Friday, September 30, 2016

Day 30 - Scottish National War Memorial



Tada! I've made it an other 30 days! Wohooo! That makes 61 days of blogging in total (I threw in an extra day between tow sets) phew! I have to say, I'm a bit relieved that it's coming to an end. But then there' no time to rest next month either. You see, next month is BotS month, so that ought to keep me busy haha. My, my! How am I ever going to make that one, already tired from these two months? We'll see I guess... But then, BotS is a different kind of challenge. I wouldn't bet on me though haha

Finally, I want to say that I'm so impressed by my fellow post-ed challenge participant Craig, and his gorgeous bike shots! I cannot believe how many of them he has! And he has been posting several shots a day, so we have had the pleasure of seeing not 30, but 54 of them! Wow! What an achievement! Congrats Craig, on making it so far with me, and thank you so much for tagging along. It's been a wonderful ride! Thank you for the company, all of your thoughtful comments and for sharing all of those beautiful shots :)

/MrsHjort

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Day 29 - Castle Hill

This is the Castle of Edinburgh viewed from the rooftop of the National Museum of Scotland. It is a wonderful spot to shoot from, and a great place to rest after walking around looking at various artifacts for hour and hours... and hours! 

As I've mentioned before, Mr loves history. He can walk around happily and look at old things all day without loosing interest. I'm a bit too impatient though, so I like to find a nice place, and sit comfortably with my own thoughts studying what ever elaborate, detailed or interesting looking piece I can find. Usually, I'd go shoot stuff, but even if you're allowed to shoot, and you are at that museum, the lighting is too weak to get decent pictures without a tripod, and who brings a tripod to a museum? I may be a bit crazy, but not that crazy haha. So, sitting around it was...

This rooftop proved to be a welcome oasis though, not only could I sit around, but the sunshine was wonderful, the view was stunning, and the light was photography friendly :)

/MrsHjort

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Day 28 - Old Town



As you've seen, if you've been following me this month, I adore Old Town. The old stone buildings are so pretty! I've been shooting the district from various locations, but this is the only shot that I'm completely satisfied with. The others either had construction going on in the background, modernistic buildings clashing with the old architecture or annoying elements that crept into the shots somehow... I don't know how they manage it. It must be magic, because shooting is like "ooooh this sure is pretty" *snap, snap, grin, grin* and then later, when I view the pictures on my computer, I go "dang, how could I miss that big white construction tent on that roof in the background, ungh"! I was happy to have gotten this shot though. Fortunately, this viewpoint from Canton Hill was just right. Actually, you can get loads of lovely shots from there. So, if you're ever in Edinburgh, do yourself a favor and climb that hill.

/MrsHjort

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Day 27 - Clock Tower

I love the way the sky turned out in this picture. Who would have thought, looking at the original? I love the way the Nik collection brings it all out. I wish I had discovered it earlier, and sometime I think about going back to re-edit old shots. There's just that usual pesky issue of time... Sometimes I wish there was more hours in a day.

This clock tower has already been in two pictures this month (day 5 & 8), though each of the shots were taken from a different angle, so I hope it's too repetitive. The building is just so pretty, it's hard to resist shooting it. It reminds me a bit of Big Ben for some reason, though I realize that the architectural styles are completely different. But they're both close to bridges and they're both part of a larger building in the same style. This one may not be as big, but they're both beautiful landmarks :)

/MrsHjort

Monday, September 26, 2016

Day 26 - The Palace



Two times in the city, and I still haven had the chance to explore this place. The Palace of Holyroodhouse was just closing as we got to it at the end of the day (spent at the Castle). So, I had to settle for a few shots from outside the gate (luckily the metal bars were far enough apart to allow me to get my camera through it). But hey, there's one more reason to go back to the city.

/MrsHjort

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Day 25 - Crooked



I like this shot despite the fact that it breaks one of the basic photographic rules. But then sometimes it is good to break a rule or two, so I chose to leve the crooked lines as they were. It looks more interesting this way... like something out of one of the Harry Potter movies, and I like that thought!

/MrsHjort

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Day 24 - Curved Street

This picture shows off a typical Edinburgh street.. or well, at least that's my view on the city :)

As you probably know by know I absolutely love the architecture of these old stone buildings. They're so pretty and I love how there are small secret terrassers outside, below street level, where you can find all manner of lovely mini gardens. It's a smart way of creating privacy in a big city. I also love how many of the streets are slightly curved, like this one. It provides a great motif for photography, don't you think? So many lovely lines and repeating shapes...

/MrsHjort

Day 23 - City Life



I'm a bit late, sorry. I was just so exhausted after work yesterday... Mr and I just crashed on the sofa that evening. Add some good food, a bit of nice wine and a few hours of snooker (Shanghai Masters) and you'll have our evening. It was lovely! Just what we needed.

Anyway... I just found this shot and thought it would be fun to add it to the challenge, on account of the cyclist. I'm really enjoying Craig's series of action shots from the races. I can't believe how many gorgeous shots he has. Check it out his collection if you haven't already :)

/MrsHjort

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Day 22 - Shadow and Light

This the inside of St Mary's Cathedral. Such a beautiful place! I was very relieved to have gotten this shot right. Shooting in a contrasty environment such as this is tricky. Either you blow out the highlights, or all the darker shades become way too dark, or you know, your hand shakes a bit and you end up with motion blur. I was absolutely sure I had botched the shots somehow... As it turned out I hadn't! Yey!

Images such as these are a joy to process, such subjects are so pretty that you can do almost anything to them, and they'll still look awesome. Even so, I didn't do much in post-ed, just some simple contrast and color fixes, and two selective treatments to get the white out of those wonderful flowers. The only thing that bugs me a bit is the sunlight falling on the walls to the right, but what can you du eh? This is still one of my favorites though.

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Day 21 - Summer in the City



This lovely view was accompanied by the music of bagpipes. We sat down outside a museum to listen to this young fellow playing the Scottish tunes and enjoy the warm summer day. It was just lovely, the perfect spot to rest if you're a weary traveler with sore feet. It wasn't a bad place to shoot from either, as you can see. Old Town is such a wonderful subject, from all angles. :)

/MrsHjort

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Day 20 - Skyline



I experimented my way through the post-ed of this picture, now knowing where I was going... just trying stuff out, layer after layer. If I thought the result was better, I kept it, otherwise, I threw it away. The colors kept bothering me, until I finally thought to go with a less natural color treatment. It turned out to fit the shot much better, yey! Though, this is probably one of those shots that Mr would call "too yellow" or "painterly" haha. But I like it. I hope you do too :)

/MrsHjort

Monday, September 19, 2016

Day 19 - City View

The sun finally peaked out, as you'll see in this picture. My second day in Edinburgh was the opposite of the first. The previous day was as you'd expect; moist, cold and a bit windy, with a bit of rain... But this day... this day was an absolutely wonderful summer day. Quite uncharacteristic for the city according to the locals.

I shot this from the roof of the National Museum of Scotland, that's why there is a tiny bit of foliage in the shot down by the lower edge. Usually I'd clone it away, but in this case, I actually don't mind it that much, I'd even go so far as to say that I wish there was more of it :). It ads a little something to the scene.

The museum itself was a great experience. Mr especially had a ball there, the history lover that he is. He went everywhere to gander at all sorts of olden things. I much preferred the the more science related stuff myself though, the space section in particular was very nice. Check it out if you're in the city. it's definitely worth a visit.

/MrsHjort

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Day 18 - Gothic Tower



This building was the Royal Observatory back in the 18-hundreds. Isn't it a marvelous place to gaze at the stars from? It stands on top of Calton Hill, so you must get a wonderful view from there, not only of the stars, but of the city too. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to do a historic time lapse of Edinburgh from there? Just think if someone had taken one picture a day of the city during the last 200 years. We would be able to see the city grow, new buildings being built and the activity of the streets intensify as the number of inhabitants increase throughout the years. That would have been cool! With today's technology (cameras everywhere for surveillance purposes etc.), maybe someone will be able to do that to us in a hundred years or so. A pity I won't be able to stick around long enough to see it.

"I looked upon the scene before me — upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain — upon the bleak walls — upon the vacant eye-like windows — upon a few rank sedges — and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees."

I know this building is on the top of a hill and not by a body of water, but somehow, it reminds me of Edgar Allan Poe's "the Fall of the House of Usher". It looks a bit like how I imagine that house would look like, a bit askew and crooked, with an ominous sky above it. That story, is one of the few pieces of literature that I actually enjoyed reading during my time at the university :).

