Do you have f1.8 days, or maybe pinhole days?

I know I do.

Some days I just want to go out and shoot anything at f1.8 - like this taken yesterday:

I found this plastic bag  in bondage on a barbed wire fence intriguing.

Some days of late, I just want to see stuff through a cheap pinhole lens, just to see what it looks like - that's all. Like this gable wall of the steading at Ardoch:

Better still, leave it in colour. Most pinhole images - that is REAL pinhole images (which mine are not really) - are always in black and white.

As well as the cheap pinhole, I have a cheap plastic Holga lens and my mood of late is to take 'pretty' pictures with a messy, plastic lens. Most end up in the delete bin but some just about get saved due to happy accidents, like this one of Lochnagar:

None of this on their own means much but if I can add them all together in the right way for the right image, something may happen.

Hassles and issues at work this year has seen me in a real mood or mixture of feelings - mostly negative. I think there is a connection with my frustrated, negative mood and this desire to just get out with my camera and do stuff, like some form of anger release.

Anybody else experience this?

Does productive, creative work only happen when your mind is in a 'good' place?

Past, present and what future? Balhennie, Groddie.

There are times when so much seems to be happening beyond your control that you just decide to take each day as it comes.

Today was one of those days.

In an attempt to do something 'under my control', I decided late in the afternoon, to grab the old D50 with a plastic Holga lens on it and go to a ruin called Balhennie, not far from my house. 

When I got there, the sun had just dipped behind Morven casting a shadow on the abandoned farmhouse of Balhennie. Missed my shot. Undaunted, I headed for inside the cottage with camera gear that would struggle to capture anything in the darkness.

A walker then appeared, just down from Morven. He was from Crieff but was staying in Craigendarroch. He also intended to take a picture of Balhennie in the evening sunlight. We both made comment on how quickly the sun dipped away. 

He was still going to take a picture anyway and would I go inside and stand by the window? Why not, I thought. Might as well keep flowing with the flow. Two snaps later, and he was gone.

My efforts at getting anything decent inside wasn't happening. The light was too low and I had no tripod. 

I went back to stand at the window and took the image above. I stared at the path leading to the open gate but you'd have to make sure you avoided the puddles. The sunshine and hills are beyond but a fence blocks the way so just follow the path and hope it leads to an opening? That's when I realised I was standing in someone's past in the present wondering about the future. 

It was also then that I realised I'd never used the on camera flash with the Holga lens. Back to taking pictures and back in control, having fun and not thinking about anything. 

Here's two images using the flash: 

And some more window images for good measure.

The bike at Blairglass

I have been visiting this abandoned farmhouse, Blairglass in the Gairn Shiel area for nearly 10 years now and it never ceases to amaze to me that this old bike is still there and, incredibly, still leaning upright against the wall, despite all that the Cairngorm winters throw at it.

I can't find any information about Blairglass farmhouse and farm, which surprises me as it was an extensive and substantial farm. The last occupants had some of their belongings dumped near the house.

Why?

Who lived here and why did they leave?

Who owned the bike against the wall?

Blairglass farmhouse has a modern door on it and is locked, suggesting that maybe it is still used for shooting parties to have somewhere to go for a dram and food.

In the summer, someone puts up many beehives nearby. I wonder if there was always bees kept at Blairglass?

If only that bike could talk!