The Hermitage

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A small selection of photos from The Hermitage near Dunkeld: some experiments with tree filigree – appreciating the patterns of tree branches and twigs lightly silhouetted against the sky – and the Black Linn waterfall as the River Braan flows through a gorge (some obligatory long-exposure work too, of course).

I met a gorgeous collie-x-lurcher on the way out of the carpark; the mud instantly went to trouser-pocket level and I didn’t care a jot, the merely 4-month-old wee dog was so overjoyed to see everyone.

Quite a nice place to walk in the woods of an afternoon!

Golden Hour

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Sometimes, when the golden hour starts immediately after work finishes for the day, one just has to go for a drive around the middle of nowhere in Perthshire. A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across this scene along the back-road from Forgandenny to Glenfarg and was taken by the light on the undulating lines of the landscape.

I thought it interesting to compare it both in black & white versus colour, although both are a little more strongly processed than my usual taste.

 

How I Voted…

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Happily.

It’s the orthogonal thoughts that caught my eye, so to speak.

The trees still stand. I mean, the town still stands – apart from one tent in the very middle of the pedestrian area, I saw no more campaigning.

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Yes & No placards reside side by side, as do their representatives, chatting together outside the polling station.

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The Church is open for business, contemplation, prayer, stillness.

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Now to sit back and wait patiently. Quid sit futurum cras, fuge quaerere.

Now, who’s going to clean up all the litter?

Cauldron Falls, West Burton

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One of my favoured parts of North Yorkshire’s scenery is the well-known waterfall at West Burton. Always good for a bit of classical landscape photography, exploring both context and closeup (“intimate landscape”); it’s also quite fun to compare with other people’s views of the same location, although I envy anyone who manages to get good light in such a location.

The Uses of Karst Landscape

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Karst topography is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum, characterised by underground drainage systems with sinkholes, dolines and caves and other features typical of such erosion.

A few weeks ago, Dad and I went for a drive around North Yorkshire, most particularly to the Butter Tubs – named either because they look like butter-tubs, or for the story that travellers used them to keep tubs of butter cool. They takes the form of a noteworthy (and mildly scary) pattern of crevices in the limestone about 20-25m deep, where the softer limestone rock of Hood Rigg has eroded away. The surrounding landscape affords a pleasant view where the Cliff Beck wends its way between the hills of Thwaite Common and Muker Common.

Plus the area was humourously(?) known as “Cote du Buttertubs” in the 2014 Tour de France that started in Yorkshire.

Then and Now, Night and Day

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Some time around March 2007 I acquired an ancient camera, an Ensign Carbine No.3, and took a photo of Perth railway station by night, returning home to develop the film myself. It’s the only photo I remember taking with that camera, but I like it for the Ilford Pan-F tonality and glow from the lens-haze.

Today, on my lunchtime stroll around town, I took a quick photo on the mobile, looking back along the same railway tracks to the station from the other side.

Perth railway station taken from Glasgow Road using a mobile phone camera (2014)

Perth railway station taken from Glasgow Road using a mobile phone camera (2014)

Perth railway station at night, taken on the Ensign Carbine No.3 with Ilford PanF+-50 film (2007)

Perth railway station at night, taken on the Ensign Carbine No.3 with Ilford PanF+-50 film (2007)