We are in our last week now, we have revised itinerary a little, I knew I had one castle left I HAD to get back to, and then had left things more flexible for exploring Paisley as that is where my lovely brides family was from. But this castle had eluded me previously, sort of. Here is the saga: I had graduated, all my stuff was packed and I had 3 or 4 days before my flight home. Last chance trip essentially. I spent a night in Tranent east of Edinburgh, then toured several Abbey's and Rosslyn Chapel on my way out of town intending to make Hermitage Castle my last stop before my B&B in Lockerbie. I headed through Hawick and thought I turned on the correct single track road to take me here. Unfortunately I turned one turn too late, and by the time I realized my error I simply had to proceed on the road I was on to the A9 then circle back. Unfortunately, that cost my a great deal of time. I arrived just as the castle was about to close, I begged a few minutes to quickly run in and took a couple of photos. Then tried to get a few more exterior shots as a storm rolled in. I remember that it was kind of a creepy castle with a dark history and the storm added to the atmosphere. It was not until the next day that I realized that when I had put a new roll of film in at Jedburgh Abbey it never started winding on the take up reel. I ended up never taking an actual photo at several places. I was gutted. Especially as the area around this castle had played a large part in the finish of the series "The Adept" that I had been enjoying during my time in school. 

Due to the circumstances of the whole thing I was really, really determined that this castle would not be missed. I placed it as our first stop and we made it in good time. Funnily, it was starting to drizzle a little as we got there and I ended up getting quite wet, just like that first visit. Not one to let Scottish weather deter me, especially as my camera is water resistant, I headed out, lovely bride not desiring to brave the weather and frankly being castled out I think, staying in the car. 

Hermitage, is a particularly brooding and unbeautiful fortification and not intended to be beautiful. It was built to display power and instill fear on behalf of he who owns it. You can google the legends and stories if you desire I doubt I could do them justice as well as other sources. What I wanted to capture was the fortress, the projection of power, the feel of the place.

The mound is, I think, a newer addition, I could be wrong, I see it as a safe spot from artillery/canons and a place to shoot them from at the enemy. It does not fully surround the castle either.   

I believe there was once a doorway for the main entrance to the left, with the stoneworks providing cover for the soldiers raining stones, arrows and/or boiling pitch on those attempting to climb the stairs to the door.    

To my understanding, this was a more recent "Main" Entrance, I really don't think it was meant to be welcoming. Again fortress of an agent of the king to secure the lowlands and southern border of Scotland.    

The remains of a circular stair partially inset into the wall. The interior had a sense of closeness and less spaciousness than other castles I have visited. However, with the upper levels not being intact it is difficult to say what the layout was. Notice how thick the walls are, The arrow slit window on the left is impressive!

The lowest levels were kitchens, storage areas and servants quarters, but even with that, this feels... tight? There was just a sense of oppression I guess is the best word. Or maybe weight.   

Reluctantly, moving on to Sweetheart Abbey, for a brief stop. It is in a cute little village, that I think could be called "New Abbey" but is not officially named. I would have loved to see it in it's glory intact and in use.   

Just a few houses lined the street through town, walking down to the New Abbey Corn Mill, was just a pleasure.   

We then moved on to Kircudbright, one of the larger towns in the southwest, lovely bride had family that lived there and we were eager to explore.   

The Kircudbright Parish Church was lovely and there were several very helpful people that my wife got to talk to and learn more about the town.

I found the interior to be particularly interesting, much less plain than the cathedrals we had been visiting.  

Seeing as the church was more plain, the splash of color from the single stained glass window seemed extra lovely, maybe less IS more?  

I still am not sure if I overworked this, but desaturating all but the window and emphasizing the light on the pews FELT like the right choice. It looks better the larger the viewing medium. I think as a print it would lose the more subtle shadow details, but on a large screen it looks fabulous!   

For some reason by GPS did not get a fix and record the location of this castle, that looks like it is functioning as a Hotel. I really like the setting though.  

We stayed for the next several nights in a small town called Irvine on the west coast south of Glasgow, in a cute B&B and with a nearby beach it seemed to be just right for us.   

Sunset walk on the beach was a fantastic ending to our day. The statue seems to be a man in a small boat rowing into a wave. It seemed a fitting memorial to the many fishermen who risked their lives off the coast.   

Thanks for reading and taking the time, comment if you have questions!

On several FB pages I followed when planning our trip and that I still follow. (Trying to be helpful when I can.) Several questions pop up with regularity, they can be summarized as: Should I go to Edinburgh or Glasgow, or will my time be better spent in smaller towns? I chuckle when I see it, as that answer depends on the individual asking and who they are traveling with. To see a lot of Edinburgh you need to walk it, the Royal Mile Especially. Which for some people is hard physically, it was a consideration for me and my wife as we are in our 50's and some things are harder than others for us. It also depends on your style of visitation, tolerance to crowds, need for dining variety tolerance to cheap trinket shops etc... etc.. etc.. We opted for a medium late start to the day breakfast at our B&B and a leisurely drive in, parking at Waverly Station (The Train Station) as it was pretty central and reasonably easy to walk from. We then wandered the Royal Mile, toured Edinburgh Castle, had lunch, a break in our car for a nap and the Military Tattoo at the Castle in the evening, fancy cameras were not allowed into the tattoo so I left it in the car. I had anticipated possibly driving around town and just sightseeing from the car, I have ancestral ties to Lasswade, Bonnyrigg and Tranent and the New Town is easier to see from a car, however, there simply was not enough time to do everything I wanted to do and see. Plus I HAD visited those places before.

Of note, we were there during the Fringe Festival, which could have been diverting except for the crowds. So. Many. People. I am not a fan of large groups of people honestly. That said, what defines Edinburgh for me is the older bits. The parts with less planning and more... texture. Plus old things impress me and Edinburgh IS old. This pic shows what I am talking about, you can see the age in the style of construction, the old door or window that was filled in with the thinner straight up and down rocks that formed the lintel over the top. Texture.

You can see the age of the rock in the weathering of the cut stones, this is newer than the stuff in the previous picture, I think anyway, as it was shaped more and things look more planned. I love how something way up high is painted and has gilt on it. It's just cool.  

Princes Street is across the gardens from the castle and the Royal Mile, officially, however this street sign is off of Canongate which is on the Royal Mile, at least according to the embedded GPS location. Photography geek sidenote: The fact the my new Pentax K1 has built in GPS and encodes it into the RAW file is really cool and I will NEVER not want to use it. Second side note, I remember dithering a little on this photo in regards to aperture, this is the kit lens zoomed in to 105mm at that focal length the base f number wide open is f5.6, I chose to stop down 1 stop for sharpness and less blur in the background. I distinctly remember thinking that I could blur the background more if I switched to my 100mm f2.8 macro lens, but I consciously chose to not do so, I think keeping the background blurry but not too much enhances the photo, giving setting to the subject, yet still allowing the subject to stand out due to being sharp. Do you think I made the right choice? Tell me.    

The building that houses the Scottish Parliment is described on google maps as "Modern" my brain wants to call it more of a "brutalist" design, but I don't think I am qualified to make the determination. It WAS interesting. 

I thought painting stone with gold paint, or possibly applying gilt was interesting. I had not seen it done before, the overall effect was pretty, but I did find myself wishing the entire arch was painted, it could have been spectacular, possibly overdone, but spectacular nonetheless.   

