Victoria Street

Victoria Street has been described by many people as the nicest street in Edinburgh. It is very photographable. Inspired as I am again to start taking more photographs, Edinburgh, where I spend a lot of my time, is the obvious place to take some time out and shoot some photographs.

I was recently inspired by Lisa Bettany's post on taking photographs of light trails, especially as some of those were taken in Edinburgh. I had the chance to replicate a couple of the photographs that were in her post. It was good experience as it taught me few things that I had forgot, didn't think about and re-learned....

I forgot: Early evening there are a lot of parked cars. If I went back at 3am there I would be surprised if there were any cars, but then if you want light trails you might also be waiting a long time.

Didn't think about: Bringing my larger tripod. I couldn't get the shot I really wanted due to the small tripod not being able to keep steady in the position I required.

Re-Learned: Gloves are fricking essential in winter. An emergency stop at Starbucks was required so I could get some feeling in my fingers.

I also took an image on my iPhone (7+) which is on my Instagram page, I was pleasantly surprised at how good the image is from the iPhone at night. Click or tap on the images below to view the large image!

Over-processed

Sometimes I feel like making the wildest of changes to images that I have taken, I very rarely post them, but I feel like mixing things up a little of late. This was Edinburgh on a nice day, until I played around with it. :-)

I like to think that most people that know Edinburgh from the North Bridge would still recognise it.

October

As October has drawn to an end I have been trying to reflect on what I have achieved over the last month. Little has come to mind. It has been filled mostly with searching for a job, interviews for jobs, a little demonstrating and a trip to The Hague. I am left wondering how this leads to me to meeting my goals and it's at this point I realise that perhaps I have not set any goals which is causing the lack of direction I am currently feeling.

Knowing what you want to achieve has been something that I have discussed with many people (t.b.h. mostly MoneyPenny) over the past few years and I have usually been in the position of having some aim or goal in mind, whether it is writing a thesis or a completing a project at work.

I am pretty sure that watching all 8 seasons of Dexter in a month should not be something I am aiming for in life (although it may be achieved relatively soon).

Taking more photographs again has been a recent aim but has failed to materialize. I am also reminded that I am living in an amazing city for photography but travel through it each day blindly without my camera. A small step in the right direction would be carrying my camera, and a tripod... Small changes add up to large changes?

The dark nights of winter are almost here and that is great for night photographers. These are some of my favourite scenes to shoot and I have spent many nights in Europe encapsulating history this way. I learned a lot about the cold, about having a good tripod and how essential gloves and snacks can be! I have posted a few of my favourite photographs below. Lisa Bettany reminded me what is possible with a little patience and practice, without having to travel far and wide. She gives some great advice on night shots (with trailing lights) in her blog and they are from Edinburgh and St Andrews.

Belated Canadian Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day (Canada) occurs on the second Monday of October, our M.Sc. class celebration was a little belated but this didn't stop the celebration going ahead on the 16th of October instead. 

I took a few candid photographs during the evening and these are the shots that are safe for public consumption. I'll apologise here for the shocking standard of these photographs but to be fair there was a lot of whisky and wine going around (but at least I didn't take part in the 'buck fast tasting').

It was a nice evening to mix with the new class as well as catching up with my own class from the M.Sc. course. It's great to hear where my fellow classmates are now working and their new experiences at the forefront of GIS.