The flip-side of my previous post on what nature does around town: making architecture and art look interesting.
Category Archives: nature
A stroll around town: nature’s bits
It feels like millenia ago, but back in late Spring this year I spent a happy afternoon strolling across one of the bridges in Perth, to see what I could see.
Corrie Fee
It seems like ages ago now – but back in April, a friend took me for a walk up Corrie Fee near Glen Clova. It was the first time I’ve been there, and didn’t know exactly what to expect; the first stretch through the forestry was pleasant (once the weather made its mind up what to fling at us), but when the view opened-out into a massive wide vista at the foot of a corrie, complete with glacial morraine hillocks, it was wonderful.
Foggy Nights
Continuing the theme of failed attempts to do astrophotography, I spent an evening out at Newport-on-Tay in Fife. There’s a neat little road leading down to a carpark with a tiny beach and rocky outcrop… with the interplay of artificial lights and huge blanket of fog, it needed photographing 🙂
Out in the middle of nowhere
On a whim, a friend and I spent a few hours out in the middle of nowhere, Aberdeenshire – hunting aurora which totally failed to show, avoiding fog and pointing cameras sky-wards to see what could be seen.
I quite liked the lights of a cow-byre against the mist, the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters in the constellation of Taurus and a little wisp of cloud below the rising moon.
A Day in Argyll (3): Catching a Ferry
Late in the afternoon I caught a ferry from Oban out to Mull.
Several times in the voyage, the light was just amazing.
Leaving Oban with sunlight and clouds over Kerrera:
An epic vibrant complete double-rainbow seeming to hover just 50yd behind the ferry:
Stunning light approaching Mull:
There’s something relaxing just simply watching the low sunlight reflecting off the bow-waves around the boat:
Detail of soft sunlight reflecting on the sea and bow-waves from the ferry.
A Day in Argyll (2): Inverawe
No trip to Argyll is complete without a drive around Inverawe. A beautiful place, with woodland left to nature to do its thing in the middle of the estate. This time, the trees were particularly gorgeous in the sunlight.
Of course, what really matters is that Old Friend, the first and most characterful of the trees I later identified as a goat willow, is doing well. He is.
My favourite of many old goat willow trees around the estate – increasingly falling apart at the seams, it’s still a characterful tree.
A Day in Argyll (1): Landscapes
I spent Saturday travelling, mostly driving, to old stamping ground in Argyll.
There were roadworks holding up proceedings at Cruachan visitor centre, so I stopped to take the obvious photo of the Pass of Brander from the carpark.
The other favourite view is from the Connel Bridge looking toward Ben Cruachan; this time, the mountain was hiding under a rain cloud. The Falls of Lora tidal race below the bridge was flowing pretty fast, with the incoming tide.
Around Inverary
At the start of October, I spent a happy Saturday on a photo-walk organized by a friend around Inverary in Argyll, the group numbering nearly 20 folks.
It was quite a day – over 7 miles walked, folks socialized with, the town and surrounding landscapes investigated.
We started with a trip up the bell-tower and the adjacent All Saints’ Scottish Episcopal Church in the middle of town:
After that, we visited Inverary Jail – quite interesting to get a glimpse of the conditions folks lived in. A friendly guard posed for us:
As we were walking around to the castle for lunch, there was a burst of sunlight over the landscape. A few days prior to the excursion I had discovered an old Pentax film camera in a storage box, and loaded it with film and acquired an extra 50mm prime lens for it, along with an adapter to the Sony NEX-7. So this is Strone Point and the top of Glen Kinglas, on an old 50mm f/1.7 “nifty fifty” Pentax PK-fit lens:
We had lunch in the Inverary Castle tearooms:
Inverary Castle
The afternoon was spent climbing up Dun na Cuaiche. I was impressed to see what an effect the geology has on the area, as (igneous) felsite hills to the north of the town give way to psammite (partially metamorphosed sedimentary) bedrock along the shore of Loch Fyne. The watchtower is a folly – the only thing it looks out over is the castle itself, affording no real protection from anyone else feeling like invading!
Around Birnam Hill: landscape old and new
The last in a small series of photos from Birnam Hill near Dunkeld.
As far as I can tell, the first two photos are taken more or less on the Highland Boundary Fault – a line runs from Stare Dam past Rohallion lodge, up through one quarry and across the A9 through another slate quarry.
Test shots from a favourite walk, playing with the new mobile – DNG RAW files processed in Darktable.
Around Birnam Hill: Things Found in Woodland
A selection of photos, using a walk around Birnam Hill to test the new mobile and its camera.
Things one finds in woodland: details of a feather; broken fences; abandoned jackets (don’t ask!) and chunky rocks (semi-pelite, near the Highland Boundary Fault).
Aurora!
For the second time, I was lucky enough to see the aurora from Perth, last night. It was quite an impressive display; by the time I got out to darker skies it was quite low above the horizon, but the greens were strong to the naked eye and some strong rays came and went over time.
I still need to work on a good viewing location, but out beyond Rhynd is a good start.
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.
Strolling around town
A small collection of things seen in the course of one day strolling around Perth: the classic view of St Leonard’s church with its spire across the South Inch; sun setting on the Craigie golf course; a chestnut tree. Well, why not 🙂
Glen Turret: Lumpy Landscape
Glen Turret is an obvious glacial valley. At the north end of the loch the land is covered with undulating mounds – morraine, formed by the receding glacier.