Ambling about at Aberlady!!

Just about 20 miles east of Edinburgh, and signposted off the A1, is a real hidden gem. Aberlady local nature reserve was actually the first in Britain, designated in 1952 and now also a site of special scientific interest (SSSI).



It is managed by East Lothian Council and, I am very proud to say, my friend John! I'm not so proud to say that in all the time I lived in Scotland I never once went along to the reserve. It was, admittedly, a long way from where I used to stay but that's no excuse. I have now made up for past failings however, and paid a visit to the reserve on Tuesday before I continued south back across the border and into England.

I didn't get to see my pal, but I did leave a not very cryptic hello for him on the sightings sheet before I left! I was going to leave a note that I'd spotted a plastic bag on the reserve but thought I'd better not in the end. There is a story attached to that and John will know what I mean, but if anyone else reads the sightings sheet then they'd think I was being facetious and cross it out!!

Mr H and myself were both at university in Aberdeen together... crikey, just realised that it was last century, lol, and we shared a flat as well as a love of all things ornithological. John was far more knowledgeable than me (and obviously still is) as I only joined the University Bird Club as a way of getting across Scotland and seeing the place. I quickly caught the bug for birding though, and have many smashing memories of many smashing trips!!

My trip to Aberlady was tinged with sadness however. I was feeling really blue for having had to leave the dog in Scotland. He was never mine to keep, but to give him back hurt like hell and is still hurting now. So it was with a heavy heart that I actually set off across the wooden bridge and as the Scottish author Nigel Tranter put it, into 'Enchantment'.



As it turns out, dogs aren't allowed on the reserve between April and July anyway, so I could amble about and not keep thinking 'Hogy would have loved it here' and other such mournful thoughts. He would have loved it there, I've no doubt, but at least the knowledge that I couldn't have taken him if I'd had him made it easier to walk and look ahead to life without him. Not much easier, but a bit easier. By the time I'd returned to the car, my heart felt a bit lighter and I did start to feel a lot better... 'Enchantment' indeed!!

Covering 582 hectares (which is 1,439 acres for those of us who still work in old money), Aberlady is a stunning mix of tidal sand, mud flats, dune systems, pioneer salt marsh, and also has the wee Marl Loch



as well as the Peffer Burn and its estuarine landscape. With a backdrop of industrial Edinburgh to the west,



and the golf course to the east, Aberlady local nature reserve manages to squeeze rare and splendid isolation into a modern age of bustle and business. From the moment you cross the bridge, the noise of the road and the 21st century slowly dissipates into a new world of rustling grasses, birdsong, crickets and, eventually, the lapping of waves on the shore.

The footpath winds its way through the marshes and you are accompanied along the way by hundreds of butterflies flitting along from flower to flower and leaf to leaf.



There are 15 different species of butterfly here, and they flutter alongside the path as if you're walking into a Disney film!! To add to the slightly fairytale feel, the path then leads you through a tunnel of sea buckthorn that is cut in such a way you could be walking into a set for a Lord of the Rings movie or something!



Once through the tunnel, all sounds of the road have disappeared and you're in a truly magical place. The wildflowers are absolutely stunning, the diversity is wonderful and is clearly appreciated by the number of different birds that sing and chirrup as you walk by.

The walk up to the beach at Gullane Point is roughly one and a half miles, and if you go in the middle of the day in the middle of summer as I did, make sure you have plenty of high factor sunscreen with you!! I couldn't reach my back to put on the factor 30 and came back looking like I'd laid down in a blast furnace for half an hour!!!



Popping over the top of the dunes to the beach pops you back into the 21st century again, but there are still reminders of the past even here!



Fences stick out of dunes where the wind blown sand is reclaiming its lands, and out on the beach at low tide is an even stranger reminder of days gone by... a submarine being reclaimed by the sea!



A submarine in death as it was in its life!! I was fascinated by the different shapes and stood for a while thinking about how small it looked and how it must have been to have worked on her, when I realised that the water was creeping back in and was taking her back for another few hours until releasing her again at the next low tide. I stopped a while longer just to get a shot as low to the water as I could... I'd already got my backside wet when I squatted down for an earlier photo (which is how I noticed that the tide was coming in, lol), so I sat right down in the water for this one!



