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 2024-06-17

 

I've been thinking back, June 15, 2018, my last day of "work", by my choice, on my terms I closed the book on a 35 year career ... and retired.

The next book/chapter began with a "surprise" trip to Guatemala with I blogged about at the time. Now as I look back through my image library from that trip, great memories are rekindled. It's wonderful to have those images to spark the memories and I do so enjoy reminiscing, recalling the adventure and good times.

Although I posted a number of images shortly after returning, this one remained on a hard drive, processed, untitled, unpublished ...

' shower taps '

Though the peeling paint texture was added in post, I'm reminded of the quasi outdoor shower at the lodge in the Guatemalan hills ... and the refreshing cold showers that provided relief from the heat and humidity.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-08-01

 

On our 5th day in Scotland, we departed Edinburgh for Dundee. Before crossing the Firth of Forth, our tour stopped at the Forth Bridges Viewpoint and during an all too brief opportunity, I hurried about attempting to do the sights justice ...

 

' The First over the Forth '

I was very pleased to be successful in capturing 6 handheld frames that would merge into the above panorama of The Forth Bridge (sometimes referred to as "The Forth Rail Bridge" to distinguish it from "The Forth Road Bridge").

' Fourth Road Bridge against the Queensferry Crossing '

I quickly worked to find a decent composition that would include elements of both road bridges.

 

' Inchgarvie under the bridge '

 

My research tells me this is Inchgarvie or Inch Garvie, a small, uninhabited island in the Firth of Forth. On the rocks around the island sit four caissons that make up foundations of the Forth Rail Bridge.

 

' Forth Road Bridge '

The Forth Road Bridge reopened in February 2018, after being closed for repair and refurbishment. It is now designated as a dedicated Public Transport Corridor, with access to motor vehicles other than buses and taxis restricted.

' Queensferry Crossing & Forth Road Bridge '

After successfully merging several images into a panorama of the rail bridge, I decided to crop this single frame to similar effect for this pair.

' Holy Cables Batman ! '

Elements of the newer Queensferry Crossing intersect with those of the Forth Road Bridge.

' Approaching the Forth '

This frame captured one of the local commuter trains on the south approach to the Forth Bridge main spans.
 

After feeling very rushed and uncertain of what I was able to capture in a short amount of time, I ended up being quite happy with the results once I could work in Lightroom and Photoshop to stitch and process the individual frames. The lead panoramic image of The Forth Bridge is my particular favourite and somewhat of a surprise, a welcome one, given the few minutes I had to get situated and grab all of the shots. The Forth Bridge had the longest cantilever bridge span in the world until the Quebec Bridge was completed in 1919 - I see a trip to photograph the Quebec Bridge in my future :-)

 

Soon to follow on my flickr, Facebook and Instagram feeds are a couple of vintage images of The Forth Bridge ... stay tuned.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-06-20

 

A wee speil aboot oor trek ... 

... and some photies

 

 

Those who follow this bog, and certainly those who know me, will be familiar with my "start at the beginning and work through chronologically to the end " approach ... but, now for something completely different.

Beginning neither at the start nor the end, but somewhere in the middle ...

Yup!

The dreaded COVID-19 positive result.

Day 6 of our tour

Day 7 of our trip

Full Stop!

Reset!

WTF now?

We arrived in Inverness after outings at a Highlands sheep farm and a stop at Culloden. Both were in windy, rainy conditions and we thought we may have just gotten a good chill. But Lynn tested positive for COVID the next next day and we removed ourselves from the tour as per protocol.

We are now home, safe and well. Focusing on the good things from our trip will be the main goal. We have both agreed we will (help each other) try not to dwell on the bad as difficult as it may be. The first good? We handled it together, some trying times, but for the most part we handled it well, supported each other and made the best that we could from unfortunate circumstances. We missed the middle part of the tour, Loch Ness, Orkney, Skye, Mull, Iona, Oban and joined back up for the last full day out of Glasgow which was definitely a highlight (more about that in a future post).

