Photo of the Week 2024-12-30

 

There were an overwhelming number of things to see for the amount of time we had on Skye during our September trip. Both The Quiraing and Old Man of Storr were at the top of the list, each hike would require a few hours but given logistics and the duration of our visit we had to choose just one ...

... and now you see which won out.

' The Old Man of Storr '

It was a two hour hike up, counting stops to rest, take in the views and of course make use of the camera. This was the ultimate goal, the scene from the lookout, back south to The Old Man and points beyond. It was clear, sunny, very very windy as we reached higher ... and a thrill I'll never forget.

 

The Storr is a prime example of the Trotternish landslip, the longest such feature in Great Britain. The area in front of the cliffs of the Storr is known as the Sanctuary. This has a number of oddly shaped rock pinnacles, remnants of ancient landslips. The most well known of these is 'The Old Man of Storr', a 55-metre-high pinnacle of basalt rock which is all that remains of a 2,800-million-year-old volcanic plug.

Every direction you could look on this hike offered sunning views and scenery. With more time I would have liked to continue the trail further north and perhaps around to the other side of the Old Man, but that may have been a little much for this old man ;-)

 

It will be the Quiraing next time we visit Skye, -with a tip of the cap to to The Old Man on the drive by ...

 

DJE

Merry Christmas 2024

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!

 

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-12-23

 

After checking into our accommodations and grabbing a cafe lunch in Portree, we headed off to the Fairy Pools. What an adventure that turned out to be as the access road was rife with potholes and washed out badly in places. I managed to navigate one of the washouts in our low slung BMW sport sedan but gave up in the face of the second when I saw a legit 4x4 having difficulty.

Deflated at having plans scuttled to see our first iconic Skye location, we headed back towards Portree. On the way, Sligachan provided an opportunity for some photography of an old stone bridge, the river and the Glen area. Others must have been doing the same as parking was limited but I managed to squeeze in along the road.

The Old Sligachan Bridge was easily accessible and trails along the river provided some lovely vantage points to set up for some shots.

' Sligachan Old Bridge '

I first found a spot to photograph the old bridge using local vegetation in the foreground and mountain peaks in the background.

' Glamaig and the Sligachan New Bridge '

Battling the midges (my first ever exposure to the little bastards) while trying to patiently frame a shot proved interesting. With some images of the old bridge done, I turned around to see this view of the new bridge (the one that now carries the A87 over the river) with Glamaig in the background with it's summit shrouded in a cloud.

We spent some more time exploring the riverside trails for a bit while I found other interesting scenic compositions before the having enough of the midge bites to think the car would be welcome respite from the little carnivores.

 

Working my way chronologically through my images of Scotland, I was pleasantly surprised when I got to these. At the time of shooting, my disappointment at missing out on the Fairy Pools was overriding my ability to enjoy this location (or maybe it was the midges) fully. I must admit that I was not "feeling it" as much as I would have liked but I'm certainly glad we stopped and that I pushed through to make some images, I really like some of them.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-12-16

 

- The Shores of Loch Assynt -

 

In the Highlands, on the shores of lovely Loch Assynt sit the remains of a 15th Century Castle and a more modest 17th Century Laird's House built for a Lady who "did not care for the austerity" of the castle. Both proved a bit of a challenge to find interesting compositions during our brief stop as we turned onto A837 on the NC500.

' Ardveck Castle Remains Across the Loch '

' What Remains of Ardveck Castle '

' Calda House Remains  Across the Loch '

' What Remains of Calda House '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

' Along the Shore to Calda '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

' Ardveck from the Beach '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

' Back Along the Path to Calda '

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-12-09

 

 

' Moine House III '

A very early start to our day had us in Scrabster to fuel up before hitting the NC 500 for 4+ hours of driving through Caithness and Sutherland. Our first stop to stretch legs and enjoy the scenery was at Moine House in Lairg.

' Moine House '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

' Moine House II '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The remains of Moine House, made a nice foreground element for Ben Hope and the distant peaks, though a bright mid morning sky proved  challenging to prevent from blowing out.

