Next stop was the fantastically, mind-blowingly, breathtakingly, unbelievably, stunningly beautiful Scottish Highlands. Watching the landscape go by from the window of the train was mesmerising. When it got to its wildest point it was time for me to alight at a tiny little station in the middle of nowhere...
I met Alex Ingram and he took me on a tour of Lochcarron ^^ This was the view of a loch in front of a mountain, from my room's window:
I saw the original Tartan weaver's, which had a poster of someone I recognised on the wall!
It'sh a Bink-eh :D
Then we visited the remains of Strome Castle, which had some amazing views. I can't really describe it except to say the landscape felt wilder than anywhere else I've ever been in my whole life.
Best of all, Alex had been keeping up with my plans to stuff myself silly with Scottish food by reading my blog before I arrived and had bought an award-winning haggis for our dinner! Except in Scotland they say they "caught" a haggis xD Apparently this is the best haggis in the world! And it's made by someone called "Cockburn". Perfection.
It was sooo good! It was actually spicy, which I wasn't expecting. Delicious!
The next day we actually started shooting ;) I've been wanting to shoot in the Scottish Highlands for about 2 years, so it was one of those "personal goals achieved" moments :) We did lots of art nudes but also this Wuthering Heights-inspired shot for Drac-in-a-Box:
Next stop was back down in the village, which was much less windy!
There was actually a 70 mph gale going on for most of the shoot! I wanted to get the cloak-fluttering-romantically-in-the-breeze effect but in 90% of the images it was completely horizontal and flat, like Superman's cape! This shot was taken in between gusts of wind so strong they actually knocked me flat a couple of times ;p On the plus side, all the midges apparently got blown away as I only got half a dozen or so bites!
I had to take some snaps myself while I was up there, and a little video of our progress back down the mountain to Lochcarron!
Next stop was back down in the village, which was much less windy!
When we were driving home at the end of the day, we got a flat tyre right out on the arse-end of nowhere with no phone signal. I'm proud to say that I changed my first tyre (with the help of Alex and the car's instruction manual. As if I'd know how to do it, otherwise)!
Photographers get their money's worth with Anita De Bauch :p
Alex made a lush pasta thing for dinner and invited Liam and I to come back for a little holiday ^^ I can't wait, it's going to be so much fun! My one regret while seeing this beautiful place was that Liam couldn't be there to share it with me. It happens a lot when I'm away from home working and seeing all these life-changingly incredible places. But hopefully Liam and I will be able to go back in June when I'm touring Scotland again and he's finished with uni for the summer :D I'm sure I must owe Alex a restaurant wining & dining session by now! :)
And to bring my Scottish tour blogging to a close... my next stop was to get a bus to Glasgow (the trains weren't running... "because it's Sunday." Eh?!) where I was doing a shoot for Drac-in-a-Box with Artpunk, which you can read about here :)
I'll finish by saying that even the view from the bus stop at Lochcarron was gorgeous!
And to bring my Scottish tour blogging to a close... my next stop was to get a bus to Glasgow (the trains weren't running... "because it's Sunday." Eh?!) where I was doing a shoot for Drac-in-a-Box with Artpunk, which you can read about here :)
I'll finish by saying that even the view from the bus stop at Lochcarron was gorgeous!
