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.

November Night, Edinburgh

Posted on November 24, 2025 by Joe

Some poetry from the great Scottish bard, Norman MacCaig:

The Moon and Venus, Dancing in the Heavens

Posted on January 4, 2025 by Joe

Walking home from my first day of work of 2025, frigid but beautiful winter’s night, amazingly clear skies, even over the city. Above the Union Canal, which was rapidly icing up, a large, bright, crescent Moon, with an incredibly bright Venus shining right next to it.

As I was coming from work, I didn’t have my tripod with me, so I improvised, setting the timer on the camera, then resting it on the edge of the old, stone bridge over the canal to steady it for a longer exposure, and crossed my fingers. And while it isn’t as good as with the tripod, given it is a makeshift night shot, it’s not too bad:

And this was the view looking east – you can just see Jupiter in the sky above the buildings at the end of the canal in this one, just right of centre:

And a wee zoom in closer to the old Leamington Lift Bridge, and the cold waters starting to freeze over:

As ever, click on the links to see the full-sized versions on the Woolamaloo Flickr stream (now north of 28, 000 photos on there!)

(Nearly) White Christmas

Posted on December 29, 2022 by Joe

Well, it wasn’t a White Christmas, but it was very nearly – this was the view from the parental mansion on December 26th:

We have a great view of the vast, ancient geological vastness of the Campsie Fells, a volcanic formation (some of the dried lava flows on it are dated to around 300 million years ago, give or take a few millennia).

First snows of the winter

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Joe

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.

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!

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

Night Life

Posted on December 4, 2022 by Joe

Now that is is dark before 4pm, I have more opportunities to take some shots of the city’s nocturnal face, something I always like exploring.

Haymarket tram stop at night (above), and looking towards the main junction of Haymarket (below).

Bank of Scotland building on the Mound, lit up in alternating red and green lights.

The annual festive market has returned – not my favourite place (vastly over-priced, too busy, and causes a huge amount of damage to Princes Street Gardens, which is often not fully repaired and open to citizens again until months after the market goes), but it is good for taking pics.

This town house, especially the basment flat, was well-lit up, snapped a couple of quick pics with the phone on the walk home, amazed they came out.

Snow day

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Joe

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

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.

Autumn reflections

Posted on November 21, 2021 by Joe

In a quiet loop of the River Forth just outside Stirling, dad and I found late afternoon – just an hour or so of daylight left on the short, winter’s day now – on a bright day was perfect, casting golden light, with the still water creating some wonderful reflections of old, rotting boat hulks on the muddy banks, some nearby industrial buildings and the Ochil Hills.

In the distance in this one, you can see the tall, Victorian-era Wallace Monument, which celebrates the life of the great Scottish hero of the Wars of Independence, Sir William Wallace, whose greatest victory was at Stirling Bridge, not far from this spot.

The Ochil Hills were catching the lat hour of daylight, the sun so low in the skies now it was stretched out to a beautiful, honey-gold colour. The river was very calm, this loop fairly far from the main roads, so also quiet and peaceful, just the sounds of the birds on the river.

Winter Scenes

Posted on January 7, 2021 by Joe

Monumental Sunset 02 — The Scott Monument, lower half already in shadow even in the mid afternoon as the sun is so low in the winter sky, the upper half basking the golden honey glowof the winter light.

Fortress of Winter 01 — Across the end of December and the start of January the ice and snow came to Edinburgh. Walking in the frigid, sharp air, the winter sun so low in the sky it casts as much in the way of shadows as it does light, and that light is stretched out, golden-amber. This is the sort of thing you see just going for a stroll in this magnificent city in winter…. (as ever click the pics to see the full sized versions of my Flickr)

Princes Street Gardens, Winter's Day 014 — The charming head gardner’s cottage in a wintry Princes Street Gardens, but these days better known as Great Aunt Lizzie’s, after being used as the location in a popular kid’s storytelling show.

Winter Walk 04 — “I got you”. Friend comforting a chum as they walk along the snowy towpath of the Union Canal

Princes Street Gardens, Winter's Day 013 — Warming coffee on a freezing day

Princes Street Gardens, Winter's Day 02 — Winter promenading in Princes Street Gardens during the snowy weather

Wintry Meadows 09 — A splash of colour against the white snow – normally I like to shoot in B&W for my people watching pics, but with so much monochrome caused by the snow I felt like switching to colour (especially with such vibrant colours contrasting against all the white)

Wintry Meadows 06 — Some enjoy a stroll, the crisp snow making that satisfying crunch-crunch-crunch noise underfoot, others decide to sit, chat and warm up with hot cuppas in the Meadows

Wintry Meadows 02 — In Edinburgh we have a vast extinct volcano, Arthur’s Seat, rearing up right in the middle of our city – you can go hill-walking here without even leaving the centre of town! And what a backdrop it makes….

