Tràigh Bhàlaigh Vallay Strand

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Hear the behind the scenes story about this image:

Read the behind the scenes story – audio transcribed:

We stayed very, very near Vallay Strand in North Uist, and it’s one of those places that is so vast, it’s really quite hard to comprehend what you’re looking at on the landscape, and it’s almost like a huge estuary and the tide will come in and out, but it’s not a very deep tide. And so the whole estuary or valley surrounds strands fills with water as the tide turns, but it’s quite shallow.

So what that means then, with the white sand underneath, is that it gives these otherworldly what almost can look like photoshopped oversaturated teal, turquoise, seas when the tide comes in, and then when the tide is as far out as it is in this image, you just get this expanse of absolutely stunning white sand glistening in all of the sunlight.

And so it was amazing to pop the drone up to try and get some of that perspective. But even still, at that altitude, the perspective is still so, almost unobtainable in terms of capturing the vastness of what it’s like to be stood there. And I often find the drone is a great tool for that and communicating that.

And so what I really love about this image is just the, the concept of perspective, of where things can feel very narrow and small in our world. And actually there’s just this vastness out there. And I think when we connect with nature and put ourselves into these spaces where we can get to some openness, be in a local park where we are, or if you live in the coast, heading to somewhere where you can see the horizon, it can just really, really help to get that perspective on everything.

And I really felt that when we’re in North Uist and the fact that I couldn’t get perspective on anything, that I was trying to shoot and see, no matter how hard I tried, itjust bought a new level of surrender. And I really, enjoyed meeting that challenge. I wasn’t quite ready to have been, given the nod for By Mother Nature.