Relocating to the Isle of Lewis
03.01.2024
Happy New Year…
We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, enjoying precious time with family & friends. We would also like to wish everyone a safe, healthy and happy 2024.
We have so much to update you on and thought it would be nice to say hello via a blog post. We have several exciting things to let you know about, one of which involves life changing decisions and the other about what’s in store for 2024.
Apologies it’s been a while since we last updated the blog post, in typical fashion since I last wrote to you so much has happened. During September we had the adventure of a life time experiencing two and a half weeks touring the Outer Hebrides in our campervan. It’s a period of time in our lives that we wont forget. With very little planning we decided to head to Harris and spend a few days down time in the van before heading off to explore North & South Uists as well as the Isle of Barra. There was no itinerary, no expectations, just the freedom of a couple of weeks and a full tank of diesel. We stayed on some beautiful campsites and also enjoyed the facilities provided by West Harris Trust, enjoying breathtaking views out to sea from all over the Outer Hebrides. The highlight of the trip had to be the best display of the northern lights we had ever seen dancing over Luskentyre sands. The weather also had a few surprises in store for us with gale force winds several times during the trip. At one point over night we thought the windows in the van would blow through, the winds were that powerful, all good fun and just adds to the experience. Another highlight was meeting up and connecting with several other photographers who were also enjoying some time in the Outer Hebrides. It was lovely to finally say hello face to face with a few fabulous photographers that we follow on Instagram. We were also fortunate to be back on Harris in time for the Isle of Harris Distillery Whisky launch. The Hearach is the Islands first release of single malt, not that either of us are whisky drinkers but fond collectors. The whisky collection started many years ago during our very first visits to Scotland, we decided to buy a bottle every time we were in Scotland so it seemed very fitting to be involved in a little piece of history. There is a four part documentary on BBC Alba all about the distillery from the beginnings of them producing Gin right the way through to the whisky launch if anyone is interested….. Anyway, I’m digressing as usual.
If you have seen our videos from our time in the Outer Hebrides during 2023 you will know that in a very short space of time the Outer Hebrides captured our hearts to the very core. We’ve visited so many parts of Scotland more than once and been fortunate enough to find a release & escapism in the coast & landscape but never before have we felt so emotionally moved and in tune with an area. After we returned home from our trip in September we made the decision to relocate. Putting our house in Aberdeenshire up for sale felt a little scary but very exciting. We’d settled into our village well and spent 18 months enjoying the beautiful countryside and coast that Aberdeenshire had to offer but it didn’t really feel like home. We will look back on our time in Aberdeenshire with very fond memories, we made some incredible friends and felt very welcome. The move to Alford was for work purposes, Max was working full time, commuting into Aberdeen & Dundee but we had only realised part of our dream. Since discovering Scotland 10 years ago, the dream was always to live somewhere remote by the sea, our dream kept us both going through some very difficult times in our lives and also gave us something to aim towards. So the house went up for sale, storm Babet lashed down and viewing were a little sparse to start with but just three weeks later we had a buyer…. then the panic set in. We assumed the house would take a while to sell with it being later in the year and on the run up to Christmas, we were wrong. Our buyer wasn’t in a chain meaning that the process would be short & sweet, we quickly booked a ferry and started to look at houses for sale, selecting around 7 to view over a few days. I won’t bore you with all the details of houses we viewed, some were lovely but a little small or not in the right location for us, some offered other opportunities such as a six bedroom house that had previously been run as a BnB. We wanted a family home, our forever home, one that was perfect for us & our three dogs. On the last day before our ferry home, a house that we previously looked at but was outside of our price range was reduced…. a stroke of luck or fate? We both absolutely loved the house the minute we stepped inside and the rest is history. Six weeks later we have now relocated and making our dream house on the Isle of Lewis home. We are located within ten minutes of three beautiful beaches where I’m sure we’ll be spending a lot of time, we have so much to explore and discover both on Lewis & Harris and finally feel we are where we are supposed to be. We are very much looking forward to Island life, taking in the whole experience and embracing every second.
