Category: Landscape

Ayr and Greenan Castle

On Sunday afternoon we headed to Ayr for a wander through it’s old town, along the promenade and beech, hopefully ending up with some time to chill on the beach in the end. Although it was fairly windy, it was sunny and warm, so we had a very pleasant stroll along the promenade, to the old dry dock and back through the old town.

In the old dry dock, we stumbled upon an old fishing boat called the Watchful, an iconic symbol of the glory days of Clyde coastal fishing. The vessel was restored to it’s original state with the help of West Coast Marine and ‘volunteers’ from the Community Service Rehabilitation Programme.

During our wander through the old town of Ayr, we came across some wonderful old houses and St. John’s Tower, the towering remnants of a once proud church that stuck it’s feet in the ground in the 13th Century. In fact, St John’s Tower is the oldest surviving building in the Town of Ayr and was restored in 1914 to it’s full glory by Lord Bute.

Eventually we ended up on the beech close to the where the River Doon enters the sea. A wonderful position with views across the beachfrom South to North, from Greenan Castle and the Heads of Ayr to Arran. While Lynn stuck her head in the newspapers, Lola and I ventured onto the flats for some photography. I haven’t had much chance recently, but a wonderful opportunity calling for use of my tilt and shift lens and polarising/graduated filters.

Spring details

As promised in my previous blog entry Life is a blur here are a few intimate landscape images, or visual poetry if I may plagerise Colin Prior, from our Sunday afternoon’s wander through Mugdock Wood. I love this time of the year, with lovely detail and colours in young budding plants and flowers. The main image of a tiny purple pine cone offset by the young green needles is my favourite.

Life is a blur

After a glorious Saturday spent mostly reading the third novel in Stieg Larson’s Millenium trillogy in the sun in our garden, Sunday morning was a bit of a let down with heavy clouds and the odd light shower. So we decided to head into the woods for a wander off the beaten track after lunch. We had hoped for fields of blue, but unfortunately, the bluebells in Scotland appear to be out at least a week later than the England bluebells shown in glory on the web by others in the past week.

Thankfully the weather had improved quite a bit, so we ended up wandering through the woods with a mixture of sun and cloud. We started of from Drumclog Car Park, but headed due North across tracks through the woods rather than following the main track to the West. On reaching the edge of the woods, where the ground dips down to the swampy grass fields, we headed West, but when the opportunity came, we crossed the fields to the other side, crossing little streams meandering through the fields.

On reaching the path that leads down from Mugdock Castle to the West highland Way, just above the old gamekeepers cottage, we followed this well paved path down to the West Highland Way and Allander Water. A welcome opportunity for Lola to have a paddle in the river before heading back up along the tracks through the woods and back to the car park.

The light was wonderful and provided good opportunities for landscape photography. The images of the afternoon ranged from landscapes (vistas) to visual poetry (intimate landscapes) and abstract photography. In the absence of enough bluebells for a typical blue landscape image, I decided to experiment and make the most of the few bluebells in bloom. Using a slow shutter speed and moving the camera downwards while pressing the shutter button, I created some pleasing abstract results.

I used the same technique to take some abstract images of flowering broom and birches framed by fresh green grasses. I am pleased with the results, especially the mian image of the birches. The last image included is a reject, where I failed to get the camera movement and pressing of the shutter button coordinated. hopefully this will give you an impression of the few bluebells amongst the green grasses that form the basis of the abstract bluebell images.

A future blog entry will likely include the landscape and visual poetry images from this delightful wander.

Fun in the mud

Our first walk along the River Kelvin after our two week holiday in the sun and Lola’s 18 day sleep over in Largs. Lola has lost a little weight (and is looking in good shape!), but has not lost her interest in fun, running and ripping sticks to bits. Although it was overcast, it was still a very nice afternoon for a wander along the Kelvin Walkway. The heavy rain overnight had turned the place to a mud bath, but all the more fun.

Lola was having a ball, running with dogs, running circles around other dogs, splashing through the mud and waters, fun digging in an existing hole and ripping reeds and sticks to bits.

While Lola was having fun in the nud, I spotted this little dipper flying from stone to stone on the side of the river. I managed to take a few shots, albeit not the best, as I had to crop a tiny portion of the original taken with my 70-200mm. In fact these are at 100% size, by cropping 800×533 pixels from the original 21mp image. Quite pleased. Need to keep my eyes peeled and bring my bigger guns the next time.

In the end… home to a warm shower.

The Sailings

On the way back from Arrochar/Tarbet, we left the dual carriage way for a detour through Bowling and Old kilpatrick. Bowling is a place you just want to drive through, but Old Kilpatrick appears to be a nice little village.

We went for a walk along the Forth/Clyde Canal and stumbled on this little nature reserve called The Sailings. A bit of land between the canal and the Clyde in the shadow of the Erskine Bridge. It’s amazing how high this bridge actually is when you stand underneath it.

The walk along the shore of the Clyde, through grasses, across a wooden walkway and along the canal, was a welcome wander. We even spotted two deer from the wooden walkway, but unfortunately they were too obscured for some decent shots.

A place to come back for a wander, although the big drawback is the continuous noise from the dual carriage way along the hill and on the bridge. It’s a bit like the noise of wind in the top of the trees above you, but then car noise.

A run in the woods

We drove up to Mugdock Wood for some fresh air and to let Lola tire herself out. Both a bit fragile and tired, partly down to a bit too much Rioja on Saturday night and partly down to the time of the year and the ‘wear and tear’ of work. We really need a holiday to recharge the batteries. The weather wasn’t great, very dull and grey with the odd flurry of snow. So my lack of inspiration was matched by my bland surroundings.

