March 2. Arthur's Seat

So the plan for Friday is to have a visit to Arthur's Seat. I would like to pay more than one visit to Arthur's Seat, if you are willing, because it is a rewarding and varied area to photograph.
Conditions -according to the weather charts,  the high pressure sitting over our Scandinavian friends' western seaboard is sort of holding back the low pressure and the weather fronts - the wavy red or blue lines sitting west of Britain. There is a warm weather front in the north sea. So what this means for us is the weather should be fairly settled, maybe a bit breezy, good visibility but probably some cloud cover. The light then, will be diffused because of the clouds, and soft. Quite different from last Friday, when it was very contrasty, or hard. The soft light is likely to give rise to quite muted, gentle colour and in fact may lend itself to black-and-white photography.

The idea - to avoid simply going for a random wander with a camera we should try to have an idea for what to look for and to explore visually. It is very striking to have a mountain - a volcano! - in the middle of a civilised city. It is a stark contrast, and photographers do enjoy just such a contrast - a juxtaposition they sometimes call it; or an edge line. So let's try to explore the edge line between the civilised city, and the wild volcano. (Let's not fall over the edge.)

Salisbury Crags and Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat. Picture by me.

I would also like to concentrate on some shooting technique. Shooting should consist of three distinct decisions - focus, expose, frame. That is: 1 - decide exactly what to focus on, then lock the focus, 2 - decide exactly what to take a light reading/exposure from and lock the exposure, 3 - frame and compose the picture. Each of these decisions can have a huge impact on the resulting image. So if you don't know how to use your camera to lock the exposure, and lock the focus, try to have a look at the manual. Failing that we can try to work it out on Friday...
The route we'll take is quickly through town and Dumbiedykes, then up on to the Radical Road and on to the top of the Crags. If there's time we can extend this and go on to the top. Plenty of places to explore.
David Springford sells prints of photographs of Edinburgh, including Arthur's Seat, and this one shows lovely awareness of tone and light, as well as movement.
He has clearly given careful thought to the point that he focusses the lens at - notice how parts of the image are pleasantly soft, while the mountain is sharp; and he is leading the viewer's eye on a pleasant journey through the varieties of light, tone and texture. Working in black-and-white does encourage you to think out about the real fundamentals of tone, design, texture and so on.

Picture by David Springford - http://www.infinityphotos.co.uk/