Edinburgh Fringe

August 2024, Royal Mile 

Weather - Mostly fine, a wee chill in the air

Theme - The Edinburgh Fringe

Refreshments - Café at the National Library of Scotland

An easy theme this week. We arrived at our meeting point early, when most of the acts were still setting up. But it was way busier for those of us who went out again with our cameras after our morning coffee. 

Photo of the week was slightly different this week. Barrie nominated Kate - not for any particular photo, but because of the historical context she shared when telling us the story behind her photos. Nice one, Kate! 

Kate shared this portrait of a street cleaner who seemed to be taking real pride in his work. 

Maggie found a very different aspect of the fringe - a queue of vans and lorries making deliveries before the madness of the day began. 

Sandra was experimenting with ICM - intentional camera movement. This shot was particularly effective, rendering the movement of the passers-by as though they were dancing to the harp-player's music. 

Alex turned his camera way from the performers and snapped this image of the crowd, against a backdrop of St Giles Cathedral. 

Barrie captured this image of a woman - plucked from the crowd - impersonating the sound of a dog. But pity her companion wearing that fabulous cardigan. He had to impersonate the sound of a badger.  

Colin concentrated on portraits of people and their facial expressions. You can just imagine the woman here saying "how much for the bus tour?"

Lots of people were handing out flyers advertising their shows. This was a little different. Eileen found a pot plant which was handing out flyers for their show. 

Ada captures a quiet moment. Are these folk both performers? This is a picture which invites you to make up your own story. 

Alison couldn't join us on the day, so she shared photos from a recent trip to the Perth Show. This is a magnificent display of Dorset sheep. 

Lego Animals at Edinburgh Zoo

Ada recently visited Edinburgh Zoo to see the exhibition of Lego animals. Spectacular! As always, she had her camera with her, so she shared a selection of her photos at one of our Friday morning catch-ups. 

Don't worry if these photos look pixelated. The Lego animals really do look like that. 

Haymarket

July 2024, Haymarket

Weather - Dry and warm, mostly blue skies

Theme: Transport

Refreshments - Starbucks. Sandra's cinnamon bun looked awesome. 

We all took the theme pretty seriously this week - lots of photos of different modes of transport - but Barrie's still life of a flower against a basket-weave won photo of the week. 

We all loved Colin's photo of a fork-lift truck wearing protective socks on its tyres. Presumably this is to protect the city roads from the muddy building site? 

Eileen's photo of the wires for the Edinburgh tram managed to capture a seagull flying overhead. 

Maggie wasn't able to join us at Haymarket, so she shared this photo of a tugboat heading towards a cruise liner. 

Ada's photo of a blue car against a blue background showed a terrific use of colours. 

Alex's photo of bicycle wheels was another photo that showed good use of colour. Alex's own view was that he should have converted it to black and white. Everyone else disagreed!