So as not to end on a down ... here's on of my first views of Edinburgh Castle on the day we arrived, before the tour got going. We hoofed it into the Old City and took in some of the sights.

' Edinburgh Castle from Princes Garden Walk '

On our first day in Edinburgh, we took advantage of the weather and went for a sightseeing walk to keep ourselves going as we tried to adjust to the time change.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-12-02

"Variety is the spice of life"

... I find this to be true in my photographic life.

When people discover that photography is a passion for me, they frequently ask me what I photograph. My usual response is something like "mostly nature, landscape and wildlife", though in truth, I enjoy photographing just about everything.

In the past month alone, I have photographed a variety of subject matter, with a variety of cameras, in a variety of styles. Travel, Documentary, Nature, Wildlife, Landscape, Street, and Infrared are all genres that my photography has touched in a short few weeks. Photography really is a 'Journey' for me, an enjoyable, sometimes whimsical, sometimes frustrating, always enlightening journey.

Here's a sampling of what I saw through my lens in November 2019. None of these have been shared prior to this post, though others from the respective outings may have ... enjoy.

Alan Doyle

not so shy

As my 'bio' reads: "My library of work could be described as a somewhat eclectic collection but primarily covers the outdoors, landscape, nature and wildlife. I make images of scenes and subjects that move me visually, sharing them with others through my photographic fine art prints and online."

To everyone who follows me on the 'journey' offering encouragement and comment, I sincerely thank you. To those who don't yet, I invite you to follow along.



DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-07-23

A selection of images from my trip to Guatemala last month ... starting off  with this cheeky one of a local street dog in Antigua Guatemala.

Around Every Corner

 

Click here and link to an online gallery of select images from the trip if you are interested in looking at more.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-06-19

This week, something different ... a photo made by my youngest son, Jordan, who is travelling, currently in Vietnam.

Early on Sunday morning, Father's Day, I was downloading photos from a Dropbox folder Jordan has shared so he can upload the photos he's made with his phone. I copy the photos and videos to a hard drive and create a back-up for him so they'll be home and safe when he gets back.

He's been travelling in Southeast Asia since January and I've been able to connect with him through his posts on Facebook, frequent FB messages and the odd video call. Missing him during this, the longest time I've gone without seeing him, I found connection in looking through his most recent batch of photos from Vietnam, not in any first hand familiarity with the location but vicariously through his images and his view of a far away land.

I decided to process one that caught my eye ...

Vietnam - by Jordan England

Those following my blog posts may recall my rant about Google and their Nik Collection plugins. With Google recently confirming, through a statement buried on their website, that there will be no further updating of the NIK Collection for future OS or software update, the collection will die a slow death. The plugins will slowly stop working as Windows and Apple OS are updated, as Photoshop, Lightroom and other software are revised ... shame. Shame on you Google for killing a great piece of processing software.

With that in mind, I decided to make good on my promise to learn a new plugin / software before I'm completely shut out of NIK. This week's image (by my son) was processed in OnOne's Photo Raw using the basics in the develop module and effects module. 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2013-10-07

One of the things that struck me most in Rome, particularly while in the historical district, was the rich patina the time has painted over the city. Buildings, roads, sculptures, monuments and of course the iconic ruins have all had their appearance enriched by the mask of time. Everywhere I looked, my inner voice would shout, "... wow", "look at that", "oh my" or some other phrase in wonderment and awe of the rich details in the scene before me.

The time worn look of cobble stone streets ...

cobbled up

Windows and doors down a gritty side street ...

A Side Street in Rome

Ancient ruins with years of exposure to the elements ...

Forum III

They were in abundance, everywhere I looked.

I continue to work through the catalogue of images from our trip. Stopping to consider some in more detail, working on some intermittently, trying to get past the first day or two. I'm enjoying them so much, this may take a while ...

DJE