Scottish Mirage Photo

Photographer’s Note

The Isle of May from Belhaven beach. As we walked down the beach the island started to grow a top in the heat of the sun, till it looked almost like an aircraft carrier. The whole of the Fife Coast had a similar effect as well. I've seen this happen in the winter as well. Sometimes the island just grows vertically to twice it's normal height.

Taken on full zoom, which gives a more speckled effect.

After Windosil alerting me to an online discussion - I discovered it is a looming Superior Mirage as it appears above the original.

I've posted another shot of Fife taken at the same time - Scottish Mirage no 2

tyro has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

windosil (830) 2009-06-09 10:38

Well done to capture this at such a distance! I like the bird and the lazing people framing your view.
There's a good simple discussion of such mirages here, by the way.
Winifred

tyro (2668) 2009-06-10 15:02

Hello, Alastair!

This is a wonderful depiction of a mirage and Winifred's critique with its included information is very interesting indeed.

You have managed to capture the image of something we occasionally see but never record - wonderful!

We had actually planned to visit the Isle of May last weekend but the "May Princess" didn't sail because of windy weather so we were forced to spend our time in Anstruther where we enjoyed fine fish and chips and a trip to the Scottish Fisheries Museum which was very interesting indeed. But I wanted to get some shots of puffins! Next time, maybe.

Anyway, this is a fine shot of an interesting phenomenon.

Kind Regards,

John.