AS much as I loved Holyrood House the full tour was too much to add in, it is rather nice though to look at from the outside. I mean, who does this to a hinge? It does not change the function, it is a hinge. Unless the purpose is solely to impress in the vein of: We have so much freaking money we can put gold on our hinges, you should be impressed! Which, if that is out of your league could be impressive. I mentioned that the Unicorn is the official animal of Scotland, right?

Impressive, just because we can be again yes? When does it become ostentation?  

There are many details that you may not catch if you are not looking.   

Ne earthly idea how old this is, but the textures, or patina maybe?   

I bet it used to be a fountain?   

The street performers were in full swing, I believe that people will go only for the fringe and not venture out of the main city.   

Personality is a MUST.   

You cannot have gotten this far in this series of blog posts without a sure and certain knowledge of my affinity for stained glass. But if you just arrived, I love stained glass, I love how it is used in sacred spaces, I love the richness of the colors and the stories that are told by them. Stained glass is simply beautiful and I love the richness of the colors and how it adds to everything. So this is St. Giles Cathedral, not the biggest, or the most ornate, but I think one of the most tastefully done cathedrals we were blessed to visit. Photographers note: Digital cameras and the ability to review images helps so much, I guessed back in the film days and most frequently failed to get the exposure right. The ability to change ISO at the spin of a button is glorious. In the film days, if you had outdoor ISO/ASA 100 or 200 film in your camera and you went inside, you were unlikely to be able to get a photo without a tripod as the shutter speed was far to long to hold steady. With my DSLR, I turn up the ISO and keep shooting. Amazing.

If there is just one photo, JUST ONE, that captures the glory of stained glass it is this. This light on the stone surround of the window literally stopped me mid step. The light illuminating plain stone and making it beautiful, from simple to glorious, mundane and functional to ethereal and uplifting.

Heavens! A person crept into a photo, ah me... This spot though. At first I was questioning why there were Slytherin House Banners before I shook off the weird thought and simply brought it all into awareness. Photographers sidenote: As I talked about in prior posts perspective can be problematic, our eyes adjust things to make them vertical when we know they are indeed vertical, the camera does not. The camera was tipped up to take this photo and all the columns were tipping inwards, it took simple software tools and a few minutes to fix that. The angle does skew the bottom of the window frame a little, but that is inescapable without over correcting the photo and losing the composition I chose. Some whiz kid will inevitably comment how easy it is to fix and steal the photo and mess with it. IF that is you, please don't, I like it how I did it. If I had not mentioned it would you even notice?   

Zooming in a little and correcting for vertical perspective a little less on this photo, maybe more natural? Or should I have made the columns perfectly straight?   

The value of standing in the right spot cannot be under rated, If you get in the geometric center of the arch, things get easier to fix, problem with the old buildings is that things don't always line up. Either from tolerance stacking during construction or settling of the building. When you are faced with that, you just try to split the difference and hold the camera straight

Sometimes the best approach is to embrace the perspective and not try to get anything level or straight.    

The intense Blue of the ceiling is more striking than a highly decorated fresco would be to me.   

Reluctantly, leaving the peace of the church, we headed back out to the crush.   

Think he will fill that bag up with money? If it is coins would be be able to carry it?   

Military Fort or Garrison as much or more than residence is Edinburgh Castle. It IS full of history, and yes I felt it was a site to not miss. But lots of walking and inclines to go up/down take a toll.   

Princes Street Garden, the Scott Monument and eventually the water of the Firth of Forth are your view.     

Leaving the castle and heading back I remembered to take a photo of the outside of St. Giles.   

I really WANT to be a good street photographer, I am not, but wanting counts right? I think this is one of my favorite street type photos I have ever taken.   

I'm not sure what he did to deserve to have his statue thus besmirched, but what are you going to do?     

AS always thanks for reading and looking to the end of the post. If you have comments or questions please do write!

Sadly our trip required significant sacrifices, one of them was a thorough exploration of Skye, we are not hikers and we are not fans of crowds, and Skye tends to be best explored on foot and July/August is always going to be crowded. We chose to see Dunvegan Castle after the ferry then take a leisurely drive through Skye to Kyle of Lochalsh where our Hotel was. Sometimes, you just have to accept that you cannot see everything. Dunvegan Castle and the Fairy Flag that is housed there play a large part in one book of my favorite fantasy series "The Adept" by Katherine Kurtz. I had read the series before going to school in Aberdeen back in '96 and made it a part of my travels to see some of the settings. Fyvie Castle that was our first stop in Scotland was one, Dunvegan Castle was another, along with Urquhart Castle. I went with a group of my classmates and while I enjoyed it,  they did not linger as I am wont to to take it in. I also had badly sprained my ankle at Braemar Castle earlier in the trip and was gimpy. It was lovely the second time around and truly enjoyable both inside and out.

So, of course the first picture is... a bust inside the castle. Mainly because I just loved the light and shadow. Now, I will accept the blame for not taking more pictures of the inside of the castles. I feel awkward taking pictures when the other tourists are in the photo and while the interiors ARE cool, they just don't seem to be as photogenic as I want them to be. The exteriors are where I get my fun shots.

The Castle sits on the water, and I believe that the MacLeods were pirates as most of the coastal clans were wont to be, this would make an ideal base for pirating. Now, the flowers were beautiful and the grounds well tended though maybe a little more rustic than other places, but I AM a sucker for flowers and plants with water droplets on them.   

The first time I saw one of these trees was here at Dunvegan, they are called Monkey Puzzle Trees. I don't know the origin of the name, but I really like how they look. Really wish they would grow in Utah.   

Technical Tidbit: To blur water you need a slow shutter speed to allow the water to move while the shutter is open. Trouble is, you also move and if your shutter speed is too slow without a tripod or other support everything is blurry. I think I did OK with this.

Perched on the edge of a small cliff, I think this was a quite defensible location I don't know the history but I am sure there has been a fortified something here for many years before even this castle was built.   

Skipping ahead to the next day, we were tired and slept in, Eilean Donan Castle had been on our radar, but was actually booked out as far as tours go that morning and not to dump on them, but the bulk of the castle was rebuilt in the early 1900's and is not all that historic. It IS what comes to mind when you think Scottish Castle though, as it have been photographed so many times and was used in the the original movie "The Highlander". We were happy to drive by the PACKED parking lot and get on our way, we had a LONG day ahead to our B&B a few miles south of Edinburgh. Side note here, we re-did our hotel for the last week on the fly. We had been booked into a hotel in downtown Glasgow and my lovely smart wife realized that the parking and getting around were going to be hideous, so we found a B&B that turned out to be stellar for several nights then another cute guest house on the coast in Irvine. BUT, that added almost an hour of drive time to a long day into the Glasgow/Edinburgh area from Skye via Inveraray Castle, which was worth it, but golly I was tired of driving!   

The drive WAS spectacular though, the glens and mountains were breathtaking.  

