Around Inverary

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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

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

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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.

Aurora!

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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

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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

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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 🙂

What I did on my holidays

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To celebrate my increasing antiquity at the end of August, I spent a happy few days in the Lake District with Mum & Dad.

We stayed in a hotel around Borrowdale, with access to Derwentwater, close to Ashness Bridge. On the second morning there was wonderful mist in the valleys obscuring the view up the lake with just the top of Skiddaw showing.

We spent a happy morning clambering up the Lodore Falls – a steep hillside climb through heather and pine trees.

We visited the Solway Aviation Museum at Carlisle airport, home to an English Electric Lightning (I used to see them flying over Lincolnshire in my very early years), a Phantom and – joy of joys – a Vulcan bomber, XJ823, inside which one could see the cockpit and sit in some of the metal chairs.

And I went flying! Most unexpected – I’d been hoping for a scenic tour but instead got an hour’s flying lesson. As the instructor said, “push the left pedal to turn left”. And the rest was pretty plain sailing – as responsive as a car on a road with perfect camber, crossed with turbulence akin to sailing a boat. We cruised at 2500-3000 feet, skimming along just below the cumulus clouds, from Carlisle across to Bassenthwaite and down Derwentwater to Borrowdale, up over Watendlath Tarn and back around Thirlmere to Carlisle again. A most excellent experience. (Photos by Dad stuck in the back seat – I think he did a good job!)

On the Monday, Dad and I drove around some of our favourite mountain passes and landscape locations in the Lakes: Wastwater with the classic view of Great Gable at the end, round to Hardknott Pass – stop at the Roman Fort of Mediobogdum, admire Eskdale – then carry on up and over Wrynose. The weather was just right – not too much cloud, just cloud shadows on sunny landscape – and my favourite conditions, bright foreground with filthy dark stormy rainclouds in the distance. It was allowed to rain after that.

On the last morning I called in at Mum’s favourite spot on the planet, Friar’s Crag at the end of the road past the jetties out of Keswick.

That was some (long) weekend!

Scottish Air Show, Ayr

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Today was the airshow in Ayr, marking the last Scottish flight of the Avro Vulcan XH558.

Last weekend I saw inside its sister plane, down in Carlisle. This week, I enjoyed watching it fly – and what a beautiful bird it was. So elegant – when cruising around slowly it was as though she was toying with the audience. And when they opened the throttle to accelerate or head upwards…. wow. What an engine roar.

The Red Arrows were also there – an impressive display of several fly-pasts ludicrously close and at high speed.

I’ve also made a little video of the Vulcan:

Glen Turret: Dark

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Two of my twitter friends have developed particular styles – extreme dark low-key black+white rendition and negative inversion, respectively. It’s intriguing how scenes come out – a very different mapping from the usual realism.

Portknockie (3/3): Bow-Fiddle

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I’ve left the usual photos to last, seeing as how everyone else has shot this scene before.

It wasn’t particularly easy; the tripod was struggling to stay steady in the breeze and the course of a few seconds between adjusting the camera, leaving it to stop vibrating and pushing the shutter remote release, the light was changing radically from dull shade to bright sunlight on the foreground rocks. Still, a moderately long exposure worked, eventually.

Herewith, four different ways of processing the same images.

Perth Highland Games

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I spent much of this afternoon at the Perth Highland Games held on the North Inch. Amongst other things, there were many stalls selling leather and jewellery products, cyclists, heavy-weight sports including the shot-put and hammer, lots of pipe & drum bands (including St Andrew’s Pipe Band from Brisbane, Australia) and several cuddly dogs (never met a Pharoah Hound before!).

Portknockie (2/3): colourful rocks

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The coast at Portknockie features an intermingling of Cullen quartzite (dating from Lower Dalradian times, 650 million years ago during which time they’ve transformed from sedimentary sandstone through partial volcanic metamorphosis) and the usual Highland psammite and semi-pelite.

The colours in these photos are more or less natural; it was totally stunning to be in the shady cave with the daylight behind and beyond, with these huge colourful boulders to play with.

For a sense of scale: the photos featuring a distant patch of light playing on the sandy pebble floor, well that gap is large enough to walk right through. A veritable cathedral of colour.