Back from the Orkneys-busy week

Just got back from our trip up to the Orkneys in Northern Scotland. There was no wifi in our hostel so no blog updates. I'm still getting all the photos organized and edited so they'll be posted soon. The trip was awesome. The treeless landscape of the Orkneys was an interested contrast to where we usually tour. We went to the cliffs of Yesnaby the last two nights to enjoy the sunset and salty ocean mist as it sprayed off of the cliffs. Absolutely incredible.The weather has been very windy and a bit cold, but today it was just a nice breeze and absolute perfect temperature. It was a long day of traveling so off to Smugglers we go tonight. Cheers.

Pictish tour

Photos from the Pictish tour today all made with a 17mm tilt shift lens aka not photoshopped for the depth of field

Days 3 and 4

 Left: A panoramic from Red Castle looking down onto Luna Beach

Day 3 was kind of the beach tour... the very very windy beach tour. First stop was at Luna beach, which was just one picture opportunity after another. I climbed up the huge sand dunes and ventured down to the beach to catch a shot of the water. As I was packing up, the wind started to pick up and threw sand everywhere. There was a family trying to fly a kite in the vicious gusts and simply couldn't keep it in the air. I felt bad for them, but it made a great opportunity for a photo. Some surfers showed up to despite the absolutely freezing waters. It was an interesting day. We hiked up a hill up to Red Castle, a ruined castle over looking the beach. It was a simply breath taking scene.

Day 4 was our excursion over to St. Andrews. The golf course was pretty cool and surrounded with little golf tourist traps. We walked past a church and being that it was Sunday church was letting out. The minister/pastor/religious person was all decked out in his his ornate robes. It was really pretty interesting. We also headed over to Anstruther and Pittinween, which were really nice little fishing villages. St. Fillan's cave in Pittinween was pretty creepy but interesting at the same time. We also met this really cool guy in Anstruther with this great cherry red MG. I've been shooting mostly on film so I'll share these pictures back home when they get developed.

day 2ish

Day 1 ish 2 ish was a long one. I write 1 ish 2 ish because with the 6 hour time difference ad not doing much but sitting, it seemed more like one long day instead of 2. The transition between thursday and friday was seemed a bit too quick especially with the couple of hours of sleep I got on the plane when it went from light to dark to light again in the matter of a few hours. The flight went well, but oh was it long. I sat next to a couple of very nice Scottish ladies on the plane that gave me some great advice and explained many of the language differences such as chips being fries and crisps being chips. Once in Scotland we made our way to Hospitalfield House (the castle where we are staying) in Arbroath. We got settled in, I slept off some jet lag then we headed out to Smugglers, one of the local public houses (pubs). It was a great time, the people here are wonderfully nice and we even got invited to a barbecue. Belhaven Best (or just "a best please") was the drink of choice by most of those with us and oh was it good. When we got back to Hospitalfield one of the professors, Ed, brought out some delicious smoked fish, called smokies. All in all it was a wonderful first day in Scotland with many more sure to come.

Day 0

I'm finishing up packing, triple checking I packed everything (and not going over the 50lbs checked bag limit), and getting pretty antsy to get in the car and go. This is my first time out of the country so I'm excited, but trying not to get nervous. I really wanted to share my experiences with all of you back home and especially share some of the photos as I go.  I will try to update daily, but I'll be a little busy so no promises. Hope you enjoy! See you all when I get back! Feel free to comment on posts and say hi.