We arrived at Inveraray Castle in the mid afternoon, you do have to book your time and place ahead of time, which requires you to definitely plan ahead for drive times and such. But the stress was worth it, I had driven here planning to tour the castle during my last trip before ending my 2 years in Scotland but was delayed and got there just after it closed. Due to this I was bound and determined to see it this time. I know that the lords that built and owned this castle had done some quite underhanded things to their tenants (Look up the highland clearances, and other acts of the Dukes of Argyll if you want to) I find I have to look past that to be able to enjoy visiting castles like this and Dunrobin. This castle IS impressive too, I found myself actually taking more interior pictures of this castle than pretty much all of the rest of the ones we toured. On a technical note, this was the first time I forgot to turn my ISO down after going outside, the photo still is fine unless you look really closely and see there is a smidge of noise. But, you need to remember as a photographer to keep an eye on those types of things. I'm glad I noticed it and didn't ruin any photos, it isn't like I could go back any time I want.   

They built and decorated these places to impress and impress they do, the sheer ornateness really does progress to near outlandishness at times even becoming outlandish truth be told, but that was the times.   

The conical roofs on the towers are, to my understanding, what they looked like originally, adding a little bit of fairy tale to the building certainly. Not that I want you to look too closely, but if you compare the photo above to the photo below, you will see another example of perspective and adjusting for this when processing the photo. I did not correct for it in the top photo, which is why it looks distorted. Your eyes and perceptions automatically correct for this when standing close to a tall building and you don't notice it much, but the camera captures only what is there, modified by the lens and where the photographer stands. In the bottom photo I took time to correct the effect so that the walls that are indeed vertical, look vertical. I never really noticed this until I got more into photography, it is hard for me to forget now.   

I think at times you need to find balance in all that you do. I did struggle at times to chose which photos to process and which to not. I needed to keep the urge to fiddle with each image to make it PERFECT rather than good enough tamped down and simply have it be "good enough". This is harder than you might think for me. I took THOUSANDS of images and simply don't have the time to mess with all of them, nor should I, my keeper rate in regular life is maybe 1 in 10 or so. I had to loosen that a little for this, but it still took me MONTHS to get things gone through and ready to start blogging. If I am lucky I will finish yakking about my trip about a year after we left in mid July. That is a big investment in time, purely for my entertainment. I am hoping to entertain and or inform anybody who runs across this blog but, no offense, I'm not doing it for you. It is a labor of love for me really, to help cement the memories of this once in a lifetime trip. As always, I do hope you enjoyed reading my post and please feel free to comment.  

Lewis and Harris, northern end of the Hebrides Island chain, I had visited Barra back during my school days. I had considered spending my entire holiday at that time going further north to the other islands, but in 1996 getting around without a car was hard and the ferry schedule was unfavorable. The whole chain of islands has been a pull to me, something mysterious and brooding about these barriers between the Scottish mainland and... greenland? Just a lot of open water really. I'm related to the MacNeil of Barra clan and the thought of those piratical folks ranging out from their base on Barra and the remoteness coupled with the Callanish Standing Stones made this a must not miss stop. As previously noted, we ferried from Ullapool to Stornoway which was a ridiculously comfortable ferry, sitting in the upper forward salon looking ahead. Our first stop was Callanish, had to be.

Now, I get that not everyone gets as excited as I do in regards to stone circles, author shakes head slowly in rueful disbelief, but... how could you not? The age, the mystery, the colossal effort of a society that was  barely past sheer survival and hunter gatherer putting in the collective effort to build something like these circles, and they were everywhere! Callanish is an even cooler example than the average circle is. First it is a bit easier to access and is configured differently than others, like Brodgar that we visited on Orkney or the recumbent stone circles in Aberdeenshire. The ability to get right THERE was blessing and curse combined. I did have to work hard to keep other tourists out of my shots. Hiding them behind a stone, or waiting for gaps between groups took time. I found I worked my wider angle lenses much more in this setting. The gloomy skies were also a challenge as lifting the shadows and balancing the exposure was quite hard especially when shooting back towards the sun.

 This innermost portion is believed to have had an altar stone on top of those 4 supports you can see, the cruciform avenues running away from this central area. I'm not one to be superstitious but it did feel... odd standing there. Though that could have been the person one stone over praying/communing and muttering under their breath.  

The textures of the rock due to weathering and time and the nature of the rock itself were fascinating. The stones have been there almost long enough that they are supposed to be there now, like the landscape has become one with the changes.    

This setting is more intimate than you would imagine, utilizing my fisheye lens here opens it up, but distorts it. Corner to corner is 180 degrees and were you to be there in person you would see things differently. Really we all would, stepping around the stone on my right would change things. We all have a different way of seeing and where we choose to stand to look changes what we see and HOW we see it significantly.   

As you step away and look back more of the setting is revealed, but the details diminish.

We headed back to town and got dinner and rode forth to enjoy the extended sunsets that are enjoyed in the summertime in more northern latitudes. This lighthouse just north east of Stornoway was beautiful in the evening light.   

Never get too focused on the subject in front of you, sometimes the beauty is in a different spot than you are looking.   

I want to call this a version of milkweed but I am sure it isn't.   

I could sit on that bench and watch a thousand sunsets, the peaceful tranquility found in these isolated islands soothes my soul!  

Preparing to leave the next morning from Tarbert to ferry to Uig on the Isle of Skye, we arrived early, a short jaunt took us to the other side of the island and some beautiful areas and beaches, though I think this was high tide and the beaches were covered. I could easily escape to this area and be tempted to never leave.   

Lengthening my shutter speed to create some flow in the water just starts to show the restlessness of the sea, yet it is peaceful in its very restlessness.   

Bid farewell to the Hebrides. But not all of me left. Part of my heart stayed.

This post really made me a little "Travelsick" which is the opposite of Homesick. I found myself wishing to be back on those narrow road, through the amazing terrain that is the Northwest Coast of Scotland, on part of the road that is called the "North Coast 500" I will let you look that up yourself, google is your friend. The area is, in a word: Stunning! We didn't stop as much as maybe we wanted to, as it is a fair drive from Thurso to Ullapool, but we stopped a lot. I honestly have trouble thinning the herd of photos, they all bring back the joy of what to me is one of my deepest joys, just driving through beauty with my lovely wife at my side. We had a great dinner the night before, Cullen Skink soup at a nice place in Thurso, filled up as petrol stations are scarce, non-existent really, on this route and stocked up on some snackies and food for lunch. We really did get to like Digestive Biscuits as a simple breakfast we could eat while driving.

I really do not know how many of these Lochs opened to the sea and which were self contained, but they were pretty, and we found some nice beaches too. You would not think that about Scotland, but they have some really amazing beaches there. They are not warm, but they are perfect for a walk in a jacket, and gazing out to sea with the wind in your hair, imagining you are in a Scottish version of a Romance Novel.   

Would it surprise you to know that I could cheerfully retire to a spot like this... if I could afford it. THIS IS SO COOL!   

Like I said, beaches, all over the place. There was a zip line to my right if I remember correctly, it was sunny and calm.  

I believe that I have mentioned the heather, I love the subtle color it adds, it fits with the rest of the palate and accents the deep greens. Makes me happy inside.  

 The Kylesku Bridge is a cool thing, it curves in the middle of the span, that is not an optical illusion. It is a sure sign you are getting closer to Ullapool. Before this we stopped at Smoo Cave, which was cool but not really photogenic.   

Ardvreck Castle Waterfall was beautiful, but introduced us to the dreaded Midge swarms that are part of the package tour in the Highlands and Islands. I was trying to hold my camera still enough to stretch out the shutter speed and get movement in the water while having these teeny tiny... things crawl into every crevice of my unprotected skin. It was excruciating, but I liked the photos. You are welcome to enjoy the fruits of my discomfort. Typically I would use a tripod for this type of shot, but there was NO WAY I was going back out into the midges.

