Day 5 - View from the Castle

This view is quite different from one that I showed you from an other European castle quite recently, but it's no less beautiful! I'm glad to say that I managed to get several of Edinburgh's famous landmarks into this picture. Can you name them all?

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 4 - Odd One Out

Speaking of modern architecture, this building can be found at the lower end of the Royal Mile. It's the Scottish parliament building and it certainly stands out, don't you think? The shapes, material and colors are quite singular. It's one of those building that you either love or hate... or love to hate, or hate to love haha.

I like it as a subject for photography, it's design is provocative and it's a fun subject to play with. I shot it a lot, from many different angles and from different sides of the building. While I'm more fond of traditional architecture, this kind of modernism.. I don't know... I guess you can say it's unconventional design makes me want to be a bit unconditional too :). and it's always fun to be unconditional.

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 3 - The Royal Mile

This is the Royal Mile - the street that stretches from Edinburgh Castle, though Old Town and all the way down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. I love walking along it. The old buildings there are so beautiful! I wish we had more of that where I live. Although today's modern architecture certainly has its appeal, they just don't build them like they used to, and I much prefer this - it has heart, and it feels much more alive than the clean straight lines of modernist architecture. Don't you agree?

/MrsHjort

Day 2 - City of Stone

I'm constantly second guessing myself when I'm editing shots like these. I'm much more comfortable editing photos that were taken in sunlight. This overcast sky was a pain in the trigger finger as well as in that self critical post-ed eye of mine. I even wen't back to try something whilst writing this (not once but twice), only to discard it and go back again. I much prefer the way sunlight helps everything along, but this time not even the skylight filter helped me very much, since it turned things too yellow. sigh... You can't beat nature I guess. Well, I'll just have to grit my teeth at it all and accept the gloom.

That reminds me of something we overheard as we were walking along one of the streets close to our hotel; "In Scotland thare ur three kinds o' waither; reen, reen 'n' mair reen". Well thankfully the next day was much, much better.

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 1 - Edinburgh Castle

This next series of mine will show you the beautiful city of Edinburgh. Mr and I went there for a few days this summer, and did all of the usual touristy stuff, but on steroids! You see, I've been to the city before, but back then, I didn't get to do any real touristy stuff – I wasn't there on holiday and my schedule was packed. So, this time I wanted to do all those things I didn't get to do last, and shoot all of the things I didn't have the time to shoot back then. Needless to say, I had a blast! I love Edinburgh and all its wonderful traditional stone architecture, I love the cozy pubs, the friendly people, the charming lilt of their Scottish accents and the smoky whiskey they serve. If ever I were to settle down outside of Sweden, Edinburgh wouldn't be a bad choice :)

I'm learning so much during this challenge of ours! By post-editing all these different shots every day I'm getting to know the Nik collection much better. Strangely, I've been ignoring one of it's many wonderful functions up until now. I guess I've been focusing on geting to know things one at a time, it's just how I roll, but now I've finally tried out the HDR tonal mapping, and it rocks! Before, I've used the detail extractor for the same purposes, and removed stuff selectively after hand, trying to make all the layers blend nicely (it's a pain in my self critical left eye), but the HDR function is vastly superior to that. Just look what it brought out of that uncooperative sky! Color me impressed!

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 31 - Final Curtain

I'll put in this last shot from France, because what is France if not a country famous for its wines? I simply couldn't leave it out of the French set. It's not part of that day at the medieval market, but it may as well be. France and wine is like Scotland and bagpipes, which incidentally brings me to my next point, and that of my next series. I've decided to continue with my Edinburgh shots next :)

Ah will se ye a' th'morra

/MrsHjort

Day 30 - Out of a Fairytale

This shot concludes my medieval market series. It's of one of the castle's towers. Each time I see it, I half expect Rapunzel to let down her hair haha. The architecture and the general mood of this shot is just like what I imagined when I was a child, listening to the story as my mother read it to me before I fell asleep.

30 is an appropriate number to end on, and I want to congratulate my fellow challenge participators Kim and Craig on making it this far. It's a joy to to get to see your pictures every day, and I really enjoy reading your thoughtful comments. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me, and for making this challenge so much fun. You guys are awesome!

