This is the main entrance hall with its magnificent organ. They do regular recitals.

Some people love this exhibition room with its bizzare heads, others hate it. I kind of like them.

Another of the same room. The bare bulbs favoured by the curators are a photographic challenge; in low light they simply burn out in the picture.

We are not amused.

All of these are black and white as the mixture of tungsten spotlights and daylight windows is kind of horrible in colour.

One of the two main entrances with its oh-so-macintosh look and feel. Poirot is just about to walk through the door.

We all have a favourite thing in a museum. This is probably mine. A real Mk5 (I think) Spitfire from the Glasgow Squadron. The engine has been removed, but otherwise it is the real deal. With the taxidermy victims below, it is completely odd and out of place, but that’s kind of likeable.

This corridor has my favourite portrait selection on it. But like all lines of archways it is just photographically an irresistible cliché.

This is Stephenson in bronze. Classic author and unless the sculptor exaggerated, a striking man.

On a technical note, I used my basic Sigma 10-20 ultra-wide zoom for many of these, and it is worth noting that the distortions introduced at the edges are kind of horrible. I suspect this is where Canon L lenses and other mortgage-requiring glassware really make a difference.

I’ll post a selection early this week and ask for your help with choosing for the “Inside a building” round of the APOY contest. Thanks for looking.

This was the dramatic sky I encountered on a visit to Tarbert last September. The range of brightness between the sky and the buildings was huge and so you could only get a correctly exposed sky or a correctly exposed street. To get both, handheld, I used auto bracketing and the impressive burst speed of the Canon 7D (7+ fps) to get three exposures with minimal movement between them. The trouble is that you then have to import the three images into “photomatix” or a similar HDR software to merge them to even out the exposures. It has only taken me 3 months or so to get round to this!

Addition:

Just for Julie, here are the three exposures used to make the HDR.



This was a return to my Canon 7D and a wide angle, standard zoom. This was a little further along the peninsula towards Lochgilphead. The view is straight out towards the Paps of Jura. The view from the peninsula is truly magical and I strongly urge you to visit it sometime soon, the view out to eternity is essential to see if you want to explore Scotland.

This is the little marina area in the bay in serious winter conditions, (in the coldest December on record).

This is the main street with it’s Christmas decorations from the sweet shop window. Amazingly that same day, well below zero, I saw a small child eating an ice cream cone; clearly even the children are tough in Campbeltown. The clock on the right is a real central feature of the town.

This is the view from the hotel we stayed at in Sliema in Malta last week. This is the old town of Valetta. Photographically, the difficulty with this is the blank water foreground and the blank sky. It is dramatic that the city is so beautiful and it screams “please put me across the central third” , the problem is the blankness of sky and sea inlet; I waited from the hotel balcony for something interesting to break the blank water and was rewarded with this trio of powerboats. Suddenly an interesting picture! For the record as an ex sailor (failed) I hate powerboats – the antithesis of green transport).

Another view of Valetta, but with the apartments at Tigne Point, Sliema included.

In the foreground is an amazing pavement/walkway to the shopping centre at Tigne Point. It was only from the water that I realised it looks like a crane; it is a lovely piece of design that is (pleasingly) more than was necessary. With a wide angle lens it makes a great foreground for another view of Valetta.

The Maltese photographs found on a web search typically  include lots of doorways and old-style buildings; I wish I was so original that I could make an exception. (Oops, so sorry, the clichemeister strikes again!)

The compression of a telephoto zoom at 140mm!

This is the vibrant harbour of Sliema with two striking but elderly ships at mooring. A telephoto shot with my 70-300 mm lens at full stretch brings them magically close to the shoreline.

And here are three evening views with my 50 mm f1.4 of the old town of Mdina

Malta is of course Justly famous for its elderly and characterful buses: (17 – 85 IS)

The challenge for a photographer with these buses is that the recognisable, straight from the front views are best to identify the colourful buses. The next two are a necessary step for this photographer; after the simple, recognisable, symmetrical shots, two different sections of the bus, add interest.

Another day in Valetta, and the amazing buildings are worth capturing.

This one is all about the textures and warm tones; any photographer who can walk past this is stronger than me!

Valetta is big on festival decorations, these are typical for the time that we visited. These enclosed balconies are classic Malta.

I was brought up in Catholic schooling, although I never liked it. I always joke that a Lapsed Catholic or a never-really-took-to-it Catholic like me can particularly appreciate the over-the-top nature of Catholic symbols. If you see this symbolism like me as being south of tasteful, then you’ll love the Maltese examples; this is one of the more understated ones.

I’m afraid that I can’t resist a cute animal. This little puss, resisted my advances, and I had no opportunity therefore to tickle its ears. Its a cutie.

My friend spotted this picture, I stole the idea and tried to do it as best as I could. I might go to hell for this blatant theft. Aren’t these British artefacts amazing in the Mediterranean? The 50mm 1.4 wide open helped single the postbox out from the background. Although centredness generally should be avoided, when the background shows symmetry, you are better placing the subject as perfectly in the centre as possible.

