As another year ends time to have a look back through my now enormous Flickr photo stream (now well north of 17, 000 pictures) and pick out some of the favourite shots I managed to take during 2018:

Misty evening in Edinburgh – handheld shot walking home one night, amazed it came out:

This poor chap was a rough sleeper, he had set up a small camp bed in Greyfriars kirkyard, his belongings in bags under a nearby tombstone, just a few feet away from the groups of passing tourists exploring the historic church and graveyard:

Autumn but still some bursts of bright natural colours – this close-up was snapped in September in Greyfriars kirkyard, a bloom among the tombstones…

Another macro shot, playing with the close up facility on the camera, these autumnal berries and leaves came out quite nicely, I thought:

Taken the same day in the Colzium at Kilsyth, these gorgeously coloured autumn leaves:

Lady enjoying a burst of warm sunshine on an autumn day:

The Church of Scotland Assembly Building on the Mound, at Blue Hour:

National Gallery of Scotland at dusk:

Union Canal at Blue Hour:

The recently refurbished McEwan Hall at night:

The brightly painted Victoria Street on a damp evening:

The photographer photographed:

Lovely young Fringe performer kindly posing for me on the Royal Mile during the festival:

Really pleased with how this came out for a quick street portrait, taken of a Fringe performer on the Royal Mile. It went onto Flickr’s Explore page, so the views for it went crazy, several thousand views in just a few hours:

My chum Darryl Cunningham paid a return visit to the Edinburgh International Book Festival:

Relaxing in Charlotte Square during the Book Festival:

Selfies on the Mile:

One of the young animators at the McLaren Animation awards during the Edinburgh International Film Festival:

Mike Zahs (with the beard) talking after the film festival screening of Saving Brinton, which is one of my favourite movies of the year:

Russell Jones reading some of his poetry at the regular Event Horizon evening held most months by the Shoreline of Infinity journal in Edinburgh:

Some shots from the Processions parade which marked a century since parliament gave (some) women the vote. I took a bunch of photos that day, lovely atmosphere, but these two were my favourites, came out quite well for improvised street portraits taken as they parade walked by:

Found a nest of fluffy wonders: I’d seen a couple of swans with their new baby cygnets on the Union Canal, then a few days later found their nest among reeds by the canal side, the babies sleeping inside while the parent swans kept a watchful eye nearby. The little wonders you can find just walking home from work…

On a warm spring day, down by Musselburgh harbour, these two little scamps had climbed along the wall – they were pretty high up, and I think their parents would have a fit when they noticed how high they had gone!

Same hot spring day, some kids enjoying themselves in the sea just off Portobello Beach, caught the moment just as one jumped from his boat:

Woman enjoying the spring weather, changing the music on her phone as she sits in the outdoor cafe in Princes Street Gardens, the sun dappled by the trees creating a nice mix of light and shade that drew me to frame it like this:

Spring blossoms:

Enjoying some fine spring weather by the floating cafe on the Union Canal, climbed up on the nearby old Leamington Lift Bridge to get this overhead angle:

Avengers Assemble!! Cosplayers at the comic con at Easter, these guys were friends of my chum, they had been out earlier in their costumes having their photos taken in some of the Edinburgh locations used in the Avengers: Infinity War movie:

Family of cosplayers at the comic con!

2000 AD veteran artist Colin MacNeil with Indy comics publisher and creator Colin Mathieson at the Edinburgh comic con:

Winter’s night in Saint Andrew Square:

Crossing North Bridge on an icy, snowy, windy winter’s day:

Browsing for vinyl at the music stall in the street market:

We were hit by seriously heavy snow storms in March, for only the second time in the decades I’ve lived here the buses stopped running even in the city centre. I ventured out to take a few photos, this was a nearby cemetery – my coat was white by this point from the heavy snowflakes being blown by strong wind, so I snapped a couple of pics then retreated home to the fireside!

More snow, this time on the Royal Mile:

This was part of the Lumen light art installations, several different pieces that came on between dusk and dawn during the winter nights, brightening up the darkness. This was my favourite of the installation, the strings of light hanging down as ambient music played, you walked through them and let the lights sway around you, it was delightful and magical on a dark, winter’s night:

This year was the Muriel Spark centenary, and it started with these projections onto the National Library of Scotland:

Princess Leia cosplayer and Wonder Woman at the Capital Sci-Fi Con:

Blue Hour on the Royal Mile back in January, sun set but this last smidgen of blue in the western sky, my favourite time of day:

View over Edinburgh from North Bridge on Burns Night:

The low winter sun bathing the lighthouse on the mighty Bass Rock last January:

Each January the National Gallery of Scotland shows their Turner collection (a gift to the nation years ago on the condition they be shown in winter when the light suits them best), I try to go along each year to see them again. As I came out the early winter night had fallen and the Mound by the galleries was icy:

New Year’s Resurrection – this short story by acclaimed Scots writer Val McDermid was projected onto buildings like the Signet Library at the very start of the year: