Edinburgh

Hi guys

I apologise in advance for this thread being slightly picture heavy

I was looking for an excuse to get out with my camera for the first time this year, and when I read that the Edinburgh Christmas lights were coming down on January 5th, I decided to head to Scotland's Capital before they were gone. So here are a few shots of Edinburgh taken on the 4th of January 2010.

I know there is a few, but some of them look much better once you've embiggened them

1. Arthur's Seat, (an extinct volcano) taken from the top of nearby Calton Hill.


1b. I seem to have captured a wee flying saucer in this 1st shot too, although I certainly didn't see anything when I took the shot Cropped.


2. The Sun begins to set behind the Castle. Picture taken from Calton Hill


3.


4. Wider view over the City from Calton Hill. Forgive my less than straight horizon...I was on a slippery hillside with very little light I'll fix it later


5. A look down Princes Street from the top of Calton Hill


6. The Calton Hill Canon


7. There are several historic landmarks on top of Calton Hill itself, including this, The City Observatory


8. Another is Nelson's Monument


9. And probably the most infamous of these monuments is this, The National Monument, built to commemorate those who died fighting for the United Kingdom in the Napoleonic Wars. It is an unfinished replica of the Parthenon in Greece. It began construction in 1826, but the city soon ran out of money and building worked stopped in 1829. It is now most commonly known as Edinburgh's Folly.


10. My last view from the top of Calton Hill. It's not the safest of places to be after dark, and I soon made a quick exit after this was taken, lol


11. Down now onto Princes Street, and a look up at the massive 200ft tall Scott Monument, dedicated to Sir Walter Scott


12. Beside the monument at this time of year, is a giant ferris wheel


13. I'd always wanted to try this shot


14. A view from inside the little Christmas market


15. Looking over from Princes Street towards the Castle, just to the left there is Ramsey Gardens, some of the most sought after properties in the City.


16. Some of the brilliant tree lights, surrounding the city gardens


17. And finally, no shots of Edinburgh would be complete without a picture of the Castle.

I can't pick a favourite MD - they are all just breathtaking - I love this work of yours, the night time cityscapes - it's something I've not had chance to try myself, and I find it endlessly fascinating. Your commentry was excellent too - I'd love to visit Edinburgh (have a friend there I want to visit), so this was lovely for me.

I can't pick a favourite, they're all as good as each other, and I think I went through picking out numbers and got lost! But number 13 is wonderful
xx

Lovely images!! I started picking out my faves but had to stop LOL as i like them all

I fear I cannot identify the UFO. I guess that's why they call it a Unidentified Flying Object. I enlarged the photo 16 times it's original size and could not get enough detail to determine it's origin or type. The mystery remains.

Really nice set of images MD, #5 gets first place from me and #9 comes a close second,
great shots

Can you post the full size crop of #2 so that I can see the UFO in more detail, please

Great set, 4 and 5 are my fave cityscapes. My absolute fave is 10 though, for the moody skies above,with the city lights below, definitely worth being on a scary hill in the dark

Thanks for the comments guys. really appreciate it.

And at the risk of this thread being railroaded by my mystery object, here is a 100% crop from the original file.



And another



It's probably a plane. They come from that direction as they make they're final approach into Edinburgh airport, but I definitely didn't see or hear anything as I took the shot. I would normally wait for something like that to pass by before taking a picture.

Lovely set Ian.

Where i used to stay is just out of shot in the first picture.

Perhaps the UFO is Alex Salmond visiting planet Earth to attend Holyrood.

Great shots Ian! Really like 11/12

The UFO looks like one of those helium balloons - we had a few here new years eve.

In a word -- "Wow". Zounds said it: Breathtaking! It looks like a beautiful location. Why is the hill scary after dark?

While I agree with others that it is difficult to pick a few favorites, I found myself most drawn to 6, 11 & 15. I've often wondered why my picks are typically different from more experienced photographers -- maybe I'm missing something? It doesn't really matter, though, because these are all wonderful to look at! Thank you for sharing!