Another classic Valetta scene. A grab shot with my fast 50mm f1.4 wide open. My friend pointed out how odd the horses leg position is. I have to say, I feel for the horses working in this heat.

The traditional boats in Malta sport this paint job. This one is a tourist-boat in Sliema.

The genuine traditional style boats in the fishing village of Masaxlokk.

These are the background buildings in Marsaxlokk with the coloured boats in the foreground. All distances compressed by the 300 mm lens, fully extended.

A close up of the apartments at Tigne Point from the hotel balcony. I love the shapes and the sheer exuberance of the design.

Valetta again from an evening boat trip with the sunset beginning to colour things beautifully.

Ralph.

With Theresa

One of the real appeals of Valetta is the plethora of old-fashioned shop signs. Dig this!

This was the caricaturist working Valetta’s main street, and yes we did in case you are wondering?

Malta was a lot of fun, don’t hesitate if you fancy a visit, but a high hotel room overlooking the old town is to be recommended.

Photographically, it was overcast and the light was anything but magical; once again I have sold my soul to the demons of monochrome to help me focus on the form and majesty of the boat lift. Often, strong shapes look better defined in black and white as distracting colour elements are removed.

Here’s the lift from the front. (Sigma 10-20)

If the light is dull, it’s nice to pick out interesting details of the structure. It’s kind of like macro photography on a grand scale.

For this angle on the boat lift, the clouds parted enough to allow a brief use of colour; don’t be deceived into thinking the light made an honest photographer of me, the blue saturation has been thrashed to within an inch of its life here to force some colour drama. The yellow and orange has also been pushed to add warmth to the steel structure, emphasising the hints of rust.

These ones show the aqueduct that carries barges from the Union Canal to the boat lift. They are classic Falkirk Wheel views, and I’m sure the world has plenty of them already; its fun for a portrait guy like me to reproduce the standard landscape stuff for a bit of practice. Humour me please. The second and third using my 17-85 on telephoto to compress the upright supports.

I would certainly urge a look if you are in Central Scotland; beautiful engineering.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel

This one was from the slopes of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh on the 31st December 2009. It was like an ice rink and frankly the path up Arthur’s Seat really needed crampons. (no really!). I set up my tripod and indulged in a 30 second exposure of our ever-so-odd parliament. The car light trails are fun.

f20 30s (56mm x 1.6) ISO 200

My dad died on Friday night. On my way home from work, before it happened, I stopped to photograph this landscape. I know that every time I look at this image I’ll remember my dad and what happened on Friday. My dad was a good and kind man, who was flawed and challenged just like all of us. He put the best of his life into my brother and I. This picture will kind of stay with me now, that’s the power of photography; I hope I’ll be pleased about this image over the years.

I don’t know these people, but looking down the mound and using this man’s arm as a frame for the lovely girl that he was photographing has caught a little love story in the midst of the celebrations. (f4.5 1/80th (70 x 1.6) ISO 1600)

If you know me you’ll know that I love gargoyles. Odd when I have no great fondness for churches. These I consider to be their cutest features! This one was on a fairground “haunted house” ride and I couldn’t resist it in the smoky torchlit atmosphere. The zoom was fully extended and the shutter speed was glacially slow. This illustrates well the effectiveness of Canon’s image stabilisation. No way I could handhold that length of zoom at that exposure without it.  (f5.6 1/13th (300 x 1.6) ISO 1600)

While passing the fairground rides I watched these two thrillseekers being locked into one of the scariest rides I have seen. This cage is on two massive bungee cables and on release launches the poor inhabitants of the cage at frightening acceleration into the sky. They then bounce up and down and frankly all around while the tall buildings next to them dissapear below them. This image would have been good if I had had the presence of mind to move a little to avoid the safety brace handle getting in the way of the man on the right. I knew it wasn’t right but didn’t think the picture was worth the bother. Moral of the story, listen to those nagging doubts as you photograph; so much of it is instinct. (f5 1/50th (165 x 1.6) ISO 1600)

Perhaps one of them at this prelaunch moment is beginning to realise what he has let his poor stomach in for. My pants were in danger of soiling just through watching! (f5.6 1/25th (300 x 1.6) ISO 1600)

And now to the kind of ride I could just about manage as long as it doesn’t go to fast. On this particular evening it was way too cold to contemplate sitting in an open gondola. Just a simple fairground shot, but the composition pleases me. I had switched here to my 17-85 lens. It has a really annoyingly slow aperture, but again the image stabilisation is effective.  (f4.5 1/15th (24 x 1.6) ISO 1600)

And finally, one of my favourite public monuments or pieces of public art. The Scott monument is a magnificent tribute to a damned good author and populariser of Scottish romanticism. I always think it looks like the rocketships on the covers of 1950′s sci fi novels. In close and wide to abstract the shape, a quick monochrome conversion to accentuate the shape and form and bob’s your uncle! If you want to see how good the canon IS is, note the 1/4 second shutter here, handheld!  (f4.5 1/4 sec (17 x 1.6) ISO 1600)