Murk and Gloom

Today was, unfortunately, a bit murky. I was up to Poolewe for a shoot, which went well despite the weather! It is always a treat to get out to the west coast, and two days in a row has been just glorious - even if the weather wasn’t cooperating!

It has generally been a pretty positive day all around though. I have been invited to join a local invitational photography group in the Highlands, which I have very much embraced - largely because my social life generally involves talking to cats and dogs. I am rather looking forward to some wider interaction and perhaps a little two way conversation! I also noticed that next week is… very, very quiet! I have no idea why - and it could change dramatically at any moment. But I have taken the opportunity to block book the darkroom out during school hours on Monday to process some films and get some printing done. I have also ordered a box of Ilford Multigrade Pearl paper to see if that breaks the rut that my printing is in using the Kentmere paper. It’s more expensive, but not that much more! I also ordered a small box of smaller Cooltone paper to see how that responds. Ideally I want to get 2 or 3 nice prints made and mounted ready for the annual exhibition at the end of the month. If Monday fails then I may just order some prints from my scanned negatives from a commercial print house - but I am not yet ready to admit defeat!

Tomorrow is my fullest day in a long while with 3 jobs in Nairn and potentially 4 in Inverness, although I may split some of those off to Thursday on the grounds of sanity - at the moment I just have the one confirmed job on that day out in Glen Affric (I know, the hardship… right!) - then I am finishing off the week with a job in Beauly and an afternoon job in Nairn (a rare Friday afternoon job, but it’s an elderly couple and they can only manage afternoons… this was one of the lessons I recieved from my Dad coming into play - he always treated the elderly especially well when working, he said that he wanted to provide the same level of service to them that he would like to see his Mum recieve. Whilst my Mum has not been with us for a long while now, and my Grandma for almost the same, I still like to think that I should look after these people in the way that I feel they should have been too. If that makes sense….)

Anyway, that’s about it for my day. Here is a gloomy shot of Torrin Farm at the foot of Loch Maree.

19th May 2026