A trip to Mecca

What trip to Scotland would be complete without a trip to Mecca.  St. Andrews is the centre of the Universe for all golfers, so we had to work that in to our trip.  St. Andrews is less than 2 hours from Edinburgh, so it was a perfect spot to lay over for the night.

We stayed at the Fairmont St. Andrews, a first class resort, highly recommended.

We arrived just in time for a dinner at the resort.

The net morning Ron and I had a tee time booked at Balcomie Links, a 15 minute drive south along the coast.  Balcomie Links is the 7th oldest course in the world.  It was founded in 1786, and the current layout was updated by Old Tom Morris in 1895.  Old Tom Morris also updated the Old Course at St. Andrews a few years earlier.  The 14th hole is a particularly difficult par 3.

Unfortunately for me, the green slopes from the front to the back, so my shot funnelled back into a pot bunker behind the green.  I'm too embarrassed to tell how many strokes it took to get out...

Here is a shot of Ron's fine form off the tee at the par 4 15th.

And here is my bunker shot at the par 4 17th.  No trouble getting out of this one, after the many practice strokes on the 14th!

After our round, we met Mary Ann and Ricki in St. Andrews for lunch at the Old Course.  After lunch we walked out to the Swilkin Bridge for photos.  It is a tradition there, that the players will wait until the photos are finished before playing through.  A wedding party was waiting their turn after our group stopped for photos.  Here is one of Ron on the bridge.  I'm sure he has one of me.

Along the way, we had to stop for those iconic photos...

And finally, the 18th green and the clubhouse behind.

After lunch and the photos we were off to Edinburgh for the final leg of the trip. :(

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Thanks for reading...

Mark

Headed toward Edinburgh

Heading back to Edinburgh covers quite a bit of distance, so we spent one night in Dingwall, near Inverness.  We stayed in Tulloch Castle, a medieval castle and the home of the Davidson clan.

The castle has been converted into a hotel, but retains much of the ambiance of the medieval castle it once was.

Here is a shot of Mary Ann and Ricki standing on the grand staircase. 

The castle is said to be haunted, by a few ghosts.  Here is a portrait of the Davidson family.

Elizabeth Davidson is the pretty girl on the left of the portrait.  She caught her father and the maid in a compromising position, and while running away, tripped and fell to her death.  It is said that she haunts the castle, and is particularly mean to the men.  Note that the painting has been altered to erase the portrait of her father.

In terms of paranormal activity, hotel room 15 is one of the most active.  As luck would have it, this room was assigned to Ron and Ricki.

Graham, the night manager, gave us a tour of the castle and explained much of the folklore about the ghosts in the castle.

Ron and I each had an unusual experience that night.  When Ron sat down to download his pictures for the day, the QXD card in his camera was already ejected from its slot.  When I downloaded my shots for the day, I could not explain this one.  My camera is set to fire only when a subject is in focus...

Apparently Elizabeth likes electronic equipment.

Graham also brought out the Davidson family sword which had been handed down from generation to generation.  It was larger and heavier than expected.  Kudos to the knights who could swing the sword while on horseback.

After a night in Tulloch Castle, we were off to St. Andrews.  Stay tuned for those highlights, up next...

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

Thanks for reading...

Mark

Around the Isle of Skye

The Isle of Skye was a photographers dream.  Everywhere we looked, there was something interesting to shoot.  In addition to all of the interesting sites visited with Marcus during our photo tour, we found a few on our own.

A valley called the Fairy Glen was a short hike with interesting rock and hill formations that seemed in miniature.  Legend has it that the area was built by fairies. 

Dunvegan Castle is the ancestral home of the MacLeod clan, and was built some 800 years ago.  The castle was well maintained and furnished with antiques.  The gardens were well cared for and was worth the visit.

Not far from Dunvegan was the Niest Lighthouse.  The lighthouse itself was in need of some maintenance, but the view from the cliffs near the car park were spectacular.  Conditions for this visit were a little trying, it was pouring rain, and difficult to keep the equipment dry.

The Old Bridge at Sligachan is an iconic landmark on Skye.  The bridge has been replaced by a modern bridge, and the old bridge has been kept as a pedestrian crossing.

What visit would be complete without photographing some of the wildlife (well, maybe not wild)?  In addition to the heaps of sheeps on the island, there were also Highland Cattle… very photogenic…  Ron was in his element.

The day we left the Isle of Skye, we learned that the the Skye Highland Games were being held in Portree.  We walked into town for a couple of hours, just in time to see the parade of pipers and drummers.

We all loved the Isle of Skye and would have liked to have spent more time here.  Now we are headed back toward Edinburgh, with layovers in Dingwall and St Andrews.  Stay tuned for those entries.

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

Thanks for reading...

Mark

Scotland Photo Tour - Part 2

If you have read my last blog post, Ron and I spent Monday evening with Marcus McAdam, a local photographer.  Tuesday morning we met Marcus for a sunrise shoot at the Quiraing.

