Ghost on the bridge

Sometimes you just take a really bad picture. You review your images and you wonder how that happened. You wonder how you could have got the exposure wrong, how the focus can be so far out – in fact, what exactly are you focussed on? Certainly not the subject of your photograph! So press the ‘X’ key on your keyboard, forget about it – you’ll delete it later, if you ever remember to.

Then one day, maybe weeks later, maybe even years, you do stumble across that thing in your catalogue that disappointed you so. It’s still there, festering in your catalogue. Right, time to take action. Select it and press the delete key. It makes no difference whether you press the delete key hard or soft, but there is something cathartic about giving it a good, firm ‘tap’. Begone!

One town, One mile, One camera – Edinburgh

A good friend of mine recently challenged me on Facebook to a 7-day B&W challenge. Take a single black & white image each day, for seven consecutive days, and post it on Facebook, and at the end pass on the challenge by nominating someone else. There are lots of these challenges around and I’m not normally a fan of them, but I felt different about this one.

I was spending the week in Edinburgh for a conference, so I wouldn’t have much time to explore the streets or spend sight-seeing. Opportunities for photography would be few and far between. Instead, the bulk of each day would be spent within the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, listening to people talk and talking to other people.

So there was a double challenge – the challenge itself and the challenge of fitting it into the time I had walking between the venue and my hotel, and the hotel to wherever we may be having dinner that evening.

But I did have a card up my sleeve – this is Edinburgh. Anything is possible from a creative standpoint.

Pune, India

3 April, 2016

I am very fortunate that in my job I have the opportunity to travel around the world. This past April I travelled to India for the first time. Most of the time was spent in meetings (and eating some of the most delicious curries!). But, our first day was a Sunday and that was a bit of a free day. A colleague of mine had arranged for a short 2-3 hour tour of the city of Pune, arranged by the hotel. I joined her on this trip and took my little Fujifilm X100s with me.

The pictures here are mostly taken from that little tour of the city, although I’ve taken the liberty to scatter some images taken with my iPhone through the week.

On our first stop, we visited the Pataleshwar Caves, a temple cut out of the rock sometime around the 8th century. The temple is dedicated to the Hindu god, Shiva.

This was a small oasis of tranquility in what is a large, bustling, busy and at times loud city. People in the grounds and in the temple were either praying or sitting silently in contemplation.

Kintyre Way – Deer Hill

6th May 2016

 

On the second day of our visit to Saddell Bay, we ventured out to follow a trail that Mike had picked out for us (out of the many he had stashed away). The trail would take us to the summit of Deer Hill and is a part of the Kintyre Way.

The GPS track of our route can be found here.

The summit of Deer Hill (or Cnoc nan Gabhar, if you’re feeling up to it) promised us glorious views to eat our sandwiches by, in what was a beautiful day. So off we started.

I’ve noticed that I always seem to be taking pictures of the backs of people when we’re on hikes and walks. Normally because I’ve fallen behind taking a picture of something else. As if to prove a point, here are some more pictures of people walking away from me, to go with the ones above.

I must have made a subconscious decision to try and get ahead to take some photos of people’s faces.

Maybe I’ll stick to backs ….

As I hope you can see from this selection of images, the views around this part of Argyll & Bute are truly beautiful, especially on a day like we had with the Isle of Arran providing the backdrop.

We got to the summit after about 2hrs 20mins and just soaked in the views, accompanied by some sandwiches (thanks Mike!) and some tea (thanks Karen!) and some cake (thanks Mila!).

 

Holmes Chapel – Swettenham

28 February 2016

This is an enjoyable walk that takes in some wonderful views around the Cheshire countryside, starting off along the Dane Valley Way.

GPS Track on ViewRanger

The route starts by crossing a long field which was quite muddy following the rains of Spring. Cut through a small wood and cross a brook before quickly coming out to open fields once more.

There is something about a lonesome tree that I just can’t resist to photograph it.

The track does pass along some farmland and one of the farmers seemed to be running a hunting/shooting trip that morning. We tried to keep to the official path, but at one point we were prevented from following it due to, well, a bovine blockade. We had to improvise and made our way around (there’s a tell-tale loop on the GPS track).

Shortly afterward, we are reminded that all gates should be closed behind us, under strict penalty if we fail to abide. Not sure if they would accept a credit card for the 40 shillings, we made sure the gate was firmly closed behind us.

Then we enter Swettenham, a nice little village with a nice pub for a pit stop. The Lovell Arboretum is by the Swettenham Arms, but we decide to leave this for another time. Our drinks are gratefully downed, and we continue to the end.