The things I do to bring you a photo!!! Getting a wet bottom in the pursuit of photography is one thing, walking back across the sands in wet trousers is another thing altogether! The beach here has a few posts and pillars scattered about,



but eventually I found a lovely big bleached driftwood log to sit on while I hung my wet trousers up on a post to dry.



It didn't take long, and I soon returned back the way that I came and back into real life again... and just as if to emphasise the end to my few hours in enchantment, a toad crossed in front of me under the buckthorn tunnel on his way to Marl Loch.



A fitting end to a few hours in fairyland!! If you happen to be in the area, look out for the bridge across to the reserve and let your dreams take you somewhere else for a while...

Nigel Tranter called it the 'Footbridge to Enchantment', it is!!

Read more about the reserve here and put a wee circle round it on your road map, it's a very special little place. http://www.aberlady.org/Nature%20reserve.html

Rebecca, x
http://www.rtphotographics.co.uk/
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk

Unashamedly geeky!!

I don't see what's wrong with being a geek. I've been called it many times over the years (well, since the word 'geek' was invented anyway, I just used to be a plain old 'weirdo' before that!), and where I used to be embarrassed, now I am proud. I am a geek, oh yes I am.

Let's look at the evidence. My favourite sandwiches are cheese and pickle. My favourite subject at school was geography, closely followed in joint positions by chemistry and biology. I am a photographer with a do-it-all camera, yet I choose to use it in full manual mode every time, including focusing. I like real ales, I hate lager. I can spell fashion, but after that I am left clueless. I get a nose bleed and altitude sickness if I go anywhere near a pair of stilettos and as for hair-do's, well, mine just doesn't.

So, where would an unashamedly geeky photographer go to with a picnic on a sunny weekend? To the beach of course! Ah, yes, not any old beach, this was Tentsmuir and it was the day of the Leuchars Air Show. Hurrah!!!



And what a beautiful day it was too. I started it in Dundee to capture sunrise over the Law from Balgay Hill,



then headed down to Clark's bakery for a coffee and an apple slice before nipping over the Tay Bridge into Fife. I parked at the edge of Tentsmuir Forest in Tayport to get some early morning views across the estuary and to do a spot of birdwatching (more evidence of very geekiness), and was well rewarded with some smashing views of a kingfisher as it darted along the shoreline. My day was already complete at that point, but it just kept getting better!!

Moving into Tentsmuir and around the headland, I found Lapland Bunting on the sea-buckthorn bushes as well as seals sunning themselves on the sands and a huge expanse of smooth soft sand all to myself. Wow.



I made my way down the beach to the perimeter fence of the air field at Leuchars and sat down to eat my cheese and pickle sandwiches, my plain crisps, and slurp on my coffee. Just perfect.



So why wasn't I in the airfield to watch the show? Well, I had thought that I was to be looking after the dog that day and so I couldn't take him in to the show, but it turned out that his dad was home and so he took him instead. Too late to try and get organised for the show, plus I'd already made up my mind that I was going on a photo foray round the beach, so I'm afraid I didn't go in to the show. But I have and I will again. It's a fabulous show, a great day out and more magical metalwork than any seriously serious geek could possibly need for a truly awesome experience.

Rebecca, x

www.rtphotographics.co.uk

rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk

Tentsmuir

There is nowhere I like better for a stroll at sunrise than Tentsmuir in Fife. I think it is the most stunningly beautiful place on the east coast of Scotland, maybe even the east coast of Britain.



It is a nature reserve on the Fife side of the Tay estuary comprising pine woodland, ever-changing dune systems, incredible dune slacks, miles of smooth sand, and breeding grounds for birds and seals and all sorts of butterflies and insects.



There are also many relics of the war, including sand-covered pill boxes and a line of concrete blocks that were put in place to prevent enemy landing craft from coming ashore here. You'll also see a few posts still visible in the estuary that were positioned to prevent enemy seaplanes from landing.



A fascinating place, Tentsmuir is without doubt worthy of nature reserve status and I actually kind of hope nobody reads this as I rather selfishly want to keep the secret that is Tentsmuir to myself! I've got a massive folder full of photos from Tentsmuir but shall I post them, or shall I just keep it to myself a little bit longer? No, I'll do a longer piece another time, so will just leave you with three photos today and a promise of more to come.

Rebecca,x

http://www.rtphotographics.co.uk/

rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk

An Afternoon at the Seaside... Brrrr!!

