Last week, I took a couple of photographers out for a short trip to some highlights of the Glencoe area. We visited Rannoch Moor (Loch Ba), The Study (View of the Three Sisters) and Loch Tulla (because a traffic accident on the A82 prevented us from visiting Glencoe Lochans and Kinlochleven - my first choice). We had great fun and took a few lovely photos, but I noticed what people found interesting as a first visitor compared with what I found interesting as someone who lives here. There weren’t any particularly iconic examples of this. Still, one of them was admiring some of the pretty pedestrian remnants of Georgian road building, another around the local flora (carnivorous plants and fire grasses). It was a reminder that we bring a lot of context with us when we travel to different places and when we’re looking at photographs. What might appear boring to us may be amazing to a viewer from another location, and what we think are stunning conditions may be every day elsewhere (it’s sunny! In the Highlands! No, you don’t understand, it isn’t raining!). One of the special things about this autumn was the amazing show of berries, particularly rowan berries. The trees have been hanging heavy with them but if this was your only season visiting, you wouldn’t know why that was special/unique. My takeaway was to never take anything for granted or presume that your once-in-a-lifetime moment is going to create waves. One thing I am hoping for is that the old wives' tales about lots of berries are true and that we have the stunning winter we deserve after the last few year’s washouts!

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