Wild Spirits and Glass | A Week Chasing Wildlife Through Scotland with the Sony A9 III and Sigma 300-600mm

Wild Spirits and Glass:
A Week Chasing Wildlife Through Scotland
with the Sony A9 III & Sigma 300-600mm

Scotland’s west coast leaves a lasting impression long after you’ve departed. The dramatic landscapes of the Highlands, the serene beauty of its lochs, and the play of movement in the wind, whether it's a bird breaking cover or a shape soaring high above, create an unforgettable experience.

I was here to capture those fleeting moments, particularly with the possibility of seeing the majestic White-Tailed Sea Eagles, while also uncovering other surprises the landscape had to offer. The kit I packed was designed for reach and speed: the Sony A9 III paired with the Sigma 300-600mm lens. It was a week-long wildlife photography trip, spanning locations from to the Cairngorms, with my camera always at the ready, scanning the skies.

The Sigma 300-600mm lens was a dream to use. Designed specifically with wildlife photography in mind, its impressive reach allowed me to get close to subjects that would have otherwise appeared as distant silhouettes. At 600mm, even birds soaring high in the sky or waders on a distant shoreline felt within reach. Although it's not a lightweight lens, weighing around 4kg, it delivers exceptional sharpness throughout its range.

The autofocus motors are both fast and quiet, locking onto subjects with impressive accuracy, especially in good lighting conditions. I mostly shot handheld, and the optical stabilisation was a valuable addition. While it can't work miracles when you're trying to hold four kilos at arm's length on a rocking boat, it certainly helped reduce motion blur during those moments that mattered.

The Sony A9 III is a camera that truly excels in this type of work. Thanks to its global shutter, shooting is blackout-free is available, and it eliminates any rolling shutter distortion, a critical advantage when tracking fast-moving birds in flight. The 120fps burst mode is impressively quick, so you'll need to be mindful of your card space. However, it was the camera's autofocus performance where the A9 III really stood out. The subject tracking felt intuitive, and the eye-detection for birds was effective, and when combined with the lens's speed, I rarely missed a shot. Additionally, the weather sealing gave me peace of mind, as this can be crucial when the Scottish skies can shift from bright sunshine to heavy rain in just ten minutes.

The trip unfolded in several chapters. Mull was the first real test of my equipment, a place I’ve long associated with eagles and empty roads winding through open moorland. I did manage to spot two White-Tailed Sea Eagles, but sadly they were sitting on their nest and very well camouflaged. That's the reality of wildlife photography; you don’t always capture the moment you hope for, but you discover other magic instead, and it was amazing to see them, even as well hidden as they were.

Ardlanish Beach on Mull quickly became a favourite spot. I spent hours there watching Curlew and Oystercatchers along the shoreline. The Curlew, in particular, allowed me to capture one of my favourite shots of the trip, with its wings outstretched against a beautiful, sea-drenched backdrop. Every feather rendered in sharp detail, thanks to the combination of my lens and camera delivering exactly what I needed.

Next, I headed to the Cairngorms, where one of the highlights was a morning spent near Boat of Garten. There, I managed to find and photograph Crested Tits. These small, restless birds are always on the move and are notoriously difficult to capture in clear images. However, the A9 III made it possible with its performance. Even at ISO 3200 in the shade of the pine woods, the images are clean and detailed.

The most memorable part of the trip was a morning spent on the water aboard a boat with Venture West, departing from Crinan Harbour. Seabirds wheeled above me and dove alongside the boat. Photographing from a moving deck proved to be a valuable stress test for my entire setup. The weight of the lens made it challenging to take long bursts of shots, but the shorter, reactive bursts, supported by both in-body and optical stabilisation, resulted in plenty of usable images, and the autofocus of the A9 III effectively tracked the erratic movement of the birds against the shifting backgrounds of sea and sky without any hesitation.

The combination of the Sigma 300-600mm lens and the Sony A9 III made for an excellent setup for wildlife photography. It’s certainly not lightweight, and after a week of carrying it through heather and over rocky terrain, I definitely felt the strain. However, the results were worth it. The images are crisp, well-tracked, and full of detail, even in challenging lighting conditions. Most importantly, I could rely on this equipment to perform when I needed it, allowing me to concentrate on the landscape, the flight paths of the birds, and those fleeting moments when they revealed themselves.

Scotland didn’t easily give up its greatest rewards, but that adds to the appeal. You can return from a trip like this with not just stunning images, but also with stories: of light shifting on the hills, of sudden wingbeats, and of reliable gear that came through when it counted the most.