Autumn Years: Abandoned A93 Road, Craighall Gorge

On a recent excursion elsewhere, a friend tipped me off to the existence of the gorge at Craighall, through which runs the remains of the abandoned A93 road from Blairgowrie to Glenshee.

It’s funny to think that the bridge was constructed in 1994 and the road decommissioned in 2008, both of which are well within my lifetime – and given how I visited Glenshee several times in my early years having just moved up to Perth in 2004/5, it’s entirely possible I might have used the old road unawares.

These days it’s little more than a 40-minute saunter for dog walkers – almost like wandering through a woodland but with crash-barriers beside and the occasional painted stripe of a white line former road marking peeking through the inch-deep mud and moss.

With the leaves turning gold in autumn, it’s a post-urban delight in its own way.

Around Birnam Hill: Tree Closeups

A slight reversion to type, here. In previous lives I used to enjoy taking photos of closeup parts of trees, a study in shapes and forms.

Combined with one of my new favourite walk routes, up Birnam Hill near Dunkeld, and we have a lot of larch buds…

Testing the new mobile camera – this one shoots RAW DNG files, processed here in Darktable.

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.

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!