Hebrides & Highlands Hebrides & Highlands

Luskentyre Strand

Luskentyre, Isle of Harris, late afternoon in September. The tide was on its way out. The sand — which is white-to-gold depending on the light — was wet from the retreating water and had taken on a quality almost like polished stone. The turquoise of the Sound of Taransay is the colour of the Caribbean. It has no business in Scotland.

The colour is a function of the water depth, the white shell-sand substrate, and the quality of the Atlantic light. It changes with the tide and the cloud cover. In the twenty minutes before this image was made, it had been grey. In the twenty minutes after, it was grey again. The camera was on a tripod; the shutter released by cable; the exposure chosen carefully and with some luck.