Fringe Time Approaches

Posted on July 30, 2026 by Joe

It’s nearly August once more, and in Edinburgh that means the insane frenzy of the festivals: the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival, joining the Arts Festival and the already-running Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival.

It’s unbelievably busy – Edinburgh, as you might expect, is pretty full of visitors year-round, and especially in the spring and summer months, but then add the festival season on top of it, and it bursts at the seams. Simple things like trying to get across town becomes an exercise in frustration for locals trying to get to appointments or work, because the sheer numbers slow the bus service to a slow treacle trickle in the city centre, adding hugely to journey times. When you are off and can enjoy the sheer energy of the festivals, it’s amazing, when you live here and are trying to get to work or to a hospital appointment and it takes twice as long, that’s a bit different!

I was walking home from my book group the other evening, through Bristo Square at Edinburgh University. Normally an open space (often filled with skateboarders as well as students and tourists), it was now being set up for the Fringe with temporary venues for food, drink and box offices, while nearby George Square Gardens is filled with temporary theatre structures. It was a rare rainy night – after a lot more hot, sunny weather than we normally get in Scotland, this was a dreich evening of dark, grey clouds and rain. But as I passed the illuminated Fringe show posters, the rain made the lights and colours reflect on the wet pavement, and it was begging for a few photos, so of course I stopped and stood there in the rain to take some pics.

Jazz Under the Bridge

Posted on July 25, 2026 by Joe

Walking with a friend a few days ago, we passed down King’s Stables Road, which runs around the west of Castle Rock, then passes under the King’s Bridge, right below the Castle. The bridge is an old, stone structure, with a long, tunnel-like arch, and this saxophonist was playing some cool jazz under it.

I’ve seen some musicians play here before, including another jazz player (possibly the same chap) – it isn’t the best for busking in terms of footfall, compared to nearby streets, but the acoustics of that long, stone arch are incredible, especially to an instrument like a sax. And it makes for a cool pic…

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Posted on July 13, 2026 by Joe

No, not a metaphor for my ongoing cancer treatment! Walking under the King’s Bridge this afternoom, brilliantly sunny day, the shadows of the old, arched bridge contrasting with the brightly lit buildings visible beyond the arch. It was begging for a monochrome shot.

Slo-mo rowing

Posted on June 29, 2026 by Joe

The slow motion effect on the phone is cool, but I rarely have any real use for it, However, on a recent recovery walk after the latest round of chemotherapy, I saw some of the University rowing team practising on the Union Canal near Harrison Park. So I nipped up onto the bridge and switched into slo-mo mode to capture this:

Apart from the interesting visuals, the sound is also slowed down, so turn the volume up – you can hear passing traffic, birds, the splashes of the oars, but all slowed down, and about halfway through the ding, ding, ding of a passing cycllist’s bell, but here deepened and drawn out by the slow-mo effect, giving an unusual sound.

Edinburgh Canal Festival

Posted on June 28, 2026 by Joe

My chum and I had a nice stroll along the annual Edinburgh Canal Festival the other weekend – after days of rainy showers, the sun came out, hot and strong that weekend. The festival itself felt smaller than previous years, not least because the Raft Race, which is what started the whole thing (existing before th festival grew around it) is now taking place on a different date, so it felt like crowds were smaller, there were less stands and fewer bands etc (and it all finished fairly early in the afternoon compared to previous years)

That said, we still had a great time, had some nice food and drinks (someone was making proper, fresh fruit-filled Pimms, a perfect summer sunny day drink!), enjoyed some of the bands and browsed the stalls, while taking pics (my friend wanted a go with the camera too).

Band entertaining the crowds around Lochrin Basin, where the canal now ends

Jazz band I have photographed at previous Canal Festivals was back, with some swinging tunes!

I was delighted to see our smiling mermaid was back again this year. We pointed her out to some small kids near us, and she waved to them – their faces lit up!

Even the barges became stages for entertainment!

Kayak fun!!

Ball right in the net!!!

I rarely appear in front of the camera, preferring to be behind the lens, but my chum wanted a go with the camera and took this shot of me, with a child apparently growing out of my head!

One of my swan chums decided to join me!!

Light waves reflecting off the sunny water onto the curved underside of the old, arched, stone bridge

And a slo-mo video of the same, because it was kind of gently mesmerising.

Nocturnal Streets

Posted on May 20, 2026 by Joe

Nocturnal streets offer a different face to the daytime version – a busy, central area now quiet, almost no people, little traffic, all but deserted

All the same buildings are there, the traffic lights wink and change in their pattern, regardless of the lack of vehicles passing, but it is all just somewhat different, while still being the same place. I think that’s one of the reasons I like taking long exposure shots at night, it just reveals a version of the city your eye can’t see.

