#230 Three Stories and Lots of Photos

#230 Three stories and Lots of Photos

In recognition of National Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month (September) let me begin with some of the current facts about PD:

1. Parkinson’s is an incurable progressive neurological disorder that affects movement and other bodily functions,
2. It is characterized by more than 40 motor and non-motor symptoms, including tremors, stiffness, and falling or balance issues.
3.  It is the fastest growing brain disorder in the world.
4.  Currently more than 1.2 million American suffer from Parkinson’s, a number which grew by 400% since 1990.
5. Now each day in America 250 new cases are diagnosed and 100 Americans die of PD.
6.  New research is showing that more than 80% of PD could possibly be prevented.

Thank you for the commercial interruption, now to this Blog to[pc.

Craigallachie Bridge, Highlands Scotland

Stairs to Royal Mile, Edinburgh. Sells as a back and white print, but not in color.

Path in the Birks of Aberfeldy, Scotland. Won Best Black and White in a show and sold there as well.

Cartridge Packhorse Bridge, Highlands. Always a good seller.

After we had several books about golf, travel stories, and a photo book of Scotland selling on Amazon we decided to take our goods to local highland games and festivals in the form of a vendor’s  booth. We had for sale copies of our books, mounted 8x10 and 11x14 prints, and some framed photos of various sizes. We set up our booth, a 10’ x 10’ tent frame with walls if we were outside, and displayed our wares, visited with people, and generally had an exhausting but glorious time. There were a few standout incidents that come to mind—these are the three stories for this blog. The photos in this post are our Best Sellers from our vending days.

Everybody loves a Hie'lan Coo.

If one highland cow is good, two might even sell better.

Crail Harbour, Kingdom of Fife, is quintessential Scotland.

People often don't believe Crovie Village is real. It is a real Clearance Village where displaced crofters and their families were moved to make more room for sheep--more profitable than crofts for the Lairds. Uniqueness sells.

Story 1 Damaged Goods

At a Fall Celtic Festival in Salem one year the vendors were fit tightly into an interior space for the show. There was no room for the usual tent or frame to wall off our goods. Our spots were marked off with masking tape on the floor. We are friendly folk and glad to not have to set up in the rain, so we made the best of it. It was a hassle for us to keep one of our art stands within our boundaries and out of traffics way. We had to put signs up to indicate that certain areas were not public space. The particular thing one patron wanted to see was in our private area and we told him the area was closed. He stood around until I got busy with a customer and then made a quick dash for the back of our booth. On the way he stumbled over a tripod leg and knock over our big display print—a printed on metal landscape of clouds and beach in Scotland. The print hit the floor with a clang and a corner of the print broke. I kept my cool but pointed out that it was a $120 print he had ruined. His only reply was that it shouldn’t have been in his way of where he wanted to go in the middle of our booth. Before I could say more he walked out to an exit of the building without even a “Sorry.” In more than ten years of vending this was our only loss and one of our few rude customers.

We still put the damaged photo up for display at our house, not for public consumption.

Drummond Castle Formal Gardens in Crieff, central Scotland.

Drive way into Drummond Castle from the highway, I've taken many different photos of the 2 mile long beech tree lined road, but this is the one that sells.

One of many varied views of Dunnattor Castle near Aberdeen on Scotland's east coast.

I like the moody look of the black and white image of Eileen Donan Castle in the Scottish highlands.

Story 2 Shortbread Cookies

At our first big show, the Portland Highland Games, we were set up in a space on one side of the Mt Hood Community College gym and we noticed across the room was a shortbread seller and the booth was called Granny Fi’s Shortbread. During quiet times Anne or I would wander over and sample some fine shortbread cookies. We made a purchase at the end of the two day games and became hooked, especially with the vendor discount. As luck would have it, from that show on we would see Fiona, Granny Fi, next to or near our area at almost every show. We always kept our larder filled with shortbreads. 

Soon after we quit attending shows because of my advancing Parkinson’s Fiona opened Granny Fi’s Shortbread, 21336 Pacific Hwy E, Aurora, OR [www.grannyfis.com  971825-4500]. We don’t see her at the shows anymore (she still goes), but even better is the full shortbread store and tea shop just seven miles from our door. I’ve even set up a mini-booth at some of her events at the shop, where I will sell photos and donate the proceeds to a first responder relief fund.

