Tag - scotland

My First Book Cover !

March 1, 2016

That’s my friend Beth Richardson, holding a hot-off-the-press copy of her new book:

Christ Beside Me, Christ Within Me: Celtic Prayers. (Learn more about the book: http://celticblessingsbook.com/) Through the pages of Beth’s writing, we’re invited to connect with Celtic practices of gratitude and noticing of blessings in our everyday life. Drawing on her own Celtic heritage, Beth weaves personal story and written blessings into a book you’ll want to have ready for life’s ordinary and extraordinary moments.

…and that’s one of my photos on the cover.

The photo was taken at place on the northern tip of the Isle of Skye in Scotland called “The Quirang” – when Ann and I were there in the fall of 2012. You can see more of the photos of this spectacular location here, and here’s the original photo:

The Quirang – Isle of Skye Scotland – October 2012

The Walter Scott Monument At Night

September 1, 2015

Paul Schatzkin

Digest, photography

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Ann and I spent two weeks on Scotland in October, 2012. I put some (like, 700…) of the photos from that trip onto a digital picture frame that sits on the counter in our kitchen. Lately I’ve been seeing those photos and thinking I need to go through them again, if for no other reason than to share with a Facebook page I contribute to sometimes called “Scotland From The Roadside“

This is one of the first photos from the trip, our first night in Edinburgh – The Sir Walter Scott Monument on Princes Street:

Sir Walter Scott Monument – Princes Street, Edinburgh, Scotland
@edinspotlight @historicscotland @welovehistory @visitscotland @GreatBritain @TwitterUK #scotland #edinburgh #travel #midlothian
©2015 [email protected] aka @driver49

Urquhart Castle The “Watercolor” Version

August 25, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

Digest, photography

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I have been experimenting with some new software that lets me take the hard, realistic quality of a photographic and render it into something a bit softer and more impressionistic – like, in this case, a watercolor painting.

This is image is based on one of the photos I shot as we approached Urquhart Castle, an enormous medieval ruin on the shores of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. The original photo is here. <

I like this one better (the cropping helps, too). Yesterday I couldn’t spell “artist” and today I are one…

@historicscotland @getolympus @visitscotland @GreatBritain @TwitterUKUrquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness near #Inverness —

#Medieval #medievaleurope #instatravel #travelgram #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #ig_masterpiece #picoftheday #instadaily #bestoftheday

These Ruins Are Forever

August 8, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

Digest, photography, travel

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Yet another attempt to come to grips with my “ruin lust,” this time in the form of a “graphic meme” that I posted to Instagram:

These Ruins…they last forever, yet serve as a testament to what does not endure. – Kinloss Abbey, Scottish Highlands – October 2012@Glasgow @Dumfries @AberdeenAngusUK @KingdomOfFife @historicscotland @welovehistory @visitscotland @GreatBritain @TwitterUK #glasgow #dumfries #aberdeen
I’ll he returning to the UK Oct 8-22, #Glasgow, #Dumfries, #KingdomOfFife #AberdeenAngusUK, then…?? Looking to make new friends and contacts, open to ideas for photo destinations re: historic sites, #castles, #abbeys, and above all #ruins Please DM with ideas/suggestions or #follow @driver49. CYA in October?
@getolympus #rainbow #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #featuremeinstagood #ig_masterpiece #ig_great_pics
©2014 [email protected] aka @driver49

The Old Dead and The New Dead

August 8, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

Digest, photography

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The Old Dead and the New Dead – Kinloss Abbey, Scottish Highlands – October 2012

I have been posting images from my two recent (2012 with Ann, 2013 by myself) trips to the United Kingdom, experimenting with Instagram/Twitter hashtags to see the posts might lead to some new contacts and or friends when I return later this year. So far…. not so much.

This is the ruin of Kinloss Abbey on the northeast coast of Scotland. Ann and I found it by accident in the fall of 2012. We’d been to the top of Cairngorm Mountain via the “Funicular Railway” (Google it), didn’t find it all that interesting (might have had something to do with the sub-freezing temperatures and the fact that they didn’t let you out of the visitor center…), so we came back down and just started driving around. We made it as far as the village of Lossiemouth, and found Kinloss on our way back to the B&B where we were staying in Aviemore.

