Sunrise at Loch Lubnaig

Third attempt in a week!

Loch Lubnaig, Scotland

 

Location: Approximately 2miles north of Callander on the A84, Trossachs, Scotland
Location type: Loch
Park (what3words): ///complies.report.files (car park) - parking charge (note limited access)
What to shoot: Loch Lubnaig, Ben Ledi, forestry, wildlife
When to visit: any time of year, for best light make the trip in morning or late afternoon.

It took me three attempts to shoot Loch Lubnaig this week. My first visit coincided with a snow storm, floods and high winds and was completely unsuccessful in terms of photography, I returned two days later for sunrise only to find the car-park locked, so today’s trip wasn’t exactly expected to be a success.

In all honesty, I’d no intention of shooting Loch Lubnaig today at all. My previous two failed attempts had put me off but my first choice for this morning (sunrise at Loch Katrine) had also failed as there was an issue with the “pay and display” meters at the Loch Katrine carpark and I was reluctant to leave my car without a ticket, so I decided instead to try Loch Venachar, only to find my intended parking area filled with campervans! With sunrise fast approaching, I opted to head to Loch Voil, but on my way past Loch Lubnaig I noticed that the car park was open - and empty - so I headed in and down to the loch side.

It was about 15 minutes before sunrise when I finally stepped into the loch and gazed up towards the snow capped peak of Ben Ledi. There was a faint hint of an alpine glow on the summit ridge and with around 90% cloud cover, this little break in the clouds gave me some hope that the trip might not have been in vain.

I have often said that I think Loch Lubnaig is one of most photogenic yet least accessible Trossachs lochs for photographers, and my two failed attempts this week had just reinforced this opinion. Parking space is very limited along the 5 mile eastern side of the loch (A84) with the two main parking areas gated, often locked and with access times which do not normally suit landscape photographers. (usually only opened around 9 - 9.30am and locked again around 5pm). There are a few smaller parking bays further north on the A84, but these are placed at spots where access to the loch itself is restricted by fencing or private property. The western side of the loch has no through road and the road which is there is primarily to service the Strathyre Forest log cabin park. Parking is possible on this side but difficult and I would argue that the view over the loch to the eastern hills doesn’t justify the effort.

On this particular trip I parked in the southern-most official car park, thankfully unlocked at 7am despite a sign on the gate proclaiming that it would be open from 9am until 5pm on the day I visited.

There have been a number of “improvements” carried out around this car park since the last time I’d visited. Several new picnic benches, parking bays and a large turning area had been constructed. I was to find out why this last item in particular was important later in the day.

I parked, grabbed my camera bag and headed down to the shore, turning first to my left (south) to see if I could find an angle shooting directly across the loch towards Ben Ledi on the opposite side.
This part of the loch side is very overgrown and boggy and with a clear litter problem (the main A84 road runs just above the shoreline here), it was fairly obvious that I wasn’t going to find a useable foreground in this part of the loch.

I retraced my steps back to the carpark area then continued further north, ankle deep in the loch but not straying too far from the shoreline. Just a little further north of the car-park entrance a small bay curves inwards, hidden from the car park foreshore, and I decided to set-up my camera here and wait for the sunrise.

There was no dramatic sunrise and the promised alpine glow came to nothing, so instead I decided to try to find smaller, more intimate compositions along the loch-side and on the foothills of Ben Ledi.

I spent a while watching the light skim across the scene. Gaps in the clouds and a steady breeze meant a procession of light and shade washed across the hills to the west of the loch. The rising sun and ever changing direction of the light made for a constantly changing scene and I took lots of photos, sometimes of exactly the same area, but in dramatically different light.

Concentrating on video production, photography and sound recording can be very distracting and time seemed to fly by almost as swiftly as the light patches on Ben Ledi.

Around 3hrs had passed before I decided to call it a day and head back to the car. I was just in time as before I’d even poured my first tea a minibus turned up, offloaded a group of tourists for a few minutes before gathering them back to the bus and heading off, just in time to make way for another bus.

All in, three buses from three different tour operators arrived and departed in the space of 20 minutes. Now I knew why they’d built the turning area in the car park.

I decided to call it a day and as I headed out of the car park another bus tour arrived. Clearly this is a busy spot from around 10am onwards, so keep that in mind if you plan to visit!