The printed on metal version of this image of Balnakeil Beach by Durness in the northwest corner of Scotland is the one that got broken (first story). I took dozens of photos of this particular storm, with and without rainbow, but this is always my pick to print for sale. 

The after a rain fall colors in Glen Lyon, the longest glen in Scotland at about 25 miles, is a good seller.

This is a good image of the Glen of Weeping, Glencoe, in the highlands.

This photo of a peacock at Blair Castle at the edge of the highlands is the image I've sold more than any other.  

Story 3 Surprises from Customers

Every once in a while we get customers who are, in polite words, having a bad day. More often we got very positive comments from our customers whether they bought or not. Sometimes we really got good surprises from the people we met at shows. Two examples come to mind and both happened at the McMinnville Celtic Festival. One year a fellow and his lady came up and he said, “I know you. Your my fraternity brother, Bob!” Sure enough, Ron and I had been in the same fraternity at Linfield College, where the festival was being held. We had a nice chat catching up with each other and fellow Omega Delta Phi brothers. 

Surprise two was quite different. A lady came up to me at our booth and said, “You probably don’t remember me, do you?” She might have looked familiar, but I really had to say I didn’t remember her. [At least I knew she wasn’t in my fraternity.] She told me she had bought one of my photos the previous year and wanted to show me the photo on her wall. It was a real treat to see how she had framed and hung the photo.  A surprise treat I seldom get.

Kilchurn Castle

This is the most dramatic rainbow I've ever photographed--near Nairn on the northeast coast of Scotland.

This view of Stirling Castle rivals Eilean Donan Castle in sales.

The 8x10 version of The Red Phone Box is my second best seller. It's from Penzance, Cornwall, England.

The dramatic view of the Wallace (Braveheart) Monument with the Ochil Hills in the background was taken from Stirling Castle and is a top five in sales.

NEXT: The photos that didn’t sell as much as I thought they deserved. 

Colorful Scotland #1

It’s a strange time we live in, a testing time for all of us. In this term of political, social, and medical turmoil, I find it very difficult to be creative. Add to that the lack of travel and of photo opportunities, the lack of new blog posts is understandable. Anne and I were scheduled to be in Scotland now after having rescheduled our spring trip into a fall time-slot, but that plan, too, had to be abandoned. We have rebooked our flights to April/May, 2021 dates. For all our sakes, I hope the world conditions will be such that we can take that trip.

This leads me back to the travel blog and what to write about. Snatching victory out of defeat, I decided to abandon my Colorful Scotland book idea (which didn’t seem to be going anyplace exciting) and use the material instead for a blog (or two) about the places in Scotland I’d like to be revisiting. Thus, we have this post: a series of colorful Scotland photos, each followed by commentary (description, story, or other). This is the same formula I used successfully in the Scotland in Black and White: 90 Photos book, at least that is what most who bought the book said. [Crass Commercial Announcement: there are still a few copies of the limited edition 90 Photos book available from me for $25 plus $5 shipping.]

Special Request: After you’ve read this post, please send me a note (in the comments section or via email) with your reactions. It’s nice to hear from those who look at my work.

Stones of Machrie Moor, Isle of Arran, Scotland

     May 2014, Nikon D5100, Nikon 18-200 at 45mm, f/8, 1/250, ISO 250.

Most important of all the archeological sites on Arran is Moss Farm Road Circle and Machrie Moor, which has been called the best group of architecturally varied circles in western Europe. The one and a half mile walk from the main island road to the moor is an easy hike along a farm track with sheep watching warily the whole way.

Machrie Moor is an area of approximately five square miles of flat fertile sandy soil, machair in Gaelic. The wide moor hosts numerous prehistoric monuments, tombs, hut-circles besides the six megalithic stone circles currently in care of Historic Scotland. The moor is a sacred, ritualistic landscape on a high plateau on the southwest side of island between the Kilbrannan Sound on the west and Firth of Clyde on the east. The exact purpose of the stone circles is not known, but most have astronomical alignments and some are suspected of being ceremonial graves.

