No better welcome than the Scottish Borders

Nature is unbeatable! I do not think there could have been a better Welcome to Scotland than The Borders!

For those not yet familiar with Scotland you may wonder if I have gone mad since the NO vote won the Scottish referendum last September and therefore, Scotland is not yet a country of its own and has no border with England. Well, I am obviously not referring literally to the borders that define the limit of a nation but the beautiful Southern region of Scotland: The Borders.

I must admit I am a late admirer of this region so close to where I live; as many who either visit or live in Scotland, I tend to go farther up North and enjoy the majestic Highlands.

I happen to do a wedding on Sunday December 7th in Dryburgh which is near Jedburgh in The Borders region. A couple of months ago I went scouting the area and on my way discovered the Scott’s View which amazed me with its potential so I took a quick snap at it as a reference:

I then knew I needed to plan a comeback and capture this amazing view under specific conditions.

Luckily for me, I have been on holiday for the past couple of weeks which has enabled me to plan some landscape shots. This Wednesday (December 3rd) was the perfect day ( I will explain my planning method in an upcoming video).

I woke up before dawn, dressed according to the -4˚C of that morning and drove to the spot which took me about 1 hour. I knew exactly where I needed to walk to get the view I had foreseen. After waiting patiently for the correct amount of sunlight on the vista, I captured these two amazing shots with my Canon 5D III + 24-105mm L + Lee Filters:

Once the sun was too high in the sky which was brightening the top half of the foreground trees, I packed my gear and headed back home.

After driving for several miles, I decided to follow a touristic road sign which led me to the Greenknowe Tower. The light condition was still good (the sun was not too high) with still some interesting shadows. I parked on the side of the road, picked up my gear and quickly assessed the grounds. I knew I needed a vantage point and I found one in climbing on the edges of the old wall and here is the resulting photograph:

After that capture, I drove towards home across The Borders, via small winding roads scouting for some future landscape marvels which time will tell whether I succeeded.

My conclusion:

Scotland is one of the most beautiful lands I have ever had the pleasure to experience. While it is easy to picture it (no pun intended) with its Highlands’ landscapes and hairy cows, there is much more of Scotland to discover. For those of you who may think I am lucky to live so close to such amazing vistas, may this article inspire you to scout the area closer to your home as you may seriously underestimate it like I did with The Borders for the first six years of my life in Scotland?

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