Edinburgh 3. Leith Walk to Botanic Gardens

On Monday, I walked from my hotel next to Donaldson along the River Leith (well where I could) to the Botanic Gardens. The Donaldson Building was opened in 1851 by Queen Victoria as a hospital and community centre. It is the work of William Playfair. whose other designs include The Scottish National Gallery and the Parthenon-style National Monument. By 2008, the building had fallen into such disrepair that its tenant at the time, a school for deaf children, was relocated.  Now, the sandstone structure that some say should have been the Scottish parliament is being turned into luxury flats.

The walk along the Leith has unfortunately been closed due to landslips so I had lots of diversions through the streets and spent time photographing the tenaments , chimney pots etc.

Edinburgh 2. Evening on Princes Street

The cloudless skies continued into the evening yesterday - here a few images from my walk back to West coates as darkness took over. The last two images are what happened when I forgot camera was on bracketing and mvoed the camera around during the long exposures!

  

Edinburgh 1. Christmas Market

I am in Edinburgh prior to lecturing to the Photographic Society on Wednesday evening  and today spent the afternoon photographing the enormous Chrismas Market in Princes Gardens. The last image is looking towards Waverley Station as the moon rose.

Morning and Evening Walks

There have been some great 'weather' on my morning and afternoon walks with our dog from fiery sunsets to foggy morning. Sunsets are from my phone camera so not a lot of control on highlights. So glad I chose Toft to live with its great walks on the doorstep and the wide open views. Still as satisfying to live in as 53 years ago!

CCC Evening of Table Top Set Ups

Thanks Barry, Charles and Shelagh for a fantastic range of activities last night at Wednesday Workshop. I stole a few minutes from my 'set up' to photograph the soap bubbles, polarised spoons, splashed pepper and moon in the hand. The soap bubbles are a perpetual challenge not yet overcome to get sufficient depth of field and shutterspeed (the surface swirls continuously) in dark conditions.

Rockscape Portfolio

I always enjoy taking and preparing images for the CCC Print portfolio competition where we have to present 5 images arranged in a panel. This year, as almost always, I struggled to get the fifth image. On the night, I am told the judge actually thought a different one didn't fit too well. One and two are my favourites  and set me on the quest for another three!

Cambridge Getting to Know Camera

We had a day in Cambridge yesterday with CCC getting to know our cameras. I certainly discovered that I can't handhold the 50-140 lens at 140mm at 1/60th second (last image) but can hold the 10-24mm down to 1/8th second. Otherwise played with multiple exposures including panoramas at the Judge Institute and later at the Fair.