Picture of the Week

My favourite Mountain in Nepal...Ama Dablam

2009-04-24T19:08:00.004+01:00

My favourite mountain, Ama Dablam, which I believe means 'Mother and Pearl Necklace', stands 22,349ft tall and if I was going to climb any mountain in the Himalaya this would be it....

The Vital Spark...

2009-03-07T11:03:00.002Z

Anybody from Scotland...or anybody that has lived in Scotland for a while will more than likely have come across the names of Para Handy and The Vital Spark. The Vital Spark is a fictional Clyde puffer, created by Neil Munro and Para was the skipper. I'm guessing this is not the 'real' fictional Vital Spark (!!!!) but this is mine, snapped on the Crinan Canal at Christmas :-)

Classic Nepal....

2009-03-06T21:38:00.001Z

Prayer flags...........you find a few in Nepal.....enough said!

Looking down on Thame....

2009-03-06T21:29:00.005Z

You need to click on this picture to view....

This was taken on my recent trip to Nepal. It is taken at approx. 3,800m looking down on the village on Thame which is the last outpost on the ancient trading route over the Nangpa La Pass between Tibet and Nepal. We stopped for 2 nights to help with acclimatisation and stayed in a Lodge owned by the sister of our head Sherpa, Nima. Think you will agree that the village has a pretty amazing backdrop.

A gull in flight....

2009-02-21T09:26:00.002Z

A wee change......this was one I took while trying to master taking birds in flight...not easy I can tell you that!! I like the fact that its eye is in focus but the rest symbolizes everything great about a bird in flight...if that makes any sense!! :-)

A lone prayer flag.....

2009-02-14T09:04:00.003Z

This is a lone prayer flag I captured early in the trip to Nepal. It was unusual to see them on their own as the colour of the flag relates to the elements, and normally come in sets of 5 with Blue for the sky, White for the air/wind, Red for fire, Green for water and Yellow for the earth. Sometime, the the colours for water and air/wind are switched......

Sunrise over Mt Everest.........

2009-02-07T20:51:00.003Z

OK, so I have had a year off...poor show I know. Saying that I'm back now and hope to post many more. As some of you will know I recently spent 3 weeks in Nepal...what an adventure. This first picture of the trip was taken early morning from Tengboche (more on this later)...all I can say is I sat in silence watching one of the most amazing thing I have ever seen :-)

Wee William..

2008-02-09T12:49:00.000Z

My first go at pictures of wee people. This wee craker is William, the boy of great friends of mine, Daz and Clare.

How lucky we are.........

2008-01-13T01:22:00.000Z

Gillian and I went for a walk today in our local hill range, The Pentlands, just outside Edinburgh.....do I need to say any more?

Glencoe....

2008-01-06T23:17:00.000Z

This is one of my favourite places in Scotland. I took this today, honest.....it's very sunny in Scotland in January!
Did you know that Glencoe was the home of Fingal, one of the greatest Celtic heroes and leader of the Feinn, warriors of Gaelic mythology. I haven't seen Fingal myself, but I suspect he was pretty hard!!

By the way...the trees in the picture are pretty big....

Duntrune Castle

2007-12-30T02:25:00.000Z

Just a wee view from our recent holiday....click on the picture to see it in more detail.

Lock 15....

2007-12-30T01:53:00.000Z

Our 2007 Christmas adventure took us to the village of Crinan. When we were not drinking we went for walks along the Crinan Canal. I'm told the canal was originally built for commercial Clyde puffers to travel between the industrialised region around Glasgow to the West Highland villages and islands and was designed in 1794 and completed in 1801.
It has 9 Locks...this is Lock 15....Gillian and I had 15 drinks to celebrate....

Scotland The Brave...

2007-12-30T01:40:00.000Z

The 'Saltire'...also known as St Andrew's Cross.....or the Flag of Scotland...which, if you didn't know is the oldest continuously used sovereign flag in the world, having been in use since 732 AD!!!

I really liked the colour contrast in this picture....

A Wee Green Hut.....

2007-12-26T17:54:00.000Z

Gillian and I went for a walk along the Crinan Canal today and I spotted this strange little thing on the banks of the canal. Don't know who owns it but I loved the colours on the drab day we have had today.
Who lives in a house like this?

Christmas Morning Wake Up Call.....

2007-12-25T21:44:00.000Z

Gillian and I are spending Christmas alone this year in a wee cottage in Crinan. While we are missing all our friends and family it's great to have time to relax after what has been a very busy year for both of us.
This was our early morning alarm call today......don't think I need to say any more do I?
Merry Christmas.
xx

Edinburgh Castle by Night....amazing

2007-12-05T23:48:00.000Z

Don't think I need to say much about this one.....I love having this in my home city! :-)

Sunset over North Berwick Beach...

2007-12-04T23:23:00.000Z

So, Gillian and I went for a walk on Sunday to a lovely little town on the East Coast of Scotland called North Berwick........lots of fresh air, great views, lovely sunset.....oh yes, and not forgetting a few pints :-)

I particularly love the colour of the sky and the cloud formation in it...plus I love the fact that it made Gillian so happy being there for the day.

Grand Central Something..!

2007-11-26T22:54:00.000Z

218 years ago today on this day, the 26th Nov. 1789, President George Washington proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day. To celebrate this I thought I'd post one of my pictures that inc. both the world famous USA Flag and a favourite place of mine, Grand Central Station. A slight problem with this is that I found out today that it is not actualy called Grand Central Station but is in fact Grand Central Terminal....how stupid do I feel!

First built in 1871, 'that place' (as I'm going to call it now) soon became obsolete when steam locomotives were banned after a catastrophic train collision in 1902. In 1913 the new version of 'that place' opened but over the years it went into decline and it was not until 1994 that extensive renovations were started to restore that 'place' to its 1913 splendor....and I love it!

Anyway, I was trying to capture the splendour of GCT (as it will now be called) plus the movement of the people. You need a tripod (I'm told) to do this properly as you need a long exposure (slow shutter speed)...but what with Gillian spending all our money of shoes handbags I had to make do with resting the camera on top of a local vagrant...otherwise known as a Begger in the UK! Hope you like it.

What....no Deer?

2007-11-15T20:26:00.000Z

OK.....so the story behind this one is that I got up at 4am to get out early to take some pictures of Red Deer...the idea being you creep into the hide while it is still dark and then when the sun starts to come up you 'snap' away...obviously you hope the Deer don't know you are there otherwise they leg it.

The problem with this master plan is that nature don't always do what you want it to do...hence this picture!

I was struggling to get a decent shot and turned the camera West to look what else was worth snapping.......and this pic above is what was took my breath away. I love it as I like the light from the East.......I think the composition is good(ish)......and it's classic 'Scotland'. Hope you like it?

WATERFALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!

2007-11-09T00:34:00.000Z

This was taken on the Scottish Island of Mull which is a truly wonderful place. I love the contrast between the soft water in the background & the almost 'glass' like effect of water in the foreground....but enough of the waffle......I had to get my 'bits' wet lying in a freezing Scottish Burn to get this image. Let's just say the cold made my small thing even smaller! :-)