Winter Walk 03 — Who cares about the cold, we’re happy!! Smiling couple walking along by the Union Canal

Winter Walk 011 — Reading as the snow begins to fall once more

Winter Walk 010 — Hot drinks on a cold day, from the floating cafe-barge, The Watershed, a regular haunt of mine on my walks, here serving up hot coffees and hot chocolate as the snow falls afresh

Ice Swan 01 — One of the mute swans on the Union Canal, on the only small stretch of remaining free water, bordering the ice that covers most of the rest of the canal. The setting sun’s burnished colours can be seen reflected in the dusk waters

Ice Swan 02 — And there she goes, raising herself out of the water and back onto the ice, as dusk falls along the canal

Sunset Along the Canal 01 — Winter sunset along the Union Canal (frozen in the frigid temperatures), glimpsed between two tenement blocks on opposite sides of the Walker Bridge over the canal at Polwarth. My view on my walk home yesterday afternoon, breath misting in the cold air, crunch of ice underfoot, sounds of people enjoying a walk nearby, the soft calls of the mute swans, and these colours firing the skies. Glorious.

Sunset Along the Canal 02 — Skeletal winter trees and chimneys silhoutted against a fiery sunset sky on a winter’s day.

The Setting of the Sun

Posted on January 4, 2020 by Joe

I took a walk on New Year’s Eve (also my birthday), and watched the final sunset of the decade from the roof terrace of the National Museum of Scotland, which is one of the finest (and free) spots to look out across the Old Town’s remarkable cityscape and geology (the one is closely entwined with the other). Last, tiny sliver of the sun about to vanish below the western horizon:

And just a few moments later, looking the same way but the sky now afire, the sun set early as it does in winter, but the heavens a glorious molten copper, a last hurrah of colour before the early winter night falls across the city:

This was a long zoom towards Calton Hill – you can see a huge crowd gathered around the old Royal Observatory (now home to the Collective Gallery) to watch that last sunset of 2019:

Similarly when I turned the camera towards the east and Arthur’s Seat, the huge extinct volcano which dominates the royal park of Holyrood in the heart of Edinburgh, I saw a crowd of figures along the summit, watching that last sunset:

Also looking east from the roof terrace, the handsome dome of Old College caught in the dusk light – if you click on the original on Flickr and look at the large version you can just see the distinctive triangular shape of North Berwick Law much further down the coast at the bottom left of the dome in the background:

Snow fun

Posted on March 4, 2018 by Joe

Like much of Europe we’ve been hit by some very severe winter weather, ironically just as meteorological spring arrives. Last weekend I was walking around town and noticing the first signs of early spring, the return of colour to the land with a few crocuses and daffodils starting to poke their heads up out of the cold soil. Last few days, several inches of snow and bitingly cold winds. For only the second time in the years I’ve lived in Edinburgh the buses were stopped, even in the city centre, trains were off, we were sent home early from work while we still could get transport and like a lot of places work just had to remain closed the next day as staff couldn’t get in and police advice was for nobody to try travelling. So fun and games! Still, even with severe wind chill and driving snow I still managed to get a few photos over the last couple of days…

This trio of classic red British telephone boxes is a regular photo subject on the Royal Mile, I’ve snapped them a few times, by day and night and it’s a bit of a cliche as everyone takes this shot, but dammit, they looked quite cool in the snow, the red contrasting the white, so what the heck, take another…

The park by the Union Canal was pretty busy despite the awful weather, with folks making snowmen (or snow women, or perhaps non binary snow beings), lots of dogs going nuts in the snow (and clearly wondering why their humans were not so equally enthused), the canal itself was frozen and the ducks were reduced to walking on the ice rather than paddling along in the water.

On the walk home I paused to take a few pics in the old boneyard near my flat, when the skies opened and the snow came on heavily again, one of those snowfalls where you coat is covered white in seconds, so I snapped very quickly and beat a hasty retreat back indoors to the fireside…

Tombstone shadows

Posted on December 21, 2017 by Joe

Walking through historic Greyfriars kirkyard recently, the winter sun now very, very low in the sky. Clear but freezing day, low angle of sun creating a lovely, soft, golden light quality and casting long, long shadows, such as here where it stretched long shadows from the old tombstones out across the kirkyard.

Normally it’s not good practise to point the camera lens towards the sun, but I needed an angle looking in that direction to get these shadow strips into frame as I wanted, so I simply moved around a little until from my perspective the sun was blocked by a tree trunk just enough that I could get the shot without flaring out the image. Some days you get lucky…

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