The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

I had a week of vacation in February 2015 so I decided to take a couple of days and drive the two hours north to the mythical village of Findhorn, on the Moray coast.  I say mythical because during the high times of the 1960's hippie days (daze?), stories from and about 'Findhorn' (actually the Findhorn Foundation, one of the first intentional communities . . . essentially a commune) played large in the mythopoetics of the counter culture.  Tales of giant vegetables, communing with extra terrestrials, and telepathy were often associated with 'Findhorn.'  But Findhorn is also a quaint village and one-time major sea port.  I stayed in the 287 year old Crown and Anchor Inn.  Lovely.

 

I was very lucky with the weather . . . well, the light , anyway.  The temperature was around 36f (3c) in the daytime and 32f (0c) at night.  Good fro February.  Findhorn village was a treat to photograph.

 

Years of salty wind has weathered the town.

 

I scouted the town for lighting conditions before I brought my camera out (Fuji X-T1 with 56mm f1.2 lens).

 

The colors and textures of the aging surfaces were beautiful.  I enjoyed this door with the home-made vent holes.

 

I took a walk out on the 300 year old quay to get a look at Findhorn.

 

Time, weather, sea water, and an invisible hand . . . .

 

I have no idea how old these quay stanchions are . . . hundreds of years?

 

Too much color and texture.

 

The village of Findhorn has a lot of Old World charm.

 

Lovely old stone buildings with slate roofs.

 

I enjoyed walking around in the quiet streets and lanes, looking for color and pattern.

 

The house next to the Crown & Anchor Inn was lovely.

 

Although it was late Winter, everything was trimmed in Findhorn Village and waiting for Spring.

 

In these far northern latitudes it seems like every hour is the golden hour for photography.

 

You could make a fine arts book on these small Scottish coastal village houses.  Such a warm and lovely feeling.

 

The austere rough stone masonry has a beauty all its own.  I like it . . . it is so organic.

 

Nice color at this artist's house.

 

The main avenue in Findhorn makes a loop . . . and comes back around to this church.

 

Along the end, and behind the town of Findhorn is the North Sea.

 

I wasn't the only person out along the sea coast . . . but this man was a bird watcher . . . he had strong binoculars only.

 

I went to the beach several times, once along this foot path.

 

The sun came and went all day long.  The beach access though the dunes.

 

Very handy.

 

The inviting North Sea.

 

The wind was so strong it blew the sand from around any pilings around. . .

 

FINDHORN FOUNDATION - the place hippie dreams are made of.Although Findhorn village was sweet and quaint, I had come to pay my respects, and to personally see for myself, the famous Findhorn community, or commune as we hippies thought of it in the late 1960s, now known as the  Findhorn Foundation.

 

I thought it funny how few expectations I had about Findhorn  before coming here.  I only knew of the stories of a community in Scotland that had people who could communicate with the nature spirits . . . who rewarded them with giant vegetables that grew out of unfertile, rocky soil.

 

This could be anywhere in Jackson or Josephine counties in Oregon . . . hippie architectural chic.

 

Findhorn community was a trailer park (caravan park in the UK) before it was an intentional community and ecovillage.  There are still some wonderful old trailer homes dotted around the property.  This one has the requisite gnome and Beatles homage display. I'm glad there are trailer homes here . .  if one is a renunciant, living a spiritual life, it doesn't really matter what you live in . . . and better to recycle than to cut trees or use other energy sources to construct a house . . .

 

On the other hand, there were clusters of these rather Scandinavian eco-condos around the property as well.  This is a part of the Findhorn Ecovillage, I think.  I didn't get a map at the visitors center.

 

It was a beautiful morning . . . the earliest signs of impending Spring were everywhere.

 

There were plenty of unconventional structures everywhere . . . .

 

It was nice to see that there is another spiritual traveller on this planet who will return again because of attachments to fast and cool cars.  Yes, this is a 1953 MG-TD.  Findhorn is NOT a monastery.

