look at Adam's work.

0:28:430:28:46

He wants to try the kind of camera

0:28:460:28:48

that was used to produce those original images.

0:28:480:28:51

In recent years, most camera shops have vanished from the high street,

0:28:520:28:56

but at Beauly, outside Inverness,

0:28:560:28:59

Ffordes hold one of Britain's largest collections

0:28:590:29:02

of second-hand and vintage cameras.

0:29:020:29:05

This one dates from Adam's time.

0:29:050:29:08

You had to get it right almost first time with film.

0:29:080:29:11

-Yeah!

-You haven't got a second chance.

0:29:110:29:13

I remember it well!

0:29:130:29:14

And I think it's more of a challenge

0:29:150:29:18

to your photography,

0:29:180:29:19

and you spend more time

0:29:190:29:20

looking at the images

0:29:200:29:22

before you actually take them.

0:29:220:29:24

It's obviously going to be difficult for me to take this camera out

0:29:240:29:28

and actually use it,

0:29:280:29:30

because we don't really have the film that works with this camera.

0:29:300:29:34

We've got the film, but we don't have the plate holders.

0:29:340:29:36

We don't have the holder.

0:29:360:29:37

The modern holders won't fit this.

0:29:370:29:40

So is there another camera that you've got here

0:29:400:29:43

which essentially works on the same principle?

0:29:430:29:46

Yeah, I've got a choice of other cameras.

0:29:460:29:48

It was just a different era, and I just love these cameras,

0:29:480:29:52

they were so beautiful.

0:29:520:29:54

It's the interaction with the camera,

0:29:540:29:56

it's not just the fact it's film.

0:29:560:29:57

I mean, I think, also, life is so busy nowadays

0:29:570:30:02

that it's nice to get back to basics,

0:30:020:30:05

and have a camera which isn't quick and easy-to-use,

0:30:050:30:08

and that you have to spend time on, and that time, also,

0:30:080:30:11

you have to spend on looking at the image,

0:30:110:30:14

and composing it and taking it.

0:30:140:30:17

It all adds to the experience,

0:30:170:30:19

and ultimately, I think, the quality.

0:30:190:30:21

-Right, that's your lens, all ready to go.

-Thank you.

0:30:210:30:25

Slots into there, and locks into place.

0:30:250:30:28

And these are the dark slides...

0:30:280:30:30

OK. I'm getting excited again, Steve.

0:30:300:30:33

-Getting excited!

-I'm not telling you anything you don't know,

0:30:330:30:35

you should know how to do this!

0:30:350:30:37

Well, I think that's everything, Steve.

0:30:370:30:39

-Good.

-I think I can go and be a photographer now.

0:30:390:30:42

Sounds a good idea!

0:30:420:30:43

This camera produces a negative that is five inches by four inches.

0:30:440:30:49

But it takes an expert to get the best out of it.

0:30:490:30:52

Colin returns to An Teallach,

0:30:530:30:55

and one of the places where he thinks

0:30:550:30:57

Adam took his original pictures.

0:30:570:30:59

I feel like a matador here on the hillside!

0:30:590:31:02

I remember this well.

0:31:020:31:03

I don't miss it, I have to say, not in the least.

0:31:030:31:05

So, this is a modern camera that's made in Japan,

0:31:070:31:11

and it's very much in the style of these early cameras.

0:31:110:31:16

We've got a lever here that allows us to open and close the shutter.

0:31:160:31:20

You can see the focusing screen.

0:31:200:31:22

The difference is that it gives you an image of what we're looking at,

0:31:220:31:26

which is inverted and upside-down.

0:31:260:31:29

I'm going to set the shutter speed to half a second,

0:31:300:31:33

and the aperture to F-22,

0:31:330:31:36

and we'll pull out the dark slide.

0:31:360:31:38

And it's just a simple case of...

0:31:410:31:42

..looking at the mountain and shooting the picture.

0:31:440:31:47

And that's how simple it is.

0:31:490:31:50

We put the dark slide back in...

0:31:500:31:52

..and that's our exposure made.

0:31:540:31:56

Lock it off.

0:31:560:31:58

Out comes the double dark slide.

0:31:580:32:00

We'll invert it,

0:32:010:32:04

and in it goes again.

0:32:040:32:05

Cock the shutter.

0:32:070:32:08

Out with the dark slide.

