The Enchanted Forest and more

Dara Robinson

I've been thinking about this for a while now. I was in middle of no where last year visiting my sister in the heart of Perthsire in Scotland. Its an amazing place and very easy to photograph (you can see some pictures of the area on my flickr page, some named Kindrogan). Long story short I met a guy who was up for a wildlife photography course and also this Light and sound show ran in the near by town (one of the only local signs of civilisation) called Pitlochry.
He showed me some pictures and they were incredible. And he said that they did not do it justice (he was carrying no throw-away). Got me interested and I looked into it more. I unfortunately missed that year but there was always next year. This year

Ok, so here is the info.
The Enchanted Forest for information on the event its self.
Pitlochry for information on the local town.
Kindogan for information on my suggestion of a place to stay.

Ok, so here is the suggestion (a very flexible thing, add/alter if you like)
We attend the light and sound show :rolleyes: We could stay in the Kindrogan center. Accommodation is perfectly fine, food is good (no 5 star, but note that there are some great pubs in the area) and the people are awesome. The area is amazing and perfect for walks and excursions.
I could also look into getting someone to run a wildlife photography course (or I think there maybe another one already scheduled for those dates).
We go up, stay a few days, get some great shots, see a light and sound show that is supposed to be breathtaking and eat, drink and be very very merry.

My sister worked up in the Kindrogan Field Center for nearly 3 years and ended up in charge of all of the courses they run. As a result I was up there a lot and know the bosses very well. They are extremely nice and I know that they will bend over backwards to accommodate us. It has a lovely cosy feel to it and its perfect for just getting up in the morning (hangovers not withstanding) and going off to take some great shots. P.S.: They have a bar in the center
Transport would be easy if there are some people driving over (cheep ferry's, shared fuel costs and all that jazz) and worse case scenario I can look into them dropping us down and we can get a taxi back (the canter has a mini bus). I think its a great idea but I just want an excuse to go back there :P so if people don't like the Center idea just say.


Any thoughts? Anyone interested?




P.S.: Sorry about the extreemly roundabout way of saying.. "Anyone for trip to Scotland?"

mikeanywhere

Blair Witch version 3 - bring it on!!!

Oh, yes I am interested

elven

I don't think I need to say, but count me in

Disclaimer: I have no relatives in the area with spare rooms

odonnell

elven wrote:

I don't think I need to say, but count me in

Disclaimer: I have no relatives in the area with spare rooms

so... will you be requiring your husband on this particular jaunt?

elven

Ummmm...

Fancy a weekend in Pitlochry, darling?

odonnell

ill need to find out if theres a rangers pub in the town..

YES hon id love to go...

nilhg

Bloody great idea Dara, I don't know if I will be able to go, but I do know I'd love to.

I was in that general area years ago and always wanted to go back but never quite got the opportunity, it is spectacular.

Roen

Good idea, any dates planned?

Xios

oct 20 - nov 5
I might be able to make this, that is if i ain't too wrecked from my three weeks in nepal

Dara Robinson

odonnell wrote:

ill need to find out if theres a rangers pub in the town..

The Kindrogan Field Center is run by a couple. The Guy is very into his sports and is bound to know. I'll try and find out for ya
Also he is a wiskey king for anyone that is interested. (If there is huge interest I might convince him to run something as I know he already does)

Roen wrote:

Good idea, any dates planned?

As Xios said, the 20th of October till The 5th of November were the dates last year. I did a quick scan of the website and cant see anything that confirms the dates are the same this year but supposidly its the same every year

odonnell

nah dont do that mate, i meant it as a sideward comment aimed at the mrs. and i wouldnt want a dub asking around Perth for a "Rangers Pub"

Ill more than likely come along with mrs. as it sounds like something Id be interested in from a non-photography POV. Just dont be offended when my eyes glaze over at the slightest mention of DOF etc...

oh...and....whisky you say? hmm this trip is looking better and better.

Dara Robinson

odonnell wrote:

oh...and....whisky you say? hmm this trip is looking better and better.

Oh yea, did I not say? Pitlochry has a distillery called Edradour that was founded in 1825 and "Edradour is the smallest whisky distillery in Scotland; possibly the smallest legal distillery of any kind in the World"
I've been there and loved it (although not a whisky fan tbh)
Oh for those that would be interested there was a decent amount of "tasting" on the tour

Edradour

Xios

Hmm, whisky you say? Everytime to i drink large amounts of whisky, i end up walking home, so if my geography is right, i'll get home in about 2 hours, yeah?

odonnell

Well.... spending most of my drinking years in or around Glasgow, I have been known to partake in a little whisky tasting myself.... it actually took moving to Dublin to get me out of the habit

But anyway this is a thread hijack now, so...back to the point.

Dara Robinson

Yea, I little bit but if and when we go there will be the opportunity.

Ok, Regarding the photography course. Would anyone be interested? Just to let you know that the guy I am talking about (if he has the time this is) used to be a park ranger. He is a very experienced ranger and naturist or I supposed he is an Ecologist or something (I'm obviously not full of facts here ). I do know that he was Head Ranger with Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council and that he has worked very closely for the RSPB. And he is heavily interested in Nature history, Islands and Scottish wildlife. Personally I think he is awesome and extremely knowledgeable. I recon that a course run by him would be really interesting for all.
Please let me know if there is interest as this will need to be organised well in advanced. (P.S.: If he is not available I will try and organise something else along the same lines if the interest is there)

Another thing is that there are plenty of classrooms and room with access to a projector so I was also thinking of getting someone to run a Photoshop thing or maybe use one of the classrooms and we could run a Photoshop brainstorm.

