Portal to Future or Past.

[Craigie]

I took this image on a recent trip to Edinburgh, it was taken in the Auld Toon (Old Town) area.
The area has preserved much of its medieval street plan and many Reformation era buildings.
For those who do not know what a Wynd is please follow link below. By a strange coincidence the image in the link is a view from the opposite end of the Old Tolbooth Wynd.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynd
C&C welcome

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[IzzieK]

This one needs a little bit of crop on the right hand side...nice shot.

[rpcrowe]

Very nice capture and thank you for posting it. My 9th Great Grandfather died in this area

In 1644, Alexander Irvine of Drum, and his brother, Robert Irvine, who were keen Royalists, to avoid falling into the hands of the Covenanters, fled by sea to Caithness. As Lady Mary Gordon, the wife of Alexander Irvine, was a near relative of the Countess-Dowager of Caithness, the two brothers naturally expected to find