Chris Bowness' photos

My friend and I were walking on a snowy plateau in the hills of Scotland when a cloud enveloped us. Suddenly everything was white and it was very surreal. Knowing where you are in this situation is essential.

This picture was taken at the very windy summit of Derry Cairngorm in the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. My friend and I were on the third day of a wild camping trip. The adventure was meant to last a week, but we gave up after climbing here due to the misery of the Midges, which are small biting insects that attack in their thousands when you're trying to camp.

I took a day off work a couple of weeks ago to walk from Kinghouse Hotel in Glencoe to Kinlochleven. My friend wanted to go up the steep part that is called the Devil's staircase. It wasn't that steep to us day trippers, but I can understand that folks who've walked a 100 odd miles on the West Highland Way may have other ideas! My friends little Jack Russell lead the way.

This picture was taken on the north banks of the Beauly Firth in Scotland during the month of July. It didn't look right in colour so I made the surrounding landscape black and white whilst keeping the original red colour of the shed.

This was taken on a walk around Loch Affric in Scotland.

I took this in early 2017. I woke up late on a Saturday and saw that there was heavy fog outside and frost was still on the ground. I drove to my local hills, the Ochil Hills, and climbed above the fog into a beautiful sunny day. I walked about for a while enjoying the winter sunshine and taking pictures, including this one. Everyone below was enveloped in gloomy frosty fog whilst I was getting the sun on my skin. I drove home with a big grin!

Dollar is a village in Central Scotland. It has a "Burn" which is the Scottish name for a stream running through it. In the winter, the locals put up lights above it, they are more winter lights than Christmas lights as they are there most of the winter. I came here when I got my new camera and did my first ever focus stack that I processed using Luminar Neo.

I took this picture with my phone whilst heading back to my car after climbing my local hill, Dumyat. The sun was setting and it made for a delightful walk.

This is a focus stack that I put together and edited using Luminar Neo. I like getting up early when I am in Norfolk and walk the lanes trying to find a nice spot to catch the sunrise. It's more tempting to get out of bed early here than it is in Scotland, as it's warmer....

I find myself in Norfolk occasionally and I particularly like exploring the lanes and rights of way in this lovely rural place...whilst feasting on the tasty blackberries that are everywhere at this time of year. The churches are all similar, but unique. There's loads of them dotted about and they are all mostly clad in flint.

I took this when climbing Beinn Sgulaird on the West Coast of Scotland. I particularly remember it being very windy on the top and being bombarded with ice crystals from the snow being blown off the mountain. I was glad I had eye and face protection! These mountains aren't high but they are full of surprises.

I used to live very close to hear and I took this picture of the Kelpies on the opening day ten years ago. I used to walk my dog here all the time and loved walking along the river.

I was lucky to have visited Loch Etive in Scotland when it was flat calm.

I was fortunate to also visit Loch Etive when it was flat calm. Seeing a 1000 metre mountain reflected in the water is kind of surreal.

This was taken in the Ochils hills in Scotland during a cloud inversion. The wind turbines can just be seen above the level of the cloud.

This is a mobile shot I took on my walk last week to climb to the top of this hill which is called Dumyat. I live near here so generally try and climb it weekly to keep my hill fitness up. This picture was taken on my way back to my car near the wonderful little village of Blairlogie.

This is another view of Maiden's Pap that I took in the morning when wild camping there. It was fantastic. I was staying in my tent listening to the sound of the haunting Curlew and the alien sound of Snipe. I awoke to a lovely sunrise. The sea mist was surrounding the hill of Maiden's Pap, with the one remaining building of the settlement of Corrichoich in the foreground.

Maiden's Pap is named such because is it the shape of a human breast. Morven, the hill that is behind in this picture is much bigger and the origin of the name is (I think Big Hill). It is the the tallest hill in the region of Caithness that is in the far north of Scotland.