0:32:100:32:13

Just let it settle.

0:32:130:32:14

Sorted.

0:32:180:32:19

So, that's the photography over for the day.

0:32:210:32:24

And that's what these photographers would have been up against.

0:32:240:32:27

Once a film has gone, even the light changed into something dramatic,

0:32:270:32:32

we have no film left.

0:32:320:32:33

The process doesn't end there.

0:32:340:32:37

Today, the film needs to be sent to a specialist lab to be developed.

0:32:370:32:41

Colin has had to wait to see the results.

0:32:410:32:44

They look as if they've come from another era.

0:32:440:32:47

They could be the prints that Robert Adam actually produced,

0:32:470:32:51

they've got that sort of feel to them.

0:32:510:32:53

And, of course, it's the fact that they're reproduced from film.

0:32:530:32:57

The 5:4 camera demands a certain discipline.

0:32:590:33:03

Every process, every lever that you move within that camera,

0:33:030:33:07

there's a pitfall there.

0:33:070:33:09

And I found that the 5:4 camera

0:33:090:33:11

actually got between me and the subject,

0:33:110:33:14

and instead of it being an invisible conduit that allowed you to capture

0:33:140:33:20

what was out there without actually noticing it,

0:33:200:33:23

it just worked against the experience

0:33:230:33:25

of creating these images.

0:33:250:33:27

It's now February, and there's still been no significant snowfall.

0:33:310:33:35

It's more like spring than the middle of winter.

0:33:350:33:38

With photography on standby,

0:33:380:33:40

Colin uses his time to learn more about this mountain,

0:33:400:33:43

and there's no-one better to explain its intricacies

0:33:430:33:46

than climber and geologist John Mackenzie,

0:33:460:33:49

the Earl of Cromartie.

0:33:490:33:51

They're planning to walk to

0:33:520:33:54

Loch Toll an Lochain high in the mountain.

0:33:540:33:56

It's a great vantage point

0:33:560:33:58

and it's somewhere Colin's always meant to explore.

0:33:580:34:01

We are blessed with, here and in Coigach,

0:34:010:34:03

having wonderful mountains, which are basically inselbergs -

0:34:030:34:07

isolated things which have been sculpted by ice

0:34:070:34:12

and just left standing.

0:34:120:34:13

In fact it's like a layer cake - you've got Lewisian gneiss,

0:34:130:34:16

3,000 million years old, give or take a few million,

0:34:160:34:19

then you've got...

0:34:190:34:20

On top of that, you've got your Torridonian,

0:34:200:34:22

and then on top of that, you've got the Cambrian quartzite,

0:34:220:34:25

a mere 650 million years old.

0:34:250:34:28

And if you gave it a huge kick,

0:34:280:34:30

you'd separate all the three layers!

0:34:300:34:32

It's amazing to think that that Torridonian sandstone

0:34:320:34:35

was once eroded itself from giant mountains into these rivers.

0:34:350:34:40

Deep time. That's very hard to comprehend.

0:34:400:34:43

But of course, the shape of the mountain is relatively recent.

0:34:430:34:47

All glacially sculpted.

0:34:470:34:49

Who knows what they originally looked like?

0:34:490:34:52

I mean, the whole thing is slightly incomprehensible,

0:34:520:34:55

it's a bit like trying to grasp light years.

0:34:550:34:59

-Yeah.

-It's the same sort of magnitude of time to distance.

0:34:590:35:03

And it's not just the large-scale features

0:35:040:35:06

of the mountain that are impressive.

0:35:060:35:08

Most of us would walk up here

0:35:080:35:10

with no idea of what's underneath our feet.

0:35:100:35:14

Right, OK, here, we have an example of pipe rock.

0:35:140:35:17

Worm casts. 550 million-year-old worm casts

0:35:170:35:22

in Cambrian quartzite.

0:35:220:35:24

As you can see, there was quite a population of worms.

0:35:240:35:26

They obviously liked living in colonies.

0:35:260:35:29

Perhaps they had a social time.

0:35:290:35:31

I suspect they would have been like tube worms, you know,

0:35:310:35:34

with frilly tops, too soft to be fossilised - but the casts were.

0:35:340:35:38

In the old days, they thought this

0:35:400:35:41

was one of the earliest forms of life,

0:35:410:35:43

but we now know that life actually has been...

