Hello and welcome to my first blog post. I'm delighted to start off my 'blogging' career with some great news. If you're reading this then you are more than likely aware that, towards the end of last year, I was selling my 2018 Calendars with all the profits going to the Vale of Leven Autism and Aspergers Forum (VOLAAF). Well, I am delighted to say that due to all the lovely folks that purchased one (or more) of my calendars I was able to hand over a cheque to VOLAAF for the grand total of £500.00, beating last years total by £93.00. So, a very big thank you to each and every one of you who bought a calendar and whose kindness will go a long way in helping the centre arrange days out, or buy new sensory activities etc. for the kids who are on the Autism Spectrum and attend the centre. See link here for more of what VOLAAF do: https://www.facebook.com/volaaf/
next up...
This Months Calendar Image:
Another thing I want to share, again mainly aimed at people who are now the proud owners of one of my calendars, is a wee story behind this months calendar image. I plan to do this each month for each calendar image. So, Januarys image is 'Cloch Lighthouse Aurora'. This was one of the best nights I've had out shooting the Aurora Borealis. The Aurora forecast for this night was very good, (no such thing really as a good aurora forecast but as it goes this was as close as you get to a good forecast), so I had time to plan it, or in other words, find somewhere with Northerly dark skies where no one else was likely to be. After deciding on my location I got there early and caught sunset too.
After sunset I nipped along to Gourock for a quick bag of chips then back in time for the dark skies. After a few hours of patiently waiting...boom! The Aurora danced across the skies for a few minutes. At this point there was just me and one other person on the beach capturing this scene, so it really is quite a unique image you're looking at. There was three of us at one point, a chance encounter with one of my Instagram buddies whom I had never met before but had known for a few years on Instagram. However he was on a deadline time wise and had to head home just 10 minutes before the Northern Lights showed and he sadly just missed it, I was genuinely gutted for him. Anyway, when deciding on this location I was worried that the light pollution from Dunoon would hamper the viewing of the Northern Lights, but the Aurora was so strong I needn't have worried. I even managed to capture the Milky Way too, as if emanating from the Lighthouse. I also created a time lapse from the night and in it you can see the Dunoon ferry darting across the Clyde, link here: https://youtu.be/4AXIgG6dGPQ
Overall a great night and a very unique shot that I'm extremely proud of, especially as the rest of Scotlands Aurora hunters were at Duck Bay that night :) Feel free to contact me if there is anything you want to ask me about shooting the Aurora, I'm happy to help.