Discovering the city - Edinburgh

This is a Saturday Walkabout from a few weeks ago. The main difference with my move to Edinburgh compared to my move to Glasgow is I've not had as much time & opportunity to get to know the city. When I moved to Glasgow in 2006 I was unemployed for 2 months waiting form my work contract to get sorted out. So that gave me lots of time to set foot out the door each day and decide if I would go left or right and just wander.

Moving to Edinburgh was the complete opposite experience as I dumped my stuff in my newly rented flat, headed back to Glasgow, hosted my parents for Christmas, took a holiday to Portugal (in which we missed our return flight home) and then when I did get back I started work right away. Oh ya, and it was winter.

Now the days are longer, the weather not quite as miserable and I've got the weekends to get out there and explore. On this particular wander I set out to discover Stockbridge.

Today (Saturday) is brought to you by the colour red

It was a very grey day when I was getting ready to head out the door. So grey that I almost didn't take my camera. I find Edinburgh extremely hard to take photos of when the clouds roll in. The buildings are grey stone and black so not much going on in terms of a colour palate.

Went to the National Gallery of Scotland to check out the big Turner Exhibit. They'd laid new lawn in Princes Street Gardens and with the trees sprouting new leaves it had a very green vibe going on.

However, there seemed to be an awful lot of red in the area. Something was afoot...











A little pre drumming pep talk and warm up. There was lots of wiggling going on too but that doesn't really translate well in this shot.



Just after I took that shot a guy (also with a camera) walked over to me and we had a bit of a chat. He wasn't an observer like me, he was with the group and handed me a flyer on an upcoming event they were going to be participating in up on Calton Hill . In checking out the website I'm thinking these are the Red Beastie Drummers.

And so it begins

Wasn't expecting the dancers.

About that wedding

I mentioned a while back that I had shot my first wedding. Something I swore I would never do. I'm not trying to be one of 'those' photographers. I'm not into doing portraits. I prefer to photograph strange things like abandoned chairs, elevetor shafts in art gallerys and my sneakers.

But they asked so nicely.

The challenge for me was going to be shooting what I want vs what I think they will want. But then the whole point of asking me to do this was because they liked the way I see things through my camera.

I tossed and turned the week leading up to this. I was really worried that the day was going to be a disaster, that something would go horribly wrong.

However, I think things went pretty well. These are some of my favorite shots from the day.