The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

In mid July 2014 we loaded up the car and headed out for a two week road trip up to the Orkney Islands and returning along the top of Scotland and the northwest coast.  AMAZING BEAUTY!

The northernmost parts of Scotland were our objective.  From Aberdeen to Inverness and then on up to the ferry crossing at John O'Groats to the Orkney Islands, then back along the top of mainland Scotland and on down the North West coast to Ullapool before returning to Inverness and then home.

There are no large, divided highways in the North of Scotland.  As a result, the route luckily passes through many small villages.

I picked up my wonderful wife in McDuff, after her golf tournament.  We headed to Inverness for the first night.  The River Ness passes through Inverness.

Inverness is a city of church spires, old bridges, and castles.

Inverness Castle.

A scene along a sunny summer Inverness street.  Very pleasant.

If you know me, then you know I love the blues music.  This busker, the one-man Bang On Boogie Band, was fabulous.  He played several of my requests, and I rewarded him handsomely.

Of course, I couldn't pass up taking photos of old windows and doors . . . as is my custom.

We terried in the berg of John O'Groats before going out to the ferry terminal.  Here we have the Maritime Museum.

We enjoy poking around the craft shops in small Scottish towns.  This one was a cooperative . . . and we bought a few nice things here.

I milled around a crabbers' dock snapping away.  That's the ferry terminal and dock in the distance.

A heavy mist engulfed us as we neared the ferry terminal at John O'Groats, the furthest point North of the mainland UK.

We waited in line for the ferry boarding.  In the summer high tourist season, you have to book in advance for the Orkney Island ferry - we did months before.

I walked around the ferry staging area looking for nautical photos as we waited.

Looking back along the coast to John O'Groats.

At last our ferry to the Orkney Islands arrived.

We drove as far north as you can go and then boarded a ferry to the Orkney Islands.

The view on the ferry crossing was mystical.

Small islands in the Orkney chain appeared in the murky gloom . . . and disappeared.

Our first view of Orkney Island late in the late afternoon.  We drove across several smaller islands (South Ranaldsay and Burray Islands) before having a major drama finding the owner of our self-catering apartment in Kirkwall . . . to get the keys.  It took hours, but the silver lining was discovering a nice Chinese restaurant right across the street.  There is a Chinese restaurant in every single town in Scotland, no matter how small or remote!  The owner's daughter finally showed with the keys . . . but not until we had a nice Chinese meal.  We went to sleep early.

The next morning we followed the GPS to the little town (pop. 2,100) of Stromness for a walk and some lunch.

We spend most of the rest of the day snooping around in the narrow streets of this 16th century fishing village.

Stromness was extremely photogenic.

Stromness is not a tourist town . . . it is a living, active fishing community.

We had five perfect days of weather on beautiful Orkney . . . a rare occurrence we were told.

The many bays and inlets of Orkney Island offered stunning views.

Many wrecks litter the Orkney coast.

Stunning views everywhere.  Not only inlets of the North Sea, but freshwater lakes everywhere.

Orkney is the site of some of the most significant archeological sites in the world.  This is the 5000 year old Ring of Brodgar.

Prehistoric archeological monuments and sites abound on Orkney.  This is the Ring of Brodgar.

The Standing Stones of Stennes.

Powerful.

Remnants of pre-history litter Orkney.

On the Bay of Skaill, sit of the most complete neolithic human habitation ever found.

Skara Brae, a complete neolithic village left just as it was during a storm 6000 years when it was abandoned.  The cookery and utensils were still in place, as was the stone slab furniture . . . like a Flintstones house . . . but the real thing.

A beautiful manor house, Skaill House, near Skara Brae.

Orkney is crisscrossed by ancient stone walls which show the effects of wind and damp weather.

We woke early each day and drove the small country lanes. 

I was infatuated with the light and textures of this abandoned Orkney farmstead.

Old Orkney Homestead on a murky day.

Yummie color and textures on this Orkney abandoned farmstead.

One wall of the homestead was still damp from the morning's windblown dew.  I can't seem to get enough of these old walls.

Wonderful summer wild flowers beautified the Orkney countryside.

I stopped often to shoot these magnificently aged and weathered Orkney doors and windows.

