Gary Hodgson Photography

Name: Gary Hodgson Photography
Address: Aviemore, GB
Telephone: +447720001326

Home
United Kingdom
Aviemore
Gary Hodgson Photography

Gary is a professional photographer living in The Cairngorms, Scottish Highlands. I guide wildlife & landscape photography days out and tours all year round.

Gary specialises in montane species, especially Mountain Hare and Ptarmigan.

18/06/2026

Wednesday 17th June.

A very enjoyable 4 hours with this wonderful wee mountain hare.

Every mountain hare encounter always, always as a story. This beautiful hare was very alert through much of the time spent with her. But most unusual was the fact she would regularly go into her close-by burrow/cave in the boulders for some length of time ( over 20 minutes on each occasion). The only reason adult hares go under ground and hide is if a very prominent threat from a large predator is extremely close by. Mountain Hares don't live in burrows. The only other reason they use a burrow is when they are having their young. The leveret will stay underground for a couple of weeks usually, safe from harm. After that period they will be out in the open feeding for themselves.

My guessing is she has a wee leveret under ground which she is feeding on her milk. She wasn't at all concerned with my presence, she was mostly scanning in other directions. Let's hope there's another wee leveret going to be on the scene shortly. All this is fantastic news for my local mountain hare population. Long may it continue.

15/06/2026

Sunday 14th - Monday 15th June.

A brief spell of drier and brighter skies forecast for a couple of days. Making the most of the small weather window, we camped up high in the Cairngorms for a night with two top days amongst the finest area in the entire Cairngorm mountains.

Setting off on Sunday afternoon the skies weren't looking too promising, but we trusted the weather forecast for a brighter afternoon and evening. As we walked onto the plateau the skies did indeed clear and it was a lovely late afternoon on Ben Macdui. From the UK's 2nd highest mountain we wandered across the plateau to the lip of the wonderful Loch A'an basin. Anywhere along the rim of this huge amphitheatre of rock and loch scenery is absolutely stunning and the jewel in the entire Cairngorms National Park. Setting up camp in beautiful evening light.

Part of the plan for this particular camp spot was to capture sunrise the following morning on the An Sticil face ( commonly referred to as the Sheltersone Crag). Dawn is around 4am these days. Unfortunately there was a lot of cloud around first thing so the beautiful pink rocks of first light wasn't going to happen. But shortly after we packed up and set off around 9am, the cloud thinned and broke, revealing wonderful light on the crags and loch. Loch A'an is certainly a place to linger and absorb your surroundings. Today there was hardly a breath of wind and the temperatures soared by mid morning.

A great couple of days, the dawn photography trip and images will have to wait on another occasion.

'an

11/06/2026

Wednesday 10th June.

Another lovely morning spent with Dóchas.
This is now her 3rd summer of life. I've been observing and photographing her since she was a small leveret. This wonderful mountain hare almost certainly as never been so close to any other human being for the span of her lifetime, except for a few of my clients :).

Soon the vegetation will be more colourful as the heathers come into flower and the grasses become more vibrant. A huge part of photographing the mountain hares throughout 12 months of the year is all the changes in the landscape they call their home. For those who only want to see and photograh these wonderful creatures only in the winter season they miss out on so much.

08/06/2026

Friday 5th June.

Dochas in the sunshine. She doesn't always sit still and pose for me. Today she was all over the place looking for the best of the summer grasses.

05/06/2026

Friday 5th June.

Nice to see the sun return here in Strathspey & The Cairngorms today. After several days of gloomy, cloudy conditions we hot some blue skies and plenty of sunshine. The weather forecasts have actually been predicting rain showers and longer spells of rain for many days this week but we've had hardly any precipitation.

The montane flowers and plants are looking splendid now we are officially in the 'summer' season. Amongst the many species seen today were:

Cloudberry - lots of it. Should be great amounts of fruits next month after the flowers drop away.

Bearberry
Crowberry
Trailing Azaelia
Butterwort
Round leaved Sundew
Tormental
Milkwort
Common Speedwell
Birds foot Trefoil

Lovely day photographing the mountain hares too :)

01/06/2026

The beautiful Dóchas enjoyng the sunshine last week.

This is now her 3rd Summer coming up. I wonder if the wee leveret I have been photographing recently is one of her new born. No one will ever know, except them of course.

29/05/2026

Tuesday 26th May.

A terrific 4 hours with this wee guy. Since only a few days ago I can already see he/she has grown just a bit (see previous post, 22nd May). Today this Mountain Hare Leveret was enjoying the warm sunshine. Most of the 4 hours I spent near him he was either snoozing or yawning. I lost count how many times he yawned.

24/05/2026

Friday 22nd May.

There is nothing quite wonderful and an absolute privilege to be sat high on the Scottish mountains in Spring whilst photographing a beautiful Mountain Hare Leveret. I lay down in the heather for over 3 hours in the company of this beautiful wee hare. I am guessing he or she is only around 2 or 3 weeks old. After the first couple of weeks, after they are born, the mum will look after the leveret and feed them up on her milk. After that they are out in the big, new world and having to fend for themselves. This hare was completely at ease with me whilst it lay in the sun, yawned, scratched and just sat around. Wonderful.

To give some sense of scale, this wee one you would quite easily hold in the palms of your hands. For scale, if you look at some of my images where there is some thin leaved vegetation ( Crowberry plant) these leaves are only around 5-10mm long

I did have an inkling last year that the mountain hares on my regular patch will be multiplying after a couple of years. There has been at least 2 female mountain hares around which I have been photographing on a regular basis. I'm hoping to see this one a few more times.

Gary Hodgson Photography

20/05/2026

Wednesday 20th May.

Day 2 on Alex's mini guided walking break here in the Cairngorms. With a good weather forecast we headed up high and visited the finest place in the entire Cairngorms were we were treated to some fine views for our picnic in solitude with no one around in this wild and beautiful spot.

A great couple of days with banter, beers, coffees and wonderful hillwalking.

Tarmachan Mountaineering

19/05/2026

Friday 15th May.

It was a stunning day here in the Cairngorms fr some Ptarmigan photography. All week there has been snow showers every day along with strong winds on the plateau & summits. This has created some wonderful rime ice on exposed north facing surfaces. One of the images I try to obtain in winter is the beautiful Ptarmigan with rime iced rocks in the frame. Today was a perfect opputunity for this. There wasn't a breath of wind and wall to wall sunshine. The Northern Cairngorms looking like any day in a winter month. But the long daylight hours (light at 5am, dark at 10pm) and the warm afternoon dispelled the illusion.

Of course the Ptarmigan are in their Spring plumage, the female looking absolutely splendid in her glorious golden brown feathers. Today I enjoyed photographing 3 separate pairs and 2 individual males.

Knowing where the Ptarmigan will be is a huge part of photographing these remarkable birds. The weather conditions during the preceding days also has a big consideration you need to think about when venturing out. The Cairngorms are huge but there are key areas where to walk to get chances of observing these creatures.

Gary Hodgson Photography

Address

Aviemore

Telephone

+447720001326

Website

http://www.garyhphotography.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Gary Hodgson Photography posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your business to be the top-listed Photography Service in Aviemore?