Glaswegian twilight
Twilight in Glasgow, Scotland…
I always found Glasgow, Scotland to be beautiful. It’s not as popular as Edinburgh but I really like the city. Here’s a quick snap from one evening there just around twilight. I was in Royal Exchange Square and just loved the view and the light.
Blue hour at Drygate Brewery
Blue hour light falls on the Drygate Brewery in Glasgow, Scotland one evening...
I spent an evening wandering around in Glasgow, Scotland and stopped in here for a beer along the way. After that brief respite, I headed back out for more shootin'. As I was leaving, I happened to turn around to check out where I had just left, and knew I had to get a shot.
It was a quick grab, and it's a single exposure that I edited in Luminar. I just love shooting at blue hour, and especially if I can find some artificial light to play with, such as the lights on the building and in the sign. There's something about the man-made light that is sort of fighting with the oncoming darkness that makes me pull out the camera every time.
By the way, below is a video showing how I edited this in Luminar. I shared the video here a couple of weeks back, but thought it made sense to include it again since I am showing the photo now!
Looking out over Glasgow
A view out over the city of Glasgow, Scotland - via two photos taken from atop a building downtown.
I love a view over a city!
Since I don't have a drone (yet at least, I am still debating that one), I rarely get an "aerial" sort of view of a place. Like most other folks, I am on foot down on the ground and taking shots there. It's rare to find a decently high perch in a city with a nice, unobstructed view of things.
On one of my visits to Glasgow, I visited a place known as The Lighthouse, which is a center for design and architecture. It's right in the middle of downtown and at some point there I was able to find these views over the city. I actually cannot remember if this was an outside balcony, or a window, or what. I just know where it was taken - that's about it!
Glasgow nights
A rainy night in front of Central Station in Glasgow, Scotland...and a taxi pulls up. Click!
Rainy nights are sometimes just perfect for photography!
While having rain fall on you and your camera isn't always an ideal way to spend an evening, it can result in some interesting and beautiful photos. I had been wandering in Glasgow, Scotland one evening, dodging the rain here and there and taking photos along the way.
As the evening ended and I was making my way back to my hotel, I was passing Central Station, which is their lovely central train station downtown. I have shot in it many times and always enjoy it. I skipped the interior but definitely stopped and got a few shots of the exterior. When that taxi pulled up and stopped, I had to grab the shot.
The beauty of Glasgow
Today on the blog I whisk you away to that lovely Scottish city, Glasgow. Some think it's "not all that", but I disagree. Here's a photo collection showing you some of the beauty in Glasgow!
Glasgow is a beautiful city, despite what you may have heard. I love it there!
glasgow city chambers during a lovely sunset
I love Glasgow, I really do. I have been there something like 5-6 times now, and always enjoy it. It doesn't get a lot of respect compared to other well known cities around the UK, but I love it there. Even within Scotland, I think most people tend to hear about Edinburgh - which is gorgeous - but fewer head to Glasgow for a visit.
I think they should.
doctor who?
i have no idea what this is all about, but it caught my eye for some reason!
While it has working-class roots and charm, it also has quite a bit of arts and culture as well. I've visited amazing museums there and enjoyed fabulous meals. The architecture is incredible in some spots, and the people are delightful. I hope to return.
I was there earlier this year, and things being what they are with me, I made time to get out with the camera and fire away. That's not really a surprise. But what surprised me, upon returning home and looking back on the photos I had collected, was that I shot the town a bit differently on that visit.
I didn't use the wide-angle lens, and I didn't shoot as much of the "big things" there as I have in the past. I just shot what I saw, whenever it caught my attention. And a lot of different things caught my attention.
choosing a car on the train
at the university
loved the colors here!
the kelvingrove, a fabulous museum!
So that is what is in today's post - just a collection of seemingly random and unrelated photos from across different part of this fine Scottish city. If given the chance, I highly recommend a visit. You won't regret it!
And for all the Americans reading this, I wish you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday this week. I am taking the rest of the week off, so I will be back next week sharing more goodness from my travels. I spent last week in San Francisco, so more new stuff coming from there as soon as I can get it processed.
Thanks for stopping by today!
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an alley that leads to a great place for fish and chips!
so yeah, I stopped for a beer!
