Shot of the Day
There was a dense layer of fog over the town when I woke this morning which was to last for the rest of the day. I had a breakfast of toast and poached egg washed down with a pot of fresh coffee then headed off to the producers market. I had an interesting conversation with David Mcvittie (Big Deev as he is known locally) about when it is cheating and not cheating in photography, a subject that is debatable according to some. To me photography is as much an art form as it is a recording device. If you want to record an event or scene as it is that's fine but I see no harm in perking up what could be a dull flat picture. An artist would possibly omit a pylon in a landscape painting (artistic license) so why cant a photographer remove it?
After purchasing a scotch pie and a couple of rolls for my lunch I called in at Wauchope Cottage to see if Tootlepedal was interested in going for a jaunt after lunch even though the town was enveloped in a murky dismal fog and the chances of any interesting shots was minimal. We agreed to meet later.
Our chosen route was an easy walk along the Becks burn and round by Ha'Crofts. I say an easy walk but for some reason I found it hard to summon much stamina and didn't get the pleasure out or the walk that I should have, but Tootlepedal's excellent company made up for it.
Looking down on to a very murky town
We stopped and chatted with Wull Earsman who told us that he spoke to a chap who had traveled from Hawick earlier in the morning and there was lovely sunshine a just few miles up the road.
Looking over the Glebe field towards Gaskell's Walk
I wonder what has been burrowing into this tree stump?
Even though the weather was depressing to say the least, some of the shots have retained a certain atmosphere and turned out rather well.
The trees as we made our way down to the Becks burn seemed to filter out the mist.
Looking at the underside of these fallen Larch trees you get an idea how near the surface the roots are hence that's probably the reason so many fall in strong gales.
By the time I got to the top of these steps I had to stop and rest for a while, Tootlepedal who seems to go from strength to strength on his new knee kindly waited until I gathered some energy to go on. When we came to the road instead of turning left as usual and heading back towards the town I suggested we go the other direction for a short way for a change.
Tootlepedal stopped to take a shot of something interesting.
This is what he was interested in.
Somewhere among these trees is the remains of a Curling pond. As a young lad in the fifties I can remember the rink was quite visible but full of vegetation. When the trees were planted I cant remember. In the Spring time we would make our way up here to hunt for Frog Spawn and Newts. This would be frowned upon nowadays but we did very little harm and at the same time learned a lot about our local natural environment first hand.
The rink in 1896
We decide it wasn't worth our while going any further and retraced our steps back down the road stopping off to take the odd shot on the way.
The Auld Stane Brig
I certainly enjoyed the walk in spite of the mist. I was pleased at the gentle pace too as I was quite tired as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite pleased with the shots I got, but it's days like this that stretches us as photographs.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to feel very peppy when the weather is like that but you got some great shots in spite of it. I like the shot of the trees. It looks like it would be a very dark spot but it's nice and light in your photo.
ReplyDeleteI think if people knew how much post processing professional photographers did they'd think differently. Even Ansel Adams spent days working over his photos before he released them.
I expected it to be dark among among trees but couldn't believe how clear it was.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your blog today, your photographs brought back some nice memories but your mention of pies brought on serious nostalgia for Morrison the bakers excellent pies. When I was in Langholm in the early sixties there were six bakeries each with there own characters, grand days!
ReplyDeleteApologies, my wife keeps me right as usual and advises me that there were ''only'' 5 bakeries in Langholm and she preferred Grieves pies!!
DeleteThanks for reading my blog. While the pie I bought at the Producers Market was very tasty it didn't match up to any of the original Langholm pies, Grieves being my favourite too. Bakers I remember...Little's, Murray's. Morrison's, Skaye's Grieves and the Co-op.
DeleteYour photos of the foggy day are quite beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThankyou!
DeleteAnother fine post Sandy.
ReplyDeleteAm in total agreement about photographic enhancement, it is an art form.
There will be times, such as passport photographs when it needs to be original, but otherwise lets embroider an otherwise dull scene.
I'm all for the return of the local baker, make it illegal for supermarkets to sell and bring back the baker !
Sadly Jim, The bakers that's on the high street is only an outlet. So no smell of freshly made bread.
DeleteHi, love your blog! Just wondering if there's any structure left at Hallcrofts farm? I had McVittie family members who farmed there in the 1700s. Also really cool to see there was a curling pond- maybe it's the one John Hyslop talks about in his Langholm As It Was book.
ReplyDelete