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Edinburgh Fringe Mania

As in previous years, Fringe Mania once again gripped Edinburgh at the beginning of August. So far, many thousands of festival “junkies” from near and far, have flocked to the Scottish Capital, perhaps to witness the spectacular street performers in the Royal Mile, to see one or more of the 2,000 shows being performed in many of the different venues in the city, or just to “bathe” in the unique atmosphere of the largest performing arts festival in the world.

If you can only visit one event in the year, in Scotland, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe should perhaps be at the top of your list. So far I have visited 3 times, mainly to “soak up” the atmosphere and to capture images of some of the interesting street performers, advertising their show. I hope to visit again, at least, once before it finishes on 26th August

I hope you enjoy the small sample of some of my images below.

More images of the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival can be found at this link http://wp.me/P1WKsc-qm

Juggler

Clowning About

Fringe Performers

Posted by JimR | August 16, 2013 | Categories: Art, Entertainment, Events, Photography, Portraits | Tags: Edinburgh, edinburgh fringe, Edinburgh Fringe 2013, Entertainment, Events, Scotland, Tourism | 6 Comments

Spectacular Vintage Festival – Glasgow 2013

A Spectacular Vintage Festival was the main theme, last week, at Glasgow’s Merchant City!!

Thousands of “retro” fans descended on Glasgow to take part in one of the cities main events of the summer, many dressed in costumes from the 1910s to the 1980s. The revellers enjoyed a feast of vintage styles covering 7 decades.

Vintage entertainment, fashion, makeovers, shopping and food markets were the main attractions during the day; and in the evenings Glasgow partied at vintage nightclubs, to the sounds of Rock and Roll, Soul Music and the Big Band Sounds of the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

We visited the festival on Saturday, where we met some “groovy” characters in “retro” style costume. There were many interesting people, including a couple I spoke with, Claire and Paul, from Wrexham, who were dressed in 30s/40s style; a great couple that would travel almost anywhere to experience the early to mid 20th century “retro scene”. It was great to meet the two of them!!

While at the festival, we took the opportunity to have lunch at “Arisaig”, in Merchant Square, where we enjoyed the home-made fish cakes starter followed by a superb king prawn risotto, all “washed down” with a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.

Below are a few of the images I captured before lunch and the bottle of wine.

Hairdressing Reflections

Sailor’s Tea Party

Native Scot

Milkshakes for Two

Vintage Makeup Artiste

Images from previous Merchant city festivals at http://wp.me/P1WKsc-oI

More details on the Merchant City Festival at http://www.merchantcityfestival.com/Pages/default.aspx

Posted by JimR | July 31, 2013 | Categories: Art, Entertainment, Events, Photography, Portraits | Tags: Glasgow, Merchant City Festival, Photography, Retro, Scotland, Tourism, Vintage, Vintage Festival | 6 Comments

Whitby

From York, on my previous post, we travelled on to the picturesque fishing town of Whitby, on Yorkshire’s east coast, at the mouth of the river Esk. What a beautiful town, well known for it’s black Jade jewellery, favoured by Queen Victoria and its association with Captain James Cook the famous British explorer.

We stayed about 5 hours in Whitby and while my “better half” visited the local shops, I spent time capturing a few images. We also took the time to enjoy a superb pub lunch of fresh fish and chips. A great day out!

More information on Whitby at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitby

Posted by JimR | June 28, 2013 | Categories: Blog, Cityscapes, Landscape, landscape photography, Photography | Tags: cityscape, England, Jade, James Cook, Landscape Photography, whitby | 14 Comments

York

This famous historic walled city, with its odd-looking medieval buildings in the “Shambles” to the majestic historic attractions of York Minster, has much to offer both the “casual” tourist, photographer and the historian.

The city was founded in Roman times circa 71AD and grew as a wool trading centre. In the 19th Century, York was a world-famous centre for confectionary, with Rowntrees and Terrys the main suppliers. As a “chocoholic”, I was fortunate to visit both factories, on company business, in the mid 1980s and was fascinated by the manufacturing processes and the history.

