Bonny Scotland

So you might remember a month ago we took a little road trip to Scotland and it rained none stop. It was horrendous. Read about it here if you enjoy other people's misery. This time we were incredibly lucky with the weather, our camping spots, everything. 

We stayed on the edge of Loch Lomond, in Glen Coe and near Comrie and drove for miles in between, visiting everything we didn't get to see last time.

Now that I'm home, I feel like nothing looks quite as interesting without mountains in the distance. 

 

As well as the trusty Mamiya RZ67 I took along a little Olympus OM10 for those cheesy holiday photos. Here's a few of them...

 
 
 
 

We drove back to the spot where our first wild camping attempt failed miserably last time (you know, in the patch of woodland behind the only building, which happened to be abandoned, in the open moors of Glen Coe) and found a family of deer that live there. They were so chill and came right up to us. Pim has never been so excited in his life, I think he thought they were bigger, much funner looking dogs.

 
 
 
 
 
 

I never thought that Scotland would have beaches like this. The 'Silver Sands' of Morar. 

 

Last but not least, some iPhone photos...

Olympus MJU i / First Roll

I love the clean, crispness of medium format but sometimes I miss the ease and speed of 35mm. I'm an idiot and always think I'm 'done' with a camera and sell it on and then 6 months later miss it. I did that with my little Leica r5 and don't really have the funds to replace it at the minute so I got myself an Olympus MJUi (aka Stylus) to keep me occupied.

I read a lot of reviews, which mostly said to wait and invest in a MJU ii (Stylus Epic) but to be honest, I can't fault this one at all and it's considerably cheaper than the MJU ii. £100 odd seems a bit steep for a point and shoot. I paid £40 for mine and even that felt a bit much, considering my OM10 was around that and I got some amazing stuff out of that (see here). 

A big pro is the shutter and auto wind are pretty much silent. Good for creepy shooters like myself. The only real con I feel, is that every time you open the camera up (which turns it on) your settings are reset and you have to manually turn the auto flash off. Obviously if you forget it won't go off unless it needs to use it, but if I'm taking a street shot which happens to be a little dark and the flash goes off it could be a awkward. 

Apart from that, money well spent. If you can get one for a good price, go for it. Here's the best of my first roll...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Cragside

I'd forgotten how big the grounds of Cragside are, you could easily spend a few days here to see it all.  Think of this as a 'part one', I'm pretty sure we'll go back at some point. One thing I'd never seen before is the tropical fern garden, it's pretty unusual. Good one Cragside. I know I went on about this in the Wallington Hall post but it is so good having a national trust pass and being able to just get into these places for free. 

The house is very nearly hashtaggable as interior goals too. Lots of pastel tones and white brick. 

 
 

The tropical fernery in the 'Formal Gardens' area