Scottish Skyline: From Spires to Bridges

A beautiful sunset pictured from our apartment in Edinburgh a few weeks ago. The weather was glorious that week! It hardly rained at all!

Did you know that the Forth Bridge, visible just left of centre, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was the world’s longest cantilever railway bridge when it opened in 1890? It’s still a marvel of Victorian engineering that stands proud on the Scottish skyline.


Apertureƒ/6.3
CameraILCE-7RM5
Focal length172mm
ISO250
Shutter speed1/200s

Rooftop Sunrise in Edinburgh

One of the good things about an early flight is getting up early to see the sunrise. That was me yesterday morning, when the world outside was mostly asleep, but I was preparing to head to the airport in Edinburgh for a flight to Cork.


Apertureƒ/3.5
CameraILCE-7RM5
Focal length24mm
ISO1000
Shutter speed1/30s

Pastel Skies Over Edinburgh

I wasn’t expecting much of a sunset this evening because the sky at the horizon was filled with clouds, but I was proved wrong. The clouds were lit up in a lovely glow by the setting sun.


Apertureƒ/8
CameraILCE-7RM5
Focal length166mm
ISO400
Shutter speed1/40s

Cherry Blossoms in Bloom

Cherry blossoms bloom on a tree at the other end of my park every year, but I always forget to bring my camera to photograph it until this afternoon.


Apertureƒ/4
CameraILCE-7RM5
Focal length75mm
ISO100
Shutter speed1/1250s

Golden Dawn Through the Trees

This morning, the sun rose through a beautiful orange haze. This was some 600m away through the eye of a long lens, and it looked even better in real life.


Apertureƒ/6.3
CameraILCE-7RM5
Focal length600mm
ISO800
Shutter speed1/4000s

Silhouettes of Lisbon at Dusk

A glorious sunset over Lisbon in late 2023. The famous 25 de Abril Bridge is there, of course, as well as construction cranes nearby working in building sites.


Apertureƒ/8
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length124mm
ISO100
Shutter speed1/6400s

The Calm Before The Day

The sun rose this morning a few minutes after 7am, but this is what the sky looked like about 8 minutes before. There was a glorious orange glow and the clouds were lit up from underneath by the sun coming around the globe and shining through the atmosphere.


Apertureƒ/8
CameraILCE-7RM5
Focal length26mm
ISO500
Shutter speed1/125s

The Three Sisters at Twilight

From Dooneen Pier on a lovely April day in 2022 I saw the Three Sisters off the distance. The sea was fairly calm, and the evening was warm for that time of the year. I think I spent a good hour wandering up and down the pier taking photos, until darkness descended, and I went back to our B&B.


Apertureƒ/13
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length72mm
ISO100
Shutter speed1/25s

A Chimney in silhouette

Many years ago, I photographed the sunset over the North Side of Cork City, using the silhouette of a roof and chimney as a foreground.

This is so long ago that I used a 2MP Fuji, my second digital camera.


Apertureƒ/2.8
CameraFinePix2800ZOOM
Focal length22.4mm
ISO100
Shutter speed1/17s

Horses on Sherkin Island

We were visiting Sherkin Island in 2015 when I saw a rider pulling another horse along with him. This was on Cow Strand, but I’d seen him riding on Silver Strand earlier in the day. A lovely, warm, August day just before school was about to start again.


Apertureƒ/8
CameraCanon EOS 6D
Focal length24mm
ISO160
Shutter speed1/250s