I really wanted to hike out to the castle as well, but I had to say no. As I write this many months later, I am getting itchy just thinking about this.    

We had a great hotel in Ullapool, this was our view from the Hotel grounds, the ferry to Stornoway was on the schedule for tomorrow, which was exciting to me, I love ferries. My wife and I also cracked up a lot due to the Google Map navigation frequently warning us: "Warning Ferry" multiple times as we drove towards every ferry que. We still will look at each other and just say it sometimes and both crack up.   

As a photographer, I have long loved taking photos of antique and/or cool cars but I don't get to do it as much as I would like. The possibilities are endless really once you get up close and start looking with the photographers eye. As we got queued up for the ferry the next day we struck gold... er... chrome. There was a group of Bentley cars going on a tour of the Isles of Harris and Lewis. Oh heavens!!!

I felt this driver was rather bold driving a convertible in the rain is brave to say the least. Just so pretty though.   

One thing that really impressed me was that these are DRIVERS, not museum pieces, props to these folks man.   

Now... now my heart stopped. I had no idea what this car was but it blew me away!!! The styling was timeless and sexy, sleek and powerful. I just.... WOW!!! I later was able to identify it as a 1930 Bentley "Blue Train" Special with coachwork by Gurney Nutting. There is plenty on the web about it, this is a seriously COOL CAR! And not just to look at, though how it looks is just... Chefs Kiss perfection.  

I really thought at first glance that it was a modern recreation with custom slammed coachwork or some one off fantasy. It's a real car, and worth a lot, and being driven on public roads. I cannot say how much I admire the owner for being willing to do this so the world can appreciate it.  My hat is off to you.   

Off to the ferry, next stop Stornoway on the Isle of Harris and Lewis and Callanish Standing Stones!!!

If there is anything beyond Castles that I love about Scotland it is stone circles. Yes, I know that there are circles found in other countries, and yes, there is Stonehenge etc... BUT, this is the northernmost one in the UK, and there is evidence of travel from this area to Stonehenge, it is one of the few Henges with a completely circular Stone Circle inside it. It is just COOL, and I am fascinated by it and all of these types of sites, which is why there are so many photos in this post (I took a LOT more than I am posting here, these are just my favorites.) I love to ponder the uses, nobody is completely sure how they were used, there is no right or wrong answer, that they WERE important was clear, the effort involved was huge and 3,000 BC was a time where mere survival was not a given and the effort to sustain life and family/community was all consuming. The community effort involved to move and erect the monuments was not inconsequential, the fact that the effort was put in and that they survived this length of time speaks to the importance they had to the people who built them.

How then to do justice to the setting and the stones? I don't know if you fully can even with multiple days to try to photograph them and different weather or amounts of cloud cover. I had a few hours and somewhat decent skies. I think I did OK, one complication was that the path into the inside of the circle was closed, though there had been two people inside when I got there. I make a point of being respectful and though I could not see the harm in going inside I stayed on the periphery. The circle is surrounded by a Henge or ditch, and the area inside the stones is a little elevated. Meaning I was shooting up into the sky which makes things a little less varied in regards to composition. This first photo is one of my most favorite ones, the perspective of the lone stone and the others lower and spread out and the sunburst was pleasing. I do believe that sun, star and moon placement relative to the stones was part of what these were constructed for. What do you think?

 The heather was a beautiful shade and has been/remains a favorite accent to the landscape that is Scotland.  

I have this sometime vision/dream of being outside of a circle like this it is night time and there is a person standing inside the circle in front of each stone with a torch flickering in the wind. They walk together to the center to light a pyre on top of which is an important person who has passed. Solemn acknowledgement on each face of the shortness of our time on this earth and the interconnectedness of those who have been and those who continue for now.  Likely not historical fact, just a fanciful vignette in my head, but the feeling stays with me.    

The incoming cloud deck, limiting my opportunity to try for anything with stars or milky way at night still provide a beauty all of their own.   

Do you think the individual stones were named, or had stories about them? Did the people who worshipped here have favorites?   

Having made the full circuit of the circle I wanted to capture more detail rather than the wider view, moving to more telephoto focal lengths with my 70-210 makes it possible to compress distant things together and highlight what I want and remove distractions. 

As clouds roll in lighting became more of an issue, exposing for the stones vs the sky quickly became a choice I had to make, exposing for the sky was more rewarding.   

I left Brodgar with some reluctance, wishing I could expect clear sky at some point was unfruitful and I needed sleep before the explorations of the next day. And my lovely wife was waiting in the car patiently. I was/am melancholy thinking that I am unlikely to ever be able to visit again, having the photographs helps.

Thank you for viewing, as always comments are welcome. Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Who does NOT like the Highlands of Scotland? If it is you, well I doubt your taste in travel. While we did not spend days on end in The Highlands, we did enjoy the beauty of the area very much. The area has inspired poets to verse and the clans to warfare, it is both gentle and rugged and oh so green.\

We finished our drive from Blair Castle in the Town of Aviemore, with the plan to ride a steam train excursion on the Strathspey Railway. I had originally planned to ride The Jacobite the train featured in the Harry Potter movies as the Hogwarts Express. I was willing to do something THAT touristy just because it is really cool. Sadly, at the time I was booking things in early spring of 2024 the train was shut down due to  railway safety regulations and not taking reservations. Being a bit of a steamhead, I still wanted to do something similar with a steam train and found this cute little railroad. While the trip itself was much shorter, it was less expensive and still pretty cool. I love photographing trains, if you look back there are several posts on my blog about the "Big Boy" 4014 operated by Union Pacific and my adoration of trains and especially steam trains should be mildly obvious. The excursion was short but lovely, we did not pay for the extras of the morning tea service but enjoyed looking out the windows at the peaceful scenes of the valley.

Our turn around point was at Glenbogle, glen is a wooded opening in the trees, and Bogle as a name tickled my brain. I do love the origins of place names and or just the oddness sometimes. Scotland has a plentiful number of interesting place names. Do have to admit the Gaelic names on road signs in the Highlands and Islands were charming in the extreme.  

 Most of the time you don't get very close to the operators and engineers of steam trains, but with an operation this small, it is doable. This was one of my favorite photos of the day, the movement of the man shoveling the coal, the complexity of the pipes, the overall texture of the image just capture my mood.  

Leaving town we went back to the south to come up Loch Ness from the Spean Bridge end and drive north ending our day in Drumnadrochit, our plan to get some food, then visit Urquhart Castle in the evening. I truly love the location and history of this castle, I can imagine the location as an obvious place for a stronghold for as long as people have needed protection from others. It has been ruined for ages, but must have been amazing at the height of its use. In some ways I prefer ruins over castles that are still habitable, as I can use my well trained imagination to rebuild it. Sometimes fantasy is better than reality. 