@Glasgow @Dumfries @AberdeenAngusUK @KingdomOfFife @historicscotland @welovehistory @visitscotland @GreatBritain @TwitterUK #glasgow #dumfries #aberdeen
I’ll he returning to the UK Oct 8-22, #Glasgow, #Dumfries, #KingdomOfFife #AberdeenAngusUK, then…?? Looking to make new friends and contacts, open to ideas for photo destinations re: historic sites, #castles, #abbeys, and above all #ruins Please DM with ideas/suggestions or #follow @driver49. CYA in October?
@getolympus #rainbow #photooftheday #thebest_capture #ig_masterpiece #nuriss_tag #awe_inspiringshots #pro_ig #global_highlights #igworldclub #ig_select #editoftheday #capture_today #waycoolshots #featuremeinstagood #ig_masterpiece #ig_great_pics
©2014 [email protected] aka @driver49

New “Portals of Stone” For Your Desktop : Beauly Priory

July 15, 2014

Paul Schatzkin

Digest, photography, travel

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Follow this link to get “Beauly Starscape” for your computer desktop.

Regular visitors to this site will recognize Beauly Priory as the place where, in a real sense, this whole “Portals of Stone” business got started.

Beauly Priory – a small abbey ruin on the Black Isle near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands

It has been almost a year since I’ve created a new “Portals” piece. For much of that time, I’ve been scanning my photo libraries looking for suitable candidates for the “Portals” treatment. I noticed this shot from our (brief) stop at Beauly during our trip to Scotland in the fall of 2012 several months ago and have had it on my “to-do” list ever since.

I finally got around to it this past weekend. and after struggling through re-learning all the software that I need to create these images, I finally came up with the image above.

It’s actually quite fitting that I finally got around to creating a new “Portals” piece over this past weekend, and very much in keeping with the “coming full circle” quality of this particular experience: I’ve been thinking seriously about it for several weeks, and two days after creating and posting this, I booked flights to return to the UK for the singular purpose of expanding on this theme and growing the catalog.

I did not know that I would be creating the “Portals of Stone” series until several weeks after I returned from my Celctic Pilgrimage to the UK in the spring of 2013. And now that the idea has taken root (and seems to be spreading some), I’ve been jonesing to back to that part of the world with that specific purpose in mind.

So come October 7, I’ll be returning to the UK for two weeks. I’ll be flying into Glasgow to see the Cathedral there, which is one of the more spectacular creations of this kind of architectural still standing intact in the UK (so many others were destroyed in the wake of the Dissolution).

From Glasgow I will be heading into Dumfries/Galloway to see (at least) the ruins of Sweetheart Abbey and Caerlaverock Castle, and then I’ll head east to Aberdeen to see St. Andrews Cathedral and Dunnottar Castle. After that, I’m not sure. I might even hop over to Tipperary, Ireland to see the Rock of Cashel.

I mention all this because, after I post this download, I suspect it’s going to travel some. If you’re a new visitor to this site and perhaps live anywhere near the areas I’ve just described, please get in touch with me, perhaps I can visit and avail myself to some of your local knowledge.

Portals of Stone: The 2014 Calendar Version

December 11, 2013

Paul Schatzkin

photography, travel

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And now, a bit of shameless self promotion:

You do know that there’s a new year starting in a few weeks, right?

But… how will you know for sure unless you have a colorful calendar on your wall that reminds you of the fact every 30 days or so?

Oh, sure, that digital thing in your pocket will keep you up to date well enough. But where’s the fun in that. It’s so… one dimensional!

Consider, on the other hand, the three-dimensional, time-warping qualities of these images:

First, they will help you identify the present date. Sure, any calendar can do that, but these calendars also…

…Transport your imagination into a time in the not so distant past (i.e. centuries, not millennia) when great edifices were carved from stone, by hand, and constructed over several decades. Many of which lie in ruin today…

…and through which you are transported into the cosmos and offered a glimpse of the vastness of space and time – in the form of starlight that left its source millions of years ago…as captured by a giant camera/telescope suspended in orbit around the earth.

The images are “Portals of Stone” – rendered in ink, on card stock… a new “portal” every month through the new year.

Just follow the link to see more at…

PORTALSOFSTONE.COM

or follow this easy PayPal button to order yours today: