A study of lines and shapes and forms of tree branches.
Category Archives: daily
Inverawe Impressions (8/10)
Where we walked.
The old fellow was the first dog with whom I’d found an understanding. I remember it well – sitting in the back garden in the middle of one’s labours, he came around, sat beside me and basically said “look, it’s TLC behind the flappers, OK?”, and that was the moment of breakthrough. When he departed, I took the photo of Ben Cruachan beyond the trees in his honour; every time I’ve passed that spot since, I remember the ol’ dog – with much fondness.
Inverawe Impressions (7/10)
The series of photos from the Inverawe estate continues with a study of ways to enjoy the landscape. Ben Cruachan (aka the hollow mountain, because it was hollowed-out for the hydro-electric scheme) stands 1126m (3694ft) high. There’s fishing in the lily-pond.
Inverawe Impressions (6/10)
About 15 minutes into the regular walk route – large red (spiky!) berries, birch and willow trees spreading their branches, and two collapsing fence-posts – a pleasantly futile gesture of keeping nature at bay.
Inverawe Impressions (5/10)
The study of shapes and lines of trees in Inverawe continues. This time, we span all the ages from a young wayside beech sapling to my favourite goat willow (Salix caprea), the Old Friend in an increasing state of collapse (but none the less loved for that!).
Inverawe Impressions (3/10)
This episode is a study of green tree foliage and roads.
Inverawe Impressions (2/10)
Part 2 of an ongoing series of posts about the Inverawe estate in Argyll.
This time, we concentrate on mankind’s intrusion into nature. For the most part, the laird leaves the woodlands alone, untouched; however, the Forestry Commission clear-felled the slopes of Ben Cruachan, initially leaving the mountainside bare but there are now young trees beginning to grow in the barren patches. The unfortunate consequence has been damage to some of the water-courses, resulting in culverts that used to flow with beautiful clear peaty water now stagnant and clogged-up with algae.
Around a Graveyard
A small set of photos made in Kinnoull Graveyard, Perth.
A friend from the photo-society had posted a handful of photos of this graveyard on facebook a few days previously, so I had a few ideas for scenes to shoot when we went there last November.
In particular, the obvious manipulated moody photo is an example of bokeh-panorama aka Brenzer technique – using a comparatively long focal length lens at wide aperture to narrow the depth of field and stitching a panorama to restore the field of view angle. In this case, it was a Zeiss 50mm f/2.8 lens, but the resultant shot would require a lens of 13mm f/0.85 to achieve in a single exposure.
Winter on the South Inch
It’s my favourite time of the year. Admittedly the snow, slush and ice on the pavements makes strolling a little difficult, but that’s OK – white stuff in strange light is just wonderful.
Perth Street Stories: Cute (2)
The last batch of photos from the Perth winter street festival – fuzzy things – more reindeer and one of a pair of Husky dogs.
Perth Street Stories: Cute (1)
Perhaps the biggest attraction of the Perth street winter festival – a handful of reindeer down from the Cairngorms. I can’t recall ever seeing them live and in the flesh before.
Perth Winter Festival: Stories (2)
Continuing the theme of things I saw on my travels around Perth one Saturday afternoon – this time, some rather more classical / stereotypical street-photography subjects in gritty black and white.
Perth Winter Festival: Stories (1)
Continuing the theme of things I saw around Perth one Saturday afternoon…
I have absolutely no idea what a chained-up dinosaur has to do with Christmas, but hey, I’ll let it live…
The Varying Moods of Scotland
Summer in the Highlands? Hold a Games, break out the pipes and drums and play Scotland the Brave.
Tourist season in Edinburgh? Break out the pipes and drums and play Scotland the Brave.
Autumn, pretending to be winter, in Perth? Break out the pipes and drums and play Scotland the Brave.
This was one of the above situations.
Perth Street Stories: groups
Back in November, Perth council thought to hold a winter street festival – never mind that it wasn’t Christmas, Advent (at the time) or even winter yet, at least it was a good excuse to get folks tramping past the shop windows.
Herewith, a handful of street scenes – a little different for me – this time, groups of humans.
I didn’t rate the bell-ringers very highly; the slow and disjoint performance (only identifiable by the title on the sheet music saying “Jingle Bells”) served only to distract at close range from the pop-noise coming from a couple of large speaker-stacks a little further down the pedestrian precinct.