Day 17 - William Wallace

Here's the second guardian of Edinburgh Castle, I showed you Robert the Bruce back in day 14, and on the other side of the gate you'll find an other prominent historic figure, namely William Wallace. No relation this time. Now I'm no fan of Mel Gibson, but Braveheart was a good movie. I haven't seen it in years though. Maybe I should dust it off again eh?

Mr and I are big movie fans, and often enjoy an evening on our couch in front of one picture or an other (today was Elizabeth and The Hateful Eight). Not any specific genre, just any good movies we can get our hand on. Though we have got our fair share of favorite that we've watched a hundred times, as I'm sure you do too. Some of our absolute favorites are Galaxy Quest, The Fifth Element, Kill Bill, Cactus Flower, Sweeny Todd, Back to the Future and Merlin. What are yours :)

/MrsHjort

Friday, September 16, 2016

Day 16 - Inpendling Boom



This is one of those shots that was just for fun, but ended up being better than I expected. It's shot from one of the cannon apertures of the castle, as we took those usual funny shots where we pretended to shoot the cannons ourselves and stuff. No trip is complete without some silly pictures haha.

The shot is a bit hopeless though, since it seams to slope a bit no matter how you rotate it. Either the horizon is level but the top is no or the other way around, and either way things don't seam quite right. I ended up going with the clouds, but I don't know if that was the right thing to do either. Tricky indeed...

/MrsHjort

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Day 15 - The Dome



Sorry this will be a short one. I've been working after work, editing pictures I took of my coworkers for the company's webpage. I couldn't help myself, it was so much fun to do portraits for a change, and especially of wonderful people like them. After I was finished with that, I ended up editing this shot very fast, since I just can't wait to rush down to the kitchen and grab a bite to eat haha, my tummy is rumbling :P

Oh and by the way, if anyone knows the name of the building in the shot, I'm very interested in learning it. I shot it from Edinburgh Castle, but I cannot remember from what direction :)

Cheers
/MrsHjort

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Day 14 - Robert the Bruce

This is an ancestor of mine, or at least he may be, genealogy can be quite tricky it seems. You see, a relative of mine researched the family tree a while back, and for a long time, we were sure that we stemmed from the Scottish royal family. Later, he found out that somewhere along the line two people with the exact same name crossed paths, and we could have stemmed from either one of them. So, either I carry a bit of royal blood, or a little dash of blood from a certain tailor. Funny huh? Anyway, we're definitely sure that there's Scottish blood in there, and that's pretty cool no matter whom it came from. That connection makes Scotland special to me.

/MrsHjort

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Day 13 - Edinburgh's Folly



I've always enjoyed the story behind this monument. You see, you'll find these strange solitary pillars on the top of Calton Hill, not far from Princes Street, and if you haven't heard the story you'd probably be a bit surprised to find them there. They're actually part of an unfinished construction that was designed back in 1823, by Charles Robert Cockerell and William Henry Playfair. As you no doubt have guessed, it was based on Greek architecture. It was actually modeled after Athens' Parthenon itself. They started building it in 1826, though unfortunately, it proved too expensive, and so they left it unfinished. It's really just these front pillars on a base of stone, though it was supposed to be so much more. The people of Scotland have several nicknames for it, such as "Scotland's Disgrace", "Edinburgh's Disgrace", "the Pride and Poverty of Scotland" and "Edinburgh's Folly". Today, people enjoy sitting at it's base or climbing the foundation to pose for pictures. So, despite being unfinished, it's still a very interesting and beautiful part of Edinburgh's heritage, and in a way, it has fulfilled its purpose, despite everything. It's a nice thought, don't you think? Isn't it wonderful that "failure" produced something so interesting and beautiful :)

/MrsHjort

Monday, September 12, 2016

Day 12 - The Gate

This is an other shot of St Mary's Cathedral and its marvelously detailed architecture. I love the Gothic style... All those pillars and archs are so beautiful! Like I wrote back in day 9, it's a wonderful subject for photography.

If you've been around Daggerbay you may recognize this. You see, I've used a crop out of this shot for a contest held there. As I was working specifically with the contest in mind, I didn't bother editing the whole thing, and therefore the editing is a bit different in the two versions. This one is a bit brighter, and the stone is a bit more colorful. I don't know which one I like best though. I guess they're just different. There's just one thing that bothers me a bit - that I couldn't shoot this with the cross above the door smack right in the middle of the window behind it. A street lamp was in my way, so I got as close to perfection as I could without sacrificing other elements of the composition. Sometimes I wish I had a "vanish ray gun" that could remove distracting stuff haha.

