Forth Bridges

May 13, 2017

Another (mainly) unplanned trip on Wednesday night saw myself and @alycoste meeting up in South Queensferry. We took a walk along the coast to try and get some sunset shots but arrived ridiculously early for sunset!

After searching for shells with holes in them for the obligatory "I am at the beach" shot. We spent a good amount of time blinding ourselves by looking directly at the sun through several seashells. The sun eventually made its way down in the west and the golden hour was upon us.

I haven't been back to South Queensferry since January and it was nice to feel the sun instead of the biting cold on this trip.

Click on the thumbnails for the full image.

Still sculpture

May 10, 2017

It is well known that I am not the most spontaneous of people, but on Monday night I decided to take a drive to St Fillans, a small town in Perthshire at the eastern side of Loch Earn. It had been a clear cloudless day and I was hoping to get some photographs of the sculpture - Still, by Rob Mulholland. He is a sculptor and environmental artist based in the United Kingdom who exhibits throughout the U.K and world-wide.

From his website he describes Still:

“The solitary figure stands at the head of a Loch Earn. The figure symbolises the physical and spiritual relationship between humans and the natural wilderness. The figure is in constant flux, the small panels that form the sculpture are being torn away with the prevailing wind, being re - shaped by the natural forces. It investigates the fundamental aspects of self awareness and our connection with our environment.”

— Rob Mulholland

For a photographer it's an amazing thing to photograph as it looks very eerie standing on the loch. I spent at least two hours at the loch side taking photographs and meeting a fellow Instagrammer @davidmccr.

The first two photographs were my favourite and these were "squared" and uploaded to my Instagram profile. These shots were featured in @icuscotland and @sunrise.sunset.scotland, which I was really happy about. It was nice to receive some positive feedback about them.

The next two I also liked, one wider shot than the other, the left one taken a little earlier than the right shot.

I was really happy with these photographs primarily because I think that I am starting to get a feel for taking more moody photographs, especially the darker shot in this series. Some of the ideas and techniques that I learned recently really paid off in this trip.

Dunkeld

May 9, 2017

Instead of having a lazy Sunday I decided to drive up to Dunkeld, I was really sure where I was actually going but Dunkeld felt like far enough! Dunkeld is a small town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is about 15 miles north of Perth on the eastern side of what is now the A9 road into the Scottish Highlands. The road into the town passes over the River Tay where there is still the Old Toll Cottage, thankfully now you don't have to pay to cross.

I had a wander round the town for a couple of hours in the glorious sunshine and have posted some of the photo's below.

Falkirk Wheel

May 4, 2017

I have several pictures of the Falkirk Wheel through these pages, partly because I live so close to it and partly because I have never got a photograph that I have been really happy with.

I spent the magic hour taking shots there this evening, it was a lot colder than I thought it would be and was annoyed with myself when I realised that my down jacket was in my car!

I posted these two photographs, the first one a HDR shot from the west side and the second is a silhouette shot from the east side. I like the silhouette shot as the structure cuts between the sunset and the darkness. I am sure that if I had stayed longer I was have been able to get some stars in the photograph, perhaps I'll do that next time.

After a particularly challenging day it was good too spend a couple of hours recharging my Chi and watching the sun go down.

#lighttrailsnotlovers (update)

May 2, 2017

Update - Contrary to what is written below we have decided to use account @lighttraillovers and not @lighttrailsnotlovers.

The wonderful @alycoste came up with the hashtag "#lighttrailsnotlovers" last week during our trip to the meadows. Having purchased a DSLR recently she was very keen to try it out on light trails. Her recent evening trip to shoot light trails in Glasgow took a few unexpected turns, mostly to bars, thanks to @archarlton1 and @davidgulliver_photography. So we hit a road bridge over the M8 last night in Swanston to practice the art of long exposures (in the photography sense).

This was my favourite shot last night: f9, 21mm, ISO 100 and 30sec exposure. The sky was a merge of red from the light pollution of Edinburgh and blue from the darkness of the Pentland Hills. The cold and misty rain added to the fun with @tinagulliver, @davidgulliver_photogrpahy & @alycoste!

Seeing as the hashtag is new and the instagram account was free I decided to setup the instagram account l ighttrailsnotlovers, use the hashtag if you want to be featured!