A little something from Friday night. Bonnybridge doesn't have many photographic locations that's worth spending time at, but this is one of them. This is near to the entrance of Chacefield Woods, just off the the Drove Loan, Bonnybridge.
A long exposure of 60 secs, f4.0, 24mm and little tonal changes in Lightroom.
I spent a sunny, rainy and cloudy afternoon wandering around the Meadows with @alycoste getting some pictures of the Cherry Blossoms before they leave us again, until next year anyway.
The Meadows is a large public park in Edinburgh, Scotland, to the south of the city centre. It consists largely of open grassland crossed by tree-lined paths, but also has a children's playground, a croquet club, tennis courts and sports pitches as well as the Cricket Lawn and Pavilion Cafe. It is bordered by the University of Edinburgh's George Square campus and the Quartermile development.
It was a busy day with tourists and photographers but fuelled with Starbucks we persevered to get some photography done! :-) I realised earlier that I shot some of the same images last year around this time, on a Saturday morning walk.
I spent Sunday afternoon wandering around (and in) Linlithgow Palace, mostly wondering why there was no coffee available there. The ruins of Linlithgow Palace are situated in the town of Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, 24km west of Edinburgh. The palace was one of the principal residences of the monarchs of Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was maintained after Scotland's monarchs left for England in 1603, the palace was little used, and was burned out in 1746. It is now a visitor attraction in the care of Historic Scotland. Several monarchs were born in this royal ‘pleasure palace’, such as Mary Queen of Scots'.
This impressive retreat was an ideal place for royals to break the journey between Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle. High towers look out over lush greenery and a loch brimming with wildfowl, which is today a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
I have put together a gallery of the shots that I took here. and there are a couple of them below.
A couple of shots from Stirling Bridge after finishing the Moodscapes book. Feeling somewhat inspired and trying some new techniques. It's always fun to try new things and see what happens. Hopefully I'll takes these lessons somewhere further away from my comfort area next week.
I recently bought Rebekka Gu∂leifsdottir's book titled "Moodscapes". The easter weekend has presented me with some free time to finally read it and enjoy the photographs within its pages. I can't recommend it enough, she introduces the evolution of photography, the basics of the photo triangle, equipment, composition and much more. It is very readable!
Many of her ideas resonated with me and in particular this line:
"The time, I got exactly the image I had been hoping for. This is proof that you should never settle for mediocre when you feel that you can do better"
I feel that a lot of my shots of late have been mediocre or worse, formulaic. Taken because it's an easy shot that looks good instead of pushing my own boundaries. This is what I hope to do now. It isn't easy to take a photograph nowadays that hasn't already been taken, but it is possible to take one that has your own signature look in it.
This may slow down the amount of shots that I post though :-)
