Endrick Falls

Also known as the Loup of Fintry, Endrick Falls is a 94ft waterfall a couple of miles from Fintry. Best seen when it has been raining heavily or iced up in really cold weather. Alas, today was neither of these conditions but it was nice to visit it for the first time since I was very young.

Seeing as I had a little time on my hands I also thought that I would play about with Cameo from Vimeo...

 

Dean Village, Edinburgh

Dean Village is a former industrial village northwest of the city centre of Edinburgh, about 15 minutes walk from Haymarket Train Station. It was known as the "Water of Leith Village" and was the centre of a successful grain milling area for more than 800 years. At one time there were no fewer than eleven working mills there, driven by the strong currents of the Water of Leith. 

From the mid-1970s onwards it became recognised as a tranquil oasis, very close to the city centre, and redevelopment and restoration began, converting workers' cottages, warehouses and mill buildings. This included development on a cleared former industrial site on the north side of the river. The area has now become a desirable residential area, plagued with tourists and photographers ;-)

I was finally able to get some time to take some photographs of this little village and was happy to spend a sunny (if windy) couple of hours wandering around. Click the thumbnails for the larger versions.

Olloclip field trip

Ōlloclip have released their Lenses for the iPhone 7 (finally). I was able to get their core lens set from the Apple Store on Monday and in a nice coincidence it was also a sunny day. I headed down to Holyrood Park from the centre of Edinburgh to see what I could capture. The Olloclip core lens set comes with three lenses: Fish Eye; Super Wide and Macro (15x). 

 

Holyrood Park (also called the Queen's Park or King's Park depending on the reigning monarch's gender) is a royal park in central Edinburgh, Scotland. It has an array of hills, lochs, glens, ridges, basalt cliffs, and patches of gorse, providing a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape within its 650-acre area. The park is associated with the royal palace of Holyroodhouse and was formerly a 12th-century royal hunting estate. It also has the small hill of Arthur's Seat to climb.

The park is a short walk from the centre of Edinburgh and provides plenty of great photographic opportunities. The shots below were taken mostly with the super wide lens attached to my iPhone with a couple of fish-eye shots thrown in for fun :-)

 

Social Photography

In the years that I have been taking photographs it has been primarily a solitary pursuit. In fairness I have always enjoyed the freedom of wandering wherever and whenever with my camera. It never really occurred to me before to meet up with strangers to go take photographs.

This changed a couple of months ago when I started chatting to some people through Instagram and after (what can only be considered to be way to much beer and not enough planning) we decided to get a group together to take photo's on the wettest day Glasgow has ever seen.

Even though the day was wet the spirits were kept high and this led to a second meeting with new (and familiar) people yesterday in Edinburgh. The weather was a mixed bag but eventually blue skies presented themselves at Newhaven Harbour. 

I feel very lucky that I have met such great group of people that are always willing to share experiences and knowledge that makes the day so much fun. The group selfie was taken by @alycoste and includes @lisajparis, @chappygbr, @davidgulliver_photography and @redinscotland.

Have posted a few of the shots from Newhaven Harbour below, click for the large versions. 

 

 

 

A splash of colour.

I have been spending a lot of time processing photographs into black and white for my Instagram account. As fun as that is, it does make the world look a little grey. On my last visit to Edinburgh I thought I would have a little fun taking some shots of shop fronts that had nice colour in them, inject a little colour back into my stream.