These were all improvised shots – I was coming home late from the cinema, and so no tripod with me. I had ten minutes to wait for a bus, so I set the timer and sat the camera on bollards, ledges and posts to steady it for a few shots while I waited, and this is what I got, all around Edinburgh Quay, the modern buildings around where the Union Canal now ends (although originally it continued on over the main road to an inland port nearby).

Sakura Time!

Posted on April 27, 2026 by Joe

It’s that time of year when the cherry blossom trees are blooming with silken petals, all over the city. My favourite spot to enjoy them is in the Meadows, the huge, popular park in the middle of the city, which boasts two avenues lined with cherry trees, creating a “tree tunnel” you can walk through.

While I was stuck for those eight, long, dragging days in hospital, dreaming of being able to go outside again, I found myself thinking that the sakura would bloom within a few weeks, and I wanted to be out of hospital and also to be recovered enough to walk through it. I do this every year, but this year, with the cancer surgery and ongoing treatment (chemo now awaits… sigh) it felt more precious than ever. I was dreaming of walking under those branches, heavy with blossoms, with my friend on my arm.

So, each day since I got out and moved back to the family home, dad and I would go for small walks to help me build myself back up slowly, then after a week I moved back to Edinburgh to my own flat, continuing my walks each day. On one such walk I saw the blossoms were almost full, so arranged to come back a few days later with my friend, and we promenaded arm in arm under those delicate blossoms. The Meadows was full of happy people enjoying the burst of fine, spring weather and the arrival of the blossoms, just a lovely atmosphere, and, as I said, this time with everything I have been enduring, it just felt so much more precious to do this annual ritual.

And I shot a couple of “walk through” videos to go with the photos:

A Hunting Heron

Posted on April 13, 2026 by Joe

On one of our daily recuperation strolls with dad a few days ago, we had driven to Hogganfield Loch in Glasgow, a good-sized body of water which used to be home to rowboats (sadly they seem to have gone, at least for now), and large amounts of birds make it their home. As we walked around (slowly, my pace is so reduced I don’t have to remind myself to slow down to match my dad!), I snapped a few photos (of course), spotting this Goldeneye duck in the loch (as everyone knows, the Goldeneye is the most James Bond of all ducks!!).

According to a wildlife site, the Goldeneyes spend much of the winter in the Highlands and come down to central Scotland in the spring, attracted to large bodies of water like this, so we were lucky in our timing (I could only see this pair, perhaps there were a few others further out).

A fellow photographer we had been chatting to pointed us to a large body of reeds in a corner, just beyond the main path, where a heron was standing, stock-still. Then every now and then it would move, very slightly and slowly, and I realised it was stalking something in the muddy ground between the reeds.

I managed a few photos, then saw its head duck down swiftly – it had found its prey. I couldn’t get a clear photo because the head was below the reeds now, so it was obscured. I could just make out the heron scooping up some hapless creature (likely a frog) in that long, sharp beak, tilting its head back to swallow it. By the time it raised its head above the reeds again so I could take some close-ups, it had already consumed whatever it had been hunting.

Still, it was remarkable to get close enough to use the zoom to get a few close-ups of this creature – you can see the dinosaur heritage in these things, especially when hunting remorselessly.

Spring blooms, but brings bad news

Posted on March 23, 2026 by Joe

So, after a particularly dismal winter – even by Scottish standards, we had so many back to back days of grey clouds and rain that even the brief winter daytime was dark – spring is starting to bloom here. Still cold in mornings and evenings, or in the shade, but when the golden light comes out, it’s gorgeous, it’s warm, and the colours of vibrant flowers glow in that light like life itself, such a welcome sight after the winter months.

However, the great turning of the seasonal wheel has, for me at least, also brought some bads news. Actually pretty awful news. My doctor noticed some anomalies in recent blood tests and wanted to investigate, and set me up for some sample tests and the dreaded camera going where no camera has ever gone before. He suspected something like a bleeding ulcer causing blood and iron loss. It wasn’t. It was cancer.

That’s not something you want to hear a medical team tell you. I knew before they spoke, to be honest. After getting dressed I met the team who examined me in a room, and they all had their heads down looking at their papers, and I knew from the body language it was bad news, and so it was. Shock and fear does not begin to cover being told you have cancer, that your body’s own cells are betraying you right as you sit there hearing the news. Worse still, I had to tell my father this news, which felt almost as bad as being given the damned news. How do you tell the people you love that you have cancer? I would love to spare them the worry, but I can’t hide this, and they have a right to know, but it still felt awful, as if I was unloading this horror onto them.