In other news since returning home, we were also involved with a SheClicks Webinar. For those of you who are unaware of SheClicks, it is a female photography community. You can find SheClicks on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, via their website and they also have a podcast. They are a very friendly bunch offering virtual coffee mornings, monthly themed competitions, meet ups and a whole host of valuable photography related information & advice (Link Below) We were asked by Angela Nicholson who founded SheClicks to present a webinar to the community about starting & running a YouTube Channel. Following on from our Podcast with Margaret Soraya over summer, this was a fantastic opportunity for us to encourage more women onto the YouTube Platform. It was a real privilege to be able to share some insights on how to go about starting up a channel alongside a little knowledge on how upload videos, make thumbnails and titles etc. With things escalating so quickly with the move and lots to organise we haven’t made any recent YouTube videos but will be back out and about very soon.
We are also very proud to be launching Coastal Creations in 2024. Coastal Creations will encompass everything we’ve dreamed about offering for many years. Bringing photography experiences, possibly a podcast, Facebook community and much more, click the link below to find out more.
Summer in the Outer Hebrides
26.08.2023
Well what another couple of months that has been….
Time just seems to be going nowhere recently, only yesterday I saw Halloween products for sale in the shops, that only means one thing……we are on the countdown to… dare I say it, Christmas. Before we get to the tinsel & turkey and all that good stuff we’ll have autumn to look forward to with the rich orange, yellow and brown colours lighting up the landscape. Wow… that’s me taken us to the end of the year in just a few short ramblings.
So what have we been up to over the last few months, for those of you who don’t already know, we’ve visited the delightfully beautiful Outer Hebrides again, spending my birthday on the incredible Isle of Harris. It was an absolute pleasure whilst we were on the island to have the opportunity to visit Talla Na Mara to see Margaret Soraya’s exhibition. Margaret lives on Harris and had her beautiful work displayed proudly and rightly so on the walls. What was even more amazing was that we met up with Margaret at the exhibition having the opportunity to chat to her over a coffee. One of the most genuine, sincere and inspirational people we’ve met in a long time. Margaret’s work is exceptional, I’ll post the link to her website below for those who are interested, I’d definitely recommend taking a look. We also recorded a podcast in Margaret’s van with her dog Skye, such a joy and playful soul with a huge amount of character. The podcast was around female landscape photographers on YouTube and the lack of them. It still surprises me that we are one of only a handful of British female landscape photographers that have a presence on the YouTube Platform. We discussed reasons why this may be on the podcast, again I’ll post the link to the podcast below. It was probably one of the most surreal moments we’ve had in a totally good way, it was hilarious with Skye causing mischief, so much fun. If you are a female and have considered starting a photography channel but have yet to take the plunge, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch using the contact section, we’d be interested to discuss it further.
I’ve also been involved in presenting a talk to Donside Photography Club which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was great to have the opportunity to speak to other photographers about Seascape Photography and all things creative. The talk was well received by the members and has spurred me on to deliver more presentations. It has also been great to meet up with Don Nealon, a local photographer who got in touch with us after watching one of our YT video’s. We spent the day at a wonderful seascape location, it was fabulous to have the opportunity to chat to him and learn more about his journey with photography, the video from our day will be released on 30th August. It was also superb to meet Dave who was over from the Isle of Lewis in our neck of the woods, we met up at Dunnottar Castle and enjoyed a lovely discussion about all things photography related. This leads me onto our next venture… we are shortly heading back to the Outer Hebrides for just over two weeks, visiting the Uists and Barra, finishing with some time on the Isle of Harris & Lewis. We are really looking forward to meeting up again with Dave to explore some hidden gems.
I’m going to finish the blog update by thanking everyone who takes the time to watch our YT videos, leave a comment or a thumbs up, it really is appreciated, also to everyone who interacts on Instagram & Facebook. We enjoy sharing our experiences with you and will to continue doing so.
Be sure to check out the ‘my recent work and prints section’ which have also been updated.
Take lots of care, chat again soon…. hopefully before the tinsel & turkey makes an appearance.
Adele & Max
Margaret’s Websites - Photographer, artist and educator Margaret Soraya
Quiet Landscapes | Landscape Photography and Creative Retreats Scotland
Our Podcast - Creative Soundscapes with Margaret Soraya: Encouraging Women onto YouTube with Adele and Max Warner Tate on App