Lots of running around at the moment but always the chance for a bit of fun, though the dog seems a bit miffed by the purpose of it all. That said there seems to be a pretty good balance of the components that go to make this one up. I only noticed the cormorant after the shot – a momentary lapse there – but it’s worked out pretty well.
Plans to get up a Munroe in the Cairngorm Mountains at the end of September were sadly abandoned due to the fact we couldn’t see much more than 50m in front of us! Not possessing the right equipment for the conditions (you never take your chances on the mountains!) it was settled a walk in the Rothiemurchus Forest would be the alternative ‘Plan B’. As it turned out this revealed some remarkable and fascinating areas that more than made up for the lack of altitude fun and games. This part of the forest (pictures) was entirely pine trees with the old and twisted ones combining with the slowly dissipating mist creating a wild edge to the scene. The dash of colour along the floor seems to balance it.
Happy New Year Everyone!! Hope you all had a great Christmas and were warm, well fed and entertained throughout. Well, As you may have noticed there’s been a bit of a change around here. The website has had a (rather premature one might suggest given current conditions around the UK) spring clean. The upshot is it should be much easier to find things in the site, as well as viewing across browser platforms (including mobile devices) and from now on images will be sightly larger so you get to enjoy them that much more. Have a poke around and if you see something broken just get in touch and I’ll fix it soon as I can.
As I write much of the UK is under a thick blanket of snow, though inevitably this has crippled pretty much the entire country. Incapable of preparing for adverse conditions people continue to slide amusingly down steep hills behind their steering wheels vainly struggling to get to work. Just take the day off people, it’s so much easier! I headed out with the dog who found the white stuff great fun to play around in! Here’s to the new year and onwards, Keep an eye out for my photographic review of 2009 in the next post or two…
I had a fantastic day yesterday assisting a professional photographer, learning as I went and gained some excellent advice throughout the day on how to progress my own career as a photographer. Annoyingly though, I awoke today with the most ridiculous cold, so I went out for a wander to try and clear my head a bit. It didn’t exactly work and my cold has got the better of me and I’m suffering a tad…First signs of all this rain turning to sunshine for a bit and I get struck down, rather rubbish but there you go. Still, the light today was great as it mixed with the thickening mist the entire country seems to be enveloped in at the moment and I got a small collection of shots that suit the mood nicely. I didn’t spend too long out, I don’t think the sun warmed the ground at all and as it fell the temperature began to drop rapidly! It’s worth mentioning that car headlights on high-beam and thick fog do not mix terribly well…
Built in 13th century and modified around the 15th and 17th century Castle Tioram, pronounced ‘Chee-rum’, prominently stands in Loch Moidart, upon the tidal island of Eileen Tioram, and is ideally placed to control access to Loch Sheil to the west. the castle was burned down around 1715 when the Clan Chief left to fight the English to avoid it falling into enemy hands should he not return. If the tide is out you can walk out along the causeway to get up close to the castle, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, and are slim enough, you can slip through the metal barrier to see the inside of the ruins.
A trail on the shore beside the causeway leads along the edge of Loch Moidart westwards along rugged path through old and sometimes quite dense woodlands. Named The Silver Trail due to the story of a maid servant from the castle being caught running away with stolen money, her punishment was to be tied up on the rock below the castle and drowned as the tide came in.
North of Hong Kong lie the New Territories, a large area of open land not heavily built upon – in fact protected in country parks.To get there meant a drive along the highways through Kowloon and out along a pleasant coastal road around Plover Cove Reservoir. The aim was a walk via Bridal Pools to the small village of Wu Kan Tang and up into the hills around. Wu Kan Tang rests in a relatively lush green valley within the Plover Cove Country Park, a stark contrast from the high-rise tower blocks for Hong Kong. The area itself is a popular holiday destination for the city dwellers as it provides a chance to escape the bustle and mayhem of city living for a day. There were quite a few people out and about but everyone you pass seemed so welcoming and genuine its not something you really minded at all! The paths, as yesterday, were not hard going but the humidity and head were both fairly high, you just get used to a film of sweat and keep moving. Above the village a clearing had been made allowing views in most directions and across Starling Inlet towards mainland China. After the walk a quick boost came in the form of some interesting local cuisine at a bustling eatery in Shuen Wan, it was great to sample something fresh and local, and entirely new!
Today (Monday) is a national holiday known as ‘Autumn Remembrance’, I’ve also heard it referred to as ‘Ancestor day’, it originates from the Han Dynasty. the story goes that a Scholar called Woon was told by a sage to take his family to a high place on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month and spend the night there. Upon return to his village every living thing had died, the sage had saved the Woon family’s lives. Although few will spend the night at the top of a mountain many will walk up to somewhere elevated, often combining this with a visit to ancestral graves normally kept on higher grounds. On the walk over Lantau Peak yesterday there were lots of people heading up quite late in the day, it is possible they did spend the night up there in light of this event.
In the evening I headed out along Queens Road West to see the shops, this area is west of the main touristy section, beyond the Man Mo temple, and the shops are less about trying to attract the unknowing passer by but more to sell what people actually want, I saw no other western looking faces whilst I was in this part of town. Hanging outside several shops were objects made of paper, these ranged from violins, cars, computers, planes, dogs, horses, anything you could think of really and all in connection with the national holiday of remembrance. Family members would take these to graves and burn them as well as Hell Money for their deceased relatives. I walked on, passing shops with tanks of live fish waiting to be plucked out, racks of crabs on skewers ready to eat, stores with shelves of dried goods for use as traditional medicines – from dog livers to shark fins (and worse) it was all there – but not feeling the need to cure any sort of ailment with what they had on offer I wandered on. Plus I’m sure by simply standing near the entrance and inhaling deeply it was enough to get a heady concoction of some potent hallucinogen! Brightly lit neon signs and the buzz of traffic led me back to the MTR (very efficient underground) and home to the east. One thing I’m quickly realising is urban photography is very different from the sort I usually do…certainly not the sort of place to set down the tripod and set about arranging a shot, that said I’m enjoying the challenge in this wonderfully diverse place.
Well, it’s not sunrise (see earlier post) but applying the same principles and adding a little guess-work (in terms of timing) its possible to judge the best angle to catch the best light of sunset. In this case I was around 135 degrees to the sun (thats a bit further round than completely side-on) and as you can see I was also given a beautiful cloud formation without which the scene would have been rather uninteresting I believe. So, there’s being prepared and there’s adapting to what’s occuring around you to take advantage of it…I even spied an early poppy!!
…is not always better than from the bottom, allow me to explain… 
…yeah, like that’s ever going to happen!