Cuba

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Of course, reading about Cuba while travelling in The Philippines, what did you expect? Anyway, I read this nice inspirational story that over breakfast this morning about a couple that was travelling in Cuba.

I think they are more adventurous now than I would ever be, but it does go to show that there are still good people out there that are worth meeting no matter how cyncical the news and media makes you. 

Read here - http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180329-they -day-i-picked-up-a-cuban-hitchhiker

Travellin' on

Edinburgh sunset

I am going to be spending the next couple of weeks travelling so my updates might be a little non-existent, depending on internet access and whether I can cope with thirty degrees heat everyday. Minus ten I can deal with, and at times enjoy, but after about fifteen above zero I start melting. Thirty above? Sounds like fun...

Anyway, I have loaded up the iPad with enough TV (Halt and Catch Fire) to get me through a thoroughly boring flight to the other side of the world.

Am thoroughly looking forward to taking lots of photographs and will hopefully be able to post some on Instagram while travelling, maybe even some Instagram stories :-)

 

Leith, Edinburgh

I was fortunate enough to visit Leith on a very calm and crisp evening which made for some fantastic Amsterdam-esque reflections on the Water of Leith. This was my first visit back to Leith since February of last year. I was accompanied with @alycoste who regaled me with coffee and hilarious stories that kept us both laughing. Check out her instagram profile I am sure she will have some excellent photographs of this trip posted. 

Leith is an area to the North of Edinburgh where the Water of Leith drains into the Forth River. It is a well known area, perhaps most commonly known through The Proclaimers 1988 album - Sunshine on Leith. If you haven't listened to any of their work I highly recommend it.

Leith itself is a buzzing port district now home to hipsters, part of the Scottish government and some light industry. It is also adorned with a lot of restaurants, bars, cafés and thrift shops. It is a nice area of Edinburgh to wander around should you ever visit.

Often these small trips are unplanned and a little spontaneous and I have found that the less planning I do for photography the happier I am with the results. Of course it could just be that I was lucky :-)

If you are on a desktop or large tablet the thumbnails can be expanded by clicking on them, thanks for reading!

Tidying up and Fireworks

Having found myself with a little free time I decided to do a little tidying up of this site. I am amazed at how much time I can actually spend trying things out and thinking about how to put things together to then find, at the end of the day, that I have changed very little but know at least ten new ways that the design won't work.

Having said this, I have managed to go even more minimalist. The sidebar has been reduced to search, latest posts and social icons. I was going to chop the latest posts but there is point where minimalism goes to far. A design is finished when no more can be taken out, and although they could be taken out I like having them. So they stay, for now... The social icons are in (shock horror) colour. That may also change, but having them in their native colours make them easily identifiable, however, whoever chose red for instagram needs their head examined. I also changed the WA logo from square to round, as I think it fits the aesthetic of the site better. 

I am also going to start using two columns for the writing of blog posts, I have seen this in a few sites and I quite like the look of it.

You can see that I have changed the March madness post into this structure.

For those reading this on a mobile device the only thing you'll really notice is the logo...so that's about 80% of you :-)

I have brought back some of my older galleries into the main menu under 'Archives' and have also added a new gallery of Fireworks from Edinburgh. I vaguely remember saying that I would post the shots from the iPhone X that I took at New Year and never got round to doing that. After finding the photographs today I was really surprised and happy with how well the vast majority were captured. Take a look at the gallery. These are all straight out of the iPhone X without any re-touching or post processing. The photographs that were in the sidebar that I occasionally updated can also be found in a new gallery in the 'Archives' menu.

I updated the 'About' page a little as well with some archive information of previous blog posts from 2014 till now and added a new about image of myself, which was taken by @alycoste, my official photographer ;-)

I'll finish this post with a couple of the fireworks images from New Year to try and entice you to the gallery of all the Fireworks images :-) Thanks for reading!

March madness

So March has appeared and I feel like I posted photographs of New Year's Eve yesterday. Apparently time flies when you are having fun, I must be having the best year ever.

Meanwhile in Scotland, where a record amount of snow has fallen this month, even I am thinking when will this persistent cold miserableness be over? (#beastfromtheeast) I actually ventured out with my camera and took some shots in Stirling. They were, disappointing, and I am ok with that. There are good lessons when things don't go well.

Slight tangent, when I say things like that I am reminded of when I was young(er) and had a No Fear t-shirt that had "Second place is first loser" emblazoned on the back of it. Sadly, and embarrassingly, I actually believed it at that point in my life.

Anyway, back to being disappointed; I am finding that I am pushing myself to get out and take photographs when I am not in the right frame of mind.  So I go out in a negative mental attitude and end up taking mediocre photographs that I am not happy with. I have to get back to taking photographs for fun and with friends that inspire me and to stop stressing that I haven't posted anything on Instagram or my blog for a week or two.

I read an inspiring blog post from Annie Au, a yoga teacher that shared three basic rules of being happy. She writes her post from a view of being trapped (by work, partner, family, house etc.) and how this trap is your own creation. Her rules, I think, are applicable to any situation in which you are unhappy. I paraphrase her rules below but I strongly recommend reading her blog post about it too.

1. Replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
Before feeling anger or frustration with someone try thinking of three good things about the person. By thinking of their good qualities you replace your anger/frustration with that person and bring your self back to a place where you can communicate consciously.

2. Keep a gratitude journal.
Many of us focus on what we don't have or are striving to get and forget to be grateful for the things we have, Annie recommends writing 5 things down everyday that we feel grateful for. I have started writing 1 - 5 on a post-it note each morning and filling it in during the day.

3. Be Mindful.
It is very easy to have negative thoughts and feelings that can arise in our mind each day. Annie suggests that there is no need to lambaste ourselves over it (see above mediocre photographs). We can develop an awareness of our negative thoughts and train our mind to choose positive thoughts and over time it will become a habit.

As simple as these rules are, they are easily written but a little harder to practice. With time and patience I think they can help everyone and I am really grateful for finding this blog post. Incase you are wondering being grateful for finding this blog has did appeared on my post-it note.

I promised some of the photographs from yesterdays post so here are a couple from Stirling Bridge. Click for the larger version. 

As always, thanks for reading!