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Autumn – the time is October of 2003 and we are experiencing what can only be called an Indian Summer. We decided to go over for lunch on Jura

The quality of the light was fantastic, cold air and a low sun have made it a great day for photography.

In Port Askaig, as the ferry left, I took a chance to photograph the shop in Port Askaig and the Paps of Jura. With my cheap little camera it is tricky to get good pictures of the Paps, the short focal length tends to exaggerate to foreground and shrink the background, but this time I got closer to the picture I have always been trying to achieve.

As we drove along the Jura roads the low light on the sea set it alight with diamond glitters. It is against all the rules to take a photograph into the sun, but I did anyway. It came out not too bad all considered.

A little further along the road we came across this lovely highland cow. He obligingly posed for us by the road in lieu of the deer, who kept well back and beyond the range of my camera to resolve them. One of these days I will get a decent picture of them. To fit the format of these these picture I have only shown his head in the thumbnail opposite, if you want the whole cow click on the picture, and for highland cow people I will be glad to mail you the high definition picture that this is derived from for printing.

We stopped at Jura House gardens, we always do, if you visit Jura you have to go there. The sun was at its height and still was low in the sky, I spoke to other photographers and they agreed the quality of the light was exceptional.

We walked down through the woods to the beach, I have represented this beach before on the Jura Gardens page but I have redone it here for the light.

We walked along the beach a ways in the direction we are looking through three small coves, we look for floats and other interesting flotsam and jetsam. Nothing interesting this time.

As we walked back from the beach we found a remarkable thing, the hawk I am holding is quite dead, it looked like it had hit the fence at speed and killed itself, it was however quite fresh with its eyes bright and clear. I have to admit the girls were less than impressed with my attempt to picture it.

Within the gardens it was still and warm, even at this time of year the plants are flowering and the box maze is fresh and growing. Again, with the constraints of a 250×188 thumbnail it is not the best representation of this picture. Click on it for the properly sized original.

On the way to Craighouse the deer managed to stay out of effective camera range but the lure of lunch at the Jura Hotel hurried us on (in a cautious way on these single track roads). Craighouse was looking stunning in the clear light and I stuck up a conversation with a friend at the pier whose lady companion completely misunderstood what I meant about her picture going on the Internet :~) People are strange sometimes.

In the hotel I got my revenge on the reluctant deer and ate one, the Jura Hotel venison burgers are justifiably famous and we ate well looking out over the bay and Small Isles.

Back at Feolin the moon thoughtfully placed herself over Caol Ila distillery – you can just make her out on the full sized image.

Behind the jetty the autumn colours are seen on the hillside.

A lovely day’s trip.