The Torridon area of the Western Highlands, situated in Wester Ross on the west coast of Scotland, is well known for what is considered to be some of the finest scenery in the UK. The mountains of the ‘Torridon Hills’ (including Liathach, Beinn Alligin, Sgorr Ruadh, Maol Chean-dearg) are amongst the highest in Britain, rising in places almost vertically to over 3000 feet from the deep sea lochs. The rugged mountains sit apart from one another and are incredibly old – the Torridonian sandstone that forms the bulk of the mountains dates back 750 million years. Parts of the hilly and loch-strewn landscape is even older, composed of Lewisian Gneiss that is over 2,600 million years old.

I took this image on a grey day at Loch Clair, a small fresh water loch midway between Kinlochewe and Torridon village. Loch Clair sits just off the A896 that runs the entire length of Glen Torridon and provides spectacular views of Beinn Eighe and Liathach to the north and Sgurr Dubh on the southern-western edge.

I had taken a number of images of the majestic scene from the perfectly placed little peninsula jutting into the loch when it started to rain. Low cloud obscured the view so I turned my attention to the reeds, which had previously been my foreground interest. I liked how they – and the colours from the hill behind – reflected in the still water. I used a polariser to enhance the reflections which, together with a 2 stop neutral density filter, allowed me to slow the shutter speed to capture the falling rain as streaks.