Autumn is a magical time of year to be out and about in Scotland. The stags are rutting and the wild atlantic salmon (salmo salar) run the rivers and ascend waterfalls in an effort to get to their spawning grounds. One of my favourite passions is watching the spectacle of these powerful fish leaping. Some get it right some don't some get it so wrong that they hit the rocks at the side of the river.

The photo in this post was taken only this week on one of my trips up the river Spey. The fish left the raging torrent pushed on by instinct making a leap of faith or perhaps it was hope. Anyway it didn't make it this time around, my suspicions are that the trajectory was slightly out. Some say a leap like this is a reconnaissance leap to see how high the falls are. I wouldn't like to guess how many salmon actually leap these falls successfully. I do suspect that most get over eventually. There are many places in Scotland that you can visit to see this spectacle. These include the Falls Of Shin, Rogie Falls, Falls of Truim, Cargills leap, Newe Dam to name but a few.

It's finally happened!

Recognising the benefits of this phenomenon, it's finally happened! Like many before me I've put this off for some time now, but being on holiday today the 18th October 2006 and looking for something creative to do on a rainy day… I've gone and signed up for this blog thing via blogger.com and this is my first post.

It’s not just any blog you understand, I just can't stop taking photos so I expect this will be a photo blog. A keen photographer and a lover of life in general and especially the outdoors and nature this blog will undoubtedly be an outlet for some everyday things and my creativity. This will include abstract, travel, landscape, sports, motor sports, nature, documentary photos and portraits, some of which will not make it onto my main photo web site (coming soon). I'd be delighted should you feel like commenting on any photos I post here. I'm planning to do a fair bit of travel in the future so hopefully I'll be able to share my travelling experiences here along with some travel photos.

If you are interested so far, look out for any fine art and digitally modified photos I might post. These will appear if I can pluck up enough courage.
Speaking of which I guess I’d better go and find some photos to post!

So the speysiders photo blog is initialised! I'd be delighted if anyone out there were to feel motivated enough to leave feedback, post comments, good or bad about the blog, the photography I do, or anything else that you may think is in context and topically relevant.

As always I'll be happy to share information and reciprocate links with others and look forward to meeting fellow bloggers, blog readers and Internet surfers in general.

Welcome to my blog... I hope you enjoy it...
John