0:35:430:35:45

Fossils have been found in billion-year-old rock,

0:35:450:35:48

and possibly even earlier.

0:35:480:35:49

-Incredible, isn't it?

-It's old.

0:35:490:35:52

But it's the youngest of all the rocks here.

0:35:520:35:55

I've walked over many quartzite slabs like this,

0:35:550:35:58

and never known that these were, in fact, worm casts.

0:35:580:36:02

Now that you've explained that,

0:36:020:36:04

I'll get far more pleasure than if...

0:36:040:36:06

-Well, walking over our ancestors!

-That's right, yes!

-Yeah.

0:36:060:36:09

You've got to remember

0:36:130:36:14

the fantastic age of some of these hills.

0:36:140:36:18

An Teallach is relatively young, compared to the Lewisian gneiss.

0:36:180:36:23

But I have to admit, I go to mountains because

0:36:230:36:25

I think they're beautiful.

0:36:250:36:27

Geology is an important aspect of it,

0:36:270:36:30

because I like to know what I'm climbing on.

0:36:300:36:31

The best rock of all to climb on here, really,

0:36:330:36:36

is the Lewisian gneiss.

0:36:360:36:38

It may be slightly presumptuous, but I often feel,

0:36:380:36:41

when you're rock climbing on beautiful rock,

0:36:410:36:43

it's like climbing over a sculpture.

0:36:430:36:45

And you can look at the micro as compared to the macro -

0:36:450:36:49

wee plants, or wee crystals even, and little pockets,

0:36:490:36:52

and you look at stuff with great intensity.

0:36:520:36:54

Obviously, you're concentrating, aren't you, 100%?

0:36:540:36:57

But it's the feel of it, it's very, very tactile.

0:36:570:37:01

Just to feel the rock, and move with it -

0:37:010:37:04

not against it, but with it -

0:37:040:37:05

it's like moving with the wind

0:37:050:37:07

rather than trying to battle against it.

0:37:070:37:10

You're just connected with the rock.

0:37:100:37:12

I think you would like to think that you're connected,

0:37:120:37:15

you have a degree of rock intelligence,

0:37:150:37:17

and you can sort of find the easiest way

0:37:170:37:20

on your given route, or whatever.

0:37:200:37:23

And I think, perhaps, when you're on the mountains,

0:37:240:37:28

you live more intensely.

0:37:280:37:30

When we're down on the flat lands,

0:37:310:37:33

and you're stuck in front of a computer,

0:37:330:37:36

or behind it, whatever, you know,

0:37:360:37:38

OK, you are living and you're doing your work sometimes,

0:37:380:37:41

often with great intensity, but up here, there's a freedom.

0:37:410:37:45

I don't think you can really replicate that.

0:37:450:37:48

Colin, I'll come and join you.

0:38:040:38:06

That's an unusual-looking erratic there.

0:38:060:38:09

Quite incredible that when the ice melted,

0:38:090:38:12

it left this perfectly balanced on these small stones.

0:38:120:38:17

That's right.

0:38:170:38:18

And if you push a wee bit harder, you'll...!

0:38:180:38:21

It's essentially a sandstone boulder,

0:38:210:38:26

resting on two quartzite smaller boulders,

0:38:260:38:30

placed by ice.

0:38:300:38:32

I'd like to get a photograph of this.

0:38:330:38:35

Stay there. That's nice.

0:38:350:38:37

I think you're hiding the other pebble.

0:38:370:38:40

Sorry, it's not quite such a sophisticated machine as yours.

0:38:400:38:43

That's extraordinary.

0:38:440:38:46

Thank you.

0:38:470:38:48

This is beginning to look a bit more like it.

0:38:570:39:00

It's pretty fantastic, isn't it?

0:39:000:39:02

-Wow!

-Not many corries like this.

0:39:020:39:05

This is superb. I can see a picture in my mind's eye already.

0:39:050:39:09

It's going to be a morning picture.

0:39:100:39:13

From this position, all the elements are in place.

0:39:130:39:16

We've got almost a sort of linear face there...

0:39:160:39:19

-Yeah.

-..but it's not one-dimensional,

0:39:190:39:21

there's still a bit of depth.

