Loch Earn is still an idyllic scene despite everyone stopping to take photos in St Fillan’s. Herewith, two obvious views:
Personally, I like this view instead:
People Watching / People Watching
There’s a time-/context-axis running from the far distance – first there was the landscape, then there was Robert Mulholland’s statue Still, then there’s people taking photos of it, then there’s me shooting them. All things considered, a bit “meta”.
I haven’t been around this area for a few years, but happened to be passing through Kenmore as dusk gave way to outright dark.
Mist rising on Ben Lawers in the distance:
Update: this image has been well received, so I’ve made it available for sale via my landscape photography site.
A final pair of images from the day’s trip around Loch Rannoch – the first taken at the start as I was setting off, the second toward the end of the day while I was hoping for a glamorous sunset but enjoyed a beautiful subtle sundown instead.
The view of the folly on the Eilean nam Faoileag crannog in Loch Rannoch is available on my landscape photography site, ShinyPhoto.
There’s something a bit romantic about the cosiness of suburban streets in the fog.
Perth on a foggy night
This one isn’t so much about the water as the mountain, Schiehallion. Back in 1774, its regular shape and relatively isolated location led to it being used in the famous experiment by Mason and Maskelyne to determine the value of the gravitational constant, big-G, and the density of the Earth.
Certainly it sits fairly impressively in the landscape.
Don’t ask me why Perth council thought to have a winter festival in the middle of November, when it’s not Christmas, it’s not Advent and it’s not even Winter yet… but the fireworks were well pretty!
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
Some experimental post-processing using the GIMP with the `Beautify’ plugin, amongst other things.
It wasn’t the spectacular sunset I was hoping for – but that’s OK, I’ll take a hazy glow any day. More from Loch Rannoch.
It’s hard driving around Loch Rannoch – all the stopping and starting makes for lousy mileage. But that’s OK – the scenery is more than worth it.
The first time I came around here, more used to the road network than the geography of reality, I drove beyond the end of the loch (into the setting sun in these photos) up to Rannoch Station, and was surprised to see `Glencoe’ on the adjacent page on the map. No mistake – it’s only about 5 miles directly across Rannoch Moor, and yet by road it’s at least 83 miles and 2.5 hours’ drive.
It’s been a few months now since I called time on the fixation with black&white closeup as a style. So it’s time to remember how to do it… Herewith, mostly as a lens-test, cyclamen and cactus plants from the kitchen windowsill.
Since I last looked, RawTherapee has changed a lot – I’ve learned that the `Contrast by Details’ control was responsible for some undesirable noisy artefacts in previous profiles, it’s gained better control over black and white conversion and even support for X-Trans sensors (now there’s something to lust after).
Pine forests: what’s not to like? Scots Pine trees stand tall and proud, burnished orange-gold catching the sun; birch trees get a bit old and develop gnarly character.
These are from a stroll in the Black Woods of Rannoch, on the south shore of Loch Rannoch.
I noticed Gunnar’s Tree, named for Gunnar Godwin, a chap whose fondness for these woods led him to manage them and agitate for them to be designated a Caledonian Forest Reserve.
Details from a walk in the Black Woods of Rannoch, one of the Caledonian Forest reserves, in September.
Back in the middle of September, I spent a couple of hours exploring the Black Woods of Rannoch – a Caledonian Forest reserve on the south side of Loch Rannoch. One of the things that struck me – apart from a mosquito – was the sheer proliferation of toadstools, both fly-agaric and others, littering the path through the woods.
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!