We’ve always enjoyed our visits to these ancient sites where even the crows seem to honor the quiet of the landscape.

Eilean Donan Castle

     October 2017, Nikon D500, Sigma 18-300 at 22mm, f/8, 1/200, ISO 400.

Eilean Donan Castle is probably the most photographed castle in Scotland. Located at the confluence of three lochs (Loch Long, Loch Duich, and Loch Alsh), in Scotland’s northwest highlands, the castle has an interesting history. Set on a small island along the shore of Loch Duich, the original castle dates to the early 1300s. But that castle was completely destroyed by British bombardment in 1719. The current Eilean Donan Castle (the name goes back to the 6th century, the “Island of Doom”) was completed in 1932—a modern mansion built to look like a medieval fortress.

The castle is a popular tourist attraction and an almost mandatory stop when heading to the Isle of Skye. It also has a strong Hollywood connection—used in The Highlander, 007 movies, Loch Ness (movie), Master of Ballantrae, Avengers, and as the BBC logo.

The Amulree Church, Perthshire

     May 2010, Nikon P90 at 11mm, f/11, 1/500, ISO 400.

The Amulree and Strathearn Church in the clachan (hamlet—three homes, one closed hotel, one closed tearoom, and a scattering of farming crofts) sits on the border between the Highlands and the Lowlands of Scotland at an elevation of about 1000 feet. The church is named from the Gaelic meaning the ford of Maolruibhe (one of St Columba’s monks who came to Scotland about 650 AD). The current church underwent major refurbishment in 1881. The church, which is in the Parish of Dull (the village of Dull is twinned with Boring in Oregon) is still in full use today.

The site of the church at Amulree is quite lovely. It is set at the beginning of one of Scotland’s many lovely glens, Glen Quaich, and is next to the River Braan. The site is very close to the geographic center of Scotland. The location is along one of Scotland’s historic main Drover’s Trails and at certain times of the year (in about the 1880s) as many as 30,000 cattle would graze in the fields nearby as they were driven to markets in southern Scotland and England. Today, when you visit the church you might be greeted by a few local sheep.

Scotland’s Colorful Sheep

                              October 2014, Nikon D600, Nikon 28-300 at 300mm, f/9. 1/60, ISO 400.

On one of our visits to Amulree Church we realized we had never toured Glen Quaich, reputed to be one Scotland’s finest small glens (valleys). The views of mountains and lochs along the glen were lovely. At one point we had to drive a half mile stretch of single track road seeming straight up with no turnouts and no guard rails—if you meet another vehicle on this part of the road someone will have a terribly difficult backup. At the top of the climb we were rewarded with some nice closeup views of red grouse on fence posts beside the road, The most interesting sight along the road was a flock of what looked like flocked sheep—the whole flock was bright yellow/gold. I stopped and got a batch of pictures of the colored sheep and later did some research.

Originally photographer Gary Malin developed a project called “The Dream Series.” Malin worked with sheep  farmers in Australia to develop a non-toxic vegetable dye to color a flock of sheep for a photo essay. Applied with the same tools used to spray sheep for ticks and lice, the coloring brings no harm or bother to the sheep. Since 2007 various Scotish farmers have been dying their sheep to entertain passing motorists or tourists. One farmer, Andrew Jack, in Bathgate (West Lothian) has been dying his sheep either gold, yellow, pink, blue or rainbow colored. Obviously, the farmer in Glen Quaich liked the look. 

NEXT: I'm on a roll now. In a couple of weeks I'll have up another post about Colorful Scotland or something even more exciting. Slainte, which means good health to us all.

THE BEST OF THE REST: Fall Scotland 2018 Part 3

This post is made up of the Best of the Rest of my photos from the fall trip to Scotland. These haven’t been seen in the blogs from this trip, but deserve some viewing time. And I have a request for those of you who view the blog—give me some feedback on the photos. If I get the usual three or four responses, I’ll appreciate your comments, but I’ll also be disappointed. I really want to hear from those who follow the blog. Specifically, I want to know which photo or photos you suggest I consider for art shows; which photos have artistic merit and quality of composition to enter into an art competition, like a judged show. Also, which photos should I consider for making prints for framing to sell when we set up our book and photo booth at fairs and shows. Sometimes, but not always, a photo might end up in both category. Winter is the time when I can get ready for sales and shows, so your help would be appreciated. The photos in this post are organized into arbitrary categories for convenience, but don’t let that affect your choices when considering photos for sales and/or shows. I hope you enjoy the challenge I’m asking you to take on—it’s sort of what I do whenever I’m in a gallery or looking through someone’s portfolio of work at a shop of booth.

