Check out the galleries for Shetland and Orkney: Gallery 1 and Gallery 2!

Last year in June I went to the Shetland Isles, the most northerly part of the United Kingdom, and from there I went to the Orkney Isles, working my way back to mainland Scotland.

But here’s the thing I am terrible at keeping an editing schedule! I take a lot of images but I take forever to get around to editing them.

So, in this article I am going to give you a sneak peak at my upcoming gallery featuring images from my journey around the Northern Isles of Scotland. 

The first week of my trip, I was booked on to a wildlife photography tour with the great guys at Shetland Nature.

After that I wanted to continue to explore Shetland by myself, aiming to get some landscape images and continue what I had learned the previous week.

After a week of exploring Shetland, I took the ferry from Lerwick, Shetland to Kirkwall on Orkney, I had a week to explore the Orkney Isles. During my time there, I mainly stuck to Mainland Orkney with a couple days on the Isle of Hoy. 

This third part is the final part of my trip on Shetland, following on from Part One and Part Two about my days with Shetland Nature, I am now alone on the islands and exploring Mainland Shetland for it’s Landscape photography opportunities. 

Day Eight 

Now that I had finished the tour, I was free to explore Shetland at my own pace and this meant that I was a bit more relaxed and didn’t take as many images, but I got to explore areas of Mainland that I had missed while I was on tour.

So after a glorious lie in, I took out the map and decided to head to a part of the island we had not visited during our travels in pursuit of wildlife, the north-west area called Eshaness.

I began my journey by driving to Stenness, a beach on the southern edge of the Eshaness peninsula. I walked around the beaches and cliffs looking for landscape photos in the harsh summer light, I succeeded and managed to capture a few images.

I managed to get a view of Dore Holm, a sea arch island in the middle of the ocean that honestly looks like a horse drinking from the sea, but I had an idea of the image I wanted and today it would not provide it, although the weather for the next day looked promising, thus I decided to leave that for tomorrow and return later. 

Pro Tip: Try to imagine the image that you want, it can help you with planning your day or week and often leads to a stronger image

After several hours on the beach, I left Stenness and headed towards an area called Hillswick, another peninsula not too far away by Shetland standards. I got to the village and went for a walk up a hill that overlooks the sea, the path I was using suddenly became very narrow and steep and must have been created by sheep rather than people.

Luckily when I finished my ascent I was treated to some amazing views and able to get some great images! From there I spotted the Drongs, a series of 3 sea stacks some distance out to sea.

The Drongs are made from a brick-red coloured stone and I wanted to get them at their brightest, preferably with some evening sunlight, so I left them for a little later.

I continued exploring around, heading for North Roe but in the harsh sunlight I found it hard to find inspiration. After driving around for a while, the day was getting on and the light was starting to get a bit better so I decided to try and get the image of the Drongs I had envisioned earlier that day.

I parked in the Braewick caravan and cafe car park, to head along the cliffs from where I would be able to see the Drongs, but as I was walking I started to be dive bombed by Arctic Terns.

In Part Two I mentioned that they can be very territorial, protecting their nesting area, but I didn’t take much notice at first, thinking that I would move out of their way soon enough.

But oh boy, was I wrong!

One crashed into my head, it’s razor sharp beak scratching the tip of my hat. I started to panic I little bit, it hurt a lot! They continued to dive for me, so I raised my tripod above my head and they began diving that instead of me. Now I wasn’t sure what to do, there had been no warning that I would be walking through a nesting site.

I didn’t know whether I should turn back or try and rush through the area, I had no idea how large their area was. I decided to continue but to not bother with the image and just find a way back to the road and back to my car.

Eventually the birds backed off, and I managed to escape onto a farm track that eventually led back to the road and to my car.

But now I was exhausted, in pain, and hungry, so I headed back to my new hotel in Lerwick. 

Day Nine

Today there was a decent amount of cloud cover, which gave a lovely diffused light and obstructed the harsh shadows that I had been managing the day before.

With fresh inspiration I went back to Stenness, but this time I knew the first image that I wanted to get was of the Dore Holm!

So I got there as quick as possible, climbed up the cliffs and experimented for a long time to get the exposure that I thought would work when editing. The clouds made the sky a dull white that was reflected in the ocean and by overexposing the image I would be able to create the sea arch as a silhouette floating in white. I think it worked really well! 

Whilst I was photographing Dore Holm, I looked down to the sea and saw my first ever Great Northern Diver! I was very excited and took a couple images of a dot in the sea, but it was such a wonderful moment, which only a fellow bird watcher would understand.

As I was heading back to the car I spotted a Twite perched on some grass and tried to get a couple images, but nothing really worked, so I left for my car. 

Having got the image I wanted, I decided to go to the northern part of Eshaness, where there was a lighthouse and walks along the cliffs. With the dramatic clouds and cliffs, there was an abundance of photo inspiration, which meant my progress along the path was interrupted every 100 metres taking a new picture.

I also experimented with some abstract images of the sea crashing over rocks, which took a while to get the images that I wanted. After several hours of photography and walking, I headed back to my car and I had to choose my next destination for the day. 

