Torwood Castle

Finally a break in the storm allowed me to get out for a few photographs of Torwood Castle after Christmas. The Castle is a ruin near the village of Torwood in the Falkirk Council area of central Scotland. It has been estimated as being built around 1566 for Sir Alexander Forrester (so the local stories of Robert The Bruce staying there before the battle of Bannockburn are slightly off by about 200 years). The castle is a Scottish Baronial style castle.

The castle is undergoing a slow restoration, now under the auspices of the Torwood Castle Trust, but there is not much evidence of this going on.

Landscape Photography

While drinking my morning tea and sifting through my RSS feed I came across a very good instructional post from PetaPixel this morning:

"10 Ways to Become a Better Landscape Photographer in the Next Year"

At least two of the ten tips struct a chord with me:

#4 Stop caring about success of other photographers: For some reason I find validation in the number of likes I get on Instagram. Finding validation on any form of social media is quite possibly the most moronic thing that I have ever done and will be something that I will be working on getting away from in the next year! 

#10 Always try to find something extra in your photograph: It's not always something I do and I think I have become a bit formulaic in the way I have been shooting of late, taking photographs that could have been taken by anybody instead of shooting something that I see.

The post is written by Albert Dros (a Dutch photographer) and his shots really are amazing and definitely worth aspiring to. He also has tutorials and a blog on his site that is well worth spending time with.

Christmas Market

Seeing as it's Christmas I thought I would post a selection of photographs that I shot at the Christmas Market at Edinburgh's Princess Street. I hope everyone reading has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Here's hoping for a prosperous 2017.

Strathy Adventure

I title the post Strathy Adventure because that's exactly what it was, an Adventure. Finding a cottage in the middle of a small village may sound easy but unfortunately it was pitch black and if not for some friendly highlanders at the local town hall we might still be looking for 'Samhchair'.  Strathy is a small village on the very north coast of Scotland, surrounded by sea and hills. It's the kind of place you don't want to leave, it has no cell reception (which is magnificent) and is eerily calm and peaceful. The pictures below don't come anywhere close to doing the location justice, but there isn't much I can do about the weather (that's my excuse and I am sticking to it). 

I have had an invitation to visit Samhchair for several years and have never had the time or opportunity to visit. The area is one that I am familiar with as family vacations when I was very young toured the majority of the North of Scotland. It was a long drive from the central region of Scotland (5.5 hours + coffee stops).

Strathy Point Lighthouse

Durness Beach

On the road to Durness

On the road to Durness

Chiquita, wondering where the next coffee stop will be ;-)

Dornoch Firth, looking West

Glen Loth

December Days

December rolled around just in time for the temperature plummeting. People that know me are aware of how much I like the cold and dark days of winter. It's perfect for light trails, Christmas lights and early golden hours. As demonstrated (hopefully) by the photographs at the bottom of this post. Since the Instameet I have been trying to post a new photograph everyday. It reminds me of the marathon photo days of 2013, which became very stressful towards the end of the year.

The majority of my photos get some post-processing, it is a perennial subject for me talking to other photographers. For some people post-processing detracts from the photo and think that it is 'cheating'. Other people think that it adds to the photo. I am in the latter camp, I like to think I can make the picture look more like I see it in my mind when I am taking it. I think it's good that there is discussion around these topics in photography, as there is no 'right' answer.

The photograph below uses Apple's new Depth Effect on their iPhone 7+. I was wondering if this is regarded as post-processing as the camera takes two shots at different focal lengths and mashes them together. It works quite well, although there it is no substitute for using my 50mm lens. Of course, I added a little more post-processing... 

Pre-processing

Pre-processing

Post-processing

Post-processing

I thought I would post some of the SOOC (straight out of the camera) photographs, that have been edited and can be found on the Instagram page that I have taken from recent trips to Edinburgh.

The Instagram photograph here.

The Instagram photograph here.

The Instagram photograph here. 

The Instagram photograph here

The Instagram photograph here.

The Instagram photograph here.

The Instagram photography here.