The rest of my day in Central Scotland.

After walking up Alva and the Dollar glen I had an evening meal and then visited 3 other locations before back to our B & B for a beer and bed. My first location was Doune castle (14thC). I used to live nearby but have never photographed this but it has appeared in numerous films and tv series (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Highlander, Game of Thrones). Despite it looking a little ruined much of the interior is intact.


These are Kelpies, 100ft high statues of mythical water horses. They are best viewed from the motorway where they suddenly appear as you drive along. This is photographed with the Forth and Clyde canal in the foreground. Unfortunately the sun was just in the wrong position and my preferred shooting position would have seen me looking straight into the sun. The hills in the background are the Ochils where I was walking earlier in the day.



I had decided that I was going to be at the Forth bridges for sunset even though I knew that it was going to be cloudless. This is an ultra wide panorama, approx 180 degrees. Lots of difficulty stitching it, in the end I used Hugin all of the Adobe programs failed miserably. Lots of warping to get to this point. Unfortunately the blue in the sky is very uneven despite my best efforts. Using a Lee 10stop filter with an ultra wide angle lens always produces dark corners and a slight colour change in the extreme corners, the newer 10 stop filters with IR filters tend not to have the colour change in the corners but still vignette somewhat. Trying to stitch panos with moving water without smoothing the water gives you problems. Next time I find myself using a 10stop ultra wide pano I will produce a pano without the 10stop at the same time and use the sky of one and the water of the other. I may really try and produce a better sky if I get the time and definitely would if it was a nice sunset sky although you would barely notice the blotchiness if there were clouds glowing away. Sunset was at 10pm, one of the problems with living so far North so a full day of 2 hill walks, a castle, a pair of statues and a sunset shot of iconic bridges. I have more shots from the day before and the next day that I will post soon. Ken

Wow - beautiful set and a wonderful story behind them all. The water horses and the castle are really neat but the bridge panorama is a fantastic result. A lot of work from the sounds of it but the image you created is fun to view.

Thanks for bringing us along on your trip.

Just a great set of images. As a Monte Python fan, I enjoy your including that castle. Heroic effort on the second horse image and like Alan, the last is my favorite.

Nice work on the bridge pano.

Thanks everyone. The bridges are Scottish icons. The cantilever rail bridge is my favourite. It was the longest bridge in the world when built in 1890. The suspension bridge to the right is just slightly shorter than the George Washington bridge. The modern bridge on the left was opened in 2017 as the suspension bridge was starting to run out of capacity. Ken

Beautiful set, Ken. Thanks for the virtual tour!

Wow! I am really enjoying you taking us along on your trip Ken!

The Doune Castle is very cool, and I remember it from Monty Python. It definitely looks like a ruin from here, so it's so interesting that it is furnished still on the inside.

That's so cool those water horses. What amazing art work. My favorite is #3, but I like seeing the people in it in #2 as it adds scale and a great sense of appreciation for #3. And what amazing bridges! Even with no clouds, this is a very cool shot.