Amelia's photos

Dean Public School, a primary school built in 1875 to serve the community of Dean Village, it is typical of the handsome, Sandstone schools of the period built by the Edinburgh School Board, although is on the small side by the standards of its contemporaries. The school closed in 1961 due to depopulation in the Dean Village area as the old milling and tanning industries closed down, with remaining pupils relocated to the Flora Stevenson School. Having been an abandoned school in a near-derelict part of Edinburgh, it has been converted into nice flats in what is now an exclusive neighbourhood.

Today's Sunday Challenge is: Serenity

Dean Village (from dene, meaning 'deep valley') is a former village immediately northwest of the city centre of Edinburgh. It was known as the "Water of Leith Village" and was a successful grain milling area for more than 800 years. At one time there were no fewer than eleven working mills there, driven by the strong currents of the Water of Leith. The Water of Leith was very low when we visited, but when the river rises, there are flood barrier safeguards. The architecture in Dean Village is quite unlike other parts of Edinburgh. We have never visited this area before and had walked all the way from the Trinity area of Edinburgh to here before visiting the nearby Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Next time we are in the city I hope to spend a longer time in the village and make a separate trip to Scottish National gallery.

The island that is visible to the left of the photo is Inchkeith (from the Scottish Gaelic: Innis Cheith). It is administratively part of the Fife council area. The Newhaven Harbour Lighthouse, just seen in the centre of the photo, was established in 1869 and built by James Dove and Company, Edinburgh. It is a 50 foot high octagonal cast-iron tower. It was decommissioned in 1930. In 2018 the lighthouse was relit by Forth Ports, with colour changing LEDs for decorative purposes.

Stencil graffiti showing Neptune with plastic bags caught on his trident, and plastic bottles floating around. Seen on the breakwater at Granton Harbour, Edinburgh.

There is a substantial group of women swimmers, of which my daughter is one, who go for a daily dook in the Firth of Forth whatever the weather. Some men also join in. I have used Silver Effex to protect the identity of the insane. They informed me that the sea was quite warm on that day.

Taken from the end of Wardie Pier looking towards The Kingdom of Fife. The PIP shows a long distance photo, taken from Wardie, of the 3 bridges across the Firth of Forth. The one in the foreground is the iconic rail bridge, the second one is the old road bridge, which is used occasionally, and the 2 vertical pillars furthest away are the supports for the new road bridge which we watched being constructed.

A still and misty morning.

Today's Sunday Challenge is: MOTION, practising shutter speeds. With slower shutter speeds, movement is captured as a blur - SS of 1/60 or lower. With a fast shutter speed the movement is sharp, as shown by these two late ducklings making waves on the canal.This was taken using a shutter speed of 1/250. The mother duck had 5 ducklings altogether. They must have been a second batch as this is very late for them. A passing canoeist stopped paddling to let the family go past in peace. The PiP was the main photo for the challenge. The slow shutter speed, of 1/15, shows blurring of moving objects, in this case a white lorry.

Today's Sunday Challenge is: MOTION, practising shutter speeds. With slower shutter speeds, movement is captured as a blur - SS of 1/60 or lower. This was taken using a shutter speed of 1/15. We were sitting outside Cafe XI hoping to catch passing traffic, preferably with a dark car, tractor or lorry going past, because of over exposure. I could have done with some ND filters. The best I could do was to catch a white lorry with a coloured logo on its side. I wanted to be able to show static objects as a comparison, such as the cafe sign, the road pillars and the seats. It's also possible to see the red door and part of the window of the house across the road through the chassis. The PiP shows sharp movement with a fast shutter speed of 1/250