Friday Nov 23

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Access to the Broxburn Bings is from the industrial estate, the 1st right junction after the roundabout as you enter Broxburn East Main Street (the A89).
I will meet Leo at Stills at 1pm, and then pick up Sharon at work around 1.30pm and hope to get to Broxburn for 2pm (traffic permitting.)
Peter, do you want a lift from Stills?
Sylvana - I think you were going to contact David. If you haven't managed, you may have the wrong number. Contact me for the number - kbrame@blueyonder.co.uk.

The bings are a west lothian phenomenon - the mountainous waste and spoil from the oil shale industry, creating a unique and unusual mini-mountain range, now being colonised by wild flowers and young motorbike scramblers. It's a slightly surreal and in parts steep landscape that lends itself to the style of photography that has been called 'industrial picturesque.'
Josef Koudelka's epic, ominous and slightly disturbing pictures of the forgotten and abused back corners of industrial Europe are a fine example.
Also worth looking at are Richard Misrach's huge photographs of the 'man-mauled' landscapes of american deserts, weapons testing sites and industrial flotsam and jetsam. His early series of pictures of deserts at night, with lit-up cactus could be useful viewing. Judging by the video the book reads itself, so worth £225 just for that.

The bings are accessed by crossing the canal by a bridge, then walking through some birch wood and scrub for a few minutes, then into the bings themselves. Some areas are steep, but these can be avoided if you're not comfortable with it.
It will get dark, and if you have torches, please bring them, as it is a bit rough underfoot, with no street lights. And steep, did I mention steep?
The glow from the town and the evening sky can register in the pictures if the exposure is long enough. There are also wind-blown hawthorn bushes dotted over the bings. We could try doing some long exposure pictures, and light up the bushes with flash or torches - a bit experimental. So tripods if you have them, torches, flash gun too. I have various spare bits and bobs and I'm sure we can cobble something together.
If we're trying this we need to decide on a suitable spot that we can get out of in the dark...
I'd wrap up warm too. Weather looks ok at the moment.

Josef Koudelka - Magnum. Region of the Black Triangle (Ore Mountains.)