The Quiraing is a geological formation along the Trotternish Ridge.  This is a mountain ridge along the east coast of the Isle of Skye.  It was caused by a landslip hundreds of millions of years ago.  Once you see the images of the ridge, you will understand the term "landslip".

Luckily this hike did not involve as much hiking as the night before.  There is a road which runs across the ridge, allowing us to park near the crest of the ridge.  We met Marcus at 5:00 am at the crest, then hiked in for roughly 45 minutes.  One of Marcus' favourite shots along this ridge is a tree growing from the side of a crevice.

We made it to an area where Marcus thought would be interesting at sunrise, with the sun warming up the face of the rock faces.  Here are a few images taken before sunrise.

The sheep did not seem too concerned about us, some of them were curious and would stop and take a look.

Once the sun came up over the ridge, the sunlight warmed up the face of the mountains, and looked spectacular.  That was exactly what we were looking for.  Here are a couple of those images.

After walking back to the car, we drove along the east coast of Skye to a few of Marcus' favourite spots.  Here is an abandoned building with the Quiraing in the background.

Given all of the rain that Skye receives, there are hundreds of small waterfalls throughout the area.  Even though they are not large waterfalls, a tight crop yields an almost abstract image.

Again, because of the rainfall, there are lots of bodies of water throughout the area.  Note the peak in the ridge above the lake, roughly 1/3 in from the right side of the image.  That is the Old Man of Storr which we climbed the day before, but could not see because of the mist.

Stay tuned for the next blog entry which will include some of the sites we explored on our own.

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

Thanks for reading...

Mark

Scotland Photo Tour - Part 1

The Isle of Skye is located in the north of Scotland, and is the second largest island at 1,600 square kilometres, or just over 600 square miles.  We are staying in a lovely B&B located in Portree, which is the largest town on the island, located roughly in the centre of the island.

When Ron and I are photographing in an unfamiliar place, we frequently hire a local photographer to show us their favourite locations.  The north of the island is made up of two peninsulas, easily accessible from Portree.  The Waternish Peninsula, on the west side of the island, is more populous, while the Trotternish Peninsula, on the east side of the island, is more rugged.  Photographically speaking, the Trotternish Peninsula would be our target.

Marcus McAdam is a local photographer who lives in the north of the Trotternish Peninsula.  We contacted Marcus several months ago to enquire if he could act as our guide for a day while on Skye. Arrangements were made to book Marcus for the day, on Monday, our first full day on Skye.  Marcus was willing to meet us for 4 hours in the morning as well as 4 hours in the evening.  Marcus contacted us on our arrival on Skye, to confirm our booking, and to let us know that the weather for Monday morning called for rain, but should clear by the evening. Would it be alright with us if the morning session was moved to Tuesday?  Normally, when you book a session with a  local photographer, there is no movement in the schedule, you had your booking in good weather or bad.

We met Marcus Monday evening at the Uig Hotel, just a short drive from Portree, and about halfway to our first destination.  We were headed for the norther tip of the Trotternish Peninsula, a place called Rubha Hunish.  Marcus described it as a "short walk on relatively level ground, with a slight climb at the end".  On the way, there were some spectacular cloud formations with light beams over the islands.

These are some of my favourite shots of the light beams.  I can't decide which of these two I like best.  Why not add a comment at the bottom of this blog, and let me know which of these you like best?

 And another shot converted to black and white.

I can't decide which I like better....

Rubha Hunish is located at the northern tip of the Trotternish Peninsula. It is isolated from the rest of Skye by a series of cliffs, so the only way to get to the very tip is to climb down the cliffs. That was our target for the evening.

Once over the cliffs, the tip of the peninsula has some amazing rock formations along the coast.  This sea stack was particularly photogenic.

Here is another view from further up the coast.

I saved the next two images for last, because a description is needed.  Here is an image of the cliff face which we had climbed down.

There is a slight dip in the cliffs, about 1/3 of the way in from the right edge of the photograph.  That was our path down the face of the cliffs.  I forgot to mention that Ron is not good with heights, so there were a few challenges in getting to our target location.

It was still cloudy from the rain earlier in the day.  If we were lucky, the clouds would break up and light up the cliff face with the warm evening sunlight that we were after.  Sure enough, the clouds parted at about 9:15 in the evening, and gave us about 5 minutes of warm light.  Here is the shot...

Now that we had the shot, it was time to walk out, or I should say, walk up and out.  The walk from the parking area in was 2.5 kilometres to the Coast Guard station at the top of the cliffs (about 1/4 the way in from the left).  The size of that building should give you a sense of the height of the cliffs.  I'm sure it was another 2 or 3 kilometres walk further up the peninsula once the cliffs were scaled.

On further reflection, Ron and I thought Marcus needed to change his description of Rubha Hunish to "a really long hike, with a really big cliff to climb along the way".  There were a few other expletives in the description, but I censored those before publishing this.

