Devil’s pulpit

If you don’t get out then you won’t get any images. Sounds logic right? NO excuses, challenge yourself to at least once a month get out and take photos.

Known about this place for a while, seen images of this location numerous times but didn’t know where it was till by chance I came across a proper guide to find it.

So got up yesterday at 0420 and straight to the spot, had to bring out the mountain goat in myself to go down the stairs. I did buy a 30meter rope and some proper waist height waders. Didn’t need the rope as there were some already in place but waders came in handy. Water was only thigh high but a great investment for the future.

So here’s a few examples of the morning.

The Devil’s pulpit.
Front viewSide viewSteps:

Jacques le Roux ….

Shop now open

Finally got around to opening a shop for images, I will keep populating it as I find more and more images I want to add.

Please have a look and send me some feedback, I would greatly appreciate it.,

Shop can be found at: www.Jacquesle Roux.co.uk

Always look both ways when taking photos

I was taking photos of the Forth road bridge and didn’t take make notice of the Forth rail bridge. It’s been taken to death BUT when I turned around I got this image.

I loaded it up on Viewbug and got into that month’s featured photos.
My best results so far on a single image. 50 peer awards and 120 likes as well as having 6 Photo Trifecta awards.

The actual image I was there for that night was this one.
I took a walk on top of the road brigde to see the sunset and new bridge.

Thanks for the visit.
Jacques le Roux

North Queensferry revisit

Doesn’t matter how many times you visit the same site you are surprised by the different results you get.

Jacques le Roux

Leith walk

We visited Edinburgh Leith walk in February (sorry about the absence, been a tad busy with life things).

Initial idea was to get some nice photos and this changed as we went further into the night into a Steelwool spinning session. I learnt to always have a bottle of water on hand as I nearly set the old rotten wood on fire on the bridge. A large ember got into a crack and I couldn’t get to it, a bottle of water saved the day or should I say the old bridge.

Thanks for the visit
Photographs by Jacques le Roux

Long sea front exposure on winter’s morning

These photos were taken at Torness nuclear power station just East of Edinburgh during a windy and stormy winter’s morning.

I took these photos a year ago and I’m very proud of them. My 1st attempt at sea waves and long exposure.

I did think I have posted them before but I can’t see them on here.

 

Jacques le Roux ….

From planning to execution and then …

You see a great photo and you think to yourself: I would like to visit this spot and get my own photo of the view.

St.Monans in Scotland is one of these places. It has a beautiful harbour wall jutting out towards open water. Best time to visit is during bad weather when water will splash over the wall and create a great effect. I have been planning a visit for a long time and used the Blood Moon at the end of September as my recce.

You can plan every detail of your visit months in advance. Using satellite photos and Google street view you can look at the place from every angles and decide on places to get good photos from. You can use The Photographer’s Ephemeris to see where the sun with set and where the moon will come up. You can use Time and Date to see the moon direction and height it should reach. With the Leith tide times you can plan to get the date to align with either low or high tide. You can use the MetOffice and multiple other weather website to try and keep a eye on the weather to not waste your time closer to the date as you normal have a 3 days window with moon cycles.

BUT you can do nothing when a curve ball hits you. The Forth road bridge being closed came at the worse possible time. I ended up taking a detour which took a 1h45min drive to 3 hours and we ended up arriving late thanks to the SatNav and the detour. Sunset was at 1530, we arrived at 1600. We walked to the spot and it was pouring with rain, not light misty rain but torrential rain and wind. The heavens opened up and soaked us through all our layers in minutes. After every photo we have to wipe the lenses (I used 2 cameras) before taking another one. My one cameras on a light tripod got blown over by the wind and after 5 minutes we called it. Went and stood under a roof and eventually gave up and walked to the car. Of course our bad luck wasn’t done just yet as the car wouldn’t unlock, water must have gotten into the key. A bit of blowing and rubbing the the key dry we got in. Soaked photographer, soaked bags and soaked equipment. We sat and decided what to do next and decided on Fish and Chips supper. As we drove away it stopped raining and as the sunset and the blue hour was gone so we kept driving.The stars came out and it stayed out for the 3 hours drive home and we cursed our luck all the way home.

Why do we do this hobby called photography you have to ask yourself? My answer is: If there is a slight possibility to get that 1 photo that’s a keeper then driving for 7 hours, getting soaked to the skin and have a long planned trip fail; it’s always worth it!

Below are the only 2 photos that was usable, they all had water drops on them but with some Photoshop work 2 photos became one and 3 photos became 1.

Jacques le Roux …

Forth during foggy Guy Fawkes night

Foggy night’s has great potential for awesome photos.

 

Jacques le Roux

Autumn sunrise at the Forth

Went to get some sunrise photos this morning at North Queensferry. Learnt how to use bracketing at the end of the session. Good results in the end.

Thank you for viewing my images
Jacques le Roux

Halloween light trail special

As Halloween will be here shortly we went hunting for the elusive ghost train.

A bit of long exposure light play at the trains station at South Queensferry. It’s a learning curve and we went out experimenting on Friday night.

So we stood at the end of platform 2 facing the Forth rail bridge and as trains went past tried to get the light trails working. After a struggle we eventually got some good shots.

Then it was onto trying to shoot the end of the train as it’s stationary and moving away. The only problem with this is the delay between trains arriving at the platforms. 15-20min wait and then a single photo. I have eventually decided to get my 2nd (my back up camera, I replaced the Canon 1D MKIII with another 7D) Canon 7D involved to increase the possibilities of some good shots. I had to use a camera backpack as a make shift tripod but will invest in another tripod for the future, I might even need another lens as the wide angle is a bit to short at times.

Here’s the results of us facing the Forth railway bridge:

And then moving to the back of each train working out how long to start the exposure before the train moves away to get
the illusion of transparency while having enough detail to see that it is a train.

 

Thanks you for having a look
Jacques le Roux