The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

This is what we came for . . . The British Touring Car Championship series race at the Knockhill Circuit.

My friend Steve and I drove the 1 1/2 hours south from Aberdeen to Knockhill Race Track to attend the Saturday qualifying sessions of the British Touring Car race series event.  It is the closest-to-Aberdeen big race of the year.  Lots of people from Edinburgh showed up.

Knockhill is a very well developed track:  they have all kinds of races from every vehicle type imaginable (4X4, motocross, super bikes, and carting).  They had a "Karting Experience" program running on Saturday for the kids.

Knockhill is a sweet little course with a nice 'down home' feel.  The racers say it is their favorite course on the race calendar.

We walked around the pits and admired the race car preparation.  This is a modified spec V-6 in the Ginetta GT4 class car.

The course is small, but the organization is very professional.

There were five different classes on the grounds with five separate race series races on the program.  This car was competing in the "entry level" UK Renault Cleo Cup Championship series.

The Cleo Cup cars were very well prepared.  They were hardly entry level . . . most had large race operations in the pits with semi trucks and trailers and other support vehicles, tents, and the like.

The true entry level class, and breeding ground for future racing talent, was the Ginetta Junior Championship cars.

Small and light with a spec engine, they were fast and the racing was close.  Most were driven by 15-18 year olds.

There were also Ginetta GT4 Championship cars.

The Ginetta GT4 cars were very fast. They also have a spec engine, but with much more horsepower.  They made a beautiful sound from their modified V-6 race engines.

Steve and I walked completely around the race track . . . along the way we found a gaggle of photographers and we stopped there during the Ginetta GT4 qualifying session.

We figured out why all the photographers were in the same place . . . it was where the cars were most likely to spin.

The race fans enjoyed the marshals attempts to extricate the Ginetta GT4 from the sand trap.

There was also a GB Porsche Carrera Cup race on Saturday.  We didn't pay too much attention to these . . .

There were many Ford EcoBoost MSA Championship open wheel race cars present.

Identical race cars make for some very close racing.  These are the current form of what used to be called Formula Ford.

The open wheel race cars were very fast.

Light weight and small turbocharged engines . . . a great combination.

This was the real race, not a qualifying session, so the drivers were pushing hard.

Some pushed a little too hard.

Eventually there was mayhem at the sharp curve we watched from . . . lucky me.

The top class present was the British Touring Car Championship.

The BTCC racers were serious, world class, cutting edge race cars.

The British Touring Cars are serious business:  the manufacturers are heavily behind the teams both financially and technically.

BMW, Ford, Audi, Honda, Mercedes, Chevrolet, VW, MG, Toyota, and Nissan all had factory teams at Knockhill.  These are the race versions of the 'hot hatch' coupes and sedans that you can buy at your local dealerships.

Did I mention the BTCC cars were wicked fast?  They did not hold back . . . and attacked the course.  This Mercedes factory race car was trying hard during qualifying.

A Chevrolet going high over the banana curbs.

Some were trying a little too hard and ended up in the kitty litter, like this factory Honda.

It was interesting watching free practice as the drivers experimented with different lines though different corners . . . all of them settled on the line that launched them into the air at this corner.

Flying and drafting!

Knockhill Flyers!

A VW Passat being thrown around the course.  Wonderful.

We stayed through the BTCC qualifying and the open wheel formula Ford race, then headed home as satisfied race car fans . . . like this guy.

I'm havbg a pretty good time volunteering at the Grampian Transport Museum in Alford, Scotland.  This past week-end I volunteers at the All Ford meet.  The photos speak for themselves . .  over 250 entries:

We were just back form our vacation in Poland and my wife had a golf tournament in Angus, Scotland at the Brechin Golf Course. GREAT!  I let her off at the course and headed the few miles down the road to the fascinating village of Brechin.  It was a windy and overcast day, typical of the "summer" we have had in Scotland this year.  I love the color of the fields when they begin to turn from greet to yellow.

You see the most interesting monuments out in the countryside of Scotland.  At first glance I thought this could be one of the ubiquitous WWI monuments or a Queen Victoria marker.  I'm not really sure what it was, it had an Angus Utilities marker on it, but also this memorial to the Police Commissioners.

The village of Brechin had a lot of Old World 12th century charm. 

The main attraction in the village is the Brechin Cathedral and Round Tower.  The Round Tower dates from the year 1000 and the Cathedral from the 13th century.

A grey and cloudy day is not  bad time to take photographs in the Cathedral graveyard.

There were some very photogenic lichen and moss encrusted old stones here.

These weathered and worn grave stones convey the passing of time better than a pristine and dated stone.

Wonderful surface . . . telling the story of nature and man's place in it.

What can I say . . . I love these old grave stones as visual objects of beauty above and beyond their symbolic or 'religeous' identities.

I took many photos of these grave stones in the cloudy gloom when I arrived, only to re-shoot them when a patch of bright sunlight passed over the great cathedral.

Sweet angle.

Wonderful stone work.

Sweet light.

With the wind blowing and a few errant rain drops falling, I decided to visit the Cathedral interior.

I walked around the exterior of the great cathedral and saw many wonderful things.

13th century stonework.

13th century door handles?  Perhaps.

A side door into the Brechin Cathedral.

A empty medieval stone sarcophagus alongside the cathedral.

