Posted on

View over Edinburgh from Calton Hill

View over Edinburgh from Calton Hill

Today I decided to walk down Princes Street and up Calton Hill to get photographs looking down on the city. It wasn’t as strenuous or as high as it looks in the photo above. I feel after climbing Arthur’s Seat last year you get better views over the city from the top of here. In fact, I would say that the best views of the city of Edinburgh can be seen from the top of Calton Hill. The photograph above was taken from the top of Nelson’s Monument. I spent a good couple of hours walking around, each time I took a number of photographs over looking the city, I would turn around to see a higher point to stand to get even better views. That was until I found out that Nelson’s Monument was in fact open to the public. I paid my £3 and climbed the 170 stairs to the top of the monument. And this was the view, weather or not is was worth my three pounds is your decision, feel free to comment below…

Posted on

Greyfriars Bobby Statue, Edinburgh

Greyfriars Bobby Statue, Edinburgh

I had a bit of a day off from photography today. However, I did see this statue in a book about Edinburgh and thought that he would make a good photograph but didn’t know where it was in the city. Today, when I walked past I just had to get my camera out and grab a picture. The story of the Skye Terrier dog is world famous…

Bobby belonged to John Gray, who worked for the Edinburgh City Police as a night watchman, and the two were inseparable for about two years. Then, on the 15th February 1858, Gray died of Tuberculosis. He was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Bobby, who out lived John Gray by 14 years, is said to have spent the rest of life sitting on his master’s grave.

I have seen versions of this story in popular culture a number of times, Walt Disney had a very similar looking dog in a number of his children’s films and the story was even adapted for one of my favourite cartoon shows, Futurama. I thought that the photograph looked better in black and white and the space to the right of the dog gives the impression he is looking out for his master’s return.

Posted on

Mercedes the Polar Bear at Edinburgh Zoo

Mercedes the Polar Bear at Edinburgh Zoo

This time last year I took a photograph of Mercedes the Polar Bear and it received a lot of interest on this website, at least one person a week comes to this website in search of the photo. So this morning I got the bus back to Edinburgh Zoo in an attempt to get some better pictures of her now I have a longer zoom lens. The first time I walked up to her pen, she was walking up and down, slowly back and forth. So I explored more of the zoo but kept coming back to take more photographs of the bear. The third visit she was sleeping but lay on her back, I think this looks very cute and thought it was one of the better pictures I took today. I even have a few images of her feeding, she really came to life when the keeper gave her some raw meat. Also, I took some close up photographs of the penguins today, I had forgotten how good their enclosure was but it really is fantastic for photography.

Posted on

Arthur’s Seat, Holyrood Park, Edinburgh

Arthur's Seat, Holyrood Park, Edinburgh

The weather this morning seemed a little mixed but we decided to go for a walk in Holyrood Park. Last year I climbed up to the top of Arthur’s Seat (the peak to the left of my photograph above). It is actually the highest of the group of hills (the angle of the picture makes it appear smaller). Today we walked from Holyrood Palace around Salisbury Crags then around the park to Duddingston. Here we stopped for a great lunch at the Sheep’s Heid Inn, which is reputedly Scotland’s oldest pub dating from 1360. The food here was delicious and I would highly recommend it, especially after walking over the Crags and through Holyrood Park to get there. The photograph above was taken whilst walking back to Edinburgh, looking up at Arthur’s Seat from the main road, in front of Edinburgh University’s Halls of Residence.