Holiday plans - highlands or south of EU?

LongLensPhotography

LongLensPhotography

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I have 16d this year left (+weekends) so thinking about using it to the maximum potential, i.e. I want to go somewhere pretty spectacular, enjoy the time and add dramatic images to my portfolio.

I have 3 potential options:

1. Stay in Scotland and make the most of autumn colours in the highlands. The question is - will the weather fail me and am I just better of reserving a few random days before work, weekends, etc? Bloody rain is no fun and I want at least a decent amount of break in the clouds or it is a no-go.

2. Milan to South of Italy road trip (incl. Venice, Tuscany, Rome and mt Etna) around 7-10d.

4. Athens / Santorini (autumn). ~5d (2+3?)
 
Any would be good, but the Italian job could be spectacular!
 
1. You stay in Glasgow, and as you've seen the past two weeks, there's not been once decent day to give anything other than flat grey pish. You've already got some strong images up here and you can pick off locations as and when the conditions are suitable for you. The very far North of Scotland isn't that tree covered, so you'd miss the autumn colours. Loch Garry, Perthshire, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, would give you a good spectrum of autumn colours, but you can do that on mornings/random days off etc. I'd not plan a holiday around the Scottish weather unless you like to feel disappointed, cold and wet.
2. A much more inspiring idea
3. As above and probably what I would do if I were in your shoes.

I'd recommend Madrid/Barcelona/Valencia plus the Northern mountains in the Pyranee's and possibly the Sierra Nevada.
 
Nothing gets the creative juices going like being somewhere different. I'd say head abroad, a long weekend at short notice will probably be more fruitful for the Highlands.
 
steveo_mcg said:
Nothing gets the creative juices going like being somewhere different. I'd say head abroad, a long weekend at short notice will probably be more fruitful for the Highlands.
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actually Scotland already counts as "somewhere different" to me. I'm here not for that long...

...really this is all about weather. The plan no1 sounds a bit like going to Iceland and hoping for the best - how do people pull that off successfully? I am really tempted at some point in the near future but I am very concerned about not seeing anything but rain
 
ST4 said:
1. You stay in Glasgow, and as you've seen the past two weeks, there's not been once decent day to give anything other than flat grey pish. You've already got some strong images up here and you can pick off locations as and when the conditions are suitable for you. The very far North of Scotland isn't that tree covered, so you'd miss the autumn colours. Loch Garry, Perthshire, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, would give you a good spectrum of autumn colours, but you can do that on mornings/random days off etc. I'd not plan a holiday around the Scottish weather unless you like to feel disappointed, cold and wet.
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OK, frankly speaking can you remember a decent spell of at least 4d last autumn? I agree it's not been good for the last week... and I fear it will only get worse. The trouble is I have almost no chance to venture beyond Glencoe if I rely on the morning and weekends.
 
Where's your sense of adventure, pop up to Iceland :D
 
daugirdas said:
OK, frankly speaking can you remember a decent spell of at least 4d last autumn? I agree it's not been good for the last week... and I fear it will only get worse. The trouble is I have almost no chance to venture beyond Glencoe if I rely on the morning and weekends.
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Not particularly, though I think there was but I'd not like to stake my holiday on Scottish weather doubly so up north.
 
gramps said:
Where's your sense of adventure, pop up to Iceland :D
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It is in my plans, but not until I can get 3 more people travelling together to keep the costs down... It'd be late Feb or May going either for Aurora or the white nights. ie. next year in the best case scenario. Actually it will be pretty convenient after April as this is when I finish my current project -so potentially plenty of "free" time.

steveo_mcg said:
Not particularly, though I think there was but I'd not like to stake my holiday on Scottish weather doubly so up north.
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I can book the days off on a pretty short notice (1-2d) - that wouldn't help?

This is done in pretty horrific weather this April:


but then I really didn't enjoy doing this in spraying rain and deep in the mud while savaged by midges


I barely managed to assemble a fairly clean image from multiple frames, wiping the lens down with paper tissue after each take. Lee filters or lens changes were out of question using rain cover.

and then it got pretty miserable by this point
 
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daugirdas said:
It is in my plans, but not until I can get 3 more people travelling together to keep the costs down... It'd be late Feb or May going either for Aurora or the white nights. ie. next year in the best case scenario. Actually it will be pretty convenient after April as this is when I finish my current project -so potentially plenty of "free" time.



