Fife

Explore #10 28/08/16

I was about to post up some stuff from Skye, as is always the way your latest trip seems to eclipse the last one as it is fresh in the memory and certain things get lost for a while. An email regarding this image jogged my memory as I wanted to post this on here, this was another shot just before a sea storm at St Monans in Fife, the irregular shaped breakwater standing up to absolutely everything that is thrown at it by nature, hence the title.

B/W to my mind is perfectly suited to this sort of stuff to accentuate shape and is normally something I'd go for here but the colours were appealing at the time of shooting this so this (sadly) became a bit of an afterthought, however the more I look at it I think I prefer this one for many different reasons, the stormy skies being absolutely ideal for this type of shot.

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Explore #3 18/09/16

This image is somewhat of a bonus for me as the visit here was a total washout, literally, I've posted another image from here a few days later earlier on my stream as I thought it was the only one I had managed to get, the weather was dry but the tide was out... This image is pretty much what I was after originally, this day it absolutely poured down and I ended up waiting in the rain with the camera covered with a waterproof backpack cover, just hoping for a break in the rain, getting soaked in the process... when I had checked my files I hadn't managed to get anything not ruined by the rain, such is life... Oddly though when checking the images from that trip day a few files had somehow been mixed up and put right to the end of the folder out of sequence, this being one of them, not a clue why or how but I was made up to find this long exposure image with no rain spots and a lot of nice dark cloud movement during the bad weather, a bit of a phoenix from the ashes....

This is the remains of Hawkcraig Pier, Aberdour, Fife, looking out towards Inchcolm Island and behind that the Lothian coastine towards Edinburgh, after such a frustrating day weather wise I'm made up to have actually got something from it, even more so as I didn't think I had originally.

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Panoramic shot of the famous St. Andrews Cathedral.

The remains of Hawcraig Pier, Aberdour, Fife. A bit of a thorn in my side this place, over a 4 day period tried 4 times to get the shot I wanted here but to no avail, everytime the tidal conditions were right it poured down, the second time I tried I actually waited it out in the rain with everything set up and the camera covered with a waterproof rucksack cover with the hope it would break... completely soaked it did eventually break and I went about trying to get what I wanted, about a minute in it just absolutely hammered down and I had to give up for the sake of the equipment,.

This shot wasn't the one I came for but I like it anyway as it's a different image I wouldn't have got normally, it was taken on the last opportunity to visit the place on the way home, the tide conditions were totally wrong but amazingly (for July) it wasn't raining (it did about 5 mins after this was taken), never known a place like it for crazy sea storms that just appear to roll in from nowhere.

Will definitely shoot this place again, hopefully in drier weather... The island of Inchcolm with its Abbey can be seen in the background.

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The silhouetted form of the Isle of May under the awesome colours of the rising sun, Sundays sunrise was kinda special!

The village of St. Monans was treated to a pretty special sunrise on Sunday, all the sensible people were probably still sleeping off the night before!

An old shot that I hadn't got around to until now. The early start paid off handsomely and we were rewarded with a spectacular sunrise

Press "L" followed by F11 to view as intended..sDSC03936-ed2

Another shot from Seafield on Saturday morning, really liked the pattern of the ripples on the exposed sand.

Poppy field over in Pattiesmuir, Fife. Had a blether with a local tog who reckoned the field should be even better in a week or so will return very soon.

Another from my trip to Seafield in Kirkcaldy on Saturday morning. Looking over the Forth to Edinburgh you can see the snow dusted Pentlands and Arthurs Seat, which from the looks of it here is some sort of recliner or lounger! Inchkeith island is also visible.

Quite a different image from the usual things I take and display,, a totally different genre, but nothing wrong with diversifying a little, especially while the chance is available to shoot these fantastic sea birds. Puffins are always a joy to shoot or indeed just to sit and watch if you find a good place to see them.

This was taken on the fantastic Isle of May off the coast of Fife, where up to 120,000 Puffins nest between April at the beginning of August, this particular pair were quite comical and I shot them for a while, this being my favourite image with the interaction between the two of them clear to see.

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It seems a good while since I've done anything meaningful in Scotland, the first location in Aberdour was a total washout with the rain appearing from nowhere, in fact in 4 days in Fife I must have seen about 7 or 8 unpredictable sea storms just come rolling in. This was early evening and another is making it's way towards the East Neuk of Fife so I had to really rush to get here and set up before it hit, in the end I managed about 20 minutes of shooting here before yet again the entire area went black and the rains came, this would be the only day where I could do this location due to the weather and tides combining so I was made up to come away with some images of it at last, this time the storms working in my favour instead of against me.