 

There are many interesting things to look at around Findhorn.  The old sits beside the new and the funky beside the modern.

 

The '60s counter culture aesthetic abound.

 

The Findhorn Foundation runs a program of spiritual and therapeutic workshops throughout the year.  I am assuming these come from a sensitivity training workshop, but I am at a loss as to how the therapist/facilitator uses them.  Very photographically interesting, however.

 

This is the current Findhorn Foundation program as of April 1, 2015.

 

I hoped these were where they were as a result of a Graffiti and The Self workshop.

 

Workshop activity or resident youth protestation, or both?

 

I'm glad I had my camera with me . . .

 

I am in the habit as seeing human artifacts as just that: the work of an individual person on a particular day and time.  I have this feel about almost everything I see and touch that is of human origin.

 

The sales office trailer home for the new, yet to be started, condominium project - £78,000.oo for a one bedroom flat.

 

Time and weather.

 

A good place for  old friends to meet and shoot the spiritual breeze . . . some time ago.  How about fixing this one up . . .

 

I decided to see if I could find my way from the Ecovillage through the dunes and on to the North Sea.  There must be a path.

 

Indeed, there was a beautiful path though an extraordinary wood.

 

The woods are managed, not wild.

 

A quiet wood.

 

If you erect a wind power generating tower near a hippie commune you have to expect the graffiti is going to be cosmic.

 

The wooded path led me through the dunes.

 

The Scots are great about providing well marked trails through nature . . . nature walks everywhere.

 

Down to the beach . . . again.

 

The dunes were sandy, but the beach was a stretch of small pebbles for five miles all the way to Burghead.

 

A stones' throw from the spiritual community were these WWII bunkers that had been eroded into the sea . . . I guess there might be a silver lining to this sea level rise . . . .

 

WWII bunker . . .

 

BurgheadI spent a good part of each day exploring the other seaside villages in the area.  This is Burghead . . . a village built on a small peninsula.  The town is surrounded on three sides by the North Sea.

 

Fishermen's houses in Burghead . . . a very windswept and austere town.

 

Burghead harbour looking west from up on the promontory park at the end of the town.

 

The views from the Burghead Visitors Center looking east were scrumptious.  I could barely stand up or hold the camera steady in the 80-90kph wind!.

 

The Burghead Visitors Center marks the end of the peninsula . . . along with a monument marking the site of an ancient Pictish fort dating back thousands of years.  In fact, Burghead is believed to be the city Castra Alata in Ptolemy's early geography of the British Isles.

 

Not much is left of the Pictish fort as a result of the harbour construction in the 19th century.  The ocean views here were fantastic. The wind was incredible!

 

These homes were situated out on the unsheltered tip of the Burghead peninsula. 

 

Every house in Burghead has this view of Findhorn Bay.

 

I drove through the little sea port town of Hopeman on my way to Lossiemouth.  I loved the place names in Moray.

 

Although most of the coast is rocky, there are are also beautiful beaches around Hopeman.

 

The sea and beaches here were beautiful, but there were many low flying jet planes near Findhorn and Lossiemouth, both of which have major British Airforce bases nearby.

 

The road into Lossiemouth passed yet another golf course.  Yes, Scotland is the home of golf and you see golf courses everywhere you go.  I tried to go to that lighthouse you can see in the background but failed to find the access road!  I was disappointed.

 

Lossiemouth has been a settlement or town for over 1000 years.  It also has a fine, photogenic harbour.

 

The city fathers of Lossiemouth did a fine of developing the old warehouses along the quay into shops and restaurants.

 

Lossiemouth harbour is protected by mammoth sea walls.  The North Sea is a wild sea.

 

A wonderful old launch and it's reflection at rest in Lossiemouth Harbour.

 

A surreal Lossiemouth breakwater holding back the pulses of the North Sea.

 

Many beautiful scenes to see . . .

 

I stopped in at a picturesque 19th century hotel for a delicious double latte.

 

There was a nice beach just outside of Lossiemouth.

 

Lossiemouth beach access.

