Tag: Maritime

Down the Coast

I’ve been wandering round the Ayrshite coast recently. Does help that I go on a weekly walk with a friend and we relocated the walk (previously it was the local park) to the beach at Troon. Which is somewhat the inspiration for this. We’ve ventured to other parts of this coast line before like Culzean Castle. Hard to believe that was 2 years ago when my camera body was still new and I was yeat to darken the doors of the college to study for my Higher or HNC.

There’s some beautiful sunsets there in Troon. Slightly further north there’s the tiny hamlet of Portencross. I heard about this place through the Sunday Shoot Group (it’s what I call them, there isn’t an official name). They went to Portencross long before I joined and it stuck in my head as an idea. So I set off before my walk on Sunday to get a few shots in.

I was slightly broken after all the walking. Turns out my new camera bag is great but does weigh in at about 17lbs (and that’s with my iPad not the full MacBook). It’s a bit of a stretch for me at the moment, going to have to work on my fitness levels for carrying it any length of time.

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.

Dundee

So I spent a brilliant weekend in Dundee… I started shooting when it was getting dark on Friday evening then went on to visit the V&A Dundee, RRS Discovery and the best statue I’ve visited in a long time.

The V&A is brilliant inside and out and of course they have a specially commissioned item in the shop that shares its name with me. A Selkie cushion. Yes, I brought one home with me. You can take photos in some of the exhibits just be careful of flash. So from there it was all aboard the RRS Discovery which lives next door.

Photography is actively encouraged and its a great exhibition and place to learn about how we finally made it to the South Pole and Antarctica. Amazing to think this ship was frozen in ice for 2 years while they investigated and made all sorts of scientific discoveries.

They wouldn’t let me use the darkroom but then you don’t really need it with a DSLR……. Yep they were taking photos all the way down there….

I had time for one stop before home but I’ll post about that tomorrow….

Maritime Museum, Irvine

I spend quite a lot of time in Irvine. It has a cracking harbour and beach and you can catch lots of folk enjoying it in all seasons (although “enjoying” might be more appropriate for winter). Most weekends you’ll also find horses and their humans going for a gallop along the sand. There’s a fair few birds around to be captured if your lens is long enough.

Swan at the harbour

But this time we’re here for the indoor portion of the Scottish Maritime Museum. There’s a charge to get in but it’s genuinely interesting. The west of Scotland relied on the Clyde and its shipbuilding expertise when it was growing during the industrial revolution. Most of that has disappeared now but we have places like this to help us remember. I, admittedly, never tried to utilise my tripod but they are probably open to their use when it’s not super busy. And there’s plenty of rust…. I have a rust problem….

Loads of stuff to get you thinking and well worth a visit.