The brighter parts of Scotland

Crinan Harbour

My parents planned a little drive up to Argyll and Bute this weekend. It was not meant to be anything big, but rather just an opportunity to take a small break in their otherwise city-bound lives. The weather was not on our side; rather, it rained misery upon the entire country for the whole weekend. Regardless of that we decided that we should take the small window of sunshine forecasted on Saturday afternoon. Packing a couple of water bottles and some sensible clothing, we started heading Northwest.

It turned out to be a very good choice.

Inveraray Maritime Museum

Our first stop along this tour was to Inveraray. My parents and I took TLW (I will refer to friends by initials) up to the castle around this time last year. The weather was not as pretty this time round, but at least there was no rain. We decided to stay in the town and spend the little bit of time at the Pier, where there were quite a few fishermen hanging about.

The next stop was Crinan, a very small village tucked away between two hills by the seaside. It housed the end of the Crinan canal that let sailing boats into the Sounds of Jura - one of many straits dotting this part of Scotland. The town is delightfully small, with not much more than a Hotel, a Coffee Shop, a few houses and, most importantly for seafarers, a small lighthouse.

It is also (unsurprisingly) gifted with the brilliance that is Scottish seawater

By this time it was mid-afternoon. Although the weather was supposed to get worse in about an hour's time, around here it seemed to get brighter and brigher. I must admit though that I did not have my circular polarising filter with me (silly forgetfulness) and so the blue-ish skies are A) enhanced using Lightroom saturating/hue tool and B) not as dark as I'd like it to be.

Nevertheless, pressing on! Crinan has a smaller harbor about a mile and a half away from the actual village. It too is tucked away, edged between a small island and a cove. There was not too much to see, except for that stunning picture at the head of this post, and maybe below:

What the pictures did not catch was a family doing a little bit of crab-fishing just off the pier at the Harbor. It was pretty amusing to watch and listen. The dogs they had were pretty ravenous, eating all the bait and causing some hilarity to ensue.

About this time it was 4.00pm in the afternoon, coming to the end of the golden hours that we had for sunshine. We decided to head home at this stage, but not before stopping at one more lock. In this instance, some of the best pictures were saved for last!

So the conclusion to this piece is that if you want somewhere to have a good, cheap holiday where you can already speak the language (kinda), come to Scotland! There'll be plenty to do here. 

Circular Polarising filters

My dad decided to dig out an old circular polarising filter the other day, and I took the liberty of taking it out into town for a spin. CPFs are incredibly useful devices for doing a number of things: darkening the sky, making foliage more dramatic, getting rid of glare, making water transparent, and just generally giving the scenes fuller colour and contrast.

How they work is pretty simple: think of it as a sheet of Venetian blinds that you can rotate longitudinally. It is able to take a block of unpolarised light and transform it into parallel "sheets" (or more correctly waves) of polarised light. With an already polarised light source it will reduce the intensity of the light, or completely block the light altogether - this is why you can sometimes make your LCD screen look "switched off" with one of these filters.

Fig 1. How circular polarising filters work

Many non-metallic surfaces reflect only polarised light when shone upon - tarmac, lakes, water droplets in the sky and so on. By removing these reflections you can produce quite neat effects: the sky looks a lot darker, the tarmac less reflective, the water see through! It also makes vegetation look nicer because the water residue on the leaves reflects (polarised) light.

The result? Increased colour and contrast!

Good, isn't it? They come in many filter sizes, and generally cater for Bridge/DSLRs. If you have neither of those things, you can just use a square filter or even polarising sunglasses if you so wish.

All in the name of taking nicer and nicer pictures of my home town!

My Backyard

The weather cleared up a little bit yesterday, so I decided it might be worth going down to Kilmardinny Loch to grab some shots. It's about ten minutes from where I live, and the small lake and adjacent green gives people in the surrounding area somewhere to have walks and have kickabouts in (it probably helped the property prices around here too).

I guess my parents made a very good choice when they moved here. This has been a rather photo heavy blog, but I'm sure you'll be fine with that format.

Graffiti is an artform, if presented in the right light.

This was taken coming back from my friend's house after a night of reunion, beer and Xbox. I was rather soaked, having just walked through a narrow pathway squashed between an overgrown hedge and a wire fence separating me from the railway opposite. Once the foliage thinned up I was at the old scout hall I frequented during my teenage years. The scouts did their best to cover up the multiple pieces of graffiti that dotted the walls leading to their hall, but always some little bugger comes back and sprays over the paint. However, that night the drawings looked like they came from some old movie. Lit by the orange glow of a sodium vapour street lamp, they added a bit of danger and grit to the otherwise peaceful and clean air of an middle-upper class suburb.

I remembered having taken this photo after reading a friend of mine's blog. You should go see it:
http://cambridgetheologian.wordpress.com/

Rain

Yep, it's Glasgow. Deal with it: most days are like this. Therefore nothing particularly exciting today, except I went out for my first driving lesson since anything and discovered to my sheer horror that I've forgotten most of what I'd learnt two years ago. No practice equals no use. 

I also started watching Scrubs again today - I forgot just how funny it was, so I guess the next few weeks will consist of some major catching up there. I'm also sight-reading Chopin's Preludes - lots of one-page wonders there to enjoy for a few moments, although I really should get on with rehearsing for that concert I'm supposed to do in September for Bearsden Academy...

But it's my holiday. At least for now, I do what I want.

Dilapidation

A sad sight greeted us when we left Queen's Street and went onto Buchanan street. From an artificial mist of brick dust and asbestos crept this giant red monster. Its single claw of steel biting away at an old city block. Unfortunately this city block contained a brilliant sweet shop that sold just about any confection imaginable, including delights from America. Rest in peace, teeth rot, those strange Mountain Dew flavours might need to wait until America itself.

On another note, there lies art even in destruction, as this Mondrian-esque scene highlights

Enjoy!

See, Glasgow isn't just a city of high flats and knives

W George Street

Kelvingrove Park Fountain

There's a fair bit to say about the city of Glasgow. It is conveniently small, is well connected by rail lines and subways, and produces some of the most hideously greasy fast foods on the entire planet. It also has rather interesting architecture. Avoiding the dilapidation of the post-war housing areas and the brutalist high flats, one can marvel at the rather beautiful 19th century town houses which dot the city. One can also find Medieval delights like the 13th Century St Mungo's Cathedral, and the Gothic-revival nature of Glasgow University's main buildings, which though ancient-looking is deceptive in its age: a mere 140 years old, constructed in 1870.

Buchanan Street

Back of Glasgow Buchanan Subway

Glasgow also seems to be thriving. Buchannan street on a Monday afternoon is packed full of all-sorts. Tourists, salarymen and buskers alike populate the centre, bringing a feeling of work and play combined into a noisy, lively city. 

 There will be more pictures of this fantastic city to come. For now, I've just come off a placement and my writing's a little lacklustre. So I'll just give you some pictures to look at instead :)

Steps just before the Gallery of Modern Art