Tag Archives: Bruntsfield

Nocturnal City Scenes

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Although we are slowly edging towards spring, with it being lighter for a little longer each day now, it is still dark by the time I leave work, so I have been experimenting with the new camera’s night mode.

Bruntsfield At Night 01

Bruntsfield Place at night. Improvised night shot, setting the timer and sitting the camera on a flat-topped traffic bollard to steady it for some long exposure shots. This means you get no choice over angles, as you would with the tripod, but it’s a handy way to take night shots when you don’t have the tripod with you (like when walking home from work!).

Light Trails

Light trails from traffic crossing the junction of Holy Corner, where our old bookshop used to be (it gets its name from the fact there is a church on each corner of the junction)

Night Over The Union Canal 02

Reflections on the Union Canal after dark.

Nocturnal Roads 05

Nocturnal Roads 03

Light trails on the Western Approach Road at Fountainbridge

York Place With Added Light Trails

More light trails, this time as traffic passes the Conan Doyle pub at Picardy Place. The pub is named for the creator of Sherlock Holmes, who had his family home near this spot (a statue of Sherlock stands nearby, just a few metres behind the vantage point of this photo, near the tram stop)

Playhouse

Playhouse With Added Light Trails

Playhouse Theatre at night, then a closer shot as the traffic lights changed and the cars started moving, so I got some more light trails.

Ghost Lights

A couple of different light trails this time, the line of headlights, the cars themselves ghosted out of the photo, but the camera also picked up these unusual, overlapping light patterns lower in the image, which I rather like.

Wet Roads

I am a sucker for a night shot with streetlights glistening on wet roads after rain, especially a monochrome take. Took this the other evening walking home from the railway station after visiting dad.

As ever, to see the full-sized versions, click on the pictures to visit my Flickr stream (which somehow racked up well over a million views last year).

Bookshop at Bedtime

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I found myself last person in the bookshop recently. I had put out all the lights for the night, except the red neon sign with our shop motto (“we read past our bedtimes”). I didn’t have the tripod with me, so I improvised, sitting the camera on tables and piles of books to steady it for a longer exposure shot, setting the timer and crossing my fingers.

Bookshop At Bedtime 01

Bookshop At Bedtime 02

Sometimes these improvised shots work, sometimes not, but in this case I got lucky. Quite like these snaps of the bookshop going to bed for the night.

Bookshop At Bedtime 03

Bookshop At Bedtime 04

The spooky, dark corner, where the shop ghost lives!

Bookshop At Bedtime 05

The shop motto!

Scottish Summer Time

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Even by Scottish standards we have had an exceptionally long run of wet weather this spring and so far this summer. A few hot, sunny days interspersed with heavy rain and skies as grey as battleships, then often days where we get both, one after the other, changing all throughout the day, so you are carrying both sunglasses and a brolly.

Spring Deluge 01

Spring Deluge 02

I was walking through the Meadows recently, warm and dry, picked up some lunch from the van near the University Library and sat on a bench to enjoy it. Ten minutes after I finished and was walking away, it started to rain, then quickly turned up to torrential downpour. I sheltered under a friendly tree for a few moments – it passed pretty quickly and was back to dry soon enough – and decided while I waited I may as well grab some photos of the deluge.

Spring Deluge 03

Spring Deluge 04

Vid - Spring Deluge

Of course, it’s not all dreich weather, we’ve had days of sun and warmth too – I took this recent sunset across the city from the upper deck of a bus as it crossed North Bridge:

View From A Bus - Sunset Silhouettes

And a glorious summer evening at Holy Corner

Sunset And Shadows

First snows of the winter

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We had our first snows of the winter a few days ago, fairly light as I left work, then became progressively heavier as I was walking, enough that the front of my coat was almost white by the time I got there. Snapped a couple of quick photos and videos on the walk.

