Image of the week

Filling whisky casks at Bruichladdich distillery, Isle of Islay.

Normally casks are filled through the bung hole in the centre of the stave half way up the cask, then casks are stored longways up to three high in a dunnage warehouse or racked to greater heights for more efficiency. However there is a more modern trend to stack the casks end on six to a pallet and then the pallets are stacked on top of each other. This makes better use of full height warehouses but it doesn’t have the charm of a dunnage warehouse.

If the casks are to be stored on pallets then the casks need to be filled (although not necessarily emptied) from the end, so a new bung hole is created for this.

This picture shows the point at which the cask has been (over)filled! and the bung is being hammered into place, the surplus spirit being momentarily being thrown into the air.

Image of the week

This week, a very summery picture of Loch Skerrols on Islay.

The summer has really still to arrive this year but this is a reminder of what it can look like.

Image of the week

A windless morning plus contra jour lighting make for great reflections in this image of a small loch an on the Isle of Islay.

 

image of the week

Normally my image of the week is taken during the current week but this week an image from last February in Paris.

I came across the image (which I had forgotten about) whilst looking for some other pictures for a client in the Charente.

This museum/gallery alongside the Seine opposite Notre Dame is being refurbished. The statue outside the building is completely surrounded by the portacabins used by the workforce making the statue look very out of place.

Image of the Week

This week a picture that includes the two primary symbols of whisky production.

Roof pagodas and the copper still will be forever linked to whisky distilleries in Scotland.

Image of the week

A contre jour shot of some reeds during a short shoot at the historical site of Finlaggan on Islay last Friday.

Image of the week

A rare week away from Islay in the summer, even if the weather isn’t very summery.

I spent a  couple of days in West Yorkshire and took a walk round part of Hardcastle Crags where this shot of Gibson Mill was taken.

Image of the week

Meet Ben & Marilyn who travelled from Singapore to Islay for their wedding photography,

Just the right amount of a breeze to illustrate the veil.

Image of the week

The old pack horse bridge on the Isle of Jura.

Image of the week

Taken inside warehouse number 5 at Bunnahabhain distillery on Islay, a few hundred years of spiders cobwebs over the window!