Corstorphine Old Parish Church

July 2024, Corstorphine Old Parish Church

Weather - Fine

Theme - Doors and Windows 

Refreshments - The Dower House Café, Corstorphine Heritage Centre. Alex's choice of chai latté instead of his usual coffee caused much amusement. 

Alex's photo of the bell tower was awarded Photo of the Week. 

Sandra's photo shows another door detail - this time of an ornate face sculpted above the archway. 

A lot of us found ourselves taking very similar photos. But Ada was the only person to capture a shot showing what the church looks like from outside.

Barrie set his camera to record in black and white. We were all struck by how effective this was, particularly in this photo of a stained glass window. 

There wasn't a lot of bright sunlight, but Eileen managed to time this photo perfectly - capturing the sun shining through this window and highlighting all of the colours.

 

A member of the congregation kindly gave up their Friday morning to guide us round the church. John's photo shows three (four?) members of the group listening to his account of the church history. 

Maggie used spot metering to ensure the exposure was absolutely perfect for this detail of a stained glass window. 

Several of us took photos of this wooden plaque. We discussed Raymond's photo at length. One of those lambs looks very like a cat! 

Colin was unable to join us in Corstorphine, so he shared some photos he took recently on a trip to the Scottish Borders. That's one magnificent race horse. 

The Shore

July 2024, The Shore (Leith) 

Weather - Slightly overcast

Refreshments - Zhan's delicious room - home-made treats and great coffee

Theme - The Letter A

Ada shared some photos she took at the shore in 2018. This image shows that Leith has been in a perpetual state of redevelopment for a very long time. 

Ada's second image shows the iconic sculpture of prominent businessman Sandy Irvine Robertson. 

Sandra's first image addresses the theme very directly: Aye. 

My plant ID skills aren't up to the task of identifying this beautiful berry. Is it an "A"? Sorry, no idea!

Maggie captured this striking image of a Leither enjoying the sun. 

 Maggie's second image hits the theme exactly: adventure awaits. 

Eileen's first image captures a wee still life. 

Her second image - like Ada's photo of the scrap yard - captures Leith in perpetual redevelopment. 

Port Seton

 June 2024, Port Seton Harbor

Theme - Flags 

Refreshments - Cockenzie House 

Quite a limited theme this week, though a few folk managed to photograph some of the flags which they found dotted around the harbour. 

Sandra opted for two classic views of Port Seton Harbour. Her top image - lightly edited with a touch of Lightroom's dehaze filter - uses a classic "teal and orange" colour palette. Very effective. 

Eileen's first image of fraying rope has the feel of an underwater image. Almost a sea anemone. She took the "flags" theme very seriously. 

Maggie's landscape shot looks back towards the Edinburgh skyline. But she also manages to include a flag. 

Alison was unable to attend because she was at the Royal Highland Show. Her bottom image shows a wee dog who has clearly spotted something far more interesting than the show jumping which all the humans are watching.

Alex was on holiday this week. His first image shows the view back towards Muker from an unnamed (but very steep!) road to the east of the village. The second image is from Easby Abbey. 

Newhailes Estate

June 2024, Venue: Newhailes Estate

Theme - There probably was one, but we all pretty much ignored it 

Weather - Started dreich but gradually improved 

Refreshments: Courtyard Café, Newhailes

A quieter outing than usual - only four of us made it to Newhailes. We were slightly disappointed by the weather, though it did turn sunny later. Refreshments were in two stages today. All four of us met up at the Newhailes café, and then three of us went on the the local Weatherspoon for lunch. I recommend the sausage and mash! 

Eileen (top) and Alex (bottom) both took abstract photos of the wheat field. 

Some of Eileen's other photos. There were lots of dogs around. This wee beauty was definitely the cutest. 

These photos are by Alex - the shell grotto (bottom) is a fabulous feature of the Newhailes Estate - easily found during a short woodland walk. 

Brian didn't make it to Newhailes - but he did manage to capture the Northern Lights from his back garden, using his phone camera. Nice one!

North Berwick

May 2024, venue - North Berwick 

Theme - Off Centre

Weather - It didn't actually start raining till we were on our way home. 

Refreshments - Seabird Centre

It was touch and go whether we would make it to North Berwick as the weather forecast was all over the place. But we decided to risk it, and the risk paid off with the rain-soaked streets and flowers giving us some beautiful colours to work with. The theme was a bit of a flop though. 

Alex's heavily-edited interpretation of St Andrew's Church went down well. The vintage feel was the result of some lengthy work in Affinity Photo. His other image is a view of the old changing rooms at the outdoor swimming pool. 

Sandra's photo of a rain-soaked tulip brought out all the lovely colours. Her more subdued image of the Bass Rock deserves to be viewed full-screen: look at all those gannets flying round the rock! 

Brian spent some time photographing the rocks by the harbour. I'm surely not the only person who sees an alligator in the shape of that rock formation in the second photo? 

Maggie's first photo of a path at the foot of Berwick Glen captures a feel of modern sculpture: compare it with the Landform at Modern One in Edinburgh. Her second photo gave us our theme for next week: Looking Through. 

Eileen was unable to join us on the day, so she shared some photos from a recent Urban Landscape course which she has been attending. The tutor told her that the first image was "a still life, not an urban landscape". Damn fine photo though.