The first in what will hopefully become a series of photography walks organised by the Scottish Wildlife Trust in conjunction with photoscot.co.uk took place on Sunday 22 October 2006, and attracted a good response.

10 people met with the two leaders at the newly refurbished Falls of Clyde SWT Reserve Visitor Centre at 10am. Tea, coffee, herbal tea and biscuits were available, courtesy of the SWT, as people gathered in a room which was specially set aside for us, and had been prepared by the SWT staff, to whom our thanks is due. The event was about improving your wildlife photographic techniques, and had a theme of fungi, autumn colours, and waterfalls, although people were able to focus on anything else they wished. The cost was £15 per person.

First there was a session involving a short presentation / getting to know each other / discussing what camera equipment people had brought. There was also discussion about the merits and disadvantages of shooting raw files. Thereafter, we walked through the reserve at a leisurely pace, stopping to photograph whatever people wished to, and discussing possible approaches to photography, on an individual or small group basis. It did not matter what kind of camera people had. The idea was to help people maximise their use of whatever equipment they had brought.

Fortunately, we did not need to fall back on the wet weather programme, as after half an hour, the sun came out, and illuminated the yellowing autumn colours of those leaves which had turned. The first main stop was the viewpoint above Corra Linn, where there was a discussion of how to take a slow shutter-speed picture of the waterfall, to show the water flowing, and people were able to use a tripod, or use the time-delay and a bean bag to steady the camera.

Later, people were to be seen quite frequently at various points, kneeling on the ground to photograph fungi. Many of them were so keen on the photography that they didn't even stop for lunch, while others had only a short break. Amongst techniques discussed and tried were looking for fungi which could be photographed from the side, so as to get a profile view with an out-of-focus background, instead of simply shooting from above. Some people used flash, while others used the sun shining through the branches to make an interesting lighting pattern.

Although there was some autumn colour, most of the leaves were still green on the 22nd October. Because of climate change causing the leaves to change colour later than previously, we may need to put back future autumn colour walks till the last weekend in October. Casual observation suggests that until about 1980, there was always a frost before the Glasgow end-of-September holiday weekend, but this is no longer the case.

The walk finished at 3pm back in the SWT Visitor Centre with a plenary session, which started with more tea and coffee and chocolate chip shortbread. It was possible to download most of the digital pictures and look at them using a video projector. A discussion of people's results and photographic techniques was carried out. Anyone who was on the walk was invited to email me to clarify any points which have arisen in their minds, and to provide feedback.The plenary session finished about 4.30pm.