I can book the days off on a pretty short notice (1-2d) - that wouldn't help?

This is done in pretty horrific weather this April:


but then I really didn't enjoy doing this in spraying rain and deep in the mud while savaged by midges


I barely managed to assemble a fairly clean image from multiple frames, wiping the lens down with paper tissue after each take. Lee filters or lens changes were out of question using rain cover.

and then it got pretty miserable by this point
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Having spent 3 months waiting for just 12 hours of clearish stable,weather for a shot I was after in the pentlands. Reading the weather forecast a few days in advance , making plans and the canceling them on the day as it turned out a thick cloud bank would roll in just before I leave forcing me to scrub. Or the last time I bivi'd in the lairg Gruhu where the weather forecast went from glorious to very very wet every time I opened the browser.

No I'd not bet on the weather :)

I'm sure there are as many weather forecast failure stories as there are walkers visiting the highlands

If you can get holiday at short notice I'd keep the highlands for short notice long weekends, like I say I expect you'll have more fun and less frustration.
 
Yes, this may be the plan - if it looks good take Friday or Monday off and go away in the evening straight from work... edit: I can always do some fishing if it turns that bad. I love fresh fish.

Let's see what I can sort out in terms of the european adventure. If I was still in Bristol I'd simple drive over but now I am going to rely on Ryanair / Easyjet to get me over there, then look for some budget stays and reasonable car hire (if Italy)
 
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That's how I'd play it, assuming you can do it to your budget. Failing that a weeks fishing is difficult to ruin with doom cloud!
 
Yes, Scotland for short notice long weekends in the autumn, you can get some spectacular light, on good days and bad. The right sort of bad weather is even better than good weather, IMHO. Some of my favourite shots were taken on the coast east of Gullane in the gaps in a snow storm when the sun broke through the clouds.
 
daugirdas said:
actually Scotland already counts as "somewhere different" to me. I'm here not for that long...

...really this is all about weather. The plan no1 sounds a bit like going to Iceland and hoping for the best - how do people pull that off successfully? I am really tempted at some point in the near future but I am very concerned about not seeing anything but rain
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They get lucky - you yourself said you knew someone who went to Iceland and just got rained on. Its an expensive gamble, IMHO, it can pay off spectacularly well or just see you lumbered in a cold damp windy place £1000odd poorer.

I've lived here a long time, you may see a good spell in mid/late October but it's not guaranteed. You'll have to book annual leave? You might miss the good spell, and even that's a slim chance, and end up with crap weather and wet windy or just flat grey days.

Autumn shooting requires trees and woodland - something the far NW doesn't have much of. The locations that have this are all near you anyway. You might want to hold off your break to winter, you'll get snow.

Or, if you can and choose to afford it, get yourself off thus crappy island and go to Greece.

Ps sorry missed your call. I'll drop you a call tomorrow
 
I personally love the very north west of Scotland. Stay around Lochinver and you'll have some amazing scenery to take in. I was up there in February and got some nice stuff - gallery here: http://tobinators.photoshelter.com/gallery/Assynt-Scotland/G0000dOEtqG1XPt4/C0000lAkaiqO.tAk

For something different, how about the Faroe Islands. Small enough to get around easily in a few days, and very spectacular. Don't worry about the weather as the worse it is the more spectacular the islands are. Some pics here: http://tobinators.photoshelter.com/...-Monochrome/G0000FxqilVJxkkU/C0000lAkaiqO.tAk

Enjoy!
 
Some bird shooting experience (both ways!) would actually tip it towards Scotland. It will be probably too expensive though...

Tobers said:
I personally love the very north west of Scotland. Stay around Lochinver and you'll have some amazing scenery to take in. I was up there in February and got some nice stuff - gallery here: http://tobinators.photoshelter.com/gallery/Assynt-Scotland/G0000dOEtqG1XPt4/C0000lAkaiqO.tAk

For something different, how about the Faroe Islands. Small enough to get around easily in a few days, and very spectacular. Don't worry about the weather as the worse it is the more spectacular the islands are. Some pics here: http://tobinators.photoshelter.com/...-Monochrome/G0000FxqilVJxkkU/C0000lAkaiqO.tAk

Enjoy!
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The aurora looks great. Is this you can reasonably expect in the winter or was that extremely lucky? That would save me a winters trip to Iceland/Norway and I could then safely go for May in a year or two.
 
Italy would be my choice, but then I live in the Highlands and see it every day.

My only reservation would be driving in Tuscany - I did it a few years back and the amount of accidents on the country roads around there is astonishing. Dont even get me started on City driving- places like Florence and Sienna are madness in a car. You can be as careful as you like but I found most road users were total nutters. Some amazing places to shoot though, and although hard to describe, Tuscany for me has its own unique light, especially at sunrise.
 
Northern Spain - go by car and drop at the Gironde on the way. Stunning locations and Northern Spain never gets a mention....
 
I've just taken 9 days off for the first time since January and planned to go to Arisaig but the weather is pants from photography point of view.
 
RichardTaylor said:
Personally I would go to Italy, however I would not drive there in a million years (we saw what it was like from a tour bus a few years ago).
Travel relatively light and use trains.
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Not my idea of holiday/travelling unfortunately. I've seen traffic in Rome - yes in can be daunting, but avoid rush hour, don't drive up to city centre and problem is more than halved. i'd be avoiding all toll roads (hate paying tolls!) and mostly sticking to scenic countryside or mountains.
Also I've driven in Crete - that was "fun" - I learned a lot of "bad" but surprisingly useful driving manners down there. But the very worst was around Denver and the Strip in Vegas. Oh my life, I need stronger words than just "deadly".

I was going to do Italy next summer, but Scottish highlands may never be so close within my reach again...
 
Eljay said:
Northern Spain - go by car and drop at the Gironde on the way. Stunning locations and Northern Spain never gets a mention....
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Would you say spanish knowledge is necessary? I know Italy won't be easy either, but I've seen shocking attitudes in Madrid.

Eljay said:
I've just taken 9 days off for the first time since January and planned to go to Arisaig but the weather is pants from photography point of view.
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but June / July was great... right now it is not amazing but we had a couple red sunsets last week in Glasgow (seen from the house unfortunately). You could always go down South to the lakes if nothing else works.
 
@daugirdas - I'd plump for Italy myself. Southern Italy in autumn is a fantastic place (I used to live there, albeit spent more time in Verona which is in the North). Taking in Milan, Venice, Tuscany, Rome and Etna is quite a haul though, even for 7-10 days. I'd be inclined to drop Venice out of it but you can easily do Milan (or Pisa) -> Rome -> Naples by train and the train system is excellent (and pretty good value). La Scala in Milan is well worth seeing but to be perfectly honest the rest of the city is a bit "meh". I spent quite a bit of time there and felt it was the Italian version of Milton Keynes... no concrete cows though and the road system is circular rather than a grid. If you do go to Milan make sure you spend more time in Bergamo (la Citta' Alta) rather than Milan itself - that's a pretty place.

Tuscany - beautiful and some wonderful scenery out in the countryside. Pisa is easy to fly to and makes for a more interesting starting point IMO than Milan. Tuscany and the Italian countryside in general is very different from the cities you'd visit so worth spending some time away from the bustle. Nice food too ;) Florence and Sienna are very pretty (but busy again) and San Gimignano is stunning, especially in the golden hours.

Rome is obviously a go-to destination but is VERY busy as any capital city is. DO NOT drive. If you want to experience driving, take a taxi and then thank the stars you're not driving yourself. So much to photograph, of course.

Naples is, IMO, way underrated. It has some lovely green spaces as well as the "bustle" (aka dodgy bit) around the station / Piazza Garibaldi. To be honest, every Italian city has a dodgy bit around its train station and I guess we're no different here, either. People are friendly and, of course, it's the home of pizza. You have Pompeii and (better, IMO) Herculaneum - again great for photos. Wine not so good, mind.

Wonderful part of the world!
 
In Northern Spain they do not speak ANY english......
 
Eljay said:
In Northern Spain they do not speak ANY english......
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Can't be worse than Madrid then :) I won't go near it unless I have spanish-speaking friend with me.
 
I could make myself understood occasionally in Galicia. First time I went to Aberdeen I felt like an alien (and I'm Scottish).
 
I drove across to Venice a couple of years back via Lake Lucerne/Gotthard Pass/Lake Como etc. Stunning. And Venice is without equal. Had four days photography with some pals there about 18 months back and it was great.



 
But imagine the dust bunnies! :D
 
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