The stop had not been planned so we made it brief and headed off to Durness next.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-12-02

 

While researching locations to visit during our full day on Orkney, I discovered this seaside trail featuring a sea stack. This became our primary objective for our last stop of the day and it did not disappoint. I could have wished for bigger waves or better light but I think this turned out just fine.

 

' Yesnaby Castle Sea Stack '

The Yesnaby Coastal Walk was a wonderful conclusion to our full day on Orkney.

Here are a couple other views of the sea stack ...

' defiant '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

' independent '

 

' last legs '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

' Yesnaby - The Story in the Rocks '

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-11-25

 

' A Birsay Bay Tearoom View '

On our second day on Orkney, after arriving in Birsay and making a number of images from a seaside parking area, I parked the car at the tearoom and stowed the camera gear for lunch. As luck would have it a grand scene developed outside our table-side window ... and me with only my cell phone :-/
 

I posted this shot at the time, direct from the phone complete with reflections in the window. Here, I've cleaned up the reflected lights, added a touch of processing magic and cropped more to my liking.

 

A few minutes later, it looked like this :-O

 

It was a great day, a great lunch and a great view !

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-11-18

 

 

' a stone still standing '

The Stones of Stenness today consist of four upright stones up to 6m in height

 in a circle that originally held 12 stone

 

' The Stones of Stenness '

 

The stones were encircled by a large ditch and bank, the form of which has been lost over time by ploughing. Some of their story is told on the interpretive panels at the site.

 

 

 

 DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-11-11

 

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them

 

For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal 

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again; 

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound, 

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, 

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, 

To the end, to the end, they remain.

 

                                                                         Laurence Binvon

 

 

Note: Photo by John England, processing & treatment by Doug England
 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-11-04

 

As we docked, then left St. Margaret's Hope for our Orkney accommodations in Stenness, rain came and then quickly passed. By the time we parked our car to unload, the heavy skies were breaking up ...

 

' Across to Graemsay and  further to Hoy '

 ... this was the view that greeted us from the entrance to our home for two nights on Orkney. The sun was beaming rays through the cloud down onto the northern tip of Hoy.

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-10-28

 

The Old Packhorse Bridge

On the third day (second day of driving) in Scotland we made our way through the eastern highlands to Inverness. The day's route was planned to include a stop in Carrbridge with plenty of time for photography. Why, because the Old Packhorse Bridge was there.

 

This bridge instantly became a "must see" when I first learned of it while researching locations for our trip. It was one of the first places added to a map of locations to visit for photography. Labeled "the oldest stone bridge in the highlands", whether true or not, it certainly was something to see and a little challenging to find just the right composition.

I’ve visited historical sites before and been surprised to find them surrounded by elements of modern living. Such was the case here, but with some time to explore compositional options I was able to come up with something a bit different than the typical tourist snapshot.

For this subject, one obvious shot was from a viewing platform located st the bottom of a staircase that brought you down closer to river level. Another would have been from the modern road bridge spanning the river slightly downstream. I worked both of these using different focal lengths and even ND filters to get some water smoothing long exposures. Ultimately, the image I like best was from the viewing platform "ish". I say "ish" because I put down the camera bag and stepped up, over and onto the rock of the river bank to get further left than the platform would allow so that I could include the wonderful leaves of a maple sporting fall colour.

 

 

' Fall Colour at The Old Packhorse Bridge '

 

It was hard to get the composition I wanted with some of those "elements of modern living" encroaching on the upper right but I worked it the best I could and took care of the rest in post ;-)

I made a number of shots to document the bridge in context with it's surroundings and offer them here to provide a bit of background story of getting an acceptable image in such conditions.

' commemorative plaque '

 

 

' branches in the way '

' someone move that other bridge '

' what a spot to put a petrol station '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

' no clear view '

 

 

' at least this shows the upstream rapids '

 

In my ranking, this final one might be a distant second to the featured image.

