Bothwell Castle

Bothwell castle. One of the most historic sites around these parts. Somewhere on the other side of the water used to be a priory but as far as I know nothing remains of it. Local legend has it that the two were once connected by a hidden tunnel. The castle though I have been to once before, briefly. It was the end of 2009 and in that post I sent I would return "soon". I don't think 4 years consistutes soon even by my standards. Back then it was a big deal just getting there and the few photos I took were taken in panic not far from the car at a good distance from the castle today. That day I had trouble taking a photo because the sun is behind the castle as you enter from the car park. This creates a problem. The dynamic range (the range of brightness to darkness) of a compact is not big so you either end up with a fairly clear castle with a blown out white sky or a fairly clear sky with a silhouette of a castle depending on how you focus. You will see what I mean if you click on that link. With that in mind I should have taken my better camera today which has a better sensor and therefore captures a bigger dynamic range. That was one of many mistakes and not least of all is the fact that while I once knew my way around photography nowadays I don't. For the past couple of years I point, shoot and hope.

Boring I know but in this situation there are a few options. One is to take two shots with one metering for the castle and one metering for the sky then later blend them in Photoshop. Another is to take a bracketed exposure and then use HDR software to blend them to get a bigger dynamic range. I have forgotten even the basics. For both I would have been best served taking my gorillapod which I have not used in years and must dig out again. I didn't take my better camera though and with this new little compact I had not even learned all the functions so could not even choose the right mode or even set it to take RAW instead of JPEG where at least I would have had more info to work with in Lightroom- something else I have rarely touched for years. So most of what I took today was washed out which is a shame. I will know better next time but its a wake up call to start learning about both cameras and once again start learning about photography in general.

Today unlike last time I was all for going into the castle and having a look around. That was until we found out it cost- OK, of course it does, doh! £4.50 a head though was not something I was willing to spend even if we had brought money with us. I'll leave that to the tourists. Its not that I begrudge paying the money but given there is every chance I could last 10 seconds and then need to leave in panic a £9 outlay was more than I was willing to part with. Besides that I have seen photos of the inside and it looks much like the outside. So we went up outside it and about then headed back.

My wife then decided it would be a good idea to head down one of the many woodland paths. It turned out to be a stroke of genius. Beautiful. Not that the photos show it but really tranquil. Mostly tranquil. For the best part of our walk down there it was very pleasant. We passed few people but the ones we did pass were very amiable. Dog walkers mostly. The only sour note was some twat, his other half, his kid in a pram and his devil dog on the loose. While she pushed the pram he had a beer in one hand and a mobile to his ear in the other. Alernatively he was talking on the phone, swigging and screaming on his dog. You get them everywhere. Earlier in the day I took a walk down a nearby woodland path and stumbled upon two jakeys dining out in the sun with 3 bottles of buckfast before noon. Pleasant enough but probably not a few hours later.

The walk though as I said was beautiful. It was like being somewhere else. The noise of the river flowing and the birds and the urban squall hidden well from view behind the woodland. Large characteristic trees. Shades from the sun. Hard to explain in words and impossible to illustrate in the photos of a rusty amatuer but something I want to do again soon. We found out that we can actually walk to the David Livingstone centre from there which is now added to the list. Two far at the moment as it would take a 3 mile hike and yet I have walked 3 miles or more 3 times this year. In fact today I walked my furthest in a day so far at just over 8.5 miles.

So a good day. It seems I am posting a lot lately after a year or two of not having much to say. That is good. I hope most of what I have to say is positive. OK there is the dark stuff occassionally but I hope that dynamic range which cannot capture it all moves from the darks to the lights with time.