Castle Moil

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

It seems a bit quiet on the forum lately, is everyone on holiday photographing the great outdoors or something? I hope so.

Anyway, here is a recent image of what I see from my front window - well admittedly I had to walk down the road for ten minutes to get this close to the castle, but it really is the view I see through the window every day.

This is a 6 vertical image stitched pano BTW.

There is some local juicy folk lore attached to this castle if anyone wants me to tell them the story 

CC's welcome as always.

Dave

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Dave, it is a lovely scene, sure to be liked and bought by tourists.

As a photographer, however, my nitpick would be that the greenery is a bit too light, too contrasty and too saturated for the overall mood. Again, we are talking nuances here, nothing major.

[Jeremy Roussak]

I agree with Slobodan. There's something vaguely unreal about the land.

Jeremy

[francois]

I must say that I like it as it is but toning down saturation a bit wouldn't hurt.

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Dave, it is a lovely scene, sure to be liked and bought by tourists.

As a photographer, however, my nitpick would be that the greenery is a bit too light, too contrasty and too saturated for the overall mood. Again, we are talking nuances here, nothing major.

Hi all and please feel free to nitpick, I would want it no other way - honestly  

The reason I tend to work my images for sale a little bit more towards the saturated and contrasty end of things, is on the advice of Tony Sweet, a pro photographer for whom I hold the highest regard and who states in one of his books or DVD's (I own them all BTW and highly recommend them), that in his long experience of selling images to the public, that they are more likely to buy his colourfully treated images more than any others. So I totally agree Slobodan, but apparently and according to Tony, this is what the public wants.

I also assume this is the reason why photography magazines have such bright and colourful images on their front covers and in the magazine, because they know that Joe Public will buy the magazine when they show such colourful images, we are drawn to warm bright colours it seems - although I don't go anywhere near as far as magazine covers who really can get carried away at times, but I do tend to err towards the more colourful if I can.

So if this is true and I have no reason to doubt the veracity of Tony's very experienced advice, then why do you suppose this is so?

Dave

[Justan]

I rather like the composition. It’s probably due to the size reduction, or perhaps my monitor needs to be re-calibrated, but the R side seems a tad dark to me.

As to color saturation, people want color that pops. Darker work doesn’t often compete very well in the marketplace.

[RSL]

It's a lovely shot, Dave, and I agree with Slobodan.

I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again: There's a guy I've gotten to know over the years who shows and sells at art fairs around the country. A couple years ago he showed up at our local fourth of July Commonwheel Art Fair. I stopped by his booth and noticed that he was pushing the color saturation almost to the point where his pictures looked like Marlboro ads. I mentioned it and sort of turned up my nose. He agreed the stuff was pretty gross, and added "But my sales have doubled."

I suspect that people who buy pushed color prints hang them over their fireplace until they get so tired of them they're ready to put them into the fireplace. But who knows? There's no accounting for taste.

By the way, nobody seems to have taken you up on your offer to tell us the local juicy folk lore attached to the castle. As Ross Perot said in 1992, "I'm all ears..."

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

By the way, nobody seems to have taken you up on your offer to tell us the local juicy folk lore attached to the castle. As Ross Perot said in 1992, "I'm all ears..."

OK Russ, your wish is my command...

Now for a bit of interesting history about the Castle Moil which took place many hundreds of years ago....

The castle is an ancient seat of the Mackinnon clan and was a fortress commanding the strait of Kyle Akin between the Isle of Skye and the mainland, through which all shipping had to pass or else attempt the stormy passage of The Minch, all the way around the far side of the island.

According to local tradition, Alpín mac Echdach's great-grandson Findanus, the 4th MacKinnon chief, brought Dunakin (the land including the castle) into clan ownership by marrying the current owners daughter a Norse princess, who was then quickly given the nickname of 'Saucy Mary'. Now I bet you are wondering why she got that nickname aren’t you? Well Findanus and his new bride soon realised, that they needed a steady income to maintain the upkeep of the castle and the surrounding land, so they hatched a plan to tax passing ships for the use of the water outside their castle and they did this by running a heavy chain or rope across the sound (the stretch of water between the island and the mainland) and levied a toll on all shipping vessels that wished to pass through and the reason she became known as 'Saucy Mary' (there is still a Saucy Mary gift shop near to the castle), is because when the sailors paid the toll and the chain had been lifted out of the way by Findanus, she would then reward the ships crew, by removing her top garments and showing them all her ample bosom for as long as the ship took to sail past...

Now I think as a way of collecting taxes, this inivative and forward thinking approach certainly had a couple of good points in its favour

Dave

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

I believe this is another good technique for increasing image sales that I read somewhere recently, as this image of Castle Moil is no longer just a picture of an old ruined castle, it is now a picture of an old ruined castle with a very memorable story attached to it, which any buyers would then enjoy passing on to who ever they showed it to.

So come on, who wants to buy a copy printed on canvas? I can ship worldwide you know 

Dave

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Forget attaching the story to it... attach a picture to it instead, a picture of her boobs that is, and I am sure the sales would fly

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Forget attaching the story to it... attach a picture to it instead, a picture of her boobs that is, and I am sure the sales would fly

You mean Tit for Tat?