Fullarton Fairy Trail

A couple of weeks ago, my wonderful friend Gillian and I took her daughter and HB to the…..well, you can read I suppose, so no point in me repeating it. The trail is in Troon, so not only did the girls enjoy searching for fairies, (I know, as a scientific rationalist I really struggle with this stuff, but the kids love it), but they got to visit the beach afterwards!

Here is HB anticipating the magic:

While I struggle with it, Gillian is basically Mary Poppins meets the Fairy Godmother; the girls are in the zone here. Guess who bought and gifted the wings? (Clue; it wasn’t me).

The magic of the trail totally absorbs children; our pair are a particularly suggestible pair of subjects!

Photographically, the lovely sunlight was nice to photograph into. The lovely rim-lighting around hair is always nice, but here we have backlit wings too. Beautiful light:

The fairy trio stop for wild fairy-snacks from the upper reaches of the bramble bushes. Check the backlighting again:

Of course lovely fairy dwellings or not, girlie outings are girlie outings. Just as well I had my camera to occupy me. Oh, and yes, that is a picnic on Gillian’s back!

Where would a pair of wee fairies hang out but in a fairy bower. This one was interesting photographically as the willow-bower is really eye catching and busy when you want the eyes to be drawn to the girls’ faces. Black and white conversion helps to simplify the image and to draw the eyes to the centre. strong vignetting also reduces the focus on the detailed willow formation. The girls’ faces still need a little “‘dodging” in post processing to ensure they stand out.

Finally the picnic is earned; happy girls. The backlight is wonderful:

When you have this quality of late autumn sunshine from behind, you just have to turn on “forced flash” and put the sun behind. Here is HB suffused with lovely light and filled in by on-board flash.

Now we have moved from the trail to the beach, but the backlight remains the same as only half an hour has elapsed. Here is M just sparkling happily on Troon beach.

This one is one of my personal favourites ever. Same backlighting sun, reflecting off the water, same fill-in flash, this time with Gillian and M together. They are so close and I am delighted to say this picture is completed by an artistic sparkle/reflection.

Finally, here is HB at the same time but digging for seaweed. The texture of the water is a lovely background to this happy wee paw-dredger!

Thanks for looking!