Elie Ness Lighthouse & Lady's Tower

A trip to Elie for dawn to see the sunrise over Elie Ness Lighthouse and Lady's Tower with @wendytwpang. I can't recall a time that I have visited this location before so it was definitely worth getting out of bed at 4:45am to visit. Sorry, I must still be delirious from sleep deprivation, nothing is worth getting out of bed at 4:45am. Hence why most of my shots are sunset and not sunrise!

The lighthouse is relatively modern, built in 1908, due to Master Mariners putting pressure on the  Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses. During bad weather it wasn't possible to see the light on the Isle of May or Inchkeith and Elie Ness provided an appropriate location for a lighthouse to guide them through the Forth River.

Lady's Tower has a more interesting story. Built in 1760 for Lady Janet Anstruther to use as a changing room prior to her morning bathing routine. She was the daughter of a Scottish merchant and renowned for her beauty and reputation as a flirt. Prior to her skinny dipping she sent out one of her servants into the town of Elie to advise local residents of her imminent skinny dipping so they would stay away from her private tower.

I couldn't decide which photograph I preferred of the tower in the shade, so I posted both in the gallery below. The Island in the background is the Bass Rock, not commonly shot from this side of the Forth. The bottom gallery has the shots that will probably end up on Instagram. 

Thanks for reading, the next post is going to be in St Andrews, which I haven't been to since 2005. 

Trackpadding

Seems an apt way to spend the end of the month seeing as I literally started here at the beginning of the month.

A quick stop into the Apple store in Edinburgh at the weekend to pick up a trackpad replacement. You know those signs they have in computer labs "No food or drink!!", turns  out they are actually there for a good reason. Much to my disdain a pint (yes a full pint) of water tipped over on my desk and my £130 trackpad took the brunt of it. It did not react well. Turns out the keyboard wasn't too bothered though.

Anyway, long story short, Apple screwed me for £90 for a replacement. Meh. I may have to be overly critical about the HomePod when it gets delivered.

On the bright side, I managed to finally get coffee with @davidgullver_photography (dude you really have to get a shorter Instagram handle) and take some shots around town. In the pouring rain, for the most part.

I have another shot of Teviot Row House on Instagram without the bokeh, but I particularly liked this one and have kept it for the website instead :-) The long exposure on Victoria Street is something I have been playing with, slowly turning the zoom while exposing. A little fun if nothing else. The sunset silhouette was just too tempting on my way over North Bridge.

Sunset silhouet

Bokeh at the Teviot

Light speed on Victoria Street

Cairngorms

Having spent some time at the beginning of the week consulting for the Cairngorms National Park Authority I thought the drive back south would provide an ideal opportunity to take some photographs. Little did I know that the night before there would be a massive amount of snowfall that kept coming as I began driving.

Within five minutes of driving I saw two cars lose control, one of them managing to spin itself 180 degrees while trying to navigate a roundabout. My journey changed from a three hour drive into an seven hour epic, with coffee stops of course.

I did stop at Carrbridge and Dulnail Bridge for a couple of shots and was very happy to have taken my snow boots with me on the trip. I have a previous post that tells some of the history of Carrbridge with more photo's here.

Loch Achray

The title of this post should really be Loch Katrine, but the view from here and the sunset was just too good. Also the availability of fresh coffee was so near to where I was shooting it was an opportunity I wasn't passing. The coffee was available from Loch Venachar, a Lochside Restaurant, and I have to say I had the best soup I have probably ever had. If you are ever along this way I highly recommend stopping for lunch, they even have an instagram account so you know they're legit ;-)

Back to the photography, Loch Achray is a small freshwater loch 11 kilometres west of Callander in the district of Stirling. The loch lies between Loch Katrine and Loch Venachar in the heart of the Trossachs and in winter do not expect the roads to be gritted. I was lucky enough to stop just before the golden hour and then stayed outside in the -2 to -4 temperatures for an hour and a half. It was a beautiful golden hour and sunset and I hope I have done it justice with these photographs. The mountain in some of the photographs is Ben Venue; the name Ben Venue is derived from the Scottish Gaelic words meaning "the miniature mountain". It has an elevation of 729m. 

 

New Years Day

Well, more accurately New Years very early morning. 

Welcome to 2018, another year begins where tradition allows us all to make clean starts, begin good meaning resolutions and plan out the year ahead. Wikipedia tells me that some of the origins of New Year resolutions were started by the Babylonians who made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts. The Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January is named.

I thought a lot in December about what I would like to pledge a resolution or two to in 2018. Inevitably I came up with resolutions that would fail within the first week or two. I found that setting achievable goals that would be difficult but not impossible, at the same time as being beneficial for myself, would be decisive in any degree of success.

Last year was difficult at times for various reasons so I am looking forward to my 'clean slate' of 2018. I hope that I can replicate the good times of last year and miss out the not so good times.

So, my New Year started at The Vennel, a lane that leads to and from The Grassmarket in Edinburgh, with friends old and new. Needless to say, I was there for the view of the fireworks. The first photograph was taken when the clock struck 12am, a nice little 3 second exposure :-) Click for the thumbnail for larger versions.

This was the first time that I have taken photographs of fireworks so it was fun working out which settings worked best while working under a little bit of pressure as the show only lasted 9 minutes. I used my Canon 5D for these shots and have a couple more that I will post on Instagram later. I also used an application called Halide for shots that i took on my iPhone and I was really impressed with how well it worked last night. I'll think about posting these later.

Also, a quick mention to @jack_zxr, @katie_smith80, @itslour and @alycoste for providing a great atmosphere and hilarity to the start of the year.

Happy New Year