Pro Tip: Look for jagged edges on maps as that often means cliffs, especially by the sea, which can often provide very dramatic images

Looking at the map, the other major area that had been neglected the week previously was the western part of Mainland, so I decided to go for a drive down that way. After a lot of exploring and even driving practically off road on gravelly tracks, I found some inspiration.

Since being in Shetland, I had noticed that peat cutting was still a trade that was practiced around the island, probably due to the lack of trees and the need for a source of fuel for their stoves. I wanted to try and capture this, so I was taking pictures of the hillside.

To be honest, I am not entirely happy with the result and feel like there may be a better opportunity on my next visit. With that I went back to the hotel. 

That was my last night in Lerwick, the next day I would be heading down to Sumburgh head again, as I wanted to go to Mousa Island, which is situated closer to Sumburgh than to Lerwick. 

Day Ten 

Today I was heading for the island of Mousa, an RSPB Nature Reserve, the boat would leave the dock at 11:30 and would return from Mousa at 14:30 so I had a few hours to kill on the island. The journey across was quite pleasant, the boat was not too small and could fit on about 50 people, the weather was pleasant and the journey uneventful.

So once the boat landed, I decided to do the circular walk around the island heading from the dock on the west of the island the path leads to the East side and around the southern tip leading back up the western side to the dock. 

On the Eastern side my first encounter was a glorious Cormorant, with its iridescent plumage and thanks to the light, highly defined feathers. Being so close to this bird allowed me to notice for the first time that their eyes are emerald green, such a beautiful colour.

Leaving the Cormorant, I found a lovely landscape image and a female wheatear as well. The path continued around the southern part of the island, but made it’s way through an arctic tern colony, which after my experience the other day I was not too enthralled about.

But hoping that the path had been constructed with sufficient distance to prevent an actual collision, I walked through it as quickly as possible. 

The next magnificent site was the Iron Age structure called a Broch. Brochs are found across northern Scotland, especially in the isles, and the one on Mousa is the best preserved of them all. It stands 3 stories high, and thanks to visiting the Jarlshof, I understood that Iron Age families would live across several levels of the structure.

I got several landscape images of the Broch and other areas, and on my way back to the dock in preparation for sailing, I spotted an arctic tern and took a few picture at a safe distance. 

Pro Tip: Don’t become obsessed with photography, take the time to enjoy the other things that you find interesting, for me that was bird watching and history, so with this trip to Mousa I got all 3 in one: Photography, birds and history

Once back on Mainland, I continued down to the hotel and checked in. Later that night I would return to Mousa or a spectacle that I had been anticipating for a while. 

Day Eleven 

The images for this day began the night before. I sailed at 22:30 back to Mousa for a special midnight view. On Mousa is a thriving population of small birds called Storm Petrels, that emerge at night and fly out to sea. Luckily Shetland does not actually get dark, as it is so far north to be in perpetual dusk light through the night.

I was hoping to get a picture of the birds but as soon as I arrived back at the Broch, I realised that was an impossibility as the birds are tiny and zoom about the skies so tremendously that it was an impossibility in the semi-light that we had. But it was still a wonderful experience. 

Having failed to get an image of the Storm Petrel, I settled for some landscape images of the Broch in the twilight. The boat returned to the Mainland at 01:00 in the morning, and just as we were getting of the boat there was one of the most spectacular sunrises I have ever seen.

It was full of purples and blues, oranges and yellows, it was outstanding and I managed to capture it with quite a nice subject as well. Having seen that glorious sky, I went back to my hotel and had a lie in. 

Pro Tip: Sometimes the best images come at unexpected times, try and be prepared for them but know that you can’t always be ready and accept that

After waking up, I decided to head up towards Lerwick to get some fuel and as I needed to change hotels again. On the way I noticed the island of Bressay emerging from a fog and stopped at the side of the road for a picture. I had one last exploration around the island as tomorrow would be my last day on Shetland. 

Day Twelve 

I didn’t take any pictures today. My ferry to Orkney would be leaving in the afternoon and I wanted some souvenirs of my time on the islands, so I went shopping in Lerwick town centre. After I had everything that I wanted, I still had a few hours to kill, and decided to visit the Shetland Museum in Lerwick.

It was utterly fascinating, covering the history of the islands from their formation by geological processes, through the earliest civilisations, vikings and medieval period, up to their struggle during World War II. Definitely worth a visit if you are interested in history! 

Pro Tip: Sometimes you need to take a break from photography and take stock of where you are

After the museum it was time to leave Shetland. To be honest I was a little upset, I had enjoyed these islands very much and I knew that a piece of them would remain with me always. I relish the prospect of returning at some point! 

Continued in Shetland and Orkney Photo Gallery Part Four!

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Written by Daniel Long

Daniel Long created DRL Photography as a place to showcase his work as a photographer. Daniel has learnt a lot about photography and wishes to impart this knowledge with you, although the world is an ever changing place and he always says “you can never learn everything.” So as he makes his way, he continues to learn knew techniques, skills and information about photography. He focuses on Landscape and Wildlife photography and Daniel has a special focus on Scotland, his home away from home. As well as writing about photography and taking pictures out in the field, Daniel offers guided photography days so he can share his knowledge and locations in an effort to give his clients the best opportunities possible. Have a browse around this website to see his images, guided experiences and articles about photography. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in contact.