 

I hated to leave Lossiemouth and vowed to return one day to explore it more thoroughly.  But I had a few stops marked on the map to see before it got dark . . .and I didn't want to be out on the small roads on my way back to Aberdeen in the dark.

 

My next stop was the rural Birnie Kirk, founded in 1040, but burned and sacked many times. The structure you see here is still the original 12th century construction.

 

The old folk had no trouble accepting the fact that we would be bones one day . . . and our dearly departed would be bones too.  I've seen these skull and bones grave stones throughout Scotland.

 

Although it was a beautiful (but cold) day when I was there, the moss and lichen on these grave stones indicate a wetter climate.

 

Birnie Kirkegaard (that's 'churchyard' in Danish) was a beautiful place to contemplate my mortality.

 

Ironically, although it was mid-winter, the first signs of an approaching Spring I had seen this year were these snow drops blooming on the graves at Birnie Kirke.

 

I really enjoyed hustling my little boy-racer Juke NISMO around the twisty country lanes of Moray.  It is the perfect car for this purpose . . . it even has torque-vectored AWD for when the road gets slick.  Fun, fun, fun.

 

A perfect mid-February winter's day in Moray, Scotland.

 

The Amazing Spynie PalaceSometimes you get lucky.  While driving home to Aberdeen on a small shire road I spotted a sign that directed me up a drive to Spynie Palace.  I arrived at this gate house and parked.

 

I had no idea what to expect as I walked up the tree lined gravel road.  It was a perfect day.

 

I began to make out the shape of something though the trees . . . .

 

At last  . . .  I got a good glimpse of the palace tower.  Wow.

 

There it is.  Wow!  Spynie Palace, also known as Spynie Castle, was the fortified seat of the Bishops of Moray for about 500 years. The founding of the palace dates back to the late 12th Century.

 

Talk about serendipity! Spynie  Palace has a fabulous history . . . "Ruxby, an agent provocateur of Elizabeth I of England, who had tried to lead Mary, Queen of Scots, into a plot with English Roman Catholics, was imprisoned in Spynie Castle in 1566 for eighteen months.

 

The palace is surrounded by spectacular Scottish countryside.

 

The clear light, deep shadow, and color of sky and castle were perfectly coordinated for these wonderful photographs. 

 

I enjoyed walking around the tower thinking about what would make an interesting angle for a photograph.  I didn't have to think too much . . . . I'm glad I had my new polarizing filter with me to try out.

 

There was a visitors' center . . . closed except for the toilets (thank goodness!).

 

This was the only decorative element on the otherwise austere tower structure.

 

Spynie Palace was built in many phases over it's 900 year history.  The chapel (left) and other structures were under restoration by Historic Scotland, which I am a member.

 

Chapel and quarters.

 

Partially restored chapel and former main gate.

 

The Moray countryside in winter on a clear, cold day.

 

I took hundreds of great photos here . . . but, alas, I can only share a few of them here.  It was a magic afternoon in Scotland.

 

I'll be back in the summer to be able to go inside the tower.

 

I made a wrong turn, as if pulled by an inviable force, into a little village and suddenly stopped beside a dilapidated corrugated shed . . . my obsession!

 

I made it home before dark, and this big rain cloud . . . . Another memorable couple of days in Scotland.

In mid-February 2015 I was back down in England for this year's UCAS Conference . . . in the 'New Town' of Telford.  There is absolutely nothing to see in Telford other than the International Conference Center outside of town.  So . . . we took the train back in to Birmingham on a nice Saturday before the conference.

 

I like Birmingham downtown.  It is a very good example of urban renewal.  Victoria Square is very charming.

 

There is a very nice collection of public art here and there throughout the walking street areas.

 

Even the commercial buildings from a long past era looked well scrubbed and pretty in the late morning light.

 

Victoria Square in the morning . . . beautiful light.

 

We took the reliable trains from Telford to Birmingham, and later to Shrewsbury.