'  The Old Packhorse Bridge '

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-10-21

 

I was still going through a bit of a backlog of images from Scotland, selecting, editing, processing when the Aurora Borealis event of Oct 10 struck. That provided a totally new experience of shooting, selecting, editing and processing which I blogged about those last week. Now, as I turn back to Scotland, the autumn colours here in Southern Ontario are firing off and of course I'm drawn capture them ...

... although I'm always eager to get to my latest captures, I also want to make the time to continue learning processing methods and techniques. Like my cameras, there is still much capability that I don't know about and use. Today's learning, included reworking an image after viewing an online tutorial showing how to use some of the latest Lightroom masking techniques to transform RAW files.

' Rocky Perch IV.v2 - reworked '

' Rocky Perch IV - initial version '

In the reworked version I used the sky masking feature to increase structure, detail and tame the highlights. I also used a radial gradient to enhance the natural sidelight from the sun, subject masking to bring up shadow detail slightly in the cliff. Finally, I used both radial and linear gradients to darken the foreground and bring more attention to the sunlit castle ruins.
 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-10-14

 

While working through a number of photos from my recent trip to Scotland, an opportunity to photograph the Aurora Borealis at an intensity seldom seen had me out with camera at a local viewpoint, Pilkington Overlook, north of Guelph. To say it was a special is an understatement, it was possibly a once in a lifetime experience with the Kp predicted at 8 and clear sky conditions. 

 

I managed to get back from a trip to visit our sons in Eastern Ontario and scramble to prepare for the possibility of a very late and possibly very long night. Arriving at the spot I had selected, it was evident that a crowd had gathered and cars filled the parking area spilling out to the nearby roadsides. When I saw a couple walking to there car I asked if there was anything to see and they indicated that there was but they were going to check out another location. So I continued to grab a camera, tripod, headlamp, had and some gloves to find a place to set up.

Although it was much earlier than I had expected, the show had already started. There was subtle aurora activity across the horizon from NW to NE. Over the course of just over an hour, the performance built to a stunning climax before fading away ... 

Here is a screen capture of all 72 RAW files from the shoot, all without any enhancement, the way the camera captured the scenes with consistent exposure settings. It shows the progression of activity from 21:41 to 22:46 ... it's near unbelievable.

 

At it's peak, I was astounded by what was being captured on the camera sensor. No, it didn't look like this to the naked eye and for an explanation of why, I direct you to this resource so I can focus the discussion on and showing the images I made.

Over the past couple of days, I've been eeking out some of the images I made, mostly those leading up to the crescendo of colour that occurred where I was just after 22:00. The colour really started to come on just before 22:00, with red becoming as prominent as green in the sky. By 22:10 it was all around, ahead to the north, to the west, to the east, overhead and even behind me. It was simply overwhelming, even with the naked eye.

I've attempted to select a set of images from the 3 dozen that I've processed to illustrate the progression of the event during the period I was photographing. Here they are in sequence ...

 

Find me on FB, Insta and flickr to follow along as I post the complete collection of images from this amazing event.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-10-07

Recently, day two in Scotland had us picking up a rental car and navigating our way out of Edinburgh (a story in itself) to the Battery Road Bridges Viewpoint in North Queensferry. All three of the bridges, The Forth (rail) Bridge. The Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing are something to see. As a retired Civil Engineer, my interest in what we build remains keen and I was particularly eager to make this stop at the base of the Forth Bridge because of it's historical and engineering significance some of which which can be read via this link.

 

Worth singling out is that the Forth Bridge, once the longest single cantilever span bridge in the world, is a Scottish icon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and today, second longest to the Quebec Bridge which I intended to visit again with sufficient time to photograph (spoiler alert: potential future blog post).

 

' Forth Bridge '

Following my intention, as laid out in a previous post, to look for something a little different, something creative and unique to my vision in "Photography When I Travel", I created the image above. Getting close to the north support base, I was able to use an ultra-wide focal length to capture this powerful composition. Of all the images I made during the brief stop we had on Battery Road, this is my favourite.

 

DJE