We spent a relaxed couple of days here, but really needed a week to do it justice. Below are a few of the images captured on our recent visit. (both the “old” and the “new”)

For more detailed information on York, please follow this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York

Posted by JimR | June 20, 2013 | Categories: Blog, Cityscapes, History, landscape photography, Photography | Tags: cityscape, England, history, Landscape Photography, Lendal Bridge, York, York Minster, York Wheel | 12 Comments

Beamish Museum – Co. Durham

You can’t visit Durham and not visit the nearby Beamish Museum. This “living museum” is a superb example of urban and rural life that existed in the early 20th century in N.E England.

We had previously visited some 15 – 20 years ago, when our children were young and it was great to return, a few weeks ago, and remind ourselves how amazing the Beamish is. We were only there for a day and really did not get a chance to see all of the exhibits, but we will most definitely return in the near future.

Below are a few images, including some of the interiors of the houses in the old Victorian town.

Detailed information about The Beamish Museum can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamish_Museum

Posted by JimR | June 11, 2013 | Categories: Art, Blog, Events, History, Photography, Uncategorized | Tags: Beamish Museum, Durham, history, North East England, Photography, Tourism, Travel | 8 Comments

Great Honour for Tawny Owl

I was given one of the highest complements on my “Tawny Owl” image the other day, by a fellow blogger from Hungary, Moira Gyenes.

Using my image, Moira has managed to capture the very essence of the image in her drawing, by emphasising the details, the piercing eyes and augmenting the soft feathery textures of the raptors plumage.

As you can see from the image below, I think you will agree that her drawing is superb! ……. I am honoured!

More of Moira’s superb images can be found at http://fav.me/d67rva6

Posted by JimR | June 7, 2013 | Categories: Art, Nature, Photography, Portraits, Wildlife | Tags: nature, Owl, Photography, raptor, Tawny Owl, wildlife | 12 Comments

Durham Cathedral (N.E. England)

My “better half” and I recently visited North East England. Needless to say my camera gear went with me, but was not used often, as the weather was a bit dull and the quality of light was poor. Fortunately there were the occasional breaks in the cloud cover and I manages to capture a few images when, for a fleeting moment, the light quality improved dramatically.

The image below of Durham Cathedral, was capture about 1 hour before sunset, when the “soft” sunlight illuminated the west facing towers of this beautiful Sanctuary. Building started on this magnificent place of worship in 1093 and was completed some 40 years later.

More detailed information can be found at this link. http://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/

Durham Cathedral

Posted by JimR | May 27, 2013 | Categories: Cityscapes, landscape photography, Landscapes, Photography | Tags: church, cityscape, Durham, Durham Cathedral, England, Landscape Photography, Photography, Travel, Tyne and Wear | 12 Comments

Merchant City Festival – Glasgow

My “better half” and I have attended this superb event over the last 2 years and have been amazed by diversity and quality of this festival, which presents “best of the best” in theatre, music, visual arts, comedy, dance, film, fashion and the food scene.

Looking forward to the next one. which runs from 24th to 28th July 2013

Brazilian Beauty

Please follow my link below to see more images of this annual, “not to be missed” event.

http://wp.me/P1WKsc-oI

Posted by JimR | April 29, 2013 | Categories: Art, Blog, Entertainment, Events, Portraits | Tags: Art, Entertainment, Events, Merchant City Festival, Photography, Portrait, Scotland, Tourism | 4 Comments

Rome – Additional Images

With so much activity in Rome at the moment, I felt compelled to add some additional images to my Rome webpage. Please click on this link to my Rome webpage http://wp.me/P1WKsc-jl

I would love to be there at present to sense and enjoy the atmosphere of anticipation and excitement as the Catholic Church seek to elect a new leader.

Alas, I will neeed to content myself with watching history unfold on the television and think of our holiday visit a few years ago, seeing the places we visited and dreaming of our return, hopefully in the near future.

Piazza San Pietro – Rome

Posted by JimR | March 13, 2013 | Categories: Art, Events, Photography, Photos, Uncategorized | Tags: Catholic Church, Conclave, Photography, religion, Rome, The Vatican, Tourism, Vatican City | 7 Comments

Canal Lock at Fort Augustus

Fort Augustus is one of the most picturesque towns along the length of the Caledonian Canal. On a beautiful autumn day, we spent a quiet hour watching the boats passing through the flight of locks. The image shows one of the five locks and on the far left, behind the lock, you can just see Loch Ness.