Scotland 2008 Part XXVI:The End of a Long Day of Photographing on Skye

Digital original

A constant theme in Scotland was the continual threat of rain; in this case, while visiting Dunvegan, it started to downpour. I'd hoped to work with R_ on a beach beyond the castle, but with the dubious weather, I thought it'd be better to stay close to the car.

Digital original, 6 frame stitch

True to form, almost the moment we arrived at Dunvegan, it started to pour. This ended up being in our advantage, however, as we’d passed an abandoned building on our way through the village. After parking, we ran through the rain into the building, and worked for an hour with total security; while cars and buses were driving by mere feet away, outside the building, not a single walker braved the heavy downpour that was thundering down on the broken roof above us.

Digital original

As soon as R_ and I saw the old gears, used to transfer the power from the water wheel to the mill, we both began to look for pose possibilities. It was only moments before R_ was going to lie back upon the bare teeth of the clogged wheel that she check to see how “dry” it was…it turned out the layer of dirt was actually dust-coated grease - if she’d laid back upon it, I doubt the stain would have come off for days. With that disaster narrowly averted, we tried an alternate pose, working on the belt that went from the smooth wheel to the saw; this was far more practical a setting, and lead to a very strong photograph being made.

Digital original

The last images in the mill were specifically focused on working with the wheel; the only issue was it was still pouring with rain. The best R_ and I could come up with was a pose with her just outside a doorway, but still mostly covered by the old roof; R_ was quite damp by the end of the session, no nowhere near as we as if she'd be out in the full downpour.