I just strolled home through the fog from an evening at the photographic society.
Tag Archives: Scotland
Around Birnam Hill: landscape old and new
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.
Around Birnam Hill: Things Found in Woodland
A selection of photos, using a walk around Birnam Hill to test the new mobile and its camera.
Things one finds in woodland: details of a feather; broken fences; abandoned jackets (don’t ask!) and chunky rocks (semi-pelite, near the Highland Boundary Fault).
Aurora!
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
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
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 🙂
Scottish Air Show, Ayr
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: Lumpy Landscape
Glen Turret is an obvious glacial valley. At the north end of the loch the land is covered with undulating mounds – morraine, formed by the receding glacier.
Glen Turret: Dark
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.
Glen Turret: Wet Stuff
A short study in water – taken on a stroll along the side of Loch Turret.
Perth Highland Games
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
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.
Glen Clunie: Landscape Vistas
I must admit to not having found the landscape in Glen Clunie particularly inspiring – good for covering distance whilst hiking but not many trees to catch one’s interest. However, the resultant photos have some merit – hopefully the convey a sense of the expansive topography of the post-glacial floodplain through which the Baddoch Burn runs.
The particularly dark photo is an experiment inspired by my twitter friend Neil Mansfield‘s work with Dark Landscapes.
As I was returning back along the glen, three dogs in the garden of the stone house started shouting and running around me; the owners invited me in and plied me with tea. Next thing you know there’s three dogs all clambering over my knee on the sofa. Highland hospitality at its best.
Glen Clunie: Landscape Details
Three photos from a pleasant afternoon’s stroll along the Baddoch Burn in Glen Clunie, just up the road from Glenshee.
Rocks can be so colourful at times, can’t they? 🙂
In the Woods
It’s been a while since I made photos of closeups in the woods – and for the most part, last time around I avoided contrasty light for the purpose too. Last night, I took a single prime lens (my favourite Pentacon 50mm f/1.8 of old) and one of my favoured strolls over Craigie Hill around the golf course, seeing what there was to be seen under the trees…