A stunning Glasgow sunset
Back in April I spent a few days in lovely Glasgow, Scotland and caught a pretty stellar sunset one evening. Here are 5 pics that show you just how beautiful it was!
Sometimes you just get great light, and that's over half the battle.
As photographers, we are constantly chasing the light, or at least hoping we get some that is worthwhile. And photography is (rather obviously) all about the light. So when you show up and it turns out like it did on this evening, well that's a pretty special thing.
I had spent this day wandering around many parts of Glasgow with my good friend Mike Murphy, and we had some rain and clouds at various points in the day. I'm never really opposed to that, since rain generally means clouds, and clouds mean you have a chance at some drama in the sky.
And if there is a little drama in the sky at sunset, and the sun breaks through, you get stuff like this, which was pretty awesome. So don't give up hope when there is some rain in the forecast. I've gotten lucky more often while shooting right after a storm, and you often find that you have a place to yourself anyways, since all the tourists head inside at the first drop.
This was back in April of this year, and I hope I can return to Glasgow some day. Having been there 5 times or so over the years, I've grown rather fond of the place. It's more of a working class city compared to Edinburgh, but that's part of what I love about it. But due to some changes at work, it's unlikely work will send me that way anytime soon (although I did go to Aberdeen, so no complaints about that). So we will have to see. Until that time comes, I will have to remind myself what it's like by looking at all my Glasgow pictures I've taken there over the years. Its not quite like being there, but it's fun to look back on past adventures anyways, right?
St Andrew's Cathedral in Glasgow
There is a gorgeous little cathedral in Glasgow, Scotland known as St Andrew's - and it's well worth a visit. Here are a few pics from my last trip there that show how pretty this place really is!
I just love to go to church - well, at least with a camera!
I'm not against religion or anything, but I don't go to church. I feel like I get my inspiration from the world around me, and that is sufficient for me. But, you didn't come here to listen to me talk about that, did you? I didn't think so.
One thing I do love to do while traveling is to check out the various churches, chapels and cathedrals, and especially when I am in Europe. Some are huge and amazing, and some not so much. This one sort of fits in the middle.
This is St. Andrew's Cathedral in Glasgow, Scotland. I have shot it several times, and personally I find it very beautiful. I was in Glasgow shooting with my friend Mike Murphy, and this was the first place we shot after meeting up that day. Luckily when we arrived it was mid-day and thus it was pretty empty - which is of course ideal.
Most people, when looking for a church to visit in Glasgow, end up at St. Mungo's, which is also known as Glasgow Cathedral. It's much larger than this one, and in my opinion is the "grande dame" of local cathedrals (and yes, we went there too).
But I have to admit I have a soft spot for this place. There's just something about it that I like. Perhaps it's the smaller size, or the ornate architectural details that make it stand out to me. Whatever it is, I love to make a quick visit (that's another nice thing - you can shoot it fairly quickly) each time I am there. I always leave feeling good!
And if you are interested, you can find my list of the best places to shoot in Glasgow here.
Glasgow graffiti
Do you enjoy good graffiti as much as I do? Well then you will like what I have for you today! I went out in search of interesting graffiti on my recent trip to Glasgow, and came back with some cool stuff - have a look!
There is some wonderful urban art in Glasgow!
On my recent trip over to Glasgow, Scotland, I made sure to hit all the sights that I always like to hit in any town: churches, museums, train stations - that sort of thing. But I also carved out a little time to look for graffiti. I do love shooting that stuff!
It turns out there are at least a couple of urban artists there who have created some fabulous works of art. The two names I could find (and credit some of these works to) are Rogue One and Smug. If you look closely at them, you can find their "signature" hidden in the art (Rogue One in the license plate of the cab; Smug on the necklace of the girl).
I also found a couple of other spots that had some graffiti on it, but haven't gotten to those pics yet, so you will see more of this cool stuff another time.
I searched online for interesting graffiti, and lucky for me it turns out that some of this was only a 5 minute walk from my hotel! So of course as soon as I figured that out, I ran out and started the hunt! That's the beauty of staying in the center of a city when you travel - all the good stuff is usually pretty close by.
Some of this isn't really "urban art" so much as it is a series of murals that decorate one of the buildings at the University of Strathclyde, which is right in the city center. But I went ahead and included them here, as it sort of fits the theme.