There was always something interesting and beautiful to see on Orkney Island.

We loved our five days on Orkney, but we returned by ferry to the mainland of Scotland.  The tiny roads across the top of Scotland offered fantastic views.

Not far from the John O Groats ferry was the Castle of May.  We saw a castle sign on the road and just turned in the drive and discovered it!

The Castle of May had beautiful formal gardens. 

I could have stayed all day here photographing flowers . . . but we had to make our B&B.

Beautiful castle along the north coast of Scotland.

The beaches, mountains, and pastoral scenery were breathtaking.

One beautiful bay after another greeted us on our road journey.

We stayed in small village hotels . . . like this one in the little town of Tongue, Scotland.

We stayed the night at the Ben Loyal Hotel in Tongue, Scotland.

Our hotel room in Tongue was clean, cheap, and over the bar.

This part of Scotland has some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen . . . and I have seen a lot of this world.

Many rivers to cross.

The sea views came and went.

A fantastic road to drive.

The trip was made more interesting by historical and geographical information signs.  Thanks Scotland.

This is the Coldbeckie Shore referred to in the above sign.  The road was one continuous amazing view.

One does not usually associate Scotland with great beaches, but we saw some that would rival the best in the world.

The road would sweep inland past these beautiful lakes (lochs) and then turn back to the sea.

Just as I snapped the previous photo, a motor home with French license plates pulled up close to the guard rail and this guy popped out and snapped a couple of photos and sped off.  Gotta love the efficiency of the French tourist!

Ruins of old houses and castles litter the countryside.

Families were out playing on the beach . . . during a very short summer in this part of the world.  It rains almost constantly from October to May in this part of Scotland.

Fun scene.

The further west we drove across the top of Scotland, the wetter and more lush the scenery became.

The glens here were moist and green . . . vestiges of ice age glacial valleys.

The northwest coast of Scotland is famous for being wet, dank, and dark.  It was . . . as we neared Ullapool town along the Ullapool Loch it started to rain.

It was mid afternoon when we reached the town of Ullapool (founded in 1788 as a fishing community) . . .  gateway to the Outer Hebrides ferry services.

A darkened sky covered Ullapool Harbour.

The storm eventually lifted and the Ullapool quay, with its fishing fleet in port,  could be seen.

The quaint town of Ullapool lined one side of the quay.  We walked around and poked our noses into a few shops.

We bought a model fishing boat here to display in our front window back in Aberdeen (like everybody else does!).

I loved the moody, and ever-changing, light along the Ullapool quay.

It was a beautiful May Saturday in Aberdeen . . . a good day for a walk along the River Dee with my camera.  Along my route I passed the Allenvale Cemetery.  'Great,' I thought, 'a chance to shoot some black and white photos in the moody old cemetery.

It was an interesting old grave yard and the ground was carpeted with blossom petals.  A nice subject for B&W.

Wonderful compositions to be had here . . .

Nice contrast and deep shadow.  Pretty.  But what was I thinking?  The colors were incredible . . .

PINK!

Wonderful Pink Blossoms!

The further I walked into the cemetery, the more beautiful it became.

A carpet of pink and green.

I was stunned into silence amid the pink spaces of death.  And I was not alone.  There were five other quiet, openjawed photographers moving like cats among the headstones.

Yummie light.

Gorgeous.

Stunning color.

The Celtic crosses were wondrous.

The morning clouds burned off and the light became sharper.  It is a strange experience to stumble upon a grave marker with your family name on it.  I have relatives named Agnes and William . . . I wonder if these were distant relatives . . . my father's side of the family were Scots.

I left Allenvale Cemetery and walked across the road to the River Dee Walk.

Walking paths and bike trails run for nearly 100 miles from the coast of the North Sea all the way up into the Highlands along the banks of the River Dee.  Aberdeenshire is an outdoorsmen's paradise.

A stone building, used as a snack shack during summer months, had a fine green steel shutter.

I walked a few miles along the River Dee Walk to the Bridge of Dee (1527) and turned into the city back home.

The view on the way home was wet, cold, and amber.

Early Saturday morning . . . the journey begins at the Aberdeen Station.

Booked and bought months in advance. I was very excited about the coming week-end not only because of the Robert Cray concert we were going to see, but because it would be my first train trip from Aberdeen.

The train  follows the coast of the North Sea all the way to Edinburgh.  Beautiful views.

The rapeseed fields were in full yellow flower.

We made a quick turn onto and across the Tay Train Bridge.

A quaint part of Dundee is across the wide River Tay estuary.

There was always something of interest along our route.  Here we cross the Firth of Forth on the famous Forth Bridge, for many years the longest steel span bridge in the world and a marvel of Victorian engineering.  Below are the remains of WWI and WWII military emplacements.  New and old oil and gas platforms in the distance for, and from, the North Sea.

We booked our hotel within walking distance of the beautiful Edinburgh Station.

The walk from the train station to our hotel was, well, interesting.

The walk to our hotel was up a very steep cobbled street.  We stayed above this bistro, but never ate there.

Our hotel was clean, colorful, and quaint.

The original elevator was still operational.  I couldn't resist this selfie.

We dropped our overnight bags in the room and took off for a walk to the Edinburgh Castle through the early Spring streets.

Old Edinburgh near The Royal Mile is a wonderful place.

Among the wonders along the Royal Mile.

There were plenty of buskers and street performers, like this clever woman.  She seemed a bit hollow though.

All roads lead to the Edinburgh Castle.

We walked the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh Castle through the medieval cobbled streets.

We walked up the steep streets to the castle.

We entered the Edinburgh Castle through this gate.

Castle walls.

The castle guards seemed very, very young.

A young and serious castle guard.

The views of Edinburgh from the castle ramparts were spectacular.

Edinburgh is a beautiful and fun old city.

There are many views of the Firth of Forth in the distance.

We like to walk around the small streets and lanes of Edinburgh.

The castle is very organized for tourists.  There were many hundreds of tourists from around the world on the day we were there.

The Great Hall is surely the highlight of the castle visit.

There is a fine collection of coats of armor and weaponry from the across the history of Scotland and the UK.

Royal Hilts.

A nice display of Royal flintlock pistols.

Night's armor.

We spent many wonderful hours at the castle, but we needed to eat an early dinner and get on to the main event of the week-end . . . the Robert Cray concert that evening.

We had an early dinner at the Gardner's Cottage, a very cool organic restaurant where you eat communally.  The food was excellent . . . we flagged a taxi afterward for the trip across town.

We knew we found the right place when we spotted Robert Cray's tour bus parked in front of The Queen's Hall.

The Queen's Hall is actually an old Victorian era church, converted into a music venue.  The acoustics were excellent.

We sat in these colorful wooden pews for the concert. Wonderful.

The average age of the audience must have been 65 . . . so I fit right in.  Old guys like The Blues . . . and Robert Cray is among the very best bluesmen.

I was not disappointed: Robert Cray put on a great concert.  He is as good as he has ever been.  His band was tight, and his singing and guitar work were fantastic.

I had never seen Robert Cray live before.  It was a memorable show, to be sure.  He played old favorites and some off his new album (which I have ssince purchased - it's great!). As my daughter said, "That's one more item off your bucket list."

We wandered around Edinburgh on Sunday morning shopping and trying out a new seafood resturent (pretty good).  I heard music across a park and followed it to this city biker gathering.  Nice folks and very good music.

Nice Scottish Harleys . . . and properly dressed bikers!

We boarded the train in the late afternoon for the beautiful trip up the northeast coast of Scotland to our home in Aberdeen.

We arrived back at Aberdeen Station just before dark.

The markets, shops, and bazaars of Istanbul are full of a kaleidoscopic array of things . . . lots of things . . . like these wonderful tea sets.  We bought that very purple-tasseled one right there.

Beautiful things: Turkish tea sets.

We spent seven days in Istanbul, and I believe we spent half of our time snooping in shops and market stalls.

There were myriad things to look at, buy, and of course, photograph.

Lamps, lamps, lamps.  These shops made us continually recalculate our baggage weight!  Should we buy, or not.  We didn't get any of these . . . this time.

There were some very interesting shops in Istanbul . . . like this quill pen shop.  You don't see these too much any more.

They have nice soap in Istanbul.