Stay tuned for the second part of the photo tour in the next post.

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

Thanks for reading...

Mark

Scotland - Glencoe to Portree

The first few days in Scotland were pretty hectic.  Glasgow is a busy city, and with the Commonwealth Games in town, very crowded.  Once we made our way to the Isle of Skye, things quieted down considerably.

Ron and I were planning on walking around Glencoe to shoot the sunrise.  We had arranged to meet at 6:00 in the morning, unless it was raining.  At 6:00 in the morning it was pouring rain, along with a little thunder and lightning for good measure.  Back to bed....

I woke up around 7:30 and the sky was clear, a beautiful blue, with mist rolling off the hills.  The Isle of Glencoe Hotel is located directly on a lake, so the scenery was spectacular.  Here is one from that morning.

After breakfast, we packed up the car and struck out for the Isle of Skye. I remembered driving by a castle on our first visit to Scotland which was close to Glencoe.  After a little research, Castle Stalker was only a few miles out our way, well worth a drive by.  As it turned out, it was high tide, and the view of the castle was spectacular.

Ricki and Mary Ann got into the act as well, and took a "selfie".

We continued on our way to the Isle of Skye, and headed for Eileen Donan Castle.  Along the way, there are hundreds of photo opps waiting to be seized.  Here is one of a interesting stone bridge along the way.

Eileen Donan Castle is the most photographed castle in Scotland. All of the locals have shot Eileen Donan to death, so how could we come up with something unique?  We were fortunate that it was between high and low tides, so there was some water in the loch.  And the sky was magnificent.  This may be one of my favourite shots so far.

Here is another view from the other side of the bridge.

Now off to the Isle of Skye.  First thing on the ladies' list was shopping in Portree.  Ron and I had a couple hours to kill, so we headed for the Old Man of Storr.  Storr is a Mountain Range along the east coast of Skye.  The Old Man of Storr is a stack which dominates the landscape.  Unfortunately the mist was so heavy that after a 45 minute hike up the mountain, we could barely make out the outline. Maybe we would have a chance to shoot the Old Man again.

Next up is our experience shooting with a local photographer, Marcus McAdam.  Stay tuned...

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

Thanks for reading...

Mark

Loving Scotland

Its hard to believe that its the end of Day 3.

Our flights to Edinburgh were delayed an hour and a half due to a sick passenger, then mechanical difficulty, but aside from the delay, it was a good flight.  We did not mange to get much sleep, so when we landed in Edinburgh at 8:30 am on Thursday, it was really 3:30 in the morning our time.

No time for sleep, there were photos waiting to be taken...

Once we picked up our rental car, we headed for our first hotel, Airth Castle, near Glasgow.

Little did we know when we booked this trip, that Glasgow was hosting the Commonwealth Games over the same two days we had planned for seeing Glasgow.  Accommodations in town were hard to come by, Airth Castle was about a half an hour outside of Glasgow.

The Commonwealth Games have taken over Glasgow, with festivities everywhere. George Square is the central square in town.

Glasgow is an interesting mix of old and new architecture.  One of the highlights of the visit was the Glasgow Cathedral.  Here is a shot of the Cathedral taken from the Glasgow Necropolis, only a short walk behind the Cathedral.

The interior of the Cathedral is stunning as well.

Another highlight of the city was a visit to the Glasgow University, established in 1541.

Glasgow has redeveloped much of their port lands, a derelict part of the city after the demise of the shipbuilding industry.  This is a shot of the Glasgow Convention Centre, nicknamed the Armadillo.

We had an outstanding dinner on Friday evening to celebrate Mary Ann's birthday.  We ate at the Ubiquitous Chip, in a trendy restaurant area near the University.  Highly recommended...

After spending two days in Glasgow, we left this morning for a night in Glencoe.  Along the way, we stopped at Stirling Castle.

And a short drive later, a stop at Doune Castle.  This castle was used in the filming of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and more recently in the Game of Thrones.

Both castles were well worth the visit.  Along the way to Glencoe we took a side trip along a single lane read to Glen Etive.  This location was used in the filming of Skyfall, the latest James Bond flick.

The weather in Glasgow was beautiful, but the rain caught up with us today.  It began as a light drizzle, but by the visit to Glen Etive, it was pouring.

Tomorrow we are off to the Isle of Skye, and very excited about it.  More later.

If you are reading this blog for the first time, don't forget to review the archives at the right side for earlier entries. And feel free to add a comment, as well as share this blog with your friends. If you have not already done so, please enter your email address in the "Follow my Blog by Email" box on the right hand side. It will be much easier for me to stay in touch with you. If you don't see a signup box on the right side, then click on the blog heading and that should take you to a webpage with better graphics. You should then see the signup box on the right side.  If you have trouble signing up, send me an email at mark.girard@rogers.com.

Thanks for reading...

Mark