Around St Fillan’s

Loch Earn is still an idyllic scene despite everyone stopping to take photos in St Fillan’s. Herewith, two obvious views:

Personally, I like this view instead:

People Watching / People Watching

People Watching / People Watching

There’s a time-/context-axis running from the far distance – first there was the landscape, then there was Robert Mulholland’s statue Still, then there’s people taking photos of it, then there’s me shooting them. All things considered, a bit “meta”.

Water: Around Loch Rannoch (3)

This one isn’t so much about the water as the mountain, Schiehallion. Back in 1774, its regular shape and relatively isolated location led to it being used in the famous experiment by Mason and Maskelyne to determine the value of the gravitational constant, big-G, and the density of the Earth.

Certainly it sits fairly impressively in the landscape.

A Tree

Time for something a little different, and back in the original spirit of this blog as a source for mobile photos, as well.

I spotted this tree in the middle of Craigie in Perth – perhaps an unexpected location for so elegant a life-form, and testament to the selectivity of photography. Camera never lies? If I’d framed this any lower, there would have been a fence and bunch of buildings and take-away shops in the way.

A birch tree in the middle of Craigie, Perth

A birch tree in the middle of Craigie, Perth

Some experimental post-processing using the GIMP with the `Beautify’ plugin, amongst other things.

Water: Around Loch Rannoch (1)

It’s hard driving around Loch Rannoch – all the stopping and starting makes for lousy mileage. But that’s OK – the scenery is more than worth it.

The first time I came around here, more used to the road network than the geography of reality, I drove beyond the end of the loch (into the setting sun in these photos) up to Rannoch Station, and was surprised to see `Glencoe’ on the adjacent page on the map. No mistake – it’s only about 5 miles directly across Rannoch Moor, and yet by road it’s at least 83 miles and 2.5 hours’ drive.

It’s been a while…

It’s been a few months now since I called time on the fixation with black&white closeup as a style. So it’s time to remember how to do it… Herewith, mostly as a lens-test, cyclamen and cactus plants from the kitchen windowsill.

Since I last looked, RawTherapee has changed a lot – I’ve learned that the `Contrast by Details’ control was responsible for some undesirable noisy artefacts in previous profiles, it’s gained better control over black and white conversion and even support for X-Trans sensors (now there’s something to lust after).

Trees

Pine forests: what’s not to like? Scots Pine trees stand tall and proud, burnished orange-gold catching the sun; birch trees get a bit old and develop gnarly character.

These are from a stroll in the Black Woods of Rannoch, on the south shore of Loch Rannoch.

I noticed Gunnar’s Tree, named for Gunnar Godwin, a chap whose fondness for these woods led him to manage them and agitate for them to be designated a Caledonian Forest Reserve.

fungi in the forest

Back in the middle of September, I spent a couple of hours exploring the Black Woods of Rannoch – a Caledonian Forest reserve on the south side of Loch Rannoch. One of the things that struck me – apart from a mosquito – was the sheer proliferation of toadstools, both fly-agaric and others, littering the path through the woods.

A Lunchtime Stroll

I spent a lunchtime recently with a friend from the Photo Society, strolling in leisurely fashion around the South Inch in Perth, mostly admiring the shapes and colours of trees. Well, why not… especially in Autumn!