Christmas Eve, with some last minute shopping going on. The light was coming from beyond my right shoulder and reflecting off some shop windows to the left. I noticed peoples faces being thrown into sharp contrast as they walked across the pavement. I was working with a long lens at 250mm, and set things up for a good exposure on a face, letting other features drop into darkness.
1/400, f5.6, ISO160
Top of the close 1/100, f/1.8, ISO400
At the top of Fleshmarket Close, there’s a bit more sky to light the scene – but a well placed street light helps provide some focus.
The Halfway House, Fleshmarket Close, Edinburgh. 1/60, f/3.2, ISO800
Back to some Edinburgh street photography yesterday, after a long break. There is someting gruesome about Fleshmarket close, and not just because of the Ian Rankin novel of the same name. While it’s right in the middle of Edinburgh’s tourist honeypot, it does come with some noteriety.
The close is named after the meat market that existed here, when it was a close that led down to a slaughterhouse on Nor’Loch. The loch is long since drained and is not Waverely Railway station and Princes Street Garden’s.
It’s a good place to get some subject lighting, from the lights around the pub.
The final portal installment takes us full circle back to Potterow Port. I’ve combined three images to indicate a journey into a portal. Did the gentleman safely go through, or is he frozen on the event horizon, to be turned to ash? One for the physicists and Star Trek fans!
Three images combined in Photoshop. All 1/200, f5.6, ISO4000.
The next Edinburgh Portal – looking up towards St. Giles Catherdal.
I often feel a little guilty when people apologise for “getting in the way”, when actually I feel like thanking them for being there!
1/125, f/7.1, ISO10000
It’s not often I use colour in steet photography, but that stained glass window!…….so here it is.
After publishing yesterdays blog, I realised that I had quite a lot of portals yesterday. I’ll publish them over the next few days. This one is part way down Advocates Close, and provides a framing opportunity and some nice lighting.
1/60, f/3.5, ISO800
Potterow Port
I’ve always thought there should be an album cover with a picture of a band hanging around Potterow Port. Maybe there is and I’m just plagiarising! Anyway – this guy was playing the bongos. Amusingly he stopped anytime someone walked through, so I presume he was there for the acoustics.
1/160, f4.0, ISO3200
1/125s, f/5.6, ISO640
Conceived in Germany in the 1940’s, born in the UK in the 1960’s.
I didn’t get out until late afternoon yesterday, by which time the sun was already setting. I thought I’d try for some street shots using shop windows as a light source.
These two men were in a deep conversation in French as they walked past a well lit tartan shop. With the boulangerie / patisserie behind it seemed quite fitting. Shot @ 1/60, f/4, ISO 1000. I should have gone a bit faster with the shutter. While there was a good balance between the still head and moving feet of the gentleman on the right, the gentleman on the left was obvioulsy moving his head a bit more.
This shot was a lucky grab. I was crossing the road and just grabbed the camera at it’s previous setting. 1/125, f/5.6. Thankfully ISO was on auto! It was a much darker environment, with a weaker window light. ISO went to 16000, so the shot was a bit grainy.
This was my first outing with the Canon 80D. It certainly gives a lot more flexibility than the 30D. I suppose 10 years of product development count for something! I don’t think I’d have got these shot with the 30D – or if I did, they would have been too grainy.
