It’s that time of year where it is now dark before I leave from work to walk home, but I don’t mind that – even when darkness falls Edinburgh looks wonderful and I enjoy walking night-time streets and taking in views like this, looking down from Granny Black’s steps to the Grassmarket behind the Castle, the blander new building on the far side of the square of the Grassmarket is a modern hotel, behind and above it you can see the wonderful old structure of Herriots school; these are all improvised shots, no tripod as was coming home from work so balanced camera on timer on walls and railings:
Another shot from Granny Black’s Steps, looking down into Kings Stables Road which leads off from the Grassmarket – the building in the background above with the very large, brightly lit windows is the back of Edinburgh College of Art:
Another one looking down into the Grassmarket – the steep steps you see lead up and come out at part of the old, historic Flodden Wall by Herriots School near the University; they also feature in the wonderful animated film by Sylvain Chomet, The Illusionist:
And this shot I have taken several times at different times of year with different cameras over the years, but when I see it like this I simply can’t resist taking another one. The Royal Mile runs east (from the bottom of the ridge at the Palace of Holyrood and now also the Parliament) west up to the Castle. And because I walk home westward at this time of year there is that marvellous quality of evening where it is fully dark but there is a lingering touch of pale light left in the western horizon, so as well as a night shot (another improv one – set timer in night mode, left shutter open, camera balanced on top of traffic bollard; I think about 2/3 of my night shots are improvised like this when I see a scene walking about town) you also get some light in the sky silhouetting the buildings. And with people walking about the busy street you also get that ‘ghosting’ effect, which I must admit I rather like. This is my walk home – isn’t it wonderful?
Stopped on the way home last night to watch the launch of the enLIGHTen festival in Saint Andrew’s Square, three weeks of contemporary writers responding to quotes by some of the great figures of that powerhouse period, the Scottish Enlightenment (a period which produced science, philosophy and art which still influences to this day). For the next three weeks their words, animated, will be projected onto various elegant buildings and landmarks throughout Edinburgh’s New Town (which we still call new despite being older than the United States – we reckon time differently here). One of our contemporary poets opened the events with a reading (always best way to experience poetry, being read out by the scribe):
My literary chum Sara, formerly of the Edinburgh Book Festival, explaining more of the event:
And as it started some words from the great Scottish philosopher David Hume scrambled slowly up the tall monumental column in the middle of the square as well as being projected along the base – apologies for the picture being fuzzy, the lettering was moving and as I had come right from work I had no tripod to steady it (although as the text moved the tripod might still not be enough to get a sharp image):
enLIGHTen runs from 6pm to midnight until March 18th – you can find a map of the locations and more about the writers on the official site here.
And while we’re at it, here’s one I shot earlier… This was from Carry A Poem, a similar campaign two years back from the Edinburgh City of Literature crew, where famous poetical lines were projected onto buildings in the city, such as this piece of Byron on the walls of the National Library of Scotland, fairly brightened up a winter’s night, walking home and finding a piece of poetry written in light on the pavement or on a wall:
During my recent night photography session in Edinburgh I had a little fun prowling the dark bone orchards – this one looks quiet, dark, still, but actually it is Saint Cuthbert’s, which is right in the middle of the town with a very busy street just a few yards away. Up above you can see Edinburgh Castle, all floodlit while the massive volcanic rock it sits atop is in darkness, giving the illusion that the Castle is floating above the city like something from Gulliver’s Travels:
Heading out of the warmth of the flat to watch the fireworks erupt over Edinburgh Castle at midnight as December 31st 2011 (my birthday, as it happens) clicks over to become January 1st, 2012, watching from an old, humpackd bridge on the Union Canal near the flat with a decent view to the evening’s pyrotechnics. Naturally we came prepared with some sparkly stuff for the chimes at midnight:
And then the sky erupted into colours and great booms and thumps echoed across the night sky over our ancient capital, while we laughed at the nearby crowd of English students trying to sing Auld Lang’s Syne and mispronouncing Edinburgh dreadfully.
Happy New Year, folks.
As part of the seasonal Edinburgh Sparkles campaign the annual German Christmas Market is on the Mound, the craft and food stalls and fair in Princes Street Gardens, including the open air ice-rink:
The market brings a lovely sense of light and warmth into the long, chill winter nights, the smell of cooking food, the crowds and the aroma of hot, spiced drinks being consumed, a lovely little oasis of life in the black winter months:
And it’s a good place to chat to the market traders and craftes while looking for something a bit different for a present:
There’s much yummines to be had!
And you can get some nice Christmas decorations too:
I’ve bought some of these painted glass candle globes as present before, couple for myself too:
And no matter what age you are there is always something magical about the toy stall, isn’t there?
It’s Saint Andrew’s Day again in Scotland, here’s a night shot I managed to improvise of Edinburgh Castle lit up in blue like our Saltire especially for the occassion. I was on my way home from my book group so didn’t have a tripod, but when I saw this I improvised, jammed the camera as best I could between some railings above Princes Street Gardens and tried to brace it to hold it steady enough for a night shot, helped by it being lighter than usual with all the snow we had at the time reflecting a lot more ambient light and after a few shots one finally came out reasonably well (click for larger image on my Flickr):
It is dark before four pm now in Scotland, but Edinburgh is still achingly beautiful even on cold, dark, winter nights. This is the view I get just two minutes walk from my work, standing on the southern end of North Bridge, which spans the valley between the Old and New Towns, with the Waverley railway station running through it below, the very posh Balmoral (which started life as one of the grand railway hotels back in the day) on the other side:
Passing Jenner’s historic department store it had the lighting changed to this pinkish purple shade – someone said for the Breast Cancer awareness week but that was a few weeks back. Perhaps they just haven’t gotten around to changing it back, but it is quite striking, bathing the old stonework and the elaborate sculpture.
Improvised night shots taken on the way home from work, the Garden of Remembrance in Princes Street Gardens, with the above shot taken by balancing camera on short fence post (restricted the angle but a freehand shot wouldn’t work in the dark!), this side of the Scott Monument is regiments and units mostly, the opposite side of the Monument (below) the small crosses that people can write names and messages on to remember old comrades and loved ones, very touching. Funny to think on this side of an iron fence, a quiet, dark park, serried ranks of poppies and crosses, other side the pavement of a hugely busy city, commuters and shoppers coming and going – I was glad to see quite a few paused for a moment though.
“They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them. ”
Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen
I took this shot hunkering down to the base of the iron railing, lens pointed between them and used the flash, which normally I wouldn’t as I don’t like the quality of light you get with a flash. But somehow it still has something – as one commentator said on my Flickr it lights up the foreground leaving the crosses behind to fade away into the dark night.
