More lamposts

Today there was a heavy fog all over Edinburgh-as there was yesterday, and is forecast again for tomorrow. I thought I might get some atmospheric shots, but I don't think there was enough tonal variation, and the light was very flat. I converted most of today's photos to black and white-well those I didn't delete!
Anyway, here are some lamps at Duddingston.

I quite like this silhouette:


This one lacks sharpness:

And this is my favourite-and it's not a black and white conversion. I like that it looks black and white until you focus on the leaves! I'm not sure whether a different crop might be better though.

Lampost

In the market square, Alnwick

f1.7 50mm lens

Treehouse

This is the tree house at Alnwick garden.
It contains a restaurant, and gift shop, and has some swinging bridges. It's well worth a visit.

Barter Books....

....is probably the biggest secondhand bookshop in Britain. It is in the lovely market town of Alnwick in north east England. We went there last Sunday, and I was playing around with my new (to me) f1.7 50mm manual focus prime lens. Now this is so different to my usual autofocus zoom lens, and I am struggling to use it well.
I need to practise lots!!
Anyway, here are some photos of the bookshop-most have been deleted!!

Ducks for Sale

Just some quick snaps of some rather surprised looking ducks in the shop at Alnwick Gardens, using my prime 50mm manual focus lens-which I'm having a hard time coming to terms with.

Waiting..

I like the contrast of the humble phone box and bikes set against the grand Bank of Scotland building in Edinburgh.

Three photos

of the same thing..

Slow..

getting faster..

and faster...

moonlighting

There was a fantastic moon tonight, and the weather was lovely-crisp and cold, but no wind. I hate wind! So I ventured into the city centre to practise my night photography. I've got a lot to learn, but I quite like this one:

Long exposure

I bought a tripod the other day-from 7dayshop.com-£12.99 including delivery!
Anyway I took it out the other night and tried a long exposure shot.
This is the result:

I love the starbursts-but shame about the traffic cones!

Craigmillar Castle

Emily and I went to craigmillar Castle today. I can't begin to describe how cold it was. The castle is, as ou can see, a ruin, and the wind and rain blew into every nook and cranny. I would like to go back again when it's warm enough to really explore it, and to enjoy the views from the top!

Art cars

There was a parade of 'art cars' in Edinburgh today. Artists had decorated various vehicles-from bikes to milk floats and hearses.
Today's photo is some detail from one of cars!

Loch Ard

I have been very poor at updating this blog-and have defnitely let the 365 slip.
Anyway, here is one of my favourites from the day out to Loch Ard the other week.
Love these boathouses reflected in the water.

New lens

I bought a new (to me) lens from ebay last week, and had a wee play around with it this morning.
It is a f1.7 5mm prime lens. It works very differently from my zoom lens, and so is going to take some getting used to.

As you can see it does result a nice shallow depth of field.

Loch Ard

Here are some of my favourite photos from Loch Ard, in the Trossachs:

Early morning mist


I love how the loch reflects even in the heavy mist.



Mist clearing-but still magic in the air


The sun beginning to burn off the mist and add warmth and highlights

Night Photography

I went out on saturday night to practise night photography.
I took about 10 photos.
My batteries ran out.
I came home.
Not much practise was had.
But I did learn a lesson.
Needless to say all my sets of batteries are now charged.
Anyway, this was the best of the photos I took.
Shops on The Royal Mile.

Loch Ard

Last Sunday we got up early and drove up to the Trossachs. Loch Ard is a photograper's dream. The Loch has the most amazing reflective qualities. The mist was down thick over the loch when we arrived, and I was able to take some atmospheric photos. But even in the thick mist the loch still reflects. This photo looks more like a photo of a snow scene, but if you look at the fence protruding into the water you will be able to see the reflection in the water.

And what a difference an hour makes-same fence, slightly different angle:

fountain..

backlit fountain in the Vatican.

We arrived at St Peter#s square early, before it was too overrun with tourists.

happy Halloween

What a fab display outside a wee shop in Rome!!

Rome

This is Neptune-part of a fountain in Piazza Navona. I love the colours in the background-that ochre with the blue shutters. So Roman!