The next morning we left for points north fairly early as we wanted to see Inverness for a bit, for some reason I never really liked the town. I just can't put my finger on it, the riverwalk is lovely it is not to big. Shrugs, it just never jelled with me. Lovely bride and I enjoyed the visit then headed north as we had an appointment with one of my top 5 castles, Dunrobin Castle. As an aside, I do want to point out that I had a more keen awareness in my 50's of the social and economic circumstances that allowed the lords and landowners to amass the money that they did, and the often cruel manner in which their tennants were treated. The Highland Clearances being just part of that. I am, however, able to still appreciate the beauty of the castles, homes and estates that they produced while acknowledging the hardships that produced them. Moving on, after the tour of the castle we observed the hawking/falconry show that is part of the tour if you time it correctly. Pulling out my longest lens my 70-210, I was able to get close enough to get a few cool photos.    

The castle views from the gardens that sit between the building and the North Sea is the payoff of the visit really. It is so fairytale looking that I cannot help but be enthralled.    

I have a confession to make, I have never been super comfortable taking pictures with people in them, I always seem to prefer waiting until the people around are not there to... Distract? Shrugs, it is just my thing don't know why but I find myself reluctant to have people there when I am focusing on the form, pattern, or simplicity maybe, of the object I am photographing. But in this instance I HAD to take and keep the photo, there is just something joyful about the little girl who was running around and when she jumped up on the edge of the pond was so excited to see herself... Well that was too precious for me to miss. At some point I will work around my people avoidance in some of these situations and work to include them, unpack and face myself and my insecurities. But... not right now.   

We stayed in Golspie after visiting Dunrobin, had a lovely dinner then headed north to catch the ferry to The Orkney Islands. I somehow didn't take a picture of the ferry on my DSLR, but did thoroughly enjoy the passage to St. Margaret's Hope. We did a lot of driving, got dinner and spent part of the evening back out exploring including the Standing Stones of Brodgar, which my next post will be about as it deserves a singular post. The next day we visited Kirkwall for my lovely lady to do laundry (yes, mundane things happen on vacation) and for me to explore St. Magnus Cathedral. I vaguely remember walking past it on my only prior visit to Kirkwall, but with the limited time available I don't know that I even took a single photo of it. Determined to rectify that oversight I was very pleasantly blessed with a quiet morning to explore. The climate and choice of stone seem to have been somewhat poorly matched, but I dearly love the texture of the weathering, DEARLY LOVE! For a building in the far north of the country the ornateness and dedication to detail is astounding. The hinges, oh me, the decorative nature of the hinges, I just could not quite grasp it. I must admit one of my frustrations with these types of buildings, nothing has remained perfectly straight, level or symmetrical. I have a deep seated need to have my photos of architectural things be level, though I do not always fully correct the perspective as that can look quite weird. But many if not most of these buildings have settled, and shifted over the years, or were just not built straight in the first place, I had to learn to live with that. Try to not look too closely or judge me on these little details. They were hard to work with.

While not as ornate as some, the geometric patterns and overall simplicity of the ceiling was pleasurable to view. Again, my 12mm Fisheye lens came to the rescue, I find this just so pleasing and dramatic and simply could not have gotten this view any other way. Someday they will put a fisheye ultrawide angle lens on a cell phone, but until then I will stick with my DSLR, even after then too I think.

This is the type of weathering I see in southern Utah sandstone, and I believe this is a similar type of rock. Seeing it on a building, even one close to nine hundred years old astounds me in that it can weather that fast!  

All in all, a beautiful way to spend a morning.   

The Brough of Birsay is this cool little tidal island that was reachable by foot though we chose to not chance the tide, it has remnants of Norse, Pictish and other cultures. Kinda wish I HAD chanced that crossing...   

Thanks for reading and viewing, as always leave comments as desired.

I know there is more to Scotland than Castles, but my brain simply equates them as the same. The castles are not the grand fortresses you often think of, but something that began as a fortified tower and morphed eventually to a home for the Lord and family, often with additions as the years went by. Seldom being finished in the form the architect planned and left alone. If you are curious for more detail: https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/a-tale-of-two-towers

There are FAR too many castles in the area of Aberdeen to even approach seeing all of them in the time we had, but we tried to see a good sampling. There is a tour designed to see the major ones if you want to go all out: https://www.visitscotland.com/things-to-do/attractions/castles/scotland-castle-trail

Some are ruins, but were once large stately homes, these first two pictures are of Huntly Castle. You can see the bay windows on the top floor and the intricate stonework indicating serious wealth.

This second photo is included more because I liked it than that it shows the castle to best effect. I simply liked using an ultrawide lens at f2.8 for the thinnest depth of field I could at as close of a focus as I could manage. That is not something that is standard operating procedure, but just kind of fun. Your cell phone wont capture this without all kinds of computing resources and trickery.  

Dunottar Castle just south of Aberdeen near the town of Stonehaven was the first castle I ever visited, as such it has a very special place in my heart. Many of the students in my class of study rode the train down and hiked the coast to the castle as a group. It was an amazing introduction to the area. It is built on a naturally defensible spot, it has amazing views and has history of many amazing events.     

I did have to limit the number of photos I included in this post, I have many more in my gallery here: https://www.lloydshell.com/p901116219 and took many more than that but did not process them from the RAW files, I had to find some semblance of restraint.

Crathes Castle is a shot drive inland from Dunottar and I felt it made an easy second stop after the more strenuous hiking to get in and out of Dunottar. The fabric of the original tower home is fairly intact with a smaller addition to the side, it is graceful and has the most AMAZING gardens. I chose to not put too many flower photos in so as to ease the boredom. The gallery is linked earlier in the post if you are flush with time to poke around.  

Craigievar Castle is a little different than the other castles in the area it was finished in 1626 and was very minimally altered after that.   https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/craigievar

 Castle Fraser was one I had never visited during my time in Scotland while in school. I is a very fun building with multiple different additions and a beautiful courtyard entrance. While the day was not a blue sky day, it was still a pretty day to visit.  

Interspersed with the Castles was one particular cathedral, Elgin Cathedral, it is mostly ruined, but I took one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip here. My 12mm f2.8 fisheye lens gave me the ability to get creative in this chapter house and make a striking image looking up and backwards from the entrance.  How they can make ceilings like this out of stone, still boggles my mind.

On our way home from Elgin we stopped by Mortlach Parish Church, a cool little churchyard and building, that is more noteworthy for links to MacBeth than for any other reason. It is a moody little burial ground and the atmosphere was cool.    

Stirling Castle, I want to say it is a don't miss, yet it lacks the... feeling of some of the other castles in that it really has been through so many different uses that the insides are just not that remarkable. The overall building is very impressive, and there are some nice gardens. It also attracts a LOT of visitors and the parking is non-existent close to the entrance, there is some but it is very limited and the streets around the building are just NOT suitable.   

Gargoyles amuse me, they just do.  

Blair Castle was our last stop Castlewise for the short term, we stopped there on our way into the highlands, leaving the lowlands of Aberdeenshire. This is a very stately and lovely home that I enjoyed, having missed it during my school times as it was closed the day I tried to stop. Considering how far it is from London, up in the Scottish Highlands it is an amazing spot of luxury.   

For now I will end this post, the next few stops count more as being in the highlands proper and deserve a separate post. AS always, thanks for reading and look at my photos. Please comment and let me know what you think!

