Reflecting on the foggy Tay

Last night I was the lucky recipient of a lovely Christmas meal at The View restaurant in Newport-on-Tay, just opposite Dundee (Scotland). My mum kindly treated me and her husband.

This is the view. I don’t think I’ve seen such a long stretch of light reflections before (it went on further). I don’t normally take this kind of photo and so don’t carry my tripod often. In this case I put my camera on a fencepost; 30 seconds exposure at F16.

The last couple of days in Scotland were frosty and beautiful. The green landscape with a light covering of white. But this morning I woke up and the frost was gone, replaced with a light fog.

It’s been on my mind to take a river / bridge shot in the fog for quite some time. I drove down to the River Tay at Dundee just after lunch. The fog wasn’t really sitting on the river, but it was visible in the distance. Between that and the complex shades of grey of they sky and the very still river it was really lovely, but freezing!

I was lucky to spot a Heron. Unfortunately I don’t use / carry long zooms, but I managed to get a recognisable sharp shot with the bridge in the background. The shot below shows the Heron and it’s Shadow on the calm water. 3/20 shots came out sharp using 3D tracking – wildlife photography really requires the best gear.

Another couple of shots highlighting the curve of the bridge:

And after a short wait I caught one of the red Virgin East Coast Line trains passing. The red and white livery of the train was a fantastic contrast to see crossing the grey landscape.

I also saw a Seal in the middle of the river, but  unfortunately there was no chance to get anything other than a little circle representing it’s head with my 85mm zoom.