Views From The Kitchen

My New Lumix DMC-G1

I’ve got a new camera - the new Lumix DMC-G1, from Panasonic.

This article isn’t going to be your typical camera review and I’m not going to simply quote specifications. Instead, what I’ve aimed to provide here are the initial observations and reactions of a new owner of a G1...

Tree, Twilight, Mist.

Pollok Country Park - on a cold, misty afternoon - yields a tree silhouetted against the fading colours in the twilight sky.

Alloway’s Auld Haunted Kirk

Alloway’s auld haunted kirk was the location of the demonic gathering of witches in Robert Burns’ classic poem “Tam o’ Shanter”. I visited the ruin two years ago and got this spooky shot as dusk fell...

Rainbow Over The Road To The Isles

Driving back to my hotel, along the road from Mallaig, I was confronted by this striking rainbow.

VFTK Site Update #2

Okay – so I didn’t manage to increase my posting frequency, as I said I hoped to in my previous post. Sorry folks! I am definitely going to try harder this time – honest! I’m also giving up on the idea of making photos appear in a post which appeared to have been [...]

VFTK Site Update

After several months of apparent inactivity in the kitchen, I have finally upgraded the site with my new theme (design). Yay! :D Expect new posts to appear a little more regularly.

For those of you who would not be appreciative of the technical details, it mainly means that I can now post larger images. The first example of this is the Craignethan Castlepost.

Read on if you're interested in a bit more detail...

Craignethan Castle

Craignethan Castle, a Historic Scotland property, is located in the Clyde Valley. The castle was built in the early 1530s and only lasted as a fortification for about 50 years before being demilitarised. Construction was started by an illegitimate son of James Hamilton, the 1st Earl of Arran - Sir James Hamilton of Finnart. Sir James went on to become Master of Works to King James V from 1536 to 1540.

One well known guest at the castle was Mary, Queen of Scots. Forced to abdicate in 1567 while imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle, she escaped the following year and was sheltered/entertained for a while at Craignethan Castle.

I hadn’t heard of the castle before, but it looked like an interesting afternoon out - and not too far from home...

Afternoon Sun on “The Matrix”

This residential block at Cowcaddens Road and Port Dundas Road, near where I work, is known as "The Matrix". I had spotted that at lunchtime the sun illuminates the south-facing main side of this apartment block quite nicely, bringing out the colour in the various panels.

From The Archive

For the benefit of visitors who don’t use the RSS feed, I have just added: “Oban At Dusk“, taken on 2003-12-07.

Oban By Night

I didn’t leave Ballachulish until the sun had set, so my drive down to Oban began in the dusk and ended in the dark. That was a pity since it seems to be an attractive drive. However, the Oban plan was for after-dark shots, so this didn’t matter too much. The first objective was to drive up to McCaig’s Folly.

Rannoch Moor and Glen Coe

The weather’s been good for the past few days, so I was up pretty early this morning to head off up towards Rannoch Moor and Glen Coe. When you drive from Glasgow up the A82 to Fort William, you cross Rannoch Moor. Once you’ve made the ascent to the moor, you pass between two lochs in fairly short order. Little Lochan na-h’Achlaise is first on the left and then you pass the larger Loch Ba on the right. If you remain on the road, you see little of Loch Ba, while the views over Lochan na-h’Achlaise are much better. After stopping the car, I walked across the moor and down to the waterside...

Edinburgh’s Winter Wonderland

I've been staying over in Edinburgh for a couple of days to allow me to attend a training course for work. This evening, after returning to my hotel and freshening up, I wandered up to Princes Street to take a look at the Winter Wonderland. I have already seen a number of shots from the event, so I had a rough idea of what to expect. In the end, this is my favourite from the several shots I took.