Last weekend saw me heading off to Tentsmuir beach with my dog, my camera, but most importantly with my new pal Niaesha who has very kindly agreed to work with me as an assistant.

Perhaps I should have asked if she liked dogs first, as I quickly found out that she has a bit of a phobia about German Shepherds. Guess what sort of doggy we've got?



Thankfully Hogan is nothing more than a great big soppy bundle of fluff, and Niaesha soon decided that not all German Shepherds are bad :) In fact it's worth saying here that German Shepherds are probably one of the most misunderstood of all dogs, as the vast majority are as soppy as anything! Anyway, I digress...

So, we decided to go to Tentsmuir for our first day oot and get to know each other and have a natter as we wandered about taking photos.



What a day!! I haven't seen that much rain since... er, last week actually, but, this is Britain, it's to be expected. Tentsmuir is an absolutely fantastic place to go, and if you are ever anywhere near Dundee or Tayport and you have no idea what to do for the afternoon, there's your answer!



Niaesha is fairly new to DSLR photography and wants to learn how to use a camera properly, so we had a bit of a tuition session while we were there.



The dog was a huge help, leaving extra interest for the general scene and composition... hmm, thanks Hogy but we'll probably manage ok next time!! The worst of that was a lack of dog bins, which meant carrying a bagful of unpleasantness around for the rest of the afternoon. Quite delightful, as you may imagine.

Anyway, we carried on in spite of the rain and in spite of Hogan's 'help' and found a couple of places that we are definitely going to go back to when it's dry and explore a lot further.



The beach hut is certainly going to get another visit, and it'll be lovely to do more with the dunes as well.

Definitely a fantastic place for a model shoot too... maybe with umbrellas and wellies, as it doesn't look like it's going to be bikini weather any time soon!!

So, there we are, an afternoon at the seaside, I hope you enjoyed it, we certainly did :)

Rebecca, x

www.rtphotographics.co.uk

rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk

Bubbles and the Beach... I love photography!

How much better does it get than last Sunday? I don't know that it can!

I was at Kenmore on the shore of Loch Tay in the Scottish Highlands. The sun was shining but softly diffused through the cloud, perfect for portraits and a stunning location for an outdoor family shoot.

The girls are absolutely stunning... fun, relaxed in front of the camera and so beautiful, they are amazing and it was such a joy to photograph them. Add their gorgeous wee baby brother, a couple of bottles of bubbles and a fluffy blanket, and the afternoon was officially perfect!

Perhaps a little alarmed when we met in the car park at Kenmore beach, the girls soon accepted the fact that I was clearly bonkers but obviously ok, and happily helped carry my stepladder, hula hoop and dog's bed down to the shore!

First stop was going to be at the famous dead tree on the end of the rocky jetty, but nooooooo, it was gone!! Never mind, the rocks are big enough and flat enough to sit on and the backdrop of the mountains, the loch and the crannog more than makes up for any missing tree stump!

The trees along the head of the beach have wonderful twisted trunks that lend a kind of stately and organic contrast to the hard rocks and driftwood along the shore. Ashley and Emily settled easily into a nook at the base of an old tree and the soft green leaves of the trees behind completed the frame. Gorgeous!!

Surrounded by soft grasses and wild flowers, Brodie was thrilled to be allowed to stand up against an huge old tree root. I seriously think that given food, drink and his family, the wee man would have happily stayed there all day! His facial expressions were fantastic and I still chuckle now to think of him...

Further along the beach we played around with a tyre swing and got some shots with the island crannog and the Scottish Crannog Centre in the background, before heading round the mouth of the loch to Dalerb.

More trees, this time dripping with lichens, and the soft dappled shade provided excellent photo opportunities and an excuse for climbing trees... I don't need any encouragement and the girls bravely followed!!!

Finally, the blanket and the bubbles! Brodie was settled on the blanket as Ashley and Emily fired bubbles from a battery-powered bubble gun (who knew there were such things?), and all I had to do was watch and wait as the delight and wonderment took turns across the baby's face... I truly do love photography!!

A stunning location, beautiful family, fun, sunshine and bubbles... does it really get better than that? Thank you so much; you made a middle-aged lady smile and she's still smiling now!

Rebecca,x.
http://www.rtphtographics.co.uk/

p.s. we never did use the hula hoop!!!