I was quite pleased to notice that one of my favourite afternoon quick-escape locations is technically just north of the Highland Boundary Fault.
As I drove off the road, a flock of over 20 grouse shot out from the undergrowth and sprinted for dear life in front of me up to the carpark. Walking through the trees, I disturbed a deer grazing on the heather. Sometimes, you just can’t beat a few hours in golden sunlight, staring at mountains, for relaxation.
A friend of mine has regularly suggested that someone seems to dot road-signs saying “Take Photo Here” around the landscape. The view of the Forth Road Bridge from South Queensferry is one location where such a sign would not be out of place, but still, heading home from Edinburgh late one afternoon, it had to be done.
A classic shot – a long exposure black and white image of the Forth Railway Bridge from South Queensferry
One Saturday afternoon in September, I clambered up the Radical Road in Edinburgh to my favoured viewpoint. Herewith, some photos of crepuscular rays over the city.
A study in decay.
A listed historical building dating from around 1870, the Arkwright Society had a go at restoring this old bobbin mill near Sheldon in the late 70s, but nature seems to be winning again.
A few photos from a trip around Derbyshire.
Arbor Low is a Neolithic henge monument in the White Peak area of the Peak District, Derbyshire, consisting of about 50 local limestone boulders now mostly recumbent in a circle surrounded by a ditch and embankment.
Oban harbour, one sunny Sunday afternoon
A few years ago I wrote a python utility for interpolating a greater number of frames from a smaller set, for use in timelapse video/photography.
Recently, I’ve been trying to learn Julia. As a small challenge – to fulfil a potential forthcoming need – and because it claimed to be quite a fast language – I’ve rewritten the core of the script.
It’s quite refreshing – none of the gratuitous OO classes I had to create with Python, just a couple of functions to do the essential interpolation. And watching the output frames flash by… it’s pretty nippy, too.
It doesn’t yet support EXIF directly, nor can it modify images directly on the fly, but if you want to have a play then go download it from Github: https://github.com/spodzone/Timelapse.jl
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!
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.
More seasonal colours – red hawthorn berries seen on a walk in local woods.
Detail of a fly agaric mushroom – just one of many tens of fungi found on a walk in the Black Woods of Rannoch, one of a few Caledonian Forest reserves.
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.
Yes & No placards reside side by side, as do their representatives, chatting together outside the polling station.
The Church is open for business, contemplation, prayer, stillness.
Now to sit back and wait patiently. Quid sit futurum cras, fuge quaerere.
Now, who’s going to clean up all the litter?
Individually. I hold the idea of nationality very loosely: it sometimes applies but does not define. I rate people trying to live their lives far higher than the games of politicians playing nations.
Thoughtfully. Manifestos have been read; factors – economic, political, constitutional, cultural, socially – considered, their importances determined; a decision has been reached.
Carefully. The way things are looking, half the population is likely to be upset whatever happens. There will be a need to restore peace.
Independently. The presentation of the campaigns as a bickering of two opposing factions has not been attractive. First the reasoning and decision, then the labelling with political ideology (or preferably not at all).
Proudly. It has not been an easy summer, and getting to the stage of holding this poll-card in my hands has taken considerably more organization than intended.
Humbly. I am glad to have a voice in the running of the land I call home.
Peace and calm: looking along Loch Rannoch towards the setting sun and its reflection.
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.