 

Winter Train no.12.  I had my small Fuji and the pancake lens with me and took this secret shot of a woman sitting across from me.  This photo would make the perfect cover to a blues cd . . . any blues cd!

 

After my last session at the conference we raced to the train station to get West to Wales and the old town of Shrewsbury.  The late afternoon countryside was sumptuous.

 

The English countryside in Winter . . . from the train heading West.

 

We arrived at the old Shrewsbury Station with an hour of light left.

 

Shrewsbury old town was just around from the train station.  Shrewsbury dates from prehistoric times.

 

Such a beautiful old town.  We found the castle and looked a round before going through this gate to the old town center.

 

Shrewsbury Castle was shrouded by the bare branches and limbs of Winter.

 

I love the look of the old oxblood Tudor buildings.

 

Signs of the age, and the aging, of Shrewsbury could be found everywhere.

 

The sun went goes down very early this far North at this time of year . . . around 4:30pm.

 

We snooped around some shops on the high street.  Ye Olde Sweet Shoppe had a couple of fun young people getting ready to close.  They said they liked living in Shrewsbury.

 

We found a nice place to eat - French with a special of the day that included a bottle of wine . . . I think we drank to much.  When we stumbled out into the Medieval streets of Shrewsbury it was already dark.

 

The streets were quiet . . . and empty.

 

Such a pretty shop widow to be opening onto such an empty street.

 

You see very little of this beam and plaster construction in Scotland.

 

We walked back to the beautiful old station to catch our train back to Telford.

 

We enjoyed our4 hours in Shrewsbury and vowed to return to see more of it.

 

MORE POSTINGS FROM TELFORD . . . TO COME!

I have three weeks off for Christmas/New Years holiday every year.  Neither of us had ever been to South America, so why not this year.  There are many issues and complications for my wife to get visas in many South American countries, but Argentina was most amenable . . . and number one on my list of places to see was Tierra del Fuego and the high dessert passes of the Andes mountain range . . . Argentina had both!  So we set off from Aberdeen International Airport one cold December morning bound for Buenos Aires, via Frankfurt, Germany! 23 hours later we landed in Argentina!

Our trip plan was to spend equal amounts of time exploring the city of Buenos Aires, experiencing adventures in nature around the Patagonian town of Ushuaia, and the wine producing area around Mendoza, which also served as a gateway to the high Andes.

 

We arrived late in Buenos Aires and made our way to our boutique hotel in the Palermo district.  It was wonderfully warm in the evening, as Argentina was in their summer months.

 

The next day was a Sunday, so we took the underground to the famous Sunday Street market.  I loved the street art in Buenos Aires.

 

Buenos Aires is a very colorful city.  Now I know why the police wear the bright orange vests - urban camouflage!

 

There were many street performers out, like this puppeteer.

 

The street market was in a part of town that had many antique and knick-knack shops.

 

This [embossing?] machine was just waiting for a collector.

 

We spent the next three days exploring the vast city by foot . . . and shopping. I discovered this sculpture 'grave yard' for old statuary . . . and perhaps some new ones.  Very photogenic.  I took many, many photos in Buenos Aires and will, in the near future post the rest of the good ones here.  BE PATIENT!

 

Ushuaia - The End of The World!

From the lovely warmth of Buenos Aires, we arrived back in the cold again in Ushuaia - fin del mundo.

 

The views of the southern Andes were breathtaking.

 

Ushuaia harbour, where cruise ships stop for supplies, and specialized ships depart for Antarctica.  The city of Ushuaia is the furthest south of any city on earth.

 

The sunsets from our hotel room in Ushuaia were magnificent.

 

We had several meals of Patagonian King Crab.  Extraordinarily yummy!

 

It was mid-summer in Ushuaia and the flowers were all in bloom.

 

The poppies were especially beautiful.

 

Unfortunately, all the small over night cruise ships to the local glaciers were booked even before we decided to go to Patagonia (we tried to book in September), however, good guide books suggested hiring a taxi for the day in front of the ship passenger terminal, which we did one day.  We went out to the Tierra del Fuego National Park which is adjacent to Ushuaia.  We saw a lot there, and I will post more photos soon.  This is a beaver dam.

