Author: Claire 'Selkie' Dollin

Photographer, student, crafter, Guide leader........

Pollok House

So I haven’t made a new post since June. Sorry about that. In between starting the house moving process I had a mental health wobble. I’m back on track now but was taking photos the whole time. Now it’s only two weeks-ish till I head back to night school and start my higher. They are like Scottish A levels and I have 6 of them from when I was in high school…. which was a few years ago now and I barely remember half of it. So this could be interesting.

So the subject of this post is Pollok House. Owned by the National Trust for Scotland and with extensive grounds it makes for an excellent day out. As always the cafe is great and it’s safe to say if it’s not bucketloads of rain there’s a fair few amateur photographers kicking about there. I’ve been a lot over different times and with different equipment. The photo above I took with my 1300d and kit lens on a walk about last autumn before I started any of my courses. Walking around was so peaceful and I didn’t need distractions because I was looking for the shots I wanted. Even though I was on auto mode back then with the camera making my decisions. I also didn’t respect the rule of thirds then either. The photo I’ve used as the featured image at the very top was one I took way back at the very start. When my dad would hand me the camera and watch very carefully in case I did something daft with it.

Another taken with my 1300d

So it’s also a reasonable test bed for my newer kit. My 77d was taken there on it’s first outing although it wasn’t my most inspired day I did manage a slightly longer exposure on the weir…. I don’t care if some folks think that the smoothed out water shots are awful. It’s a technique worth learning and water nearly always flows.

77d but with the 1300d’s old kit lens

So my most recent trip was out with the 77d and it’s new glass….. a 24-105mm f4 L. For awhile I’ve been needing a touch more reach and the 77d fell out with the old 70-300mm I inherited. It has some interesting vignetting when I was at lower apertures. You can see it appear in the photo of the single female rower at the Regatta. It’s not always an effect you want to break out. So I sold a lot of things on gumtree and put my hands on new-to-me lens.

77d and its 24-105mm

Safe to say I have found odder angles since I started out…..

Not all odd.

I imagine that I’ll be taking photos here for a long time to come.

Culzean Castle

So back in that summer we had (that lasted all of 3 days) I took a jaunt down to Culzean Castle. I’ve been there a few times as there’s a cracking Scout run campsite where I’ve taken Guides.

It has fake ruins on the way to the house which I think are brilliant. Not super modern (Victorian even) but built at the same time as the main castle. Somehow I’ve ended up as a National Trust of Scotland member. Not complaining as they hold several places I want to visit.

Modern for the time, the house had is own coal gas plant supplying the house. The farm buildings nearby are the gift shop and main cafe. I’ll admit I didn’t walk far in the heat. There’s extensive grounds and swan pond as well as walled garden and cliff walk. This was just a short loop round the bridge, castle and back to the cafe to cool off.

Barrhead Colour Run

I’m a bit late in posting these….. They have been all over the social media though.

So I’m slightly cautious with these as a got some cracking shots involving people I don’t know, mostly children. Although as a public event in a public place it’s not as problematic as say a private kids party. I’m also not selling these for commercial gain. I would need model releases for an awful lot of people.

If only my back wasn’t hurting so bad (I toppled over 6 days before) I would have liked to arrive earlier and work for longer. Maybe next year.

Friends of mine – Elaine and Anne, nearing the finish line.

So I wasn’t willing to risk destroying the shiny new camera body on the powder paint… the night before I fitted it into an OpTec rain sleeve (cos they are 2 for £5 and I wasn’t gonna cry over that. They do also work well in the rain. No I’m not sponsored by them.) I sealed it in with duck tape (tie dye cos colour run obviously) round the lens hood, viewfinder and the neck straps. The sleeve doesn’t normally accommodate the straps but I popped holes in so it wouldn’t accidentally turn upside down when I wasn’t using it. (I’m more guarded in the rain but figured that I would need to volunteer occasionally. The other Girlguiding leaders were throwing the green powder around.)

It did inhibit the autofocus at the extreme ends of the lens’ ability so I’d move the sleeve further down the hood before taping it off. It was successful though. The strap is still green in places but no green inside the lens mount or on the mirror/sensor. I’d call that a success.

The 77D

So I’ve had the new camera body for about a month now. There’s loads of internet pages out there that will give you the breakdown of the differences between the older 1300 and the newer 77, so I won’t bore you with them. I was after a camera that would work with the lenses I have but would respond better in low light and focus with less stress when I’m not the sharpest. It’s does have the same crop sensor which helps all the lenses get on. Although I’m still mostly using my old 1300’s kit lens mostly. I’m saving to replace it but that won’t be soon.

The touchscreen that pivots is great so I don’t have to twist my neck in museums when I’m after a ghost people shots. Although I’ve started not using it so much when I’m able to use the viewfinder and the lcd screen on the top which covers the settings in manual mode.

It has proven itself so far with the shots from Rainbow Run to prove it.

Summerlee

So this one took me two visits to get all the way round. I seriously underestimated the amount of glorious things there were for me to snap. Also the cafe is brilliant.

Out in Coatbridge, Summerlee is an old iron works now home to an almost endless display of the industrial heritage of Lanarkshire. Even up into my youth still a source of steel, Lanarkshire was home to many coal mines, weavers, engineering plants, steel and iron works. Summerlee is the child and photographer friendly home to a collection of social and industrial history exhibits. There’s a working tram service, coal mine (recreation), canal barge, miners’ cottages, trains…. you can see why it took me so long with my rust problem (I have a lot of rust photos).

So you have the iron Vulcan barge in the post feature image and the the beautiful entrance way now for a few more…

Main visitor centre entrance
The tram leaving the miners’ row cottages
Inside of one of the miners’ row houses
The old iron work foundations and their residents.

Brig O’Doon

So I went to the Wex Glasgow open day yesterday and came home with a lonely, ignored, locked in a dark cupboard camera….. Yes, ok…. I bought a Canon EOS 77D. I feel slightly better about flat lining my credit card for it if I believe I rescued it. Although the 1300D is still a great camera, I wanted something faster and better in low light and it’s time for a new challenge. So today I took it out for a spin at Robert Burn’s birthplace.

Verdant Works, Dundee

So I made one last stop before leaving Dundee a week and a bit ago. I’ve been slow in writing this because I wanted to do it justice as it was the the shortest visit but one of the best. So the Verdant Works was once one of the many jute mills in Dundee. And I have a special place in my heart as I’m from a community when the cotton mill was the centre of the village. It’s now a visitor attraction where people can learn about the processes and history. Again photography is encouraged but some areas can be quite dark so bump the ISO up. The staff are amazing too.