(New) IslayBlog.com, a blog about the Isle of Islay, Scotland
Cask Strength since 2006
As the title says, some nice calming Islay inspired music today, only released a few days ago. The work is by Hania Rani in collaboration with Islay’s Bowmore distillery. The video shows many scenes on Islay, in particular around Saligo Bay (the poor piano carriers must have had their work cut out…). Lean back and enjoy:
I hope you enjoyed the music and the video, you can read more about the collaboration on Two Sensorial Spirits.
It’s time for this week’s Islay video. This weekend we’re going to Saligo Bay again (and will again in a future video, as it’s so videogenic, if that’s a word). The occasion was a breezy April evening a few years back with waves rolling in from the Atlantic and algae foam being blown across the beach by the blustery wind. I hope you enjoy the walk and views along the beach:
This was during high tide, so the water was coming up almost all the way to dunes, pushing in also by the strong winds. Managed to walk along the rocks at the foot of the dunes for some nice views in the beautiful mild evening light.
If you’d like to see more, I’ve just created an Islay’s Saligo Bay playlist with all my videos from this beach. Currently it contains 10 videos, I hope to add at least one more over the coming weeks. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel (if you’re not already subscribed), then you can be alerted to new videos whenever I upload one.
To close, well, if you’re a regular reader you know the drill: While I can’t promise anything I hope to publish another video next weekend. It will probably be a drone video, either revisiting Port Charlotte (long in the pipeline…) or of Finlaggan. Fingers crossed and watch this space.
As mentioned last weekend I was hoping to edit another Saligo Bay Islay video this week. Luckily I managed to do just that and YouTube processed it quite quickly as well (previous 360° videos for some reason took a long time), as this weekend’s new Islay video is a 360° video of a June sunset at Saligo Bay. It’s a about 11 minutes of all round views of the sunset from three different locations, starting down on the beach and ending up on the top of the dunes. I hope you’ll enjoy the views and the light:
Similar to previous 360° videos you can spot me loitering around in the background, walking around, enjoying the sunset and taking pictures. If you happen to look into the right direction at the right time you’ll also see me appearing out of / disappearing into thin air a couple of times. Haven’t worked out a way yet to avoid that when cutting together multiple clips from the same location.
Again no promises, but I’m hoping to complete another video next week. Haven’t decided yet what it will be, but I’m currently considering three options: The wreck on Kilchoman beach, Port Charlotte from the air revisited or Lagavulin & Dunyvaig from the air. Fingers crossed I can get one of them done.
Took me a bit longer than I had hoped, but the Saligo Bay sunset video I had promised when I shared the Beautiful waves in Saligo Bay video back in January is now live. It’s one of my longest videos so far at just under 19 minutes, so bring a bit of time to watch it. It’s a bit different to the short and quick TikTok, YouTube Shorts etc videos as it’s a long and slow video where not an awful lot happens apart from the waves rolling into Saligo Bay and the sun slowly setting on an early September evening. A mixture of wide angle far views and telephoto close up views of the colourful sun during the sunset, followed by some views during the gloaming after the sunset. So set your clock to Islay time, pour yourself a wee dram of Islay single malt whisky, set the video to full screen, sit down and relax:
I hope you enjoyed the sunset and found the video relaxing, if you did please share it with friends and family who need a break. Can’t promise anything, but I hope to be able to upload a few more Islay videos over the coming weeks (or even months).
Finally got around to editing another Islay video. My original plan was to edit one of a September sunset, but after reviewing some of the footage that will take a bit more time. So instead just a shorter video of some beautiful waves rolling in under the beautiful light of the gloaming not long after the sunset. Sit back, relax and enjoy for two minutes:
That’s all I’ve got for tonight, I hope you’ve enjoyed the video. I hope to be able to edit and publish the related Saligo Bay sunset video within the next week or two.
Oystercatchers aren’t exactly rare birds on Islay, they can be seen in many many places along the coast. Still, I know a lot of people like them. Experimenting with filming with my DSLR I filmed a few of them during an afternoon in Saligo Bay, sitting on rocks and running around the beach. Then I thought, why not edit a short video of them? Maybe someone will like it? Here is the video:
What do you think, worth sharing? I hope you like at least some of it.
As my Portuguese is rather limited (that’s an understatement by the way) I didn’t understand much in tonight’s video (only the few seconds in English to be precise). Still I found this video of Vinicius Bustamante’s visit to Islay quite interesting. They (there seems to have been at least one other couple?) stayed in the Glenmachrie Guesthouse and visited several distilleries:
According to Google Translate’s version of the video description he very much enjoyed Islay, the whisky, the sheep and the beaches, so he hopes to return soon.
Announcing the relaunch of the blog this morning I hinted there might be a second ‘Christmas present’ coming up. Having only finished editing it late in the evening on Christmas Evening I still had to upload it this morning. But it all worked out and I can proudly present my latest Islay video. It’s a bit different from the videos I’ve made previously. To start with it has music. Then it’s monochrome. And it’s quite fast paced. A bit of an experiment, I’m very curious to see what people think. Here it is:
In 4.5 minutes I’m taking you on a quick journey around Islay, taking in as much as possible in such a short period. Admittedly some of the selections were influenced by the availability of footage, in other areas I had to make difficult choices what to show and what to omit. Here is a list of the places you can see in chronological order:
I still think that’s quite impressive for 4.5 minutes, also a sign of how much Islay has to offer. It might be too fast and hectic for some, but then it might be exciting and fresh for others. I’m normally not a big fan of music for videos (certainly for my videos) and prefer more natural sounds, but here it felt appropriate so I used some. To avoid any rights issues (not to mention that the lyrics I feel often don’t really fit) I didn’t use any big hit(s) known to many but used some free music offered by Google. No lyrics, so no risk of conflict there either. The style of music will probably not be to everyone’s taste, I like the speed and energy in it.
Now it’s over to you, I hope you enjoy and like the whirlwind tour of Islay. Let me know what you think.