Like I said, 30 is a nice round number to end on, it's the length of many of the months and the length of the challenges hosted in the past. Though it need not be the end. This challenge is a casual one, and we're all free to stay and play for as long as we like (or jump right in and join the fun, if you've not been a port of it yet). Personally, I still have a load of unedited pictures on my hard drive, So you'll see me for a while yet, and hopefully a bunch of cool people will help keep the challenge
alive with me.

I'm still undecided on what to continue with, now that this set is finished. I'm choosing between more pictures from the vacation in France, and pictures from the weekend in Edinburgh. I've done my homework and picked out the pictures I want to edit from both trips - 105 more Frenchy shots and 87 from Scotland. So, there is a lot to choose from whatever I decide. Hey, maybe you can help me make up my mind? What do you think I should choose?

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 29 - Chateauneuf en Auxois

This is what the castle and its village looks like viewed from the place where I stayed. It's not strictly taken at the medieval market (which is my theme for this challenge), but during the evening that same day, so I think it qualifies.

It was such a beautiful evening... The perfect end to a great day... My medieval market series is drawing to a close too. It started out as a 7 day challenge, which is why I've labelled it as such, but I've never been one to follow the rules, and thus it turned into a full-blown 30-day challenge. Best of all is that there are two more rebells breaking the rules with me. Kim and Craig, you guys are awesome! Mwah!

I'll show you the last shot tomorrow, but the post-ed challenge will carry on, at least for me anyway, and hopefully some new faces will join in on the fun. We've left the challenge open for anyone to join, at any time, but maybe the change of months is the perfect time? We'll see... But just so you know, all of you reading this right now, you are more than welcome to join me :)

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 28 - Red Window

This window is something that caught my eye straight away. It's quite striking don't you think? Subjects such as these are a joy to shoot.

I've removed two distracting items from this shot, can you spot which ones? Hey! That could be a fun idea for a photo contest! A comparative "spot the five changes" competition. What a fun combination of childhood memories and photography.

Speaking of contests, Dagger Bay is increasing the number of advanced contests next week, so if you haven't already found your way there, I can really recommend it. There are lots of fun competitions to be found there, as well as tutorials, a great forum, and some of the most awesome people you can find online. :)

I hope I'll see you there!

/MrsHjort

Day 27 - Lions and Vines

I have a feeling that this combination of lions and vines found above the door is not very common outside of France. At least it felt very french to me. I love little details like that, they convey the heart and soul of the places they're in.

The village surrounding the castle looks like it came straight out of the fairy-tales, and this shot is typical of what it looks like - very authentic, filled with lovely flowers and oh, so beautiful! You could easily film a movie set in the medieval ages here, or why not an episode of Game of Thrones? Remove a few modern details, like the lamp, and I could see Daenerys stopping here on her way to Westeros :).

I was a bit surprised to find out that people actually live in this beautiful place. Walking through the streets, I thought that it felt closer to a museum than a place where you park your car and go inside to relax on the sofa. What a lovely place to live. I envy the people ho get to call this place home.

/MrsHjort

Day 26 - View from the Castle

I shot this from a vantage point close to the castle of Chateauneuf en Auxois, overlooking the canal and one of the small villages near by. It's a charming landscape, but as always, it comes off as flatter than it really is when you see it like this. There are more hills to this area than you can tell from looking at this shot. Boy, do I wish I had the ability to bring out the beauty of the rolling landscape and show it like it was. I'll just wait patiently for the "holographic imager" to be invented I guess...

I did a lot of editing to this shot, obviously. Off the top of my head I used, Levels, Detail Extractor, Bleach bypass, Contrast color range, Cross processing, Graduated filters, Foliage, Skylight, Tonal contrast and then a slight lightening of the center. Oh, and a noise reduction - since all that tweaking bought me some free grain. I think that's it... It took me a while to get the look I wanted. As you can see, the original is quite bland, and the clouds were casting shadows over the landscape, making it look dull and colorless. This enhanced version is closer to what it really looked like, though of course I've taken some artistic freedoms, but then that's what we all do in post-ed isn't it? Spice it up a bit to make things a more beautiful :)

I hope you like it.

/MrsHjort