FLORA AND FAUNA

There were plenty of flowers in bloom on this trip to Scotland, but this photo of the fronds blowing in the wind is the one I like best.

Hielan'Coos (Highland or hairy cows) always make for a good photo, particularly with the sheep in the background.

Reindeer were reintroduced to Scotland in the 1950s. Now the Cairngorm herd numbers around 200. After hiking up to the herd, we wandered among them and this guy just walked right up to me looking for a handout.

Tough photo to get--a fast moving gannet skimming the water while I photograph from a car ferry bouncing in the chop.

This harbour seal (or is it a sea lion?) was a much easier target. in the Pittenwee, Harbour He was as curious about me as I was about him.

ARCHITECTURE

This grotesque was on display at Elgin Cathedral after having been in storage for decades. Grotesques and gargoyles (those with water spouts) were meant to remind church goers of the the devil's fearsome work.

A picturesque house at Pittenweem Harbour.

Dean Village (a section of Edinburgh) is one of the few places I've seen to make  drain pipes into art.

A lovely stairway in Falkland Village.

One of the features of Falkland Village is the dated lintels above doorways.  In this case, even though the doorway is gone, the lintel announces that GB married MH in 1686 and moved into this dwelling.

PEOPLE ARE IMPORTANT

J L Gills in Crieff may not be the largest whisky shop in Scotland, but largely due to its owner, Andrew Cuthbert, it probably has the most personality.

You can see the rain is on the way, but the wind is already here.

Speaking of wind, just try to get a good picture in the wind on a fast moving ferry.

A group of hunters hiking to their hunting ground were spotted through the trees near the Roman Bridge.

The story: inside the old section of Dunkeld Cathedral a father patiently answers his young daughters questions.

At the park beside Dunkeld Cathedral, Anne contemplates the River Tay--which was as high as we've ever seen it.

THE PLACE IS THE THING

Looking up toward Drummond Castle from the formal gardens. The gardens were used in the Outlander TV series to represent Versailles Garden.

Part of Dean Village, just north of Edinburgh's downtown area.

The skeleton of Elgin Cathedral which at one time rivaled St Andrews Cathedral for size and power.

A typical Highland croft with resident locals.

Glen Lyon in Perthshire has one of the tightest drives in a country of narrow roads.

A small island (I think it might be Swona) we passed on our way to St Margaret's Hope on the Orkney Islands. 

The Italian Chapel on the Orkney island Lamb Holm was built by Italian POWs during World War II. The ornate chapel is now privately maintained and is a real gem.

Midhowe Chambered Cairn on Rousay is a Neolithic burial tomb more than 27 meters long which has been preserved within a cement hanger and is viewed from paths on scaffolding which runs the length of the tomb. The remains of 25 people have been found in the tomb.

The Roman Bridge in Glen Lyon is not of Roman origin having been built in the 15th or 16 century --the Romans left the British Isles in the 4th century. "Roman" most likely refers to the Roman-style arch of the bridge's design.

Skaill Bay Beach, on the main Orkney island, is one of the many picturesque beaches throughout Scotland. 

The Standing Stones of Stenness (Orkney) are the remains of what was once a 12-stone circle built in about 3100 BC. It may be the oldest henge in the British Isles and the stones stand as high as 16 feet.

The village of Dunkeld seems to fit the black and white format.

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Edinburgh Arches

An Edinburgh close or alley looking down from the Royal Mile toward Princess Street.

Doorway

My shadow on a bakery window create "Pie Man."

A rainy street in Kirkwall, Orkney.

Anne meets Sausage Man.

On the small island of Rousay it's hard to find a street for Street Photography, so I had to resort to Farm Road Photography. This road is the main road around the island.

NEXT: There may be some new or new/old travel stories to share.