Just a quick post today. Lots of great stuff happening and will be sharing more of that soon. Thanks for stopping by today!
4 weeks, 3 trips, 9000 photos
I have spent the last four weeks on the move, and in that time I fired about 9000 photos. It's been productive, amazing, fabulous, and a little tiring. I drove a long way, and flew even further. I have so much to share here that I fear I am already behind! So today's post is an iPhone summary of these 3 trips and all the fun that I had on them. Enjoy!
The last few weeks have been pretty crazy - in a good way!
As the title of this post implies, I have been a little busy over the last month or so. Ok, more than a little busy. I have been extremely busy. I drove about 1500 miles and flew over 20,000. I have hiked, climbed, walked, ridden in planes, trains and taxis, and generally been a whirlwind of activity. I have been to parks, pubs, museums, libraries, train stations, castles, palaces, 3 foreign countries, 1 vacation home, 5 hotels and more airports than I care to think about.
And I have taken photos. Lots of photos. And it has been great.
In this time, I fired almost 9000 photos with my Olympus mirrorless camera, which I am absolutely loving by the way. It's been about a year now that I have had it, and I have really gotten into a groove with it. It's perfect for where I am with my photography right now. It's becoming very well-traveled, which is good for a camera (especially one so small and light!).
But as I have done for years, I have also fired a LOT with my iPhone. I continue to share my iPhone pics in this set on Flickr, but I just don't really do much sharing of the iPhone goodness here on the blog anymore. I have sort of gotten away from doing iPhone posts here.
So I thought that today I would change that.
On these trips (which I will detail below), I also fired hundreds of iPhone shots and put my faves out there on Flickr. But since I have literally 9000 photos to go process - and knowing it will take me forever to get them ready and published here - I thought it would be fun to do a little recap of my recent travels as seen through my iPhone, and thus share some iPhone pics to illustrate everything I have been doing. Which has been a lot.
One thing to note: I just selected a few pics from each location, because honestly, it would take all day to get all the iPhone pics I have from all these spots into this blog post, and I am way too lazy for that! Plus it was kind of fun to pick a few that sort of summarized what each trip was about. But it's always hard to do that; it's sort of like being asked to pick your favorite child.
So here it goes...(and you can click on each pic to view larger in a lightbox)
Week 1: March 13-20, Abiquiu, NM (1800 photos)
It was Spring Break here in Texas, so as a family we decided it would be fun to head over to New Mexico and see some sights (and this was the driving I refer to above - it's a long way from Austin to New Mexico!). We have been there many times, as it's sort of the closest place to go if you want to see mountains and other interesting landscapes. But since most of the past trips have been to Santa Fe (which I do love), instead for this trip we decided to rent a house in the little town of Abiquiu, NM which is about an hour northwest of Santa Fe. It's best known as the former home of the famous American painter Georgia O'Keeffe, and the landscapes there are just incredible. Interesting, strange, beautiful - and incredible. So we hung out and relaxed, and hiked, and explored, and just had a great time. And I took a few pics (ahem). We even saw a few animal carcasses - fun!
Week 2: March 22-29, Copenhagen, Denmark (3200 photos)
Ah yes, lovely Copenhagen! I returned home from New Mexico, spent a day washing clothes and repacking my bags, and then hopped on a plane to lovely Denmark! Copenhagen is a beautiful city, and this was my 3rd visit there. I really do enjoy the place. It's just awesome. This was a business trip, but even so, I was able to squeeze in plenty of photo time in my off hours. I truly saw so much here that it is almost hard to remember. I shot all around Nyhavn, their historic harborfront area, and of course all through the city center too, with lots of architecture and street scenes and churches and palaces (all high on my list of things I love to shoot!). But I also made a visit out to the little town of HIllerod, where I spent the afternoon wandering around and shooting at Fredericksborg Castle, which was awesome. So plenty of great pics coming from this trip.
Week 3: March 30 -April 5 - home for a week of rest and to see the family! Yay! (0 photos)
Sleep. Must get sleep. Oh yeah, and the Easter Bunny came to town too! I devoured some Peeps. Yum.