/MrsHjort

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Day 11 - Royal Scots Greys




This is an other one of those shots with a blown out sky.... Gargh! I hate it when that happens! An overcast sky is hard to manage, and sometimes I forget to think about that... especially when I've been walking around all day and can't wait to get "home" to where I hung my hat that particular day. Thankfully, I've made progress with my "sky-fixer technique" using the "clouds" function under the filters menu in Photoshop. I figured I could use the perspective transform tool in order to create the correct distortion, and as you can see, it worked out quite well. It may not given me the natural details of real clouds, but at least it brings me a close enough approximation and it looks much better than it did before. So, I'm happy... at least for the time being. I'm thinking hard on how to make the effect more life like; maybe I could add some kind of ripple effect selectively, but I'll have to think on that some more before I start experimenting. No doubt the solution will come to me during the night...

Sleep tight :)

/MrsHjort

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Day 10 - Scottish Landscape



Mr and I usually don't travel to large cities - it's nature that peaks our interest, and we usually do a lot of trekking on our trips. Unfortunately, we were only i Scotland for the weekend, so there simply wasn't time for that, but boy, seeing those Scottish hills sure made me want to climb them... I guess we'll have to go back and do that an other time, and, it's the perfect excuse stop stop by Edinburgh for a day or two :).

/MrsHjort

Friday, September 9, 2016

Day 9 - St Mary's Cathedral

This is the beautiful Cathedral of St Mary. I never got the chance to go there during my last visit to Edinburgh, so this time I just had to. It didn't disappoint, going there was like love at first sight. I absolutely adored the architecture and I could have spent hours there, just experimenting with camera angles and composition. Unfortunately, we only stayed in the city for two days, and Mr was anxious to move on to see more things, but I managed to get a shot or two... or 50 haha :)

I have waited with this shot deliberately because I had to think about what to do with it. As you can see in the original below, the light areas of the sky were totally blown out and I had to create a (to me) whole new approach to deal with that. As usual the solution came during the night. That's when I came up with using the Clouds filter, and it worked! Yey!

On an other note, I'm happy to tell you that our work in the garden is nearing the end. A day or two more, and our garden will be tucked in and ready for winter. Yey! That means more free time for Mrs!

/MrsHjort

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Day 8 - Fifteen O Four



I like taking pictures of clocks. It's like a visual time stamp of when you shot the picture, a little something to jog your memory of that exact moment when you where right there, fiddling with your camera with the wind in your hair. I often get a blast of memories from pictures like that :)

/MrsHjort

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Day 7 - Castle Courtyard

Edinburgh Castle is lovely. There are so many things to look at there and so much history. Mr was very happy the day we spent there, the history lover that he is, and I marveled at the beautiful stone buildings and the rolling landscape. It was a great day.

And now for something completely different, a Scotsman on a horse! Nah, just kidding, though I do love Monty Python hehe, but I wanted to say that I'm sorry to Craig and Kim, for not keeping up with the commenting. I'll try and catch up soon, I promise.

It's a very busy week. Autumn is here and we have to prepare the garden for winter while the weather is good and there's still daylight in the evenings. We've been redoing the strawberry plantations completely. We're replanting all of them from the traditional sort of plantings to plantings in pallet collars. It's a lot of work, but we're half-way there now, and I love what we've accomplished so far. It's much easier to manage and it looks great too. Yey!

/MrsHjort



Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Day 6 - University of Edinburgh



Editing this was a bit of a pain. It was hard to find a good balance between the dark bricks, the sky and the green foliage. It took me about twice the time it usually does, because I had to do a lot of small adjustments in order to get things right. Not many steps, mind you, just a lot of tweaking of the steps themselves. I love that the Nik collection gives you so much control though. I haven't used it for very long, but already I can't imagine going back to what I used to do.

This shot is of the University of Edinburgh. Last time I was in the city, I spent a lot of time at the university. Sadly, I didn't get the privilege to see the inside of this building - I was at the newer university, further down the hill. It was a very interesting time though, I got to meet so many smart persons and listen to many interesting lectures. I'm so glad I took the chance and went there, that fist time. It made me fall in love with the city, it's why I came back, and I loved to get to share it all with Mr this time (and to get to shoot it for real).

/MrsHjort

My Father, a Tribute to a Kind Man

This blog post is going to be longer than usual, and even so, how can one summarize one's feelings and memories of a person within the p...