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

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

Glasgow Clyde river visit

Visited Glasgow for the 1st time with the purpose of taking photos at night. Walked down the Clyde and got these images. Will be revisiting very soon to get a few images I wasn’t able to get to.

Jacques le Roux …

Winter night wander out to break cabin fever

Cabin fever has been setting in and I had to get out for some photos. I had 4 places in mind but we ended restricted time wise as we only got out at 8pm.

First off to Linlithgow palace. Did a bit of research to see where the moon would come up and where to park. Off we went and of course the weather is currently foul. We were lucky to get a gap in the rain but the clouds killed any chance of the moon coming out for a peek. Went for a walk around the water and looked for a space between the trees to get the tripods set up. Eventually got a spot where the trees has fallen into the water. It made for a nice foreground interest for the photo. After that we walked around to get some lights reflecting in the water.

 An airplane came over so that was a nice add on.
Took a walk around to get the light reflecting.

After all that we went looking for the Forth and Blackness castle. I have been trying to get my steelwool kit
set up and last night was the test night. I had a few ideas and did two photos of light play with lit steelwool.

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

Forth bridges at sundown

Another visit to the remarkable Forth and the bridges crossing it.

Joined the photography club in the outing and as usual found it to be a fun and rewarding experience. Found a area I’m lacking experience and will have to work on.

I prefer the black&white image over the colour one

One of the club members played as a model for this shot.

A bit of steel wool play at the end to top the night off.

Photographs by Jacques …