I decided to put my 100mm macro lens on the camera and restrict myself to look for ‘intimate’ images in the landscape, forcing myself to move around to compose rather than being lazy with the usual zoom. Very frustrating to start with, as I wanted to switch to my wide angle zoom on various occasions, but I persevered. Halfway through the walk, I started to think I would return without taking a single image.

But the approach paid off well as you can (hopefully) see from this set of images. Not only did I start to see opportunities in the chaotic forests for close ups, I also started to experiment with small apertures and shallow depth of field of the lens. Although I had the tripod with me, I happily took all these images handheld at ISO 800 and shutter speeds of 1/30 or thereabouts, certainly testing Canon’s acclaimed four stop Image Stabiliser to it’s full.

This is the first time I’ve really tried this lens in the field, and wow, I’m well impressed. Not only does it deliver outstanding images in the ‘studio’ for macro photography of jewellery (the main reason for buying this lens in the first place), it is proving to produce very sharp intimate landscapes and, more surprisingly, very sharp action shots. I’m bowled over how well the autofocus snapped on instantly with these two grab shots of Lola at full speed.

Sun on the moors

Having a lazy weekend after a very busy week, so we headed up to Mugdock for a Sunday afternoon wander (and to tire Lola out). Not really in the mood for photography, in fact not in the mood for very much at all.

It was a crisp, cold day with a winter sun making the walk very pleasant instead of bitterly cold.

We walked a longish circle starting along the Loch to the Castle, then across the swamp up to the high moors, passed the quarry and back to the Loch past the big, magnificent, solitary oak. As always, Lola was in her element, especially on the moors, running ragged, playing with sticks and finding ‘imaginary’ mice in the grasses everywhere.

I only took a few images, but I’m pleased with how they turned out.

A wander in the woods

Sunday morning turned out to be the start of another dreich, uninspiring day. Even Lola was unhappy going the distance to the corner shop to get the Sunday papers and the usual Morton rolls for breakfast. In the afternoon, we drove up to Drumclog for some fresh air and a wander in the woods.

We ventured onto the small tracks through the forest from the moment we left the car park, but headed slightly further North than usual and meandered along the edge of the valley South of Mugdock Castle. A wonderful bit of forest left to grow natuarlly and wild with views across the valley dominated by wonderful purple colours of bare trees. A mixture of old oak trees and chaotic skinny birches domiate this part of the forest, offering plenty of photographic opportunities. I could kick myself for leaving the tripod behind, as the light was mostly too dim to take images handheld, even at 1/15 second with the use of image stabilisation.

On reaching the West Highland Way, we headed North following the tracks along the Allander Water rather than the busy path. Lola was in her element, running with other dogs through the undergrowth, chasing sticks and paddling in the shallows of the river. I took some images of the waterfall, but due to the lack of a tripod I could not slow the shutterspeed down enough to get the falls turning into a lovely milky substance. Alas, there’ll be a next time.

Het vennetje

These images were taken on a crisp, sunny winter’s morning a few years ago when I was staying at my parents in the Netherlands. An ideal morning to step out of the door and walk onto the heather for reflection and appreciating nature.

This small nature reserve, ‘De Renderklippen’, lies on the ‘Noord Oost Veluwe’ and is a typical combination of heather and forest that is the trademark of this area of the country. Not only is this an area of natural beauty, it is also home to a large variety of wildlife including deer and wild boar.

On the few occasions that I go back home, I try take take time to appreciate the beauty of the place that I grew up in. Hopefully these images give an impression of the walk to ‘het vennetje’, literally meaning ‘the little fen’. The combination of patches of ice on the water with a clear blue sky overhead made and no wind provided me with a great photographic opportunities.

Mugdock Castle

The castle grounds are worthwhile exploring, especially the area between the castle and the loch. There you can find fascinating old trees.

Insert 360 degree virtual reality of the castle.

Reflections

On Saturday afternoon Lola and I dropped Lynn off in town, giving us a couple of hours before we had to pick her up again. As it was a glorious crisp day with blue skies we headed up to Mugdock for a wander around the Loch, castle, woods and moors. Some images from the castle, including a virtual reality taken in the walled garden, will be the subject of my next blog.

Our lazy afternoon’s wander took us along the loch to the castle and back more or less the same way, spending most of the time to wander of the path, exploring the loch side and the castle gardens. The loch was covered in ice with a topping of recent snow. A pity, as the blue skies and the absence of any wind would have given wonderful reflections otherwise. On the way back to the car park, we wandered of the main path and explored a little peaty stream.

The reflections in the stream were absolutely magnificent with a wealth of opportunities for good images. Unfortunately, time was running out, as we could not leave Lynn waiting. So no time to get the tripod out to take advantage of this beautiful spot, so I only managed to take the images below handheld. As you can see, the black peaty water, some spots of patterend ice, reflections of trees and blue sky, and stones piercing through the surface would have provided many opportunities for intimate landscapes.

As the weather forecast for Sunday was the same, would could always come back and spend more time on this spot. We did come back the next day at about the same time, but there were no reflections, probably due to a hazier sky, raised water levels and slightly faster moving water. A spot to remember for a future visit when the conditions are right.

Upside down reflections

A comment on flickr in response to the original image image suggested that I flip it upside down. Below are the two images, the original and one rotated 180 degrees. Use the popup slide show to compare the two version and decide for yourself which one is best.

In my view, the upside down version works well. It is debatable though which one is really the upside down one.