Also I was thinking that it would be nice if someone who knows about filters and the like could teach us about it. Its much better to lean about these things in practice especially since we can go back into a classroom and see the effects immediately.

Also if there is enough time (it will all be in the planning) I was thinking that it would be great to learn some more about Macro photography.
Juile, would you be interested in showing us about Macro while we are up there? I'd love to learn more.

Going to Scotland is not something that you can just pop up and do from Ireland. So I was thinking that with the surroundings we could take advantage and go up and do as much as possible.

Also, if anyone has any other ideas please post them. Or if anyone does not what I have suggested please post. The more input the better this will be.

Roen

I'd be on for the whole weekend away hiking thing, but spending time in a class room learning things that could be learned here would not be my ideal use of time abroad.
Why not get up to speed on things you feel need work on here in Ireland and then put them to good use in Scotland?

elven

Hey with the Macro Girl connotations... I haven't done any for months and months! There must be someone else who deserves the title. I don't even have a macro lens! Anyway...

My one concern about the course as such is the money. It's going to be a fair whack for the ferry over never mind everything else. I might also not be there for the entire thing, just joining you lot for the foresty thing and maybe a day trip and probably visiting family the rest of the time. It would depend on how much the accommodation costs. Do we have any ideas about that?

Valentia

Scotland is a place high on my list of must visits. Tempting. I agree with Roen though. Lets do practical photography stuff. Filters, graduated etc stuff. We can do the processing stuff here.

Dara Robinson

Roen wrote:

...but spending time in a class room learning things that could be learned here would not be my ideal use of time abroad.

I sugested this as more of an evening thing, once the sun went down. October and November are not the brightist of months. And I was thinking along the lines that it would be more of a sharing and taking stock of what we did that day. Allow everyone to share (flex those photography mussles if you have them which I dont ) and give tips on the photoshop end. More like 30 mins or an hour (or what ever people want to do). Nothing along the lines of anything structured... Structure? whats that?... more of a chill out, chatr and share what you did.
Anyways, Its not like that cant be done in the pub, its big enough

elven wrote:

My one concern about the course as such is the money.

The only actual course I was thinking of was along the lines of a Wildlife thing. I have no idea how much it would be. I'll have to find out. But it would depend on what people are interested in, maybe a case that no one is.

elven wrote:

It's going to be a fair whack for the ferry over never mind everything else.

Ryanair (although I hate them with a passion, and probably wont be using them) have a great deal that gives you discounted rail journey if you fly with them. I think you can get to Pitlochery for like £10.

elven wrote:

It would depend on how much the accommodation costs. Do we have any ideas about that?

No idea yet. People may want to stay in the town and not the centre. It wont be expensive. I'll have to wait till my sister comes back from snowboarding to get an idea. (might text her but she probably wont reply, or will but will be pissed at this stage :P)

elven

If you're going up to Pitlochry, you'd be far better driving... if you want to get out and do stuff outside the centre place that is. We'll be taking the car anyway.

Shame, if I won the lottery we could all stay in the Atholl Palace Hotel, mmmm.....

mikeanywhere

Thats a gorgeous place Julie, well spotted!!

Maybe we can Seb on the case for a special Boards.ie night photography visit.

nilhg

For anyone with google earth I've attached a placemark for the centre at Kindrogan.

Just looking through some of the photos linked there from the local area really whets the appetite for a visit there.

Dara Robinson

Ok, so Martyn replied to my email.

He will need dates and numbers to give me an accurate cost but as an example...

As an example, if you arrived for evening meal on Fri and left after breakfast on Mon (with a packed lunch included on the Mon), cost would be £125/person for everything except Enchanted Forest – oh, and booze!

My understanding of the deal is that they will have some sort of ‘course’ ready for us and that would be included in the price. But I will confirm that later just to be 100%

Obvisoly the more the people and the longer we stay the cheaper but we all know that. We'll have to wait till we get the dates from "The Enchanted Forest" people so we can make dates firm. Then with numbers I should be able to get a concrete price.

Although its cheaper than I thought. And you have no idea how cheap the drink is up there. (well macro girl will, but the rest of you need to come up and expericance it for urself)

leinsterman

I'm a tenatative yes ... as long as it does not clash with the world cup ... and as regards any indoor sessions ... only if they involve single malt ... we can do a photoshop session here in Ireland ...

mikeanywhere

Once final dates are confirmed then I can give a defo agreement or not. So without sounding like a big girls blouse, a tentative yes!!

Dara Robinson

Ok, dates.

I spoke to the guy from the forestry commission who is in charge or organising The Enchanted Forest event. He says that the event is up for tender at the moment and that, although its the same company that had conducted it this year, they do the tender every year. The website will not be updated until then but he gave me the dates (which he says are firm).

October the 22nd until November the 4th.

I cant see any bank holidays or national holidays on my calender for that period.

Suggestion of my own for times would be really any weekend (I have no commitments for that period that I know about).

So (dates I'm putting in suggest that we arrive on the 1st day and leave the morning of the last):
Friday the 19th till Monday the 22nd of October.
Friday the 26th till Monday the 29nd of October.
Friday the 2nd till Monday the 5th of November.


But I mean seeing as I have absolutely no commitments for that period of time you guys tell me what suites best