New Years Day

January 1, 2017

As New Year's Day was so nice there was time to go for a walk to work up an appetite for dinner. I decided to go to Dollar. Dollar is a small town in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. It is one of the Hillfoots Villages, situated between the Ochil Hills range to the north and the River Devon to the south.

The walk was from the town of Dollar through Dollar Glen to Castle Campbell. The castle was originally known as Castle Gloom, possibly deriving from the Scottish gaelic: glom, meaning a chasm, and referring to the narrow gorges to either side of the site.

Torwood Castle

December 29, 2016

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

December 27, 2016

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

December 24, 2016

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

December 21, 2016

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).