Very nice, and aromatic, soap.  We bought several different scented bars.

Woven and knitted things outside The Grand Bazaar.

A Turkish flag hawker hidden in his wares.

There was no shortage of trinkets at the trinket shops.  These are made for tourists, although I saw plenty of Turks purchasing these trinkets too. An exploitation of cultural iconography.

Traditional Turkish blue glass 'evil eye' bobbles were everywhere in Istanbul.

The trinket shops were interesting, but the GOLD SHOPS were, well, dripping in gold like some potentate's secret treasure room!

The variety of things for sale in the bazaars was incalculable.

15th century Head Shop! Also the only merchant using white light to show his wares . . . they stood out like a fire in the night.

Need to dress your harem dancers?  No problem, there's a shop for that.

We spent some time perusing the fabric shops.  We brought home a nice tablecloth for the kitchen table.

I bought the Black Harley-Davidson Istanbul t-shirt here.  Cool.

It was the spice shops, and The Egyptian Spice Market of Istanbul, that really had fascinating 'things' . . . .

Spice shop array.

The Egyptian Spice Market of Istanbul (Mısır Çarşısı), selling spices, nuts, potions, teas, powders, and dried everything since 1660.  Amazing.

I spoke to the owner of this shop who said his family has held this exact location in The Spice Market since 1660, 355 years!

Dried fruits, some stuffed with nuts (my favorite), and mountains of nuts (my favorite) we fantastic!  We brought back a niece selection of these.

Figs stuffed with walnuts . . . I cannot imagine anything better to eat on this planet . . . OK . . . maybe durian or mango and sticky rice . . . but these are right up there!

I took way too many walnut stuffed fig photos.  These are but a few of the really good ones.  Notice the walnut stuffed dates nearby: also yummie.

These walnut stuffed dried apricots were also marvelous.  The snackage here was astonishing!

A strange twist:  right in the middle of the spice market was what looked like a wedding dress shop.  Complete incongruity!  A strange dream.

Nuts and dried apricots, dates, and figs.  Wow.  Just WOW.  These constitute 74% of my normal, everyday snackage.

The displays in The Spice Market were works of edible Art.

Dried whatnot . . . perhaps some kind of flower petal for tea-making.

Olives!  The Olives . . . . were . . . to . . . . DIE    for!

Fancy some tea?  The tea stalls were fantastic and brought about thoughts of ancient ships bringing these, and the spices, to Istanbul markets for further distribution throughout Europe.

Beautiful sage tea.  The color!!!

There were candies of every imaginable hue in the Bazaars, but it was the Turkish Delight shops and stalls that had the corner on satisfying the globe's sweet tooth.

Enjoy this slide show of the edible things of Istanbul!

If I take a lot of diabetes medication, I can get away with trying a little square of Turkish Delight once a day.  And did.

At a Turkish Delight shop on a cloudy day in Istanbul.

Each of these different types of Delight are ridiculously delicious.  The slice off a piece any size you want.  Nice.

The Delight shops were every five or six shops apart . . . calling out to you to submit yourself to a diabetic collapse.

As it turns out, there are all kinds of delights in a Turkish Delight shop. Some sell good coffee and baked baklava-like things . . . crazy sweet with honey.

These will kill you with sweetness.

Every 50 meters there is a shop like this with stacks of baked and assembled and rolled, and coated delights.

Baklava-ish temptations.  They know how to make desserts in Istanbul, that's for sure.

A stack of pistachio-filled baklava rolls.  Oh My God!

I got a headache just looking at these.

If there wasn't enough honey IN YOUR Baklava, you could buy more and spread it on yourself!  Incredible.

We were very happy when we found the fresh fruit stands and shops.  Pomegranate and orange juice is very thirst quenching . . . .

. . . especially after a really good Turkish pizza(!) made with twisted cheese:

Twisted Turkish cheese.  Mighty fine.

Turkish Efes beer is not too bad.  Not bad at all.

INVERURIE

Another nice sunny winter Saturday in Scotland.  What to do? Let's go for a drive. We had never taken the 16 miles of road from Aberdeen to Inverurie, so today seemed like a good day to do it.  Inverurie is a 15th century market town that really took off when a canal was dug in the River Don from Aberdeen in 1806.  It has become a comuter town for Aberdunians.

