Dramatic sunset beams

Down on Tralee beach just before sunset today. I had been hoping to photo the sun's orb as it dropped below the horizon but distant cloud blocked it. Luckily, before that happened I got these shots with dramatic dark shadow beams. The CalMac ferry is heading out of Oban towards Mull on its way to the outer isles. There's also a wee fishing boat to the right. The "mirage" effect on this one is quite jolly and the seagull just happened to pass at the right moment in the second picture.

We seem to be one of the few parts of the UK without snow so far this week, but it was a chilly -5C when I took these at about 3:30pm.

First of December

We are having daytime temperatures of -3C and the east od the UK has had up to 25cm of snow. But the Grampian moutains are keeping the snow away from the west coast and the crisp, cold air is producing terrific lighting in mid-afternoon as seen in this view of Ben Cruachan and Loch Etive from the Connel Bridge.

I used my 30x telephoto lens to take this shot of Cruachan from the same spot.