Revisiting Old Locations

Yesterday I took a little trip over to Loch Lomond and decided to stop off at The Falls of Falloch.    I took the camera and tripod as I was hoping to try out a new adjustable ND filter.

I have taken a photo of the falls previously, probably two years ago in the summer time and to be honest I was happy with the shot.

However, yesterday I took several shots using a different lens and my new filter.

                                                  

As you can see there is a difference in the finished shots and some of this is down to time of day, year, light direction and so on.  I am now far happier with the shots from yesterday.

So where am I going with this you ask?

Whilst sitting in front of the I Mac and Lightroom 4 (blatant name dropping and product placement there) editing the photos last night I started thinking about why I and other people return to locations where they have taken shots they are happy with?  If you look at Joe Cornish's site you will find many photos of Roseberry Topping in North Yorkshire for  example.

If you could look at my hard drives you would find a variety of shots from Scotland and the North of England, however you will find two locations that crop up again and again.  Skye and Glencoe.

Skye (including Lochalsh) and Glencoe are easy to explain as they are in my opinion the most photogenic areas in Scotland and there is an excellent chance that the conditions you have one day will not be the same the next day or in six months

This shot of Eilan Donan has been included because it is a nice shot.  I have about 8 other shots of the castle but this is my favourite.

I took the photo of Elgol below in July 2009 and it featured in my 2010 Calendar.  It is a nice shot but given the time of day and year I was not going to get a stunning shot (in my opinion) and I've always wanted to go back.

    

On a trip up in February I took the chance to head over to Elgol and I got the shot below which I REALLY like.

Now to highlight how different the conditions can be, the photo below was taken about 5 minutes after the photo above and whilst the composition is almost the same the light conditions have changed dramatically.

As I have said Glencoe is exceptionally photogenic and since I first went there in 2001 I have always wanted to go back. The photo below was taken with a Fuji 2MP camera in 2004 and there is something about it I like.

When I decided to become serious about photography I took a trip up to Glencoe in November 2008 with my shiny new 40d, tripod etc.  One of the shots I took was this photo of Buchaille Etive Mor. Not knowing any better I stuck to shooting with Jpegs instead of RAW.  The resulting effort has an almost painted quality to it.

This photo was taken from the road by the bridge over the River Etive late one September evening in 2009.

I have also revisited locations around Edinburgh like the locations below.

The Forth Bridges

 2009

2012

 2012

North Berwick

 2009

 2011

Why do I revisit locations then?

I revisit a location because I like it (which is always good), I have a new idea for a shot there or as in most cases I rightly or wrongly believe I can take a better shot of it.