Old College

Old College, Edinburgh University

Today brings with it the last module of classes for the M.Sc. that I am undertaking, Further Spatial Analysis. Five weeks of classes and the taught part of the course will be over. It seems like just yesterday that I was in the introductory lectures.

Have started the research for my dissertation now as well. I have decided to look at glacial lake outburst floods; the conditions in which they form and if it is possible to predict the formation of lakes when glaciers retreat. I will be using remote sensing and GIS to do this. Large projects always make me a little uneasy, there is always a little nagging doubt that I'll never get it done.

The weather in Scotland has been horrific since, well, October. I think I have seen the Sun a couple of times since then but I am thinking that I will have to start taking a Vitamin D supplement. It has curtailed taking most photographs that I want to take so far or the ones that I am composing in my head..  You can never wait for the right weather to take photographs though, sometimes you have to suck it up and make the best with what is going on. I did manage to get this picture a few days ago. It is the entrance to the Old College and the Edinburgh Law School at Edinburgh University. Was walking past at the right time of the afternoon.

Tea Cups and Rainbow Cake

"Large streams from little fountains flow, Mighty oaks from little acorns grow" - 14th Century Proverb.

@florenceandgeorge (Instagram) is starting an afternoon tea and cake service and asked me if I would take some photographs for her website, and if I would help with the testing of the products! How could I say no? I am known for having more of a savoury tooth than a sweet tooth, but I never pass the chance up to take some pictures and learn some new techniques in the process. I thought I would upload my favorites from the first shoot onto the website.  I have put a gallery up here.

I am always inspired by people who 'break out' to do something they love instead of something that just pays the bills. I need to think carefully about this idea over the next few months. My mind wrestles a lot, of late, about this year I have taken out of my career to dip back into academic learning. I was hoping the time would also give me a chance to see what was really important in my life and what I really wanted out of it. I am yet to draw any conclusions which I find frustrating. I am usually more decisive.

Of course, it's a first world problem wondering what to do with life while in many regions of the world, at best, you either work or go hungry. I am thankful that those are not the choices that I have to make. But everyone, whether in a privileged position or not, have to make choices. I am no exception to this rule.

 

Forgotten Images

I was recently nominated by someone on Facebook to post landscape photographs for five days. My immediate thought was to post some from my Project 365 that I completed in 2013, but I decided to go through older photographs that I hadn't looked at for while.  

I was amazed at how many photographs were stored on my network drive that I hadn't even thought about for years. It took quite some time just to sift through them, even though they were fairly well organized, into years, months and location. It brought back some good memories of places that I had been and would like to revisit.

I was reminded of how much I like to travel and how it has been a while since I have been someplace that I could spend time just taking photographs and not needing to worry about anything else. Spending time doing fieldwork in Greenland was very much like that, everyday was similar but different. Four weeks at the margin of the ice sheet and all that I had to think about was glaciers, sample collection and what was going to be cooked for dinner that night. Good times. Images below are of the Leverett Glacier in Greenland. Not to be confused with the Leverett Glacier in Antarctica.

 

Story Map

Update below...

I was recently tasked with an assignment as part of my Geovisualisation course taught by William Mackaness. The course highlights the need for effective visualisation in the analysis and display of geographic information. As part of the assessment of the course the class members have been asked to create a story map, through the ESRI story map web application. I have finally (is anything ever final?) got my story map to a point where I can share it online.

My story is of four different photography tours of The Hague, a city that I used to live in.  The photographs are all my own, mostly taken in 2013 when I was doing a 365 day photography project.

You can visit my story map at this link.

UPADTE 30/1/2016: It was pointed out to me that the link above was not shared publicly so here is the updated link that anyone can see :-) Photography tour of The Hague

Walk around town

I managed to get some time to walk around parts of Edinburgh when the rain stopped for the first time this year. It was also perfectly cold with frost on the grass and the smaller puddles frozen. It was nice to get some fresh air and to think about something that I find relaxing for a morning. I posted the photographs in the Edinburgh gallery.

I also got conned this week. I actually fell for an Ebay scammer, offering way above the price for an iPad that I am selling. I am not sure why this din't set alarm bells of in my head... I had actually dropped the package off at the post office, such was my delight at selling the iPad. It wasn't until I checked the the (fake Paypal) email later that I realised that I had been 'had' so to speak. I am usually very careful and often worry about people close to me falling for this kind of thing, but to have it happen to myself was very humiliating. I am not sure who I was more angry at, myself or the scammer.

Thankfully, I managed to run to the post office that I posted the package from and the guys that worked in there were very understanding and actually gave me the package back. Had I been ten minutes later it would have been gone with the post. So, good news, I have an iPad for sale if anybody is interested. :-)