Anyone who's shot this location will know how tricky it is balancing yourself and all your stuff on the narrow wall in the wind, with a concrete floor behind you and the sea in front it isn't somewhere you want to be falling off....

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Took a trip to St. Monans and Elie yesterday for another go at the Breakwater.

Scotland

No visit to St. Monans is complete without shooting the Zig Zag breakwater, kind of like going to Glencoe and not shooting the Buachaille.

Another from the dawn trip to deepest darkest Fife and the beautiful village of St.Monans and its infamous zig zag breakwater. The title refers to the rough sea outside the harbour wall and the smoother calmer water inside.

Took a trip over to Fife this morning and headed to Elie.
In the 1770s the Lady's Tower was built in Ruby Bay, on the east side of Elie Ness, as a changing room for the Lady Anstruther. It is said that Lady Anstruther would bathe in the waters next to Lady's Tower, a servant ringing a bell all the while to ensure locals stayed away.

"Light up, light up As if you have a choice Even if you cannot hear my voice" A reprocessed shot, initial processing was a lot more muted but on revisiting I wanted to show more of the colours especially on the sunny side of the sea wall. I'll be right beside you dear

"Straight to the Point" is a view from the outer wall of the Less well known town's Harbour sitting on its eastern periphery, yet just a few steps from the busy town centre and nestling below the ruins of the mediaeval Cathedral and 33m tower of St Rule's church.

The light of the rising Sun reaches across the water and caresses the rock lightly. Ooh err that sounds slightly racy! Another shot from Seafield in Fife

Decided to get up for sunrise and headed over the water to the Kingdom of Fife, Seafield, Kirkcaldy to be precise. Made an arse of the sunrise shots by forgetting to close down the aperture after opening it right up to compose the LE shots. Was first visit to here so putting it down to more of a recce now!

Different view and also processing from the earlier shot.

The explosion of colour at sunrise didn't last long at Elie, soon it was overtaken by a blanket of grey.

The weather on this particular day was really poor, having just visited Crail the rain had started and there was quite a swell getting up in the sea so it was time to move on toward St Andrews, it was obvious that a huge storm was coming in off the sea from the East, as the rain at this stage was very slight I decided to use the old Church at Boarhills as a backdrop to the storm coming in behind it as there was still some really good light before the clouds were fully overhead. less than 5 minutes later this shot was impossible as all the light vanished, the rain was that heavy it was very difficult to see to drive in! and it didn't stop for about 4 hours. A lucky break this time!

Boarhills church is located in Fife, just outside St Andrews, the lonely stone building was built in 1867,

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Saint Monans,Scotland

Verry beautiful little Harbour with houses
Lens: 24mm at about 16 hours

From further back amongst the rocky shore at Elie looking back across the Firth of Forth

Took a trip to St. Monans and Elie yesterday for another go at the Breakwater.

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The Forth Bridge as seen from the northern side of the Firth of Forth

A local beachcomber takes advantage of the low tide at St. Andrews harbour. The Harbour is home to a fleet of around a dozen small fishing vessels, landing high quality shellfish from around the nearby shores, which are sold locally, nationally and exported. A small, but growing, number of pleasure craft are also based within the sheltered waters of the Inner basin.

Or at least my boots, an occupational hazard at the coast I suppose :-D

A bit more in truth, just across the water as the crow flies!

The last few images I've uploaded have all followed a similar pattern of trying to dodge the seemingly unpredictable sea storms that appeared quite a lot over the 4 days that I was here, this is Anstruther harbour, and the last day of the trip, I had just popped down here to photograph the harbour before heading home, wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary.

Less than ten minutes before this shot the skies were blue with minimal cloud and full sun, this storm came in very fast off the sea and literally for about 1 minute the entire harbour was covered in this amazing contrasting lighting from the sun breaking through the dense black cloud and reflecting on the cottages and the wet beach luckily I was ready for it coming and just by pure chance (and a bit of a sprint) I managed to get in a really decent spot to get a composition and managed to get it directly overhead as seen here. I had to bracket this exposure to get the full range in as the contrast was absolutely crazy with the sun on the white buildings against the black sky.

A few minutes after this the scene was transformed into a very dull lit boring scene as the storm headed out to sea again. For all my complaining about storms on the visit sometimes they are most welcome, oddly enough it never rained rained once while this passed over!

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On the road to the West Lomond theres a distraction of an old Limekiln. unfortunitly it cant really be explored as its been bricked up and a swamp surrounds its base.