I have been struggling with order of presentation of this trip and not just dumping every photo on you that I took. Problem is, I took a lot of photos I like. But, I am cognizant of the times I was taken to a slide show of my dad's buddies trip and I was bored out of my ever loving skull. I am going to try to sum up the week in Aberdeen in two posts, and then I will post a link to the gallery of all the photos I took for those of you that are... um... weird? So, first post is Aberdeen City and stuff inside, second post will be the Castles we day tripped to. Now, I know Aberdeen pretty well, lived there for 2 years 4 months going to Physiotherapy School, I found that my familiarity influenced what I took pictures of, where my wife was whipping out her cell phone all the time I was just going... yeah that's OK but not worth DSLR time and hassle. What I wanted to portray here is some of the unusual or just pleasing buildings and sights that I liked. One of the most interesting things to me in Aberdeen is the number of old churches bunched together that have all been decommissioned and turned into bars, music venues and just all kinds of purposes. Just seems... wrong somehow, yet I have spent hours looking at decommissioned chapel listings in the countryside dreaming of purchasing and turning into a house. Not that it is practical, but just fun to dream about. 

Anyhoo, this is an old church on Belmont Street, walked this street a LOT, and I don't remember looking up at this much. It isn't some kind of monumental building, it is just cool and I liked the sky. Should you wander here you will see things like this all day. The Bar is called Slains Castle, named after a ruined castle up the coast, that was an inspiration for Bram Stoker when he was writing Dracula.

If there is a building that dominates my visual memories of Aberdeen more than any other it is this. St. Nicholas Kirk I walked past it, wandered through the graveyard to sit and ponder, just used it to navigate as a landmark if nothing else. You see I was raised in Utah, our cities are laid out in a nice grid, the mountains tell us which way is east. It is easy to navigate. Cities in the UK are... less organized and man I got lost early on. Knowing where this was gave me a landmark that I used a lot. The fact that it looks cool doesn't hurt either.

Marischal College building is another favorite, built in the 1800's it is one of the largest granite buildings in the world according to Wikipedia, when I was there it was being used by the University of Aberdeen and IF I recollect correctly our anatomy cadaver lab was in the basement. Creepy as all heck too. I have always loved the building, it too is a big part of my visual mental map of the city.  

The statue above is of King Robert the Bruce, and below is William Wallace, they are both beloved parts of Scotland's history and I'm pretty sure every decent sized town has a monument to them. Braveheart came out not too long before I went over in 1996 and it did nothing to quiet my long time fascination with Scotland and it's history. I have a fair number of relatives that came from the area east of Edinburgh and their stories have always pulled at my heart. So naturally I like these guys too.

This is another building off of Belmont Street, I like the architecture, but I LOVE the fact that stuff is growing on it. I'm sure it is bad for the stonework, but I just cracks me up. It is solid rock for heck's sake!  

I honestly have no recollection of this statue in honor of the Gordon Highlanders, but I like it. The willingness and desire of the country to preserve their heritage warms my soul, and there is a LOT of heritage to preserve.

This was a favorite piece of eye candy for me the Mercat Cross, some weekends there would be a fair/market thingy going on, and even saw a bunch of bagpipers/drummers performing there. Yes that is a Unicorn on top. 

Union Street is/was the main shopping boulevard when I was there, bookshops, food places spent a LOT of time in the booksellers sittin and readin.

In the OLD part of Aberdeen is St. Machar's Cathedral, I somehow never managed to get down there and made a point of including it. It has a long history in the area and is a really cool old building. I particularly loved the ceilings and stained glass windows. I may have mentioned that when I was talking about St. Paul's in London, I am a sucker for stained glass when there is light pouring through it. These types of buildings were made to impress and awe every person who entered. It works for me. Gates and wrought iron decoration also work.

We can't really be IN Scotland without taking photos of at least a few Thistles, I was surprised at the variety of the blooms from species to species. Very different from what I have close to my home in Utah.  

The roughness of the stone work speaks to the antiquity of the fabric of the building, which I rather prefer, it seems to match the vibe of the country. The spill of light onto the floor was subtle but sublime.

The play of light onto the wall, literally stopped me in my tracks. I HAD to try to capture it. Not entirely sure I did it justice.

Celtic Crosses are just plain cool, the number of cultures that have contributed to modern Scotland is large. Picts, Vikings, Celts, are some of my favorites. The artistry of the Celtic imagery blended into christian symbols has a certain beauty that does not pale for me, no matter how much of it I see. This was in the churchyard of the Cathedral as we were leaving. Probably still there too if you want to visit.  

Returning to downtown for some night photography now. This is SO MUCH easier than film days! Have you ever shot film? You don't know what you have until later when you get the film back from being developed. I wasted MANY nights taking photos in the dark and screwing up the exposure. Being able to look at the screen is just so much easier.

My lovely bride, had given me maximal control of planning this trip. She had planned a trip to Hawaii the year before and didn't want the stress. I was happy to oblige, I get the broad brush strokes done well, but sometimes, most of the time truth be told, details I let happen organically. Like where to eat. I just like to pick where I eat on the day of, based on what looks good. My wife likes a little more planning and... discernment. Which is fine, it really is! It is just not my style. Anyway, her dilligence and searching paid dividends, my favorite Fish and Chip shop or "Chippie" had closed down in the interval since I lived there and we wanted some good authentic Fish and Chips. She found this one that was a stand up on the beach, with amazing reviews and to me great potential if for no other reason than salt air and a breeze on the waterfront will enhance any meal but will do amazing things for Fish n Chips. It was fabulous, the fish were literally caught hours before and fried fresh. It was divine! 

The beach was always a refuge when I needed some peace and to think. Not sure how long these have been down at the waterfront, but somebody needs to "Think" about replacing these.  

Some photos take agility to get right, like I said in my last post 90% of photography is knowing where to stand. Or in this case kneel.   

Thanks for sticking through this post! As Always comments welcome.

From a travelogue viewpoint our overnight train from London to Aberdeen was uneventful in a good way. We were tired and it had been hot, the bunk beds were actually quite comfortable and a reasonable amount of sleep was had, we were up early for the first available time in the dining car for our included breakfast. My best description of the meal is eminently civilized, sitting by a window watching fields of sheep and cows on one side and the ocean on the other was just delightful... and civilized. Arriving at the train station we used a cab (Because we learned from London) to get to our car rental facility out at the airport. I am still quite put out that there was not a car hire facility in the train station or even in close proximity, but I can't change that. 

Our first stop, one of my wife's (Then Girlfriend/Fiance) favorite castles based on my photos from my time is school was Fyvie Castle, it is located outside a very cute and very small village, with a very small and very cute church, or Kirk as they are often called. As we got to the area before the castle opened we decided to explore the peaceful little churchyard. There is something about a small country churchyard in Scotland that is just.... sigh... amazingly peaceful. I felt that monochrome suited the texture and mood of the place. This could be an aftereffect of my time spent there that I remember as being grey MOST of the time. Skies, buildings, ground all grey, I was glad I got to see the area with more sunlight than I remember, the granite sparkles more than I remembered.

Photographers note: I would normally try the below photo with a prime lens, wide open for thinner depth of field and blurred backgrounds yadda yadda yadda. This was taken with my 28-105mm kit lens wide open at f4. The out of focus areas are pleasing enough and the sharpness is good, this is part of why I was OK with not taking every lens I own. This inexpensive lens performs quite well!  

  There are few things I remember more than textures and smaller details. This photo is an exact sum of how my mind would have remembered the scene. The stronger side light enhancing the rougher granite surface and leaving part of the door in shadow, the texture of the lines in the mortar between the blocks of granite. All things that I like and all things that I think make this a strong image. 

