Mojo

Austin Powers

The word Mojo is a noun originally used to mean a magic charm or spell or an amulet, often in the form of a small bag containing magic items worn by adherents of hoodoo or voodoo, or it could mean a quality or some ability that brings good luck or helps you be good at something. I feel like I left my amulet somewhere and I haven't found it or felt it's effect for a some time.

It's weird how you can be mentally high and be happy with a days photography and come back and just hate everything that was shot. I am sure that we have all had those days when we aren't 'feeling it', not just with photography, but life, work and generally everything. Unfortunately, most of us, don't have the luxury of being able to sack everything off and spend the day with Netflix and a bottle of whisky.

I have had this feeling before and although I can't remember anything that I did to climb out of this 'funk' I know it will eventually dissipate and something will click again and the concrete wall blocking my creativity and self esteem will be broken through.

It's amazing how much 'self help' that you can find on the internet, and after net-surfing for a while the most helpful and most frequent piece of advice was:

"Start with one small win."

Apparently starting with one small win can help restore confidence and if you repeat these small wins you will be able to complete project that seemed impossible. My feeling is that this is probably a good way to start, complete a small task to the best of my ability. But then this advice is more for work, than creativity. More to the point what is a creative win?

November

Image courtesy of @alycoste

November, for me, marks the start of dark nights and frosty mornings, usually still pleasant frosty mornings. The most exciting thing about the dark nights is the start of Light Trail Season again... I am sure that my Instagram account is going to start filling up with them, and I'll give some more attention to the @lighttraillovers account this month as well. 

I always take a little time at the start of each month to evaluate what I have achieved in the previous month and it would seem that October is past too fast and some of the tasks that I planned have been pushed back a little.

I didn't manage to get a webmap into this site of the locations of my photographs, primarily due to the platform I am using. I did do a lot of research on different webmaps that I could use and at this point I am just trying my hardest to avoid using a google map, I think there are more creative ways to provide a point map from a database.

I was able to visit a few locations that were new to me last month; Incholm Abbey & Island, The Birks o' Aberfeldy a more in depth visit of the Hermitage near Dunkeld and was able to photograph the Tay Rail Bridge for the first time. It was a good month for photography, I learnt a lot and re-discovered some forgotten techniques and developed a taste for apocalyptic processing.

I also have a trip planned back to The Hague for a long weekend in Novemeber, make sure the apartment is still where I left it and catch up with friends and see what opportunities can be taken in The Netherlands. The winter lights will be up by now and the city always looks great at this time of the year, I am very much looking forward to going back. 

I only include one photograph in this post, which is of me, courtesy of the talented @alycoste, taken during our recent trip to the Birks o' Aberfeldy (of which I'll be posting photographs of soon).

Glencoe

Glencoe, arguably Scotland's most famous and most scenic glen, filled with history, romance and the ghosts of a massacre. An amazing destination for walkers, climbers and tourists. My goodness, so many tourists. So many foreign tourists! It was like a meeting of the U.N. at the Loch Tulla Viewpoint on the way up.

It's one of my favourite places in Scotland, no matter what the weather there is always something to see or, more importantly for me, something to photograph. The first photograph was taken just past the Loch Ba viewpoint on the A82. The second needs no introduction but for those that need the correct spelling: Buachaille Etive Mòr. 

Scotland is now in the last throws of Autumn with winter starting to find a grip, hopefully there will be snow in the glen next time I visit.

 

Still

I have just heard the the piece of modern art "Still" has been 'relocated' from St Fillans (Loch Earn) to an undisclosed location, according to @scottjessimanphotography and a few others on Instagram this morning. Hopefully it will re-appear somewhere else as beautiful as Loch Earn.

This is really disappointing as I have spent many hours there taking pictures of this fantastic figure. I should be happy that I still have the memories and the images. Here is one to remember it by.

The Tay Rail Bridge

The Tay Rail Bridge carries the main-line railway across the Firth of Tay in Scotland, between the city of Dundee and the suburb of Wormit in Fife. Its span is 2.75 miles (3.5 kilometres) and is the second rail bridge on this site.

The original bridge was designed by Sir Thomas Bouch, an engineer who popularised lattice girders in rail bridges and his design for the Forth Rail Bridge was also the first accepted. Unfortunately on the night of Sunday 28th December 1879 the Tay Rail Bridge collapsed when a train was passing over it from Wormit to Dundee, killing all the passengers and staff aboard.  Investigation found that Bouch's design was flawed.  Needless to say Bouch's Forth Rail Bridge design was cast aside after this disaster.

The new Tay Rail Bridge was opened in 1887 and is still in service today, in 2003 a strengthening and refurbishing project was carried out. It was this bridge that took me to Dundee to finally take some photographs last weekend.

I posted the first of these images on Instagram on Sunday night and have been blown away by the feedback and features that I received, currently it has been liked over 5500 times through my own portfolio and the four hubs that featured it (thanks to @loves_scotland @sunrise.sunset.scotland @scotland_greatshots @this_is_scotland).

The shots that I liked and did some processing on are below.