Leaping salmon at Buchanty Spout

I'd been planning this for a wee while, since I think it's a pretty photogenic subject. It seemed to fit my schedule as well, with October and November being the recommended months for best viewing. Even better, Saturday was the first dry day after some typical Scottish autumn rain, which are apparently the best conditions since salmon like high water levels.

For those unfamiliar with what's going on, basically salmon eggs are laid and hatch in freshwater rivers and lakes, and then the fish head downstream to saltwater when they're about three years old. After several years in saltwater, they return upstream to spawn again, even if that means fighting the current, and leaping over waterfalls to get there. The circle of life. Salmon allegedly return to the exact spot from where they hatched, but this very widespread claim would seem to be apocryphal.

Buchanty Spout in Perthshire is a noted spot for salmon leaping. There's a highish waterfall (about four or five feet) which is a bit of a bottleneck in the river, followed by a small but hugely turbulent pool before another, shallower waterfall. Even if they get up the first fall, it's difficult for the fish to get through the second without being washed back down again. As a result the spout is awash with leaping salmon. For the two hours I was there I reckon I must have seen about 200+ attempted leaps.

You'd think that'd make it easy to shoot, but there were a few tricky things. Leaving it up to the AF meant you missed most opportunities while the lens focused, so I found it easier to set the focus manually in advance. Also, the river's in a gully so the light wasn't brilliant. I wanted to shoot as fast as possible, but I didn't want my lens wide open because I needed a deeper DoF. Bit of a balancing act getting shutter speed, f-stop and ISO set up ideally.

It was a treat, nevertheless. When I got there, I'd set up the camera with my 70-200 f/4, assuming that I'd need the telephoto zoom if I wanted to capture the fish in any detail. However, because the spout is in the middle of nowhere it's not really an over-tourist-ified (sic) area, so there's no problem getting really close. In fact, for one or two shots from the top of the waterfall my feet were getting wet because I was almost in the river. If I'd stuck my hands out I reckon I could have caught a fish without a rod...

As a postscript, I'd go back there even if I didn't have a camera. Some of the salmon were huge ~ 2-3 feet long ~ and their jumps were even bigger. I'd guesstimate the best leaps were about ten feet long, and a good four feet out the water. Amazing natural spectacle.

Etive River Race 2008

Travelled to Glencoe for the annual Etive River Race. I thought it'd be a good opportunity for action shots, and something a bit different too.

I was kind of fortunate when I travelled to Troon a few days prior to the race, as I came across a group of kiteboarders at the beach and I was able to get some practice shots. They didn't turn out great, but gave me ideas for how I could improve. Also good, if you can call it that, was the stinking weather prior to the race. Relentless rain all week would swell the river and give me a lot more dramatic soaked faces to capture.

Unfortunately, the rain didn't relent on the day of the race either. And if you think Scotland's weather in general is bad, it's nothing compared to the wilds of Rannoch Moor and Glencoe. I got soaked. Absolutely sodden through ~ my clothes felt like they weighed as much as me, and when I bought some lunch later that day, even the money in my wallet was wet to the touch. In retrospect I think I was very lucky not to damage my equipment, and all of a sudden, getting a weather-sealed body seems more important the next time I'm camera shopping. At the very least, the next time I try something like this I'm going to get better quality weatherproofs and some kind of shelter/windbreak to keep my stuff drier.

I was so ravaged by the elements that I quit long before the end of the race, but I still got a few good shots, so I think it was worth it. And I have to take my hat off once more to my trusty 70-200 f/4, which managed to pull out some outstandingly sharp photos under extreme conditions.

Kutná Hora

Kutná Hora is an unremarkable little town. The architecture pales compared to the olde worlde charms of Prague's Old and New Towns, and the surrounding rural scenery's nothing special either. Probably the only reason you'd ever venture those eighty kilometres east of the Czech Republic's capital city would be to visit the ossuary (kostnice) in the little suburb of Sedlec.

On his return from the Holy Land in the thirteenth century, the local abbott brought with him some earth from Golgotha, the site of Jesus Christ's crucifixion, which he sprinkled in the monastery's cemetery. After this it was alleged that bodies interred here would decompose quickly, leaving only a bleached skeleton with no rotting flesh after only three days. Sedlec became the fashionable town for dead folks to be seen in.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Black Death and Hussite Wars also increased the supply of bodies, and several excavations were made over time to exhume older remains and make room for the newly deceased. The piles of bones were beginning to mount.

In 1870, with the remains of an estimated 40,000 bodies on site, the local Schwarzenberg aristocratic family employed a woodcarver and carpenter by the name of František Rint to "tidy" them. The result was an interior makeover you're unlikely to see on HGTV. Using only skulls and bones he constructed huge bell-shaped mounds, over-sized chalices, a Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms measuring about ten feet across, and as a centrepiece, a massive chandelier with at least one of every bone in the human body. A more thorough history can be read at the official website.

I find most tourist spots a little predictable and tiresome. They're soul-less, over-commercialized, and lacking in any distinguishment. Not Sedlec. If I live to 120 I don't think I'll ever forget that little chapel and its beautiful, macabre decor.