Leirsinn

At the beginning of summer I was contacted by Lochaber stalwart and musician extraordinaire, Ewen Henderson, with a view to filming landscapes at various locations round the Highlands and Islands. The job required walking into mountainous areas in the small hours of the morning or late at night in order to get the best light for filming with a drone. Given the high chance of getting drenched in the process, living off supermarket sandwiches for a week and forgetting to bring a head torch, taking on the work was a no brainer. 

Filming on rum at the height of summer. This photo was taken much later in the day thaN it appears.

The first filming block coincided with a June heatwave, which despite being welcomed by beer garden revellers, made for challenging filming conditions. This briefly led to the postponement of most of the filming, but with ferries booked and accommodation ready in Rum, there was no turning back. Despite hot and cloudless weather, the trip was a success, with sunset filming on the ridge yielding great results. 

The mighty coire mhicfhearchair

Next up was Coire MhicFhearchair on Beinn Eighe, a spectacular spot which presents easy pickings to the determined camera operator. Once again, alpine tactics were required in order to avoid filming in harsh, direct sunlight and I set off from the van at 3am, after spending much of the night listening to a thunderstorm roar outside. The early start proved prescient, and by 8am the drone’s SD card was filled with compelling mountain scenery. With the necessary shots in the bag, I took the opportunity to tackle the two munro summits on Beinn Eighe in sweltering heat. Dehydrated and sweating buckets, my dishevelled state was further emphasised by the unflustered runners doing training laps of the mountain in preparation for the CeltMan triathlon, due to take place later that week. 

Filming in the coire

liathach seen from beinn eighe

In the final block of filming, I visited Lochaber in order to film at Creag Meagaidh and Glencoe. Typically, it was soaking wet while filming in Glencoe, though this made for dramatic footage and confirmed that the DJI Mini 3 Pro is perfectly capable of acting as an amphibious vehicle. A late night walk into Coire Adair at Creag Meagaidh yielded some lovely results, as differing temperatures between the valley floor and the peaks made for some striking cloud patterns. 

‘atmospheric’ filming conditions

Standing on top of crowberry tower after a successful mission to lochaber

Overall, it was a fantastic project to work on, and I’m grateful to Ewen for trusting me to roam the wilds unsupervised and see what came of it. The visuals were captured for his Blas commission, ‘Leirsinn’, which is touring throughout the festival and is sure to be a tour de force of original Highland music.