Week 4: April 6-14 - Dublin, Ireland (1800 photos) and Glasgow, Scotland (2000 photos)
After a week at home (and some much needed rest), I was off again, back to Europe (oh darn). This was another business trip, and it started in Dublin, which is a place that is absolutely near and dear to me. I love that dang town! The Irish people are just wonderful and the Guinness honestly tastes better there. It's true! Ask anyone who's been, and they will tell you the same. So in my off hours in Dublin, I hit all the sights I intended to hit: churches, the University, lots of street scenes, a few pubs (you get thirsty with all that walking!) and even a little trip out to the seaside village of Howth, where I walked on high cliffs next to the Irish sea. Good times!
And so after about 5 nights in lovely Dublin, it was off to Glasgow for the last leg of this business trip (and the end of this crazy 4 week period). I arrived here on the Saturday, which gave me the full weekend to get out and shoot this awesome Scottish city. I also had the good fortune of meeting up with my good friend Mike Murphy, who came up from London for the weekend. We shot like crazy here, and it was excellent. On Saturday we hit a bunch of spots in the city, dodging a little rain here and there. On Sunday we headed out to the nearby town of Falkirk, where Mike's old friend Steve met us, and the 3 of us spent the day firing like crazy at the Falkirk Wheel and The Kelpies. This was a great day, both because of the company and the sights. You just don't get to see stuff this interesting very often. And it'a always nice to wrap up a good day of shooting by stopping in a pub for a couple of pints.
Mike took off back to London on Sunday evening, and I was left to my own devices that evening and Monday evening, and so both nights I hit the streets around dusk and blue hour with my favorite little toy, the Panasonic Leica Summilux 15mm f1.7 prime lens. It's great to walk around and fire that thing in low light - without a tripod, mind you - and get great results. I only wish I had a prime lens years ago! Where was I when that memo went out??
In fact, I went without using a tripod ON ALL 3 TRIPS. I actually brought it with me to New Mexico and Copenhagen, but never even got it out. So when I was packing for Dublin and Glasgow, I decided I may as well leave it at home. And guess what? I never missed it! (Though I will say, I do love my tripod, and have no plans to get rid of it.) Obviously there are some things you prevent yourself from being able to do without a tripod on hand, but I have found that for much of what I do, it isn't necessary. I may write up a future blog post about that, as I continue to evolve my style of shooting. It sure is great to travel light. I actually only had the camera and two lenses the whole time, so that all fit in a small backpack. It felt great!
And speaking of future blog posts, since I now have this collection of 9000 photos to process and share (really, isn't that a few years worth of work??), I also have a huge (or, huger than before) backlog of blog posts to write up. In fact, I was going through my folders for the images from these trips, and have counted - no exaggeration here - about 40 different blog posts that I want to do, covering different sites on these various trips. And yes, each post would contain a good 10-20 photos. So yeah, I have my work cut out for me, don't I?
Well, that's a little summary of the last few weeks of my life. It's been great, and it's been fun, and it's been productive. But it is nice to be back at home with the family, and I hope to find some time to process a lot of these photos, and to share them here. In fact, you'll see the first one in a few days, so please come back!
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed this post!
Inside Glasgow Cathedral
I love shooting in European churches. Have I said that before? ;-)
I feel like a broken record here on the blog sometimes. I feel like I am always saying something about sunrise, or churches, or street scenes - primarily in Europe. But the truth is I find that stuff interesting, and you shoot what you like, right? (Unless you are on assignment of course, but that's not what I do. I guess I would do it, but it doesn't ever come up. Speaking of which, if someone needs a photographer to shoot some cool churches in Europe, let me know!)
Anyways, I do love wandering into, around, underneath and sometimes on top of churches in Europe. They are just such compelling subjects. It's the architecture-lover in me coming through, I assume. I do love architecture, that's for sure.
So on one of my visits to sunny Glasgow last year (ok, it's not usually too sunny there, but it sounded good), I made sure to visit Glasgow Cathedral, which is quite fantastic. Incidentally, it also goes by the name St. Mungo's Cathedral - a name that I love - which always makes me think of a Harry Potter book. I think there was something by that name in one of those books, wasn't there?
The exterior is also pretty sweet, being a big cathedral and looking all cathedral-like, but when I was there I found a bunch of scaffolding around the outside, which is another way of saying that I didn't shoot the exterior. I guess it needed a good cleaning, or something. It is several hundred years old.