0:39:210:39:23

And with the early morning light hitting that,

0:39:230:39:27

it's just going to be crimson, you know,

0:39:270:39:29

that Torridonian sandstone,

0:39:290:39:31

and all these tiny little granules

0:39:310:39:34

that reflects back that early morning light.

0:39:340:39:37

Now, it might take me one trip to do it,

0:39:370:39:39

it might take two or three.

0:39:390:39:41

But there's a great photograph here.

0:39:410:39:43

Today's expedition has changed

0:39:440:39:46

Colin's thinking about this mountain.

0:39:460:39:48

Originally, he planned a shot from the summit.

0:39:480:39:51

Now he thinks this is where it needs to be.

0:39:510:39:54

Having finally been to this location,

0:39:540:39:56

I can see the potential there,

0:39:560:39:58

and I think there's a far greater opportunity

0:39:580:40:01

to capture something magical about this mountain from this point,

0:40:010:40:06

and not from the summit of Bidein a' Ghlas Thuill.

0:40:060:40:09

But with the unseasonably warm weather,

0:40:100:40:12

An Teallach will have to wait.

0:40:120:40:14

Colin's fascinated by every aspect of these mountains,

0:40:170:40:20

and especially how the Gaelic place names

0:40:200:40:22

are important to our understanding of them.

0:40:220:40:25

Clarinda Chant is originally from London,

0:40:250:40:28

but she's always felt a deep connection to her Celtic origins,

0:40:280:40:33

and, 15 years ago, moved up here.

0:40:330:40:36

Gaelic was a language when English

0:40:360:40:39

was not even a gleam in somebody's eye.

0:40:390:40:42

It's a very ancient language.

0:40:420:40:44

Once I knew the language, when I first looked at a map,

0:40:460:40:50

and the whole sort of...

0:40:500:40:52

The whole landscape came to life, really, for me.

0:40:520:40:56

-It came alive.

-Yes.

0:40:560:40:57

And obviously, without a knowledge of Gaelic,

0:40:570:41:01

I don't understand the significance

0:41:010:41:03

of some of these names - and if I did,

0:41:030:41:06

the landscape would mean a great deal more to me.

0:41:060:41:09

Yes. A lot of Gaelic in the landscape

0:41:090:41:13

is to do with shape and colour,

0:41:130:41:16

and the animals that were important to them,

0:41:160:41:18

which is why you don't often see things to do with sheep,

0:41:180:41:21

because sheep didn't really count.

0:41:210:41:24

You've got Ben Ean, which is Bird Hill.

0:41:240:41:28

Sometimes, of course, there are people.

0:41:280:41:31

Here, you've got Druim Poll Eoghainn.

0:41:310:41:34

Eoghainn is a man's name. Ewan.

0:41:340:41:37

But more often than not, it was to do with shape,

0:41:370:41:40

particularly body parts.

0:41:400:41:42

The obvious one is the stack on Cul Mor itself.

0:41:420:41:48

All stacks were just called "bod", which is penis.

0:41:480:41:53

A lot of the Victoria map-makers cleaned them up.

0:41:530:41:56

Am Bodach, which means "the old man".

0:41:560:41:59

But this one, for some reason, escaped the clean-up,

0:41:590:42:03

and has retained its "bod".

0:42:030:42:06

Somehow it does reflect the Victorian mind-set.

0:42:060:42:09

They didn't mind the word "cioch", which is breast.

0:42:110:42:17

But they wouldn't have penis!

0:42:170:42:20

And that's leaving it for future generations wrong,

0:42:200:42:24

and then, eventually,

0:42:240:42:26

just a degrading of the whole language, really.

0:42:260:42:29

And our knowledge, our basic knowledge of what's gone on.

0:42:290:42:32

OK, let's have a look at the An Teallach map.

0:42:320:42:37

I would like to understand more about what is in this landscape

0:42:370:42:42

from the Gaelic words, which I don't understand.

0:42:420:42:45

-Yes.

-Because the more knowledge you have about

0:42:450:42:49

the outdoor and the natural world,

0:42:490:42:51

the more enjoyment you can have from being on a walk.

0:42:510:42:55

Yes, totally, absolutely.

0:42:550:42:57

And knowing the Gaelic words

0:42:570:42:59

is a very intrinsic part of that, really.

0:42:590:43:02

Sgurr Fiona - what would you read into Sgurr Fiona?

0:43:020:43:07

Well, I mean, the obvious thing is a woman's name, Fiona.