 Don't need to say much here, I couldn't NOT attempt to take a photo of this.  

The main event: Fyvie Castle, my understanding is the layout of this front facade is built on the outline and foundation of an old roman fort. (Could be wrong/misremembering) Which would explain the strong towers on each corner, this castle is old enough to have been a fort before it was a stately home and it shows. Which leads me to think about romans being this far north, several hundred miles north of Hadrian's Wall, it must have been quite the uneasy group that held this post far north of any civilization. Could be a fun research question for a rainy day. How far north did the Romans really get, at one point they simply chose to retreat south and wall off the country due to the inability to hold land. 

 I am led to understand that the steel bands around the masonry on the left side of the photo were recently placed to stabilize shifting rock to prevent collapse of the tower. It looks funny, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

 Another photographers thought, massive buildings are hard to photograph, you either need to get a long distance away or use a very wide angle lens, either way perspective plays into what you do. Do you want to have a photo that looks like you remember it looking with the internal corrections that your mind makes or do you want to have something that looks rather less like reality, but is different? That is part of the photographers vision and choices for a scene, it influences where you stand (Which is 90% of photography) the lens you choose and all your other camera settings. The question I put in my mind when I see a scene I think has potential is this: Where should I stand? Or crouch? Or even lie down? Do you notice the progression through perspective in this series of photos?  

 One of the things Fyvie is noted for is the quality of the plasterwork on the ceilings. I found it hard to really capture, but I do appreciate it.

Despite the centuries long transformation from Tower House for defense to palatial living space for the aristocrats and rich, hints of the older purposes remain. This is known as a yett, They were used to strengthen the main door or gate into the Tower House. 

Moving on from Fyvie to Haddo House the traditional seat of the Earl of Aberdeen, this is described as Georgian Palladian in style and has one of my favorite entrances in the country. The double curved entrance stairway brings to mind Victorian and Regency era carriages bringing guests for a party, crunching up the graveled drive. As a sucker for the genre of "Proper Romances" set in regency times this is what I tend to conjure in my mind. 

Beyond cool entrances other things I really enjoy about these places are the gardens. I love the smell of flowers, the colors, the patterns of the garden. It pleases me deeply to just wander. I took a lot more photos than I will post on here, don't want to bore you all to death, but man... I really enjoy these places. I was, however, running out of energy. My lovely wife was zonkered in the car while I wandered here. It was one of the frustrating things of realizing that I am not 26 anymore. It didn't ruin the trip at all, but needing to serve the demands of a body in it's mid 50's that is still recovering from jet lag and just the energy drain of travel was irksome. It did reinforce the wisdom of my choice to undertake this now rather than after retirement. My father had many plans to travel after he retired, but several major heart issues and bypass surgery limited him and my mom somewhat and I was/am firm in trying to see what I can while I am healthy enough to do it. Tomorrow is never guaranteed, live TODAY! 

 After Haddo House we went back to Aberdeen, which was to be our base for the next week. It may have been a slight tactical error to have stayed there that whole time and not moved closer to Perth or Glasgow for a few days, but it was less energy in some ways to be in the same hotel, same room and have familiarity with the area. Besides the hotel was in the building that once housed the library and classrooms where I took my finals in Physiotherapy School and right across the street from my flat. I had a history there and while it may have cost us time driving on our day trips, it was enjoyable to be in familiar territory. Though I must admit Aberdeen was not as I remembered entirely and a little more run down in places. Our Next stop was a Saturday day trip to Glamis Castle for the morning with a afternoon wander through St. Andrews, then Sunday at Scone Castle. Glamis was a favorite for my wife, and for me as well. The drive into the castle is just... Chefs Kiss, perfect, long tree lined drive with the castle at the end, just looming larger and larger. Immaculate grounds and just a beautiful setting. You can clearly see the middle portion is different than the wings, being more of the L-plan Tower House that was endemic to Scotland (Wikipedia can tell you more than you want to know about the design of these types of buildings.) the overall effect is one of grace and a testament to the power and wealth of those who lived here.   

From the photographers perspective I found it interesting how a change in perspective and amount of clouds in the sky after our tour can change the feel of the space. It never did rain on us, but the drama was fun!  

I love me some sunflowers, but these were curiously interesting in their shortness. What I am used to in America are much taller.   

I will include Scone Palace mostly as the history is noteworthy, the building was... OK, just left me meh... I put the camera down a little here and just tried to feel the essence of the place without the viewfinder in the way. As a place of history with the crowning of kings happening on that spot I found myself a little lost in what the pageant must have looked like in Medieval Times.      

The Peacocks on the grounds are moderately well known, and I did spend sometime chasing them around with my 70-210  

I found the forest walk to be delightful, love me some big trees! The afternoon sun filtering through the trees made for interesting patterns of light on the trunks.   

Sunday afternoon after Scone was a nice drive up the "Royal Deeside" past Braemar and Balmoral Castles without really stopping. Followed by naptime then nightime at the Loanhead of Daviot Stone Circle. I was hoping for clear skies and the chance for star trails or even a hint of Milky Way. I got cloud cover so I had to work a little harder. Ultra Wide Angle & Tripod support while walking around with my flashlight gave me slightly interesting results, but not what I had dreamed of. I guess I am spoiled in Utah with mostly clear days and many areas with little to no light pollution. Still I had fun at a place I wanted to re-visit. 

That finishes out our first week in the UK getting us up to Scotland and seeing a few things there. I may need to find a way to condense things a little or I am going to be blogging about this forever. Then again, 20 years from now, if I live that long, I may need to read this to remember anything about this trip. Worth it!

As always thanks for reading!

Time to wrap up London and prepare for the trip north. We wanted to see the Notting Hill area, being fans of the movie, so a little tube time and we were walking the streets. It is a charming place with some cute buildings to look at, fairly quiet except for a few tourists. We ate Pizza, that was OK and wandered. It allowed me time to meditate with the camera. I love detail stuff like this, you could miss it if your eyes were not open and seeing.

A few parting thoughts as well:

The tube is great, Taxis from the tube to your destination are splendid, just about did myself in trying to navigate while hauling luggage. And my poor wife too, sorry babe!

I didn't post pics from there but the Globe Theatre is just a LOT of fun and should not be missed, Shakespeare in the setting he intended is just, sigh... stellar!

Traveling north from London is funner by train and taking the overnight train north with sleeper suites is AMAZING! https://www.sleeper.scot/

The gardening chops of Londoners always astounds me, itty bitty space, lets grow a BUNCH of stuff and throw in a chinese lion statue for variety.  

Still kind of wish I had bought the sign, but glad I didn't have to carry it around.   

The day we left town, we toured Buckingham Palace, and hit Hyde Park Briefly, really wish we had know how BIG Hyde Park is... that is a whole day there. And we were tired of walking and needed to rest after, so we saw a movie "Twisters" in a boutique theater that was slightly air conditioned. Buckinham is SO OPULENT, it actually felt a little overdone really. 

Hyde Park had some amazing flowers and a few cute bumble bees too! I seldom turn down the chance to take a pic of flowers, Didn't here even with the drizzle.  

London finished, onwards to Aberdeen Scotland!