There also happens to be a local beer there in Glasgow called St. Mungo's and I must say it is rather delicious. I'm not sure if the church endorsed it, but it's pretty heavenly!
Blue hour on Ashton Lane
Ashton Lane - a hidden gem in Glasgow!
Boy am I glad I made it over to this little spot in Glasgow! It's awesome. Ashton Lane is a little cobbled backstreet in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. It's out by the University and just a short walk from the campus. I have been over to that side of town a few times now, but only as far as the University (which is pretty awesome).
But while in Glasgow last week, I had dinner with a work friend of mine, and at some point he mentioned it to me. It sounded pretty awesome, so I went.
It's a very short street though - very short, like maybe 100 yards - and has just a few bars, restaurants, and a cinema. There's just not a lot there. But, the beauty of the place is just undeniable. I love cobbled streets, and with the little twinkling lights overhead during blue hour...well, it's too much to resist!
Blue hour in Glasgow
I think blue hour might be my favorite time of day. How about you?
I so often find that the blue hour is just so incredibly beautiful, whether the skies get interesting or not. When the sky goes all dark, deep blue on me - I get pretty fired up. It's just awesome!
I grabbed this shot one evening in Glasgow, Scotland on my last trip through there. I actually just returned from Glasgow over the weekend, but this shot was from the previous trip. I just happened to have it ready, you know? Plus, I just love the scene. :-)
Glasgow Power
Shot at the end of Central Station in Glasgow, Scotland
On my first trip to Glasgow a few years back, I made sure to visit their Central Station, because, well...I love European train stations. I just can't help that. Every time I visit another city in Europe, I make a point to get to the train station. They aren't all awesome, but most of them are. It's just something I love.
So I made a couple of visits to Central Station on that Glasgow trip, partly because my first visit was sort of an inspection. I wanted to check it out, but the time of day was bad from a photographic standpoint. Too many people. So, I nosed around and decided, yep, I wanted to come back.
Well, I got up early on Sunday morning and headed down the street to Central Station. And for the record, Sunday morning is a GREAT time to try and photograph a train station. All the workers that are in and out of the train station during the week are gone. All the weekend users are probably not up and about yet (of course, that depends on how early you can get up yourself). So it's pretty empty.
After shooting up and down the tracks, I wandered to the end of the grand hallway, where the trains first come into the station. And after getting some shots back down into the station itself, I turned around and saw this. Now, this isn't exactly anyone's idea of a grand, beautiful scene that you just HAVE to document. But I loved all the lines converging, the general storminess of the skies, and the slight curve of the track...and decided it was better to grab the shot than to be haunted by thoughts of it later, which sadly does happen to me. So, here it is, even if it was taken a few year ago. At least I did take it!
Glasgow Necropolis
Well, this is my last Glasgow post for the week - hope this has been fun for you! I always enjoy sharing my shots, and it takes me back to the fun I had shooting all these scenes. It's only been just over 2 weeks since I was in Glasgow, but I miss it already. :-)
Late one afternoon I made a point to get over to the Glasgow Cathedral (which I just now realized I haven't shared a photo of yet...hmmm...will get to that!). It is pretty close to the city center (it took me about 20 minutes to walk it, and it is slightly uphill) and behind it sits this awesome Necropolis.
While I am not one to spend oodles of time wandering in cemeteries, I do love the ornate monuments and the fact that this one is perched way up on a hill. It's also cool that there is a little stone bridge over a road, and the bridges is known as the Bridge of Sighs. Anyways, I spent a little time here shooting around and enjoying the cool air, plus it's a great view from up high!
Royal Exchange Square
This is later the same evening as my last post, once darkness completely fell but while the rain still lingered. I actually don't mind rain when I am out shooting, as long as it's not torrential! I find that it makes things like concrete and stone glisten and really come to life, especially when there are multi-colored lights like in this scene.
One of the great things about the city center in Glasgow is that all the major sites (well, there are a couple of exceptions) are pretty near each other, and as such just require a short walk. For example, this was taken right behind the Gallery of Modern Art, which was my photo in yesterday's post. From that spot to this one is about 100 feet. That's pretty easy to do, even in the rain!