The view from Dunoon looking across the Firth of Clyde towards Gourock.
An evocative early morning sunrise with a stunning cloud formation from the foreshore at the southern end of the Cowal peninsula.
So many of our beautiful Scottish landscapes lend themselves to panoramic photography. From wide open views, beaches, coastal views, islands and historical sites, the spirit of place is enhanced through wide angle and 360° photography. Over the years, my collection of panoramic photographs has become more comprehensive and some of my favourites are presented below.
Wide angle panoramas are usually hand held sequences of images, stitched together to produce the final image. I enjoy presenting a wider view of the landscape to allow a full appreciation of the scale and perspective within the view. Adding an aerial perspective brings another new dimension, particularly where a familiar view is presented from a new, previously unseen viewpoint.
Each 360° panorama starts as a mosaic of up to 250 photographs stitched, blended and manipulated through several pieces of software to achieve the final result. Constantly changing skies, shadows and moving objects add to the complexity but it's all part of the challenge...!
The view from Dunoon looking across the Firth of Clyde towards Gourock.
An evocative early morning sunrise with a stunning cloud formation from the foreshore at the southern end of the Cowal peninsula.
Clava Cairns or the Prehistoric Burial Cairns of Bulnuaran are a group of three Bronze Age cairns located near Inverness.
A hugely significant and exceptionally well preserved prehistoric site, Clava Cairns is a fantastic example of the distant history of Highland Scotland, dating back about 4,000 years.
A late summer evening on the beach at Mellon Udrigle.
Priest Island and the Summer Isles are a few miles offshore with the Sutherland hills in the far distance. From left to right - Quinag, Suilven, Stac Pollaidh, and Ben More Coigach. To the far right sits Ben Gobhlach.
Sutherland is one of my favourite sea kayaking areas and there’s just so much of interest along the coast.
The panoramas below are from Mol Ban Beach on Oldany Islnd near Drumbeg. We'd kayaked from Clashnessie around Oldany Island and stopped for a scenic bite to eat on this beatiful beach.
Read the blog post for this trip and enjoy the sea kayaking photography, complete with interactive map.
Early April and a trip to Arnamurchan, staying at Resipole campsite. A beautiful evening with snow lying on the hill tops and the forecast set fair. A day or two later we had a superb paddle into Loch Teacuis, one of my favourite spots from many years ago when I was based in Lochaline. Enjoy the view and follow the hotspots in the high resolution version of the panorama to find out more....
A springtime flight above Findon Woods, to the north of Culbokie and looking across the Cromarty Firth to Ben Wyvis.
To see more aerial perspectives of the Black Isle, head over to my Black Isle Aerial Virtual Tour and explore the Black Isle from the air. Pan, zoom and enjoy the views, using the interactive hot spots to navigate your way around the Black Isle from a unique and different perspective.
Late afternoon in November and the sun sets early in the far north of Scotland. Returning home over the Dornoch Bridge, the setting sun over Struie hill was illuminating the sky with vibrant reds and yellows. The calm waters of the Dornoch Firth reflected the light in the sky over the water. Who wouldn't have stopped to admire and photograph the view?
The panoramic view across the Red Cuillin towards Sgurr nan Gillean and Am Basteir.
We're used to panoramic images and interactive images within websites, social media and virtual tours.
Smart phones and apps allow us to swipe left and pan the camera to take in the widest possible view of the location we're in. Facebook allows us to display the scene using inbuilt the gyroscopes in our phones.
But how many of us consider vertical panoramas? As a forester, I'm always looking upwards into the canopy and the crowns of trees in the forest. But most cities have tall buildings which could be displayed nicely from a panoramic viewpoint, especially if the viewpoint is halfway up and from an adjacent building.
So I've photographed a Sitka spruce tree in one of my local forests and photographed it vertically, using 10 images in the panorama.
The portrait style image was rendered through the stitching and presentation software and the photograph here shows the final composite. As with all of the photographs on this page, click on the image and pan and zoom from there.
A lone Scots pine tree on Ormond Hill on the Black Isle, standing guard over Avoch Bay and the view towards Chanonry Point.
Created in 1957 as part of the Conon hydro electric scheme, Loch Glascarnoch is dammed at its eastern end.
Surrounded by the Fannaich hills, it's a great place for "big landscape" photography. Snow capped An Teallach can be seen in the distance to the west whilst Am Faochagach sits on the northern flank of the loch.
The Ben Wyvis massif sits to the eastern end of Loch Glascarnoch. It's a popular mountain for hillwalkers all year round, with superb views in every direction on a clear day.
Evening light and the setting sun at Tarbat Ness Lighthouse.
A moody sky and the combination of light and shadow with the lighthouse standing guard, before taking over its watch for the night...
Nigg bay and the view northwards from Gallow Hill above the village of Cromarty.