 

One of our days in Ushuaia was wet, so we took a half-day bus tour north up into the southern Andes.  Marvelous views all the way.  We stopped often at all the points of interest.  We were glad we took the tour . . . we saw so much beauty.

 

We had an excellent and informative bus tour guide.

 

The bus tour went as far north as Fagnano Lake.

 

It was hard to believe that this was a lake!  Lake Fagnano is fed by high Andean glaciers which give it the distinctive green color.

 

We drove back to Ushuaia through the high pass of the south Andes.

 

The following day we took another tour, this time to a science center that finds and preserves whale bones for display in museums around the world . . . whales that have dies a natural death.  The tour also would take us to see PENGUINS!

 

It was summer in Patagonia and the place was alive with flowers.  Our penguin expedition  left from an old homestead.

 

It was a grey and damp day when we headed off to see the penguins.

 

We took an inflatable boat out to an island  . . . .

 

The island was full of hundreds of penguins . . . of different varieties.

 

Our eco guides taught us how to act and react to penguins (move slowly and do not reach out to them or give them anything).

 

There were penguins everywhere!

 

Penguins are not shy.  I guess they thought we were just really tall penguins.

 

There were many pairs of penguins.

 

Because penguins are not shy, I could go right up to them and take close-up photographs.  Fantastic!

 

A mother penguin protecting her little gosling.

 

We returned to Ushuaia after a quick stop at this vintage Patagonian out house.

 

Patagonia was wonderful, but we said good-bye . . . and flew off to Mendoza in the far airid northwest of Argentina.

 

MENDOZA

Our time in Mendoza was split in three (3) parts, with a return to the city each evening. 1) The desert road and winding dirt road up the mountains on Argentina Highway 52; 2) The Uco Valley wine growing region an hour out of the city (and a surprise!); and 3) The drive up Argentina Highway 7 to the Chilean boarder through the magnificent high Andes arid pass.

Central Mendoza was a tree-lined and charming old provincial town.

 

The city is built around Independence Park, where people congregate in the evenings.

 

As Highway 52 left the city of Mendoza, the houses became older and made of adobe.

 

A cactus in the sky.

 

As is often the case in a desert environment, there are different zones created by differences in elevation, moisture, and soil . . each with its own unique flora and fauna:  I passed through a zone of cacti.

 

Driving through the high desert scrub brush towards the Andes on Highway 52 . . . one of my favorite things to do is drive on small desert roads with the horizon far off at the end of a ribbon . .  and the windows all open with the radio loud.  I hadn't done that in a long tome.  Too long.

 

Such a lovely place!

 

A white Catholic altar . . . in the middle of nowhere . . . made it somewhere.

 

The weather alternated between cloudy with a light sprinkle and bright sunshine.

 

As I neared the base of the Andean foothills, I came upon a zone inhabited by Alpacas, a relative of the Llama.

 

The group of Alpacas stopped to check me out.  They are ridiculous with cuteness!

 

This is what I had come to see . . .

 

. .  the secret valleys up along the twisting gravel mountain road.  Astonishing!  This is my favorite topology and geography. 

 

And by 'Twisty Road' I mean very twisty road!

 

Just me, my rent-a-car, and a winding mountain track.  I loved driving up into the hills on this road.

 

I ran out of time before I ran out of wonder - I didn't want to drive back in the dark.  The view from the top was vast.

 

I had to chuckle at this sign . . . . talk about understatement!

 

I saw one other Alpaca high up on the mountain side.

 

I got out of the car and took a short walk to a promontory overlooking the big plain, the Pampas, of Argentina.  There were beautiful plants in bloom . . . and hungry wasps.

 

I took in one last grand view and drove back down the mountain to Mendoza. The next day, New Years Day, we would go to the Uco Valley vineyards.

