My older son took me to Machrihanish as a birthday golfing treat. Not being the most competent golfer I took my camera and tripod with me to give me an alternative activity. After a great day on the course (truly a wonderful location for golf and photography) we stayed on for dinner and sunset. All day I had been fascinated by the views across to Islay and Jura and so I set myself the challenge to get a blue light shot from the beach at Machrihanish. Just offshore was a cluster of rocks that were submerging as the tide came in and so I was able to use them as a focal point while capturing the mountains in the distance. I was delighted that the shapes of the foreground rocks echoes the peaks of the mountains in the distance. It was a special end to a great day.

The weather is extremely variable in the autumn season, particularly on the west coast of Scotland. However, we were blessed with three days of beautiful weather that was dry and sunny for the most part. The evening settled into a beautiful sunset - not very spectacular due to the limited clouds (the spectacular sunset came two days later when a rain and sun left clouds in the sky as the sun set - but thats another story!). Its a location that you need to drive to becauses there is only limited public transport. There's a nice restaurant in Machrihanish, very close to the golf club where you can eat and wait for the changing light to get to where you are excited by the opportunities. We stayed in Campeltown, which is approx 20 min drive away and has a lovely harbor for early morning and very late photography. Its a lovely, relatively underexplored region of Scotland.