Barak Obama wearing a kilt

Is something you will probably never see, but look here for another story featuring men in dresses.

Grandfather mountain games

See the blog on New River Journal and some pics on Flickr for info about the Highland Games this past weekend.

Edinburgh Schoolgirl

This is a random shot I got walking back to the hotel near James Heriot's School in Edinburgh. You probably remember that Heriot wrote the "All Creatures Great and Small" books.

Anyway, it was actually kinda late in the afternoon-evening when I walked by the school. Summer in Scotland means long days and twilight nights. I don't know why this girl was apparently standing in front of the school waiting for a ride at this time of day. It had to be after seven local time.

I saw her ahead as we turned the corner, and decided to try to get a candid shot of her. I set my lens to 18 mm and just pushed the shutter release as I walked by. The original image is a bit wider than this, but has an extraneous person in the frame that I had to crop out. I liked the angle of the shot, however, so I preserved it in the final cut. I also applied some softening. The image on Flickr is found here.

Photography services web page

My photography portal is located at http://sites.google.com/site/newriverphotography/

digital art

I have been playing around some lately with digital art. I am not an artist by any means, by which I mean I can't draw. But with digital tools I can at least experiment with filters and techniques that make photographs look more like paintings.

This is a photo I took recently of a girl at a family reunion. The image on the bottomis the original photo and the one on the topis the processed image. I'm not totally happy with the processing, but it is a pleasing effect. I think the hand has too much detail, but I like the way the face turned out almost flat.

Iona

This is an image taken inside the abbey at Iona, in Scotland.  The island of Iona is only 3 miles long and about a mile wide, and the total population is about 100.  It's an eerie place.  Far north and west in Scotland, and desolate.  But it has apparently been a spiritual place throughout history.  The Druids worshipped here, and it is the site of Columba's base for his missionary trips into Scotland beginning in the sixth century.  The nunnery is in ruins, but the abbey has been restored.  A cold wind blows off the ocean so that even on the brightest summer day, you must pull your coat around you.

Scotland scenics

Just got back from the trip to the UK and am processing a couple of thousand photos.  Many snapshots, but also some stock photos.  This posterized image of a little girl on the street worked pretty well, and other shots are posted on the flickr page here.