 

We got up early, even though we had celebrated New Years Eve at a fun party with a bunch of vacationing Brazilians at the Hilton the night before.  The Uco Valley also had beautiful old adobe vineyard structures.

 

I love the character, like a face, of old doors and windows,  I was in photographers' heaven with these examples.

 

Old doors . . . what is the enticement for me?

 

It was a beautiful day for a drive around the vineyards of Uco Valley.  If you have ever had Argentine wine it probibly came from this valley.

 

We found a gourmet restaurant out in the vineyards and had a fabulous lunch.  The owner made some nice art with his empty wine bottles.

 

This old wall, something out of the 19th century, gave me the feeling of an era gone by.

 

We saw many of these roadside shrines along the hilly road back to Mendoza from the Uco Vally.  They were either 'Lets hope the Virgin Mary can assure good brakes' shrines, or were shrines to someone who lost their life on the highway nearby.  I stopped at a couple of them.  The next day my wonderful wife booked a surprise!!!

 

The surprise was a day spent at a mountain hot springs spa!  Win Win!

 

A natural hot spring has fed the spa for over a hundred years.

 

A little cold glacial water from the river is added to each pool so that they become progressively less hot the further down you go.  You start at the bottom and work your way up until you arrive at the pool that is cooking you.  I got cooked . . . turned lobster red and had to be told to get out and get in the cooling shed!  We spent a wonderfully relaxing day at the spa.  The price included a "buffet lunch" . . . which turned out to be a feast of every kind of food know to mankind . . . from Japanese to Indian, to health food, to Argentine delicacies, all of it delicious.  We stuffed ourselves!

 More to come!

 

 

We took a late November 2014 day trip to see the quaint seaside villages of Gardenstown and Pennan.

 

The quaint village of Pennan, Scotland hugs the North Sea.  It's hard to believe that such beautiful places exist!

 

Only one fishing boat left in the Pennan harbour.

 

A dark and stormy morning in Pennan.

 

Tucked in behind the village was a remarkable cottage.  Amazing!  I want to live here!  There was a small inn in Pennan (closed) that we vowed to stay in come Spring.

 

We drove along the narrow country lanes of north Aberdeenshire.

 

We followed the road signs to down a steep hill to Gardenstown.

 

I loved these Gardenstown fishermens' sheds.

 

Gardenstown is still a fishing community, but most of its income now comes from tourism and movie production (the TV series The Barons was filmed here).

 

All of Gardenstown's streets ran down to the sea.

 

A picture perfect seaside village.

 

We walked out to the edge of Gardenstown to take in the view looking East - before returning to the town for a drink.

 

The pub company was good at the 18th century Garden Arms Hotel.

 

We drove further west along the north coast to McDuff, where we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner.  It was a wonderful day on the stormy Scottish coast.

For an October Monday night concert in Glasgow, I had to panic out of my office and make a mad three hour drive to Glasgow to get to the arena in time for the concert.  I decided not to take my camera in and just enjoy the music.  I'm glad I did.  James Taylor puts on a wonderful, warmhearted concert of outstanding music.  He is just as good, if not better, than he has ever been.  His band is great and his cast of sidemen and women were worth the price of admission in their own right.  This is the iPhone photo from the night.

 

We made a quick trip to Glasgow to take in a James Taylor Concert.

 

The cocert was on a Monday night, so I had to take a 'Personal Day' off from work . . .  which meant we could take in a little shopping in Glasgow before we took the three hour drive back home to Aberdeen.

 

The old downtown shopping area has been nicely redeveloped into walking streets and these marvelous Victorian gallerias.

 

This galleria had some incredible woodwork . . .

 

. . . and a wonderful greenhouse roof. 

 

There were some fine photo opportunities in these galleries.  I LOVE this ____________ playing.

 

We took some 'B-Roads' home to check out a couple of castles we hadn't seen yet. Unfortunately we got here too late (only 15 minutes of opening time remained) to pay the 30 pounds entry fee.

 

They wouldn't even let us walk in the castle gardens!  I stole this shot over their garden wall.  So there!