Inverurie has a charming triangular central square dominated by this WW I Memorial to the soldiers from the town who died in the wars of 1914-1918  and 1938-1945.  Lest we forget.

We poked around some shops on the square . . . The Dairy was nice, but the cafe had already sold out the days' meal-of-the-day.  Dang.

It is late enough in the winter for gardeners to start to contemplate taking the risk to-plant-or-not-to-plant.

We walked up the main shopping parade in town and found a nice restaurant and had a fine lunch (I had the Balmoral Chicken - roast chicken stuffed with haggis slathered in peppercorn sauce, Prince Charles' favorite!).

After lunch we walked back to the car, but stopped in a sporting goods and a luggage shop first.

Small, frumpy, Inverurie bar.  We didn't go in.

The road leaving town toward Aberdeen.  Small, clean, charming.

They have a gospel church there too.  I love the winter sky in Scotland.

We said good-bye to Inverurie and were glad we visited.  We want to come back and take some time on the River Walk.

MONTROSE (Angusshire)

 Another nice Saturday, another Saturday Drive, a 20 mile drive . . . this time south down the Coastal Route to an adjoining shire and the port town of Montrose, a somewhat down-at-the-heals village set in the most extraordinary geographic setting between the mouths of the North and South Esk rivers, just in front of a wildlife preserve and estuary. Nice church too.

Church doors have a kind of power . . .

Downtown Montrose shopping district.

A very interesting mix of architecture, unlike Aberdeen.  This looks more Dutch than Scottish.  It was a busy shopping day in Montrose.

Local Hero, Joseph Hume.  He "was commissioned as a surgeon to an Army regiment, and was able to take up work as interpreter and commissary-general due to his knowledge of Indian languages."  Cool!  He learned Hindi, just like me! He was also a poet and radical parliamentarian. Nice to see a statue of such an interesting guy in a small town city square.

What?  A Bakery!  Let's have a look.  Some nice local specialities.  We bought an Apple Tart to eat later [far right - it was only ok].

We also bought a loaf of the Oat Bread [top shelf]: it had a crust as hard as concrete and weighed nearly 30 kilos [an exaggeration].  It was, however, extremely delicious.

The TRUE TEST of modern small town economic development is it's capacity to provide a drinkable double latte.  We found this 15th century vaulted cafe off the main square and administered the aforementioned test.  It passed.  A passable latte . . . although a little weak.

The cafe also had the usual display of what could have been 'home made' chutneys, syrups, compotes, jams, and jellys.  We already have these in excess cluttering our refrigerator.  Nothing new here, keep moving.

Yes, Montrose has a Chinese restaurant just like every single town in Scotland!  My wife had just returned from Hong Kong so was not in the mood to complicate her memories of the gastronomy there.

Another commemorative and honorary statue . . . I didn't catch this fellow's name . . . .

Some dilapidation here and there . . . disappointing.  Time to head out of town, find the port, and on to the estuary.

It was a wonderful day with fantastic winter light.

A view back across Montrose Basin to the old town. "At one time Montrose was Scotland's second largest exporter of salmon; and mussel cultivation gave it the largest mussel beds in the country during the 19th and early 20th centuries."  There is a live webcam of Montrose from across the estuary if you want to see what it looks right now.

Low tide on Montrose Basin . . . . a beached boat.

We pulled into the Montrose Basin Wildlife Reserve to ask what to see in the area.  The map provided the answers . . . go to The Bridge of Dun.

The view from the Reserve's Visitor Center Observation Deck was nice . . . and lined with bird-watchers chatting among themselves.  I heard one say, "Isn't that a ring tail twitter finch, just there?"

The Bridge of Dun is a Category A Listed Building . . . without a Wikipedia page!  I did find this, "Three-arch stone bridge, completed 1787 by Alexander Stevens."[citation] The bridge is said to have been the only way to cross the South Esk River, so the Leard built this elaborate toll bridge to enhance his fame.  My battery died within seconds of taking this photo, so other than iPhone shots, I have nothing to post of St Vie village and beach, where we went next.  We had a great day out.