Ahhhh... the Tower of London, I love it for the history, I love it for the location. Visiting it should be done at least once in a lifetime, but not more. First it is pricey, and I'm a little cheap, second, you have to buy tickets quite a ways ahead of time and choose the time you go then, so flexibility is out. All that said it IS a cool building with amazing history and the tour with the warders is quite a good time. This brother was our guide.

This guy just had an epic beard/stasche and gave me the look.

These ravens are cool, here is their story:https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/the-ravens/#gs.lg6hfd
  

Seems that everything has to be ornate, I mean... its a weathervane mate.

From a photographers standpoint, the interior was quite dark and I was back to High ISO and wide open apertures to get photos. Don't think the wooden horses minded though.

Different from stained glass (Which I love as you will see later on) these painted panes of glass can still be beautiful. Amazing how these things have lasted through the centuries.

 This view shows a little bit of the history of the Tower as a fortress. To make things more difficult, the builders of castles tended to make the ground floor pretty solid and put the entrance 1 story up and made the attackers have to go up stairs then make a right turn to even begin to attack. If you are right handed and in armor that can be tough. Especially if they rig the stairs to collapse as you are about to politely attempt to give a neighborly hello with your sword.  

The Tower Bridge is really best viewed from right on the waterfront by the tower, sadly you cannot get to this spot at night I found out.  

Back to my favorite genre of night time long exposures, these photos were taken a few nights before the photos above, but I decided to clump stuff by Subject/Location as much as day they were taken on.

Getting up close and personal yielded a very different look, silly me I had a vision of standing in the middle somehow but that isn't possible, no island in the middle to climb and standing in the middle of the crosswalk would likely be frowned upon. So you get what you can get. The distortion of the wide angle and looking up is fun though. In case you were wondering the green lights just below the arch are a result of internal reflections inside the lens (The Pentax 15-30) I could have edited them out easily, but I kinda like them. The same concept apply as in the last post, tripod and cable or IR release and imagination make this kind of stuff easy to do.

Jumping ahead to the last night in London, I took a left from the Millennium Bridge by the Globe Theater to walk down closer to the Tower Bridge. The Thames was cooperative and the movement of the water and some boats were quite to my liking.  

 I think the movement of the boats was the best in this one. But they were all good! 

Thanks for reading this far. Hope you enjoyed the show.

I gotta tell ya, this was the one place I had to go to when I was in London, seriously, I could have skipped the rest and been OK on my side of things. There were lots of things I wanted to see, but HAD to, was St. Paul's Cathedral. I went there once before again back in the day, summer of 1997 it would have been when I was at a clinical placement at Stanmore Hospital in July. I mentioned I was in Physiotherapy School in Scotland before right? Anyway, I went there and did not really get much of anything, one photo looking straight up at the dome with a nice beam of light crossing. But, really nothing but memories. 

Now, going there is one thing, actually getting any photos I liked would be another thing altogether, I remembered the incredible scale of the building and that the lenses I had back in the film days were simply not able to "Get it all in." that phrase is a little fraught in photography/photographer circles by the way as it indicates maybe an indiscriminate or non focused approach, where you just go wide and take a boring photo that while showing the interior does not have a focus point or subject. That thought in the back of my mind being considered, I still felt that wider can be useful and I have a certain amount of experience with wide lenses to rely on. I already had the Pentax 15-30 f2.8 superwide but, like any respectable photographer I wondered if I needed to go wider than that already considerably wide field of view I can get at 15mm. My APS-C kit had a Fisheye lens from Rokinon, it gives you 180 degrees field of view from corner to corner and has a pleasing projection that is less distorted than other fisheye lenses. I really liked mine, BUT it was not full frame. Taps fingers on lips pensively... what to do, what to do... A quick google search filled me with joy. https://www.slrlounge.com/rokinon-12mm-f2-8-full-frame-fisheye-lens-review-urbex-extreme-adventure-photography-lens/ They made one for full frame and it is VERY well reviewed!

I then sallied forth and bought said lens to add to the kit. Scratching an itch I knew I had and it felt GOOD! Now, I have all the focal lengths covered that I would likely need, a camera with a great sensor and the eventual prospect of a cathedral to photograph. Still, I knew there would be challenges, lots of people around, (I kinda hate having people in my architectural photos, but here that can't be avoided.) and the lighting, or lack thereof inside. Our eyes are amazing, we can go into a dimly lit building and as they adjust see quite well. Camera sensors have come a long way, but still cannot capture light the same way as our eyes and that poses a challenge. Increasing the ISO, or sensitivity of the sensor, adds noise and reduces the fidelity of the color captured. I knew this would be a challenge in many buildings and castles on this trip and I needed to game plan to find the happy spot that will give me the results I wanted. Eventually, for most things I settled on ISO 1600 as my baseline shutter speed and varied the aperture a little as needed but would start at f6.7 and maybe go up to f8 where my lenses tend to be the sharpest. As you will see as we go along, I think I did OK. There is some noise in most photos, a fair amount in some where I had to really push the shadows. 

Now, the day of the visit. I had booked my tickets many months before, which I was glad to have done as the line to try in without one was long, really long. I started off with my 15-30 f2.8, as soon as I got inside I remembered that I had forgotten the size of the silly thing!

15mm got me the perspective and scale I wanted, but at the cost of distortion. Yes the walls are actually straight and level in real life, but that is not how lenses work, nor the perspective of looking up, our brains compensate when we look up and correct things, the camera combined with the lens just captures things differently.

I soon reached for that 12mm fisheye and was glad I had it. This is an... interesting cross and capturing it and placing it inside the greater context of the building was a task that I am not sure I could have accomplished otherwise. 

In a style that could likely be termed "Distort and Conquer" I tried to capture this column and carving details and again place it within it's context. I think I did OK.

The Exterior is a source of delight for me as well.

The details really crack me up at times. The intricacy and effort put in never fail to impress me.  

I have learned since processing these that some of the things I used to have to do no longer need to be in my toolkit. I have an unsharp mask setting I have long used to add contrast that seems to give me pronounced haloing it really shows up in this type of photo. Probably need to re-visit this one day.

I'm going to jump ahead in time now to our last night in London before flying home. I deliberately booked a hotel just down the street from St. Paul's to facilitate some night photography. I was lucky enough to have it rain just before I set out, which was... sigh... just lovely. One of my favorite ways to see a scene differently is to lengthen the exposure at night and capture the movement around the subject while it sits still and sharp. Or to have the subject move while the framing sits still. This was a good night for this. I have included many shots here just to illustrate how each shot can be different even if the camera does not move much or at all. The best part of this type of photography is that you really don't need any special equipment, just a good tripod, some type of cable or IR remote and your usual lenses. And...   some luck helps too. Again the starbursts are the result of the small apertures needed to get the longer exposures.

This was a particular favorite, having the stopped buses and flow of the light to them really adds to the action.  

This was a shot I wanted to get since the final Harry Potter movie, seeing the Millennium Bridge and it's proximity led me to some internet searching and finding photos like this made me interested in replicating them with my own spin. There were a lot of pedestrians which initially annoyed me, but I adapted and actually I think the ghostly movement adds to the overall photo. Making each one unique. I was worried that vibrations from footsteps would degrade the sharpness but really it didn't cause problems. 

In the balance, I am happy with what I was able to capture, I was trying to not be a spray and pray tourist and maybe was a little too stingy inside the cathedral, but I can live with that.

As always, thanks for reading, assuming you made it this far, comments are welcome!