The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

A beautiful Sunday in northeast Scotland.  Time to get out of the house and see something . . . like Castle Fraser.

With such a nice day, we decided to go and see Castle Fraser, not far from our Aberdeen home. These are the garden walls of Castle Fraser.

It is late summer in Aberdeenshire now and the cows graze in golden fields that surround Castle Fraser.

Even if there were no castle or gardens to gawk at, the walk from the car park was beautiful on this clear day.

Castle Fraser, for may centuries the ancestral clan home of the a Fraser Clan built in 1575.  Magnificent.

The staff buildings of Castle Fraser.

The castle gate leading to the the workshops.  We had a fine lunch at the cafe here.

We enjoyed walking around the castle and gasping at it's grandeur . . . but I was also curious about the garden.

The garden was held within high brick walls, and behind tall hedges within the wall.

The center of the garden held a formal plan, with the flower and vegetable beds arranged around it.

The sun was so bright and clear, perfect for photographing the luscious flowers.

Lovely flowers everywhere.

As it is late summer, some of the flowers had already been in bloom and left their beautiful seed pods.

I could not help but smile at this happy flower bed.

A puff of white filament.

Many kinds of vines and climbing plants were arrayed around the garden walls.

Flowers and a climbing apple tree.

This is the first climbing apple tree I have ever seen.

While browsing the flower beds my eye caught these BLACK flowers!  Incredible!  What are they?

It was so bright and they were so dark . . . it was impossible to find the right camera settings.

I suppose I could have put on my polarizing filter . . .

I enjoyed shooting the various flowers from various angles to catch the various lighting effects.

We spent a wonderful couple of hours at Castle Fraser, even though we never went into the actual castle itself . . . next time.  COSTCO was beckoning!