Catching up - at last!
[UPDATED OCT 11 2017]
Part 1: The Queensferry Crossing
Here we are (were) on the No. 35, making our way to our "Hub" near the Gyle shopping centre, where the official buses would be waiting to take us to the start of the new bridge. [
This was taken through the window of the bus, and is a merging of two photos!]
Click on the images
please, to see them bigger.
The start was very crowded, but the atmosphere was cheerful. An open door into a loo was rather unsightly, so Alice closed it digitally. Hee, hee. [Photo by
The Telegraph.]
Near the beginning of the walk. Even this little post had been designed with the fan motif of the huge towers and cables. The whole structure was fabulously beautiful. And it was lovely weather for everyone too.
Further along, some panels had been removed from the wind-shields, so we could have a good view of the Forth estuary.
For information on the building of the bridge, see
Queensferry Crossing ARC.
This is Alice's prize photo, with both the Rail Bridge
and the Road Bridge framed by the crossing cables, plus a few decorative clouds.
This collage shows views of the towers and cables as we approached the central one (it's 210 metres, the tallest of the three towers) and then looked back. Stunning!
Here's a screenshot from a fascinating
animated video by the
Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation (yes, that
is what the organisation is called!) which gives you a jolly good understanding of how they set about building this amazing construction. Do check this one out - it's fun as well as informative.
Our bus was waiting for us at the end. We realise
now it was to become one of the new 300 airport buses, which have replaced the rumbling old 35s.
Driving back over the Road Bridge, we had a good view of the old rail bridge as we neared South Queensferry.
To finish this part of our catch-up, here's a lovely distant view of the gorgeous edifice, seen on the way back home on the (now defunct) No. 35 - taken through the window of the bus again.
Part 2: "Doing Art" again
We went along to the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery recently, to catch their exhibition of
historical photos by the pioneers,
David Octavius Hill and
Robert Adamson .
They set up their studio in Edinburgh in 1843, not long after
photography was invented. They used a process which involved treating paper with special chemicals to make what we would call a "negative" from which prints could be created on another type of treated paper. The first required large cameras, patient subjects and exposure to natural sunlight. Sun was needed for the prints also.
We particularly liked this image, both the negative and the print, of Lady Mary Hamilton (Campbell) Ruthven.
It's interesting that the photographers chose to take her back view, to show off her beautiful cape and over-skirt. See this interesting article about the
Calotype process, and
another about the different types of photographic process.
The top image here is a photo of Miss Elizabeth Logan, who was the daughter of the Sheriff of Forfarshire. I imagine the doll, and the pretence (was it?) of sleep was a way to keep her still for the exposure required. Notice the leaves in the top left corner indicating the outdoors setting.
The lower photo is called
The Gowan, meaning a wild white or yellow flower, such as a daisy. See the Burns reference in the
Scotsman.
The two girls were the sisters Margaret and Mary McCandlish. I bet it was hard for the one girl to resist
really tickling the other, as movement would have spoiled the long (many seconds) exposure time.
These charming studies of young girls reminded Alice (of course) of those by
Charles Dodgeson (Lewis Carroll), who took many photos of children, not just of Alice Liddell and her sisters.
See this
article from the Smithsonian musem, which says,
Of the approximately 3,000 photographs Dodgson made in his life, just over half are of children. The one on the right here is one of Alice posing as
The Beggar Maid: one of
our Alice's favourites.
[She says you must click please, and see it bigger.]
The front entrance to the
Scottish National Gallery is right on the main part of Princes Street. They often put up huge banner ads here for their exhibitions. This one was due to finish the day we eventually decided to go.
Ba, who doesn't "Do Art", only consented to be included in this photo, because there was
some Nature about with the plants in the planter on the street. They used this painting of
A Man Singing by Candlelight by
Adam De Coster [
not by
Caravaggio himself ] as the "Beyond" referred to other artists who followed him in style. The lighting effect is pretty dramatic, isn't it?
As soon as you say "Caravaggio" to Alice,
she thinks of the marvellous
1986 film of that name, by the talented
Derek Jarman. It had a young
Sean Bean and
Tilda Swinton in it, plus lots of inventive anachronisms, like a stylus with tablet; a motor bike, and a typewriter.
Get back to the point! There were oodles of dramatic paintings in
the exhibition.
We rather liked this one, of
Christ in the Carpenter's Shop by
Trophime Bigot, with the light source hidden between the two figures.
This one
is a real Caravaggio painting. It's of a
Boy Bitten by a Lizard. [ Don't forget you can click on any of these to see them larger. ]
According to
Wikipedia, there are two versions of it, both genuine.
One critic has proposed it's a disguised self-portrait, as the subject's hands – one stretched out, the other raised up – are in a similar position to those of a painter holding a palette while painting. Well, there you go now!
We just loved this one. Click to look closer and you'll see why!
It was painted by one
Orazio Borgianni (1574 - 1616).
Titled
St Christopher Carrying the Infant Christ, it features an
extremely tiny Christ Child on the saint's shoulder. Maybe his size is supposed to be symbolic? You could read about the
legend.
For more on the picture and the story behind it, see the gallery's website
here.
Part 3: our beloved Begonia again - really the very last time . . .
Wasn't it doing well! The pot in which its roots must be all curled about, isn't actually very big at all when compared with the stalks and leaves and flowers. A week later, the flowers on what we
had called the "baby" shoot have grown and blossomed even more still. Click,
click!
Ba can't see them so well here (on the right) but agreed to pose so that
you can see the lovely flowers really clearly. Aaah.
Part 4: an exciting cinematic event - can you guess?
Yes, we went to see the terrific
Blade Runner 2049, directed by Denis Villeneuve, who made the fiendish
Sicario and the amazing
Arrival. It's the long awaited sequel (35 years for
some of you lot) to the 1982
Blade Runner, or the superior 2007
Final Cut version.
Avoiding any spoilers (because there
is a big secret) we can report it is definitely a most worthy successor
to Ridley Scott's original. It's very philosophical, too, asking the Big Questions about what it means to be human. Right up Alice's street, in fact.
What street?!
Visually it's stunningly beautiful, even
when depicting the horrors of the future. It has been meticulously shot and edited, so renowned cinematogrpher Roger Deakins must
surely get an Oscar at long last.
How did I get to be in this poster? Go
here and you can make one for yourself, using any name or photo. But you need someone to add the bit about the "cameo". Thank
you Alice!
Well, we have finally caught up at long last. I hope you're glad you stayed with us.