First Snow Of The Winter 02

First Snow Of The Winter 01

The days following have seen little more snow, but bitterly cold conditions as the weather was blowing over from Scandinavia. Forecast is for more brutally cold weather and possibly more snow this weekend. Frankly I prefer the snow over the bloody iced-up pavements to walk on!

Vid - Holy Corner In The Snow

Above video and photos, Holy Corner, Bruntsfield, in the snow. Below: the Union Canal at Polwarth.

Vid - Snow Over The Union Canal

Autumn arrives

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Autumn is really making itself felt as we move into late September; chillier in mornings and evenings now, although still quite pleasant temperatures in the main part of the day. Glorious, golden autumn sunlight quite often, and on those days it brings out the colours as the trees begin to turn, and it’s just utterly beautiful.

The Red And The Blue

Autumn Arrives At Holy Corner

With such lovely autumn sunshine, people were making the most of it, enjoying pavement cafe culture in Bruntsfield, before the weather and temperatures slide further and it becomes too uncomfortable to sit outside the cafes and bars (at least not without a coat on!).

Bruntsfield On An Autumn Afternoon 03

Bruntsfield On An Autumn Afternoon 04

Bruntsfield On An Autumn Afternoon 02

As always, you can click on the pics to see the far larger version on the Woolamaloo Flickr stream – now well north of 24, 000 photos!

Snow day

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Light snowfall overnight, woke up to cold but bright winter morning, snapped a few photos on the way to work:

Winter Day 01

Holy Corner (so named because it has a church on all four points of this busy junction) was looking especially beautiful on this February, just a small amount of snow, but draped across the roofs, chimneys and ledges, outlining them in white against the slowly rising winter sunlight, had to grab a couple of photos on my way into work. The Italiante architecture of Morningside United Church (where Eric Liddell, whose story was told in the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire, worshipped – one of the stained glass windows still commemorates that Olympian) looked especially handsome.

Winter Day 03

Winter Day 04

City of Night

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Being December, it is now dark here well before four in the afternoon; while most people bemoan the very few, short hours of daylight we get in our wee northern kingdom at this time of year, I rather like it and tend to use it to get some nocturnal shots of my city.

Project Coffee After Dark 02

Project Coffee After Dark 01

Cafe Grande At Night 01

Cafe Grande At Night 02

Project Coffee and Cafe Grande after dark, in the Bruntsfield area of the city. There’s something about the dark, winter night outside and bright, warm lights and people inside the cafes and diners and bars that just cries out for a good black and white photo. Slightly rough as these were all taken freehand on the way home from work, so no tripod with me.

Fountain Bar After Dark 04

Fountain Bar After Dark 02

Fountain Bar at night, Fountainbridge

Blue Note

Blue note: corner shop lit up brightly against the winter night, Fountainbridge.

Ghost By The Steps

“Ghost” strolling near the benches by the Union Canal. I love the way long exposures capture the surroundings clearly, but a moving person or object becomes blurred and translucent, like a ghostly, spectral figure, which sometimes quite suits the photo.

Festive Barge 01

Festive Barge 02Homes With A View

Golf Tavern At Night

Tenements overlooking Bruntsfield Links, one of the ancestral homes of the game of golf (there's still a putting green there right in front of the apartments). Always coveted one of these flats, but way out of my price range. The old Golf Tavern can be seen on the far right of the upper pic, and a closer view of it in the second pic.

Tollcross At Night 02

Theatre Crowd

Busy junction at Tollcross at night, and the King's Theatre, with a crowd waiting to go in for a show.

Cinematic Nocturne

Cinematic Nocture: people waiting at the bus stop under the marquee over the entrance to the lovely, old Cameo Cinema. I miss marquees on most moden cinemas, to me they were always part of the magic, all lit up, the regularly changing signs telling you what films were screening, I like that the Cameo still has it.

Castle Of Lights 01

Edinburgh Castle during a light show, seen above and behind the old Victorian tenement buildings around Bruntsfield Links and the Meadows, because you just get views like this in Edinburgh as you casually stroll across a park path after work...