The  door to the Brechin Tower was about 7 feet off the ground . . . to make it difficult to storm.  They had some good ideas in 998.

The cathedral had some wonderful architectural features.  I have a big interest in the aesthetics of these old doors.

The sun came out, at last.  What a magnificent Medieval cathedral.  Time to see what the interior is like.

The cathedral main entrance.

The interior was sumptuous.

Beautiful interior detailing and architecture.

Brechin Cathedral is known of its fine original Medieval stained glass windows, some of the finest in the UK.

A steady stream of pilgrims/tourists came and went.  It was absolutely silent in this space.

The cathedral is an active church and the out buildings act as administrative offices for the northeast of Scotland.

The proportions and dimensions of this cathedral are impressive.  The longer I stayed inside the more I appreciated it.

Wonderful stained glass framed by the pipe organ.

I decided to change lenses from my 18-55mm to a much wider 10-24mm to see if I couldn't get more of the interior in . . . the effect was amazing, as you can see from this shot at 10mm.

The wide angle lens takes in so much more . . .

Even though it was quite dark in the cathedral (and it was cloudy outside), I was able to brace the camera against one of the pews to steady this shot up into the rafters.

The pews in magic light.

I had a good time figuring out my camera settings in this challenging light.

I spent nearly an hour inside the Brechin Cathedral framing photos and sitting quietly in Buddhist meditation.

I waited around outside the cathedral for quite a while with the wide angle lens on for a passing splash of sunlight to get this photo.

After a wonderful hour spent in and a  round the amazing Brechin Cathedral and tower, I decided to go freewheeling around the old village.

Like so many villages I've visited in Scotland, Brechin was beautifully maintained and clean for the most part.

Such a quaint down town!

It is a little odd to find a vet supply house in such a small town . . . and in such a small building!

Walking from the old town center towards the countryside, I saw a row of abandoned buildings.  This is not a bad thing . . . if you like old restored buildings you have to keep the old unrestored buildings around!  These places will live again.

One can only guess what has taken place in the Brechin Arena . . .

I love the ambiance of these old towns in rural Scotland.  On one side of the street are dilapidated buildings, and on the other . . .

. . . colorful row houses.

Brechin is built atop a hill and has many steep hills.

Built of pinkish stone, Brechin exudes a sense of its own history.  Also note the huge security camera . . . the UK has more security cameras per capita than any country in the world . . . .

Staying the same while always changing . . . The Swan  . . . Tandoori . . .

I walked back up the hill and through the town and noticed that there was definitely a poor part of town and a rich part of town.  Interestingly, this house engraved both the dates of its construction (1781) . . . and the date it was extended (1911).

Lovely old town. The ornate building in the background has had several lives: community center, high school, and now the Mechanics Hall.

I walked as far as the Brechin Castle gate.  I hoped to walk up the drive to see the castle, but there were private property signs posted. I ran into an old retired man on the street late who told me  I should have ignored the sign.  He admired my camera and we chatted about photography for a while.

The Brechin Castle gate house was fabulous!

The castle gate house had a lovely . . . er . . . gate.

There are always many 'still life' studies to be found in these old towns.

Mid summer greenery.

Summer vacation . . . time for some forest walks.  This is a map of the area around the Bin Forest, outside of Huntly, Scotland.  The blue double loop trail is the Queen Tree Walk . . . about 5 miles altogether.

The Aberdeenshire countryside around Huntly (seen at right) is beautiful at any time of year.

The Queen Tree Walk is well maintained and easy to walk.

This is a managed forest . . . planted and cut many times throughout history.

The walk presented many photographic challenges . . . I lost many photos to difficult lighting.

There was a lot to see . .  including some exposed geology . . .

. . . and ferns, lots of ferns.

And a few flowers.  I do not know if these are wild or the remnant of some forgotten farmstead.

The scenery was serene and quiet, except for an occasional rush of wind trough the high branches.

We enjoyed the walk immensely.

The trail was very well marked . . . we didn't get lost.

I saw this bouquet stuffed in the crotch of a tree out in the forest.  I don't know why, but it was such a strong image.

I had fun trying to think through what a good forest still life portrait might look like.

Except for a few steep sections, the trail was mostly flat.  We enjoyed ourselves and only had a few drops of rain fall. [All of these photos were taken with the Fuji X-E1 camera and 27mm f2.8 lens.]

The River North Esk, Angus, Scotland.  A remarkable river cutting though some strange geology and some of the most beautiful forest scenery ever.

Just outside of the pretty village of Edzell, where a bridge crosses the North Esk River, which denotes the boundary between the shires of Angus and Aberdeenshire, is a blue door.  Her begins the Blue Door Nature Trail.

 The Blue Door trail follows along the North Esk River through a magnificent old forest.

The trail itself is made of crushed acorns . . . it is very easy walking.  Mountain bikes prohibited.

There are many views from the trail down to the North Esk River.

So much natural beauty.

The geology revealed by the North Esk was very complex.  Striped, layered formations laying horizontally across the river.  This is known as the Deerhope Formation and is a sequence, up to 155 m thick, of cross-stratified sandstones, including one major conglomeratic interval.

Then I came upon this forest scene.  Magic. Where are the Hobbits?

We will go back and hike up to the waterfall and standing stone columns.  This is perhaps one of the most beautiful nature trail I have ever walked outside of Oregon.  Impressive.

Scotland is full of wonder.