0:43:070:43:11

No, no, it isn't, actually.

0:43:110:43:12

The Gaelic for Fiona is something quite different.

0:43:120:43:15

Probably just means beautiful, "sgurr"...

0:43:150:43:17

"Fiona" could be wine, of wine.

0:43:170:43:21

But unless there was a burn there, that was sort of wine-coloured,

0:43:210:43:24

or the mountain itself...

0:43:240:43:26

I doubt there's vineyards there!

0:43:260:43:27

No, I doubt that very much!

0:43:270:43:31

Colours in Gaelic are more...

0:43:320:43:34

They're not as cut and dried as in English!

0:43:350:43:38

Dubh can mean black,

0:43:380:43:40

but it can also mean a sort of darkness,

0:43:400:43:43

a greyness, or even a sort of sinisterness.

0:43:430:43:47

Well, I'm going to try my hardest to learn.

0:43:470:43:50

I mean, I can't promise that my pronunciation

0:43:500:43:53

is going to be particularly good,

0:43:530:43:55

but I will try and absorb your lessons.

0:43:550:43:57

There's one other image Colin wants to achieve this season.

0:44:000:44:04

It's a winter shot of our most remote Munro -

0:44:040:44:08

A' Mhaighdean.

0:44:080:44:10

So I've joined him for the long walk into the Letterewe wilderness,

0:44:100:44:13

where we're planning an overnight camp on Beinn Airigh Charr.

0:44:130:44:18

The weather is overcast, but at long last,

0:44:180:44:20

there's snow on the higher summits.

0:44:200:44:22

And whatever the conditions, it's wonderful to be out here.

0:44:220:44:26

This is my idea of heaven.

0:44:260:44:28

We're in this big, wild area.

0:44:280:44:31

It's just fantastic to be in amongst this.

0:44:310:44:34

Even the names themselves stir my emotions.

0:44:340:44:37

Loch Maree, A' Mhaighdean, Ruadh Stac Mor, An Teallach...

0:44:370:44:41

But this is the hill you're taking me up today, Beinn Airigh Charr.

0:44:410:44:44

-What does it mean, do you know?

-I gather, in Gaelic,

0:44:440:44:47

it means the hill of the twisted sheiling.

0:44:470:44:50

-OK.

-So, there were sheilings,

0:44:500:44:53

and I think they're marked on the map quite clearly

0:44:530:44:56

at the bottom of the mountain.

0:44:560:44:57

So, the crofters would have moved their cattle up there.

0:44:570:45:00

I thought for a moment you were going to say,

0:45:000:45:02

because you're going to have to drag me up there,

0:45:020:45:04

it's the hill of the twisted old photographer.

0:45:040:45:07

We'd better go. We'd better get up there,

0:45:070:45:09

before it's dark.

0:45:090:45:10

-All right, we're off.

-Good.

0:45:130:45:16

I tend to carry a pretty lightweight pack if I can,

0:45:270:45:30

even when I've got all my camping gear in it,

0:45:300:45:32

I try to keep the weight down, and I assume you're the same.

0:45:320:45:34

But just coming up that wee steep bit, I suddenly realised,

0:45:340:45:37

you've probably got a big camera in there as well.

0:45:370:45:39

Well, over the years,

0:45:390:45:40

I've managed to reduce my bag from probably about 23 kilos to about 17.

0:45:400:45:46

But there's always that extra litre of water that needs to go in when

0:45:460:45:50

you're camping on top of a mountain,

0:45:500:45:51

because just before you get to the top, you've got to lift that water.

0:45:510:45:55

And of course, that's another kilo going into your pack.

0:45:550:45:59

But there's no short cut to that.

0:45:590:46:01

If you want to take photographs,

0:46:010:46:02

you really need to camp overnight up here.

0:46:020:46:04

You see, that's where you and I are different.

0:46:040:46:06

I would never camp on the summit of a mountain,

0:46:060:46:09

because it's the most exposed place of the mountain.

0:46:090:46:11

But presumably, you just want to stick your head out of the tent

0:46:110:46:13

and see what the weather's doing.

0:46:130:46:15

That's the great thing. After you've got your tent up,

0:46:150:46:17

you've had something to eat,

0:46:170:46:19

it's just a question then of waiting for the sun to set,

0:46:190:46:22

and hopefully you're going to get something in the evening.

0:46:220:46:24

If fate is in your favour, then you'll get something.

0:46:240:46:28

Interesting. You make me wish I'd brought my camera with me.

0:46:280:46:31

Well, you've brought your phone!

0:46:310:46:33

Colin, it's just struck me that you and I share

0:46:410:46:43

very similar backgrounds.

0:46:430:46:45

We were both born and brought up in Glasgow,

0:46:450:46:47

neither of us liked school very much,

0:46:470:46:49

and we both ended up climbing mountains.

0:46:490:46:51

When you were a youngster,

0:46:510:46:53

did you ever envisage that this was what you'd be doing for a living?

0:46:530:46:56

Never. I had no real idea of where my future path lay,

0:46:560:47:00

and it just really evolved this way.

0:47:000:47:04

Photography was something that I sort of fell into,

0:47:040:47:08

and a passion for mountains grew as a result of that.

0:47:080:47:11

I found photography when I was about 23,

0:47:150:47:18

and then I've always had this deep-rooted passion

0:47:180:47:21

of the natural world,

0:47:210:47:22

and I found that I could best

0:47:220:47:24

express it through mountain photography.

0:47:240:47:27

Your work has influenced at least a generation

0:47:270:47:31

of hill walkers and hillgoers.

0:47:310:47:35

Are you aware that you have changed people's perceptions of mountains?

0:47:350:47:39

Not really, but I do remember in the early days,

0:47:390:47:42

when I started working with that panoramic format,

0:47:420:47:45

and shooting images at dusk and dawn,

0:47:450:47:49

people would see these big prints that I published,

0:47:490:47:52

and some people couldn't believe

0:47:520:47:53

that it was Scotland they were looking at -

0:47:530:47:55

they felt it was the Rockies,

0:47:550:47:57

because I was photographing the mountains in that red light,

0:47:570:48:01

which people, I guess, hadn't seen before.

0:48:010:48:03

Oh, that's fabulous.

0:48:070:48:09

Well, the light looks fantastic,

0:48:090:48:11

I think I might just try and get a quick few shots.

0:48:110:48:14

-Oh, yeah.

-Before we do anything else.

0:48:140:48:17

Oh, beautiful. So, what have we got here?

0:48:170:48:19

-We've got Ruadh Stac Mor...

-Beinn Liath over here.

0:48:190:48:21

And, of course, Slioch.

0:48:210:48:22

-Oh, wow.

-What a panorama, hey?

0:48:220:48:25

And these lochs kind of leading the eye into all that.

0:48:250:48:28

It's wonderful.

0:48:280:48:29

Come on, Prior, get working!

0:48:300:48:32

I'll just watch. I'll watch the master at work.

0:48:330:48:36

We've got some pretty good light at the moment.

0:48:380:48:40

It's obviously not warm yet,

0:48:400:48:42

because the sun's not really beginning to set.

0:48:420:48:44

But there's no guarantee that, when the sun does drop,

0:48:440:48:48

that we're going to get the light that I'm anticipating.

0:48:480:48:51

So it looks pretty spectacular at the moment,

0:48:510:48:54

so I'd like to try and just shoot something right now.

0:48:540:48:58

If we get something later, it's a bonus, but right now,

0:49:000:49:04

it's not bad at all.

0:49:040:49:06

Well, that looks like the light for the time being.

0:49:100:49:14

We've got a couple of hours before sunset,

0:49:140:49:16

so probably a good time to get our tents up

0:49:160:49:19

and maybe even have a brew-up.

0:49:190:49:21

Get in the sleeping bag, it's freezing!

0:49:210:49:22

Yeah, that would be great.

0:49:220:49:24

When I come out to these places,

0:49:290:49:31

I do love camping out on a mountainside.

0:49:310:49:33

In fact, I quite often say to people

0:49:330:49:35

that the only way to get to know a mountain is to sleep on it.

0:49:350:49:39

I totally agree with that, and the longer you're there,

0:49:390:49:43

the more it permeates.

0:49:430:49:45

It's a sort of latent understanding you have of the rhythm of that land,

0:49:450:49:49

and, of course, if you're trying to take photographs of it,

0:49:490:49:52

then that comes across in the images.

0:49:520:49:55

Barry Lopez, in Arctic Dreams,

0:49:590:50:01

once wrote that what we do when we're in the landscape

0:50:010:50:04

is that we disassemble it.

0:50:040:50:07

And what we as photographers are doing

0:50:070:50:09

is we're reassembling the pieces through the viewfinder

0:50:090:50:13

in a way that corresponds to the way we see or feel

0:50:130:50:17

about that particular landscape.

0:50:170:50:19

So, it's really, really important to spend time and, you know,

0:50:190:50:22

stopping in a lay-by and jumping out of a car to take a few photographs

0:50:220:50:26

can never achieve that.

0:50:260:50:27

Greetings! I'm quite glad we got

0:50:290:50:30

some photographs before we put the tents up!

0:50:300:50:34

I was just thinking, wandering up there,

0:50:340:50:36

I suppose, while we both climb mountains for a living, in a sense,

0:50:360:50:40

I've got to think up the words to describe the experience

0:50:400:50:43

of being in the mountains.

0:50:430:50:45

I'm a purveyor of words, if you like.

0:50:450:50:48

-You're a wordsmith!

-Aye!

0:50:480:50:49

I've been inspired by some of the great wordsmiths in the past,

0:50:490:50:53

like WH Murray, like Tommy Weir.

0:50:530:50:56

Nan Shepherd, of course.

0:50:560:50:57

Nan Shepherd, of course, the great Cairngorm poet.

0:50:570:51:00

Who are your inspirations? Are your inspirations writers like that,

0:51:000:51:04

or other photographers?

0:51:040:51:07

Well, it's a combination.

0:51:070:51:09

I mean, throughout my life,

0:51:090:51:10

as well as looking at some of the early photographers' work,

0:51:100:51:15

and contemporary photographers' work on a pretty regular basis,

0:51:150:51:19

I've also read a great deal

0:51:190:51:22

about people who've spent time in the outdoors,

0:51:220:51:25

cos I've learned from them what they took

0:51:250:51:29

and what they expressed.

0:51:290:51:31

People like Barry Lopez, for instance, and Nan Shepherd.

0:51:310:51:34

What I find so inspiring about their writing is the insight,

0:51:360:51:41

it's things that they've experienced

0:51:410:51:43

and have had the power to describe it

0:51:430:51:45

in a way that most people would be unable to.

0:51:450:51:49

I mean, Nan Shepherd's great line, of course,

0:51:490:51:52

which I think...right at the end of The Living Mountain, is,

0:51:520:51:56

"The thing to be known grows with the knowing."

0:51:560:52:00

It's about learning, and it's about experience,

0:52:000:52:03

and I think it's about growing spiritually in these places.

0:52:030:52:07

And I've found that reading books by people like Barry Lopez

0:52:070:52:12

and Nan Shepherd and WH Murray

0:52:120:52:15

has helped me define what my role is in the outdoors.

0:52:150:52:20

Peering out of the tent, it's clear that today,

0:52:220:52:24

we're not going to get a magical sunset.

0:52:240:52:27

We're now looking at a beautiful, mysterious,

0:52:270:52:30

but not particularly photographic landscape.

0:52:300:52:33

The good news is that Colin's

0:52:330:52:35

earlier image of A' Mhaighdean is superb.

0:52:350:52:37

So, time for a wee celebration.

0:52:370:52:39

I've got the brew on, Colin.

0:52:400:52:42

Well, I thought we could have an aperitif.

0:52:420:52:44

A bit of coffee here. What have you got?

0:52:440:52:46

Oh, my goodness, that's posh-looking.

0:52:460:52:49

-Slainte.

-Slainte mhath. Here's to the mountain.

0:52:490:52:51

-Indeed.

-Cheers.

0:52:510:52:53

Time's running out for Colin.

0:53:030:53:05

The weather is as unpredictable as ever,

0:53:050:53:08

and he still needs that shot on An Teallach.

0:53:080:53:11

He must seize every opportunity,

0:53:110:53:13

and again, he's out in the early hours of the morning.

0:53:130:53:17

I've been trying to capture an image of An Teallach

0:53:170:53:20

that captures not just its majesty but its very essence.

0:53:200:53:24

And I'd like people to be able to look at the image

0:53:240:53:29

and for it perhaps to conjure up the sort of environment

0:53:290:53:33

where eagles live and fly, and where wildness truly exists.

0:53:330:53:38

And that's a great thing about landscape photography.

0:53:410:53:44

It allows the photographer to arrange the elements

0:53:440:53:49

in a way that corresponds to the way that they feel

0:53:490:53:52

about that particular environment.

0:53:520:53:54

Here, you've got this whole cliff face

0:53:580:54:01

rising from Loch Toll an Lochain

0:54:010:54:04

straight up to Lord Berkeley's Seat.

0:54:040:54:06

And it creates this depth to the picture

0:54:060:54:09

that you don't quite get from the higher point.

0:54:090:54:12

So I'm really excited about the opportunity here,

0:54:120:54:15

but whether it's going to happen this morning, I'm not sure.

0:54:150:54:19

I know where the location is, I just need the light.

0:54:240:54:26

This area creates its own weather, though.

0:54:290:54:31

I mean, even against weather forecasts,

0:54:310:54:35

it's...not always too accurate.

0:54:350:54:38

Well, this looks like the spot.

0:54:420:54:44

Good news, the loch's not frozen, so it's giving us a good contrast,

0:54:450:54:50

that sort of deep blue-black in amongst the white now.

0:54:500:54:55

I just can't see the top of the mountain at the moment,

0:54:550:54:58

so fingers crossed that this cloud will pass through

0:54:580:55:01

and give us a bit of light, that ephemeral moment

0:55:010:55:05

will hit the summit just as the clouds part,

0:55:050:55:09

like the opening of the Red Sea.

0:55:090:55:11

It's just all waiting.

0:55:170:55:18

It's...

0:55:190:55:20

If the light breaks through here,

0:55:220:55:26

and that cloud just lifts a little bit more,

0:55:260:55:30

we might have this picture.

0:55:300:55:31

Ideally, we want to be shooting this at sunrise.

0:55:340:55:38

We've got, in reality,

0:55:390:55:41

probably 10-15 minutes, and after that, it's over.

0:55:410:55:45

There's an awful lot going on here. It's very lively, the weather.

0:55:490:55:53

And there doesn't seem to be any indication

0:55:530:55:56

that the summits are clearing.

0:55:560:55:59

It's coming and going, it's patchy.

0:55:590:56:01

There's fundamentally so many different elements

0:56:030:56:06

that need to come together to give us this picture,

0:56:060:56:09

and it's just going to take that one moment.

0:56:090:56:13

It's not looking too exciting.

0:56:140:56:16

It's clear enough in the east, right enough. It's just here.

0:56:200:56:24

An Teallach's a magnet for clouds.

0:56:260:56:28

We need to wait, it's a waiting game.

0:56:310:56:33

Patience.

0:56:340:56:36

Deep patience, as the Inuit...

0:56:360:56:40

They have a word for it.

0:56:400:56:42

Quinuituq.

0:56:420:56:43

It's that waiting at a seal's breathing hole with a spear poised,

0:56:460:56:52

ready to throw it, for hours on end.

0:56:520:56:56

Waiting hours for a second.

0:56:560:56:59

I've waited years for this second.

0:56:590:57:01

Feet are like blocks of ice now.

0:57:050:57:07

It's dramatic, though, isn't it?

0:57:110:57:13

Just beginning,

0:57:130:57:15

the pink's just beginning to touch the tops of the clouds.

0:57:150:57:18

Which is a good sign.

0:57:200:57:21

-But not across there!

-HE CHUCKLES

0:57:240:57:26

Today, the wait is worthwhile.

0:57:280:57:31

The photography gods are smiling on Colin,

0:57:310:57:34

and just as the sun rises, the clouds part.

0:57:340:57:37

We've got the clear ridge now,

0:57:380:57:41

and we've got a bit of sunlight on it, finally.

0:57:410:57:43

Fantastic!

0:57:450:57:46

So, all the waiting paid off.

0:57:480:57:50

That sun on my back is just lovely.

0:57:520:57:54

And so is the picture!

0:57:540:57:55

I'm a happy man. What more can I say?

0:57:550:57:58

What a great mountain!

0:58:060:58:07

What a great mountain indeed.

0:58:070:58:09

We've been with Colin for six months,

0:58:110:58:14

and the result of all that effort is just a handful of photographs.

0:58:140:58:19

But these images convey the very essence

0:58:190:58:22

of these great Scottish mountains.

0:58:220:58:24

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