The NHS stepped into high gear, organising more scans as quickly as possible to get a better picture of what was happening inside me. The wait for results was nerve-wracking, as I literally had no idea how bad it could be until they told me. I found myself literally shaking just before my oncology appointment. I’ve been scared before, who hasn’t? But I have never had fear shakes, until now. I am cutting myself some slack as I think that was pretty understandable; I literally had no idea what they were going to tell me, was it curable or was I going to be condemned to a slow, horrible decline and death? You’re trying to stay positive, but your mind is thinking of all the worst case scenarios, and the dreadful fact is you simply don’t know until they have the results, you are in a limbo.

Long story short, they found it before it spread my organs, so it is treatable. I am going for major surgery imminently. They can’t be certain if that will be enough, or if I may require chemo later. I am praying not, because I have had people I love go through that, and it is brutal, and the idea of enduring major surgery just to find I need even more, harsher treatment is so unfair and scary I don’t know where to start. But it may not come to that, and one thing at a time.

I’ve had so much warm love and support from my family and my friends – my lovely wee bookshop family have been so protective of me. Pain and discomfort have been growing in the last couple of weeks, which is putting me in the “just get this over and fixed, please” zone, trumping the fear of surgery. But it is still damned scary, in fact it is bloody terrifyng. And this is a situation so many people will find themselves in. We all know people we love who have been through similar. Scary as it is, the main thing is they think this is treatable.

(walking Princes Street Gardens in spring light)

(The Ross Fountain in full spray – frozen solid just a few weeks back, now back to delighting visitors)

So, before I go dark for a few days, I am taking some moments to post about this on here, but also to share some photos of my gorgeous Edinburgh in spring sunight, the Earth renewing itself for a new season, and I am taking that renewal of life as a good omen for me (and I need those right now), and because I wanted to post something beautiful against all the personal horror I’m enduring right now, and the collective horror our entire world seems to be going through right now, to remind us all there is still magic and beauty and we need to pause and drink it in and cherish it, and let that light fill us so the darkness never wins. Easier said than done, I know, but we have to.

I hope to be recovered enough in a few weeks in time for the cherry blossoms to come out so I can take more photos of them again. I will walk under that avenue of sakura in the Meadows with my friends with the blossoms falling around us. I will. And I will share those photos as I always do.

Blue Hour Reflections

Posted on March 4, 2026 by Joe

Walking home this week, and while it is still dark by the time I leave work, with it being lighter till a little later every day as we move into spring, there was a smidgen of blue light in the western sky. I didn’t have the tripod with me, so sat the camera in timer mode on the stone wall by the Walker Bridge over the Union Canal, where it runs between rows of Victorian tenements.

And I was lucky enough to catch this gorgeous Moon rise over the Union Canal, as dusk fell, the Moon chasing the setting sun across the sky.

Night Vision

Posted on February 18, 2026 by Joe

While many are depressed by the long, dark, winter nights in Scotland (dark by around 3.30pm by mid-winter), I tend to take the chance to snap some night shots of the city. I’m always fascinated by the way the camera, on a long exposure, can drink in more light to see more than the human eye can, and also how different the city seems at night, or how different again on wet nights to dry nights.

Dusk skies, the very tail-end of Blue Hour, just that little hint of fading colour in the western sky.

A wet evening by the Union Canal – the wiggly line you can see is a “light trail”, caused by a passing light caught in the long exposure into a line. When it is on a car or bicycle, it tends to be a smooth line, here it is dipping up down like a sine wave because it was a head torch on a jogger running alongside the canal

Passing traffic creating light trails on a wet evening

Warp speed!!! A double decker bus, caught on a long exposure as it passed, creating this interesting light effect.

The Union Canal at night, the upper pic around a four second exposure, the lower image was a much longer (thirty seconds) exposure, capturing more light, even that light reflecting in the water and puddles, and a long, white light trail from the lamp on front of a passing bicycle, the bike itself invisible in the long exposure, only the light coming out as a solid line.

Picking up their dinner – person going into a restaurant at night, Dalry Road.

Travelling by light beams – traffic stretched out into light trails by long exposure shots

Light trails crossing the junction at Townhead, Kirkintilloch.

Lights in the Darkness – The festive lights at the Botanics

Posted on December 15, 2025 by Joe

For all the years I have lived in Edinburgh, I have never visited the annual festive sound and light show the Royal Botanic Gardens does each December. I’ve visited this huge site many times, to walk the enormous Gardens and the different plants and areas, plus the impressive, Victorian glass houses and palm tree houses, but during the day. A dear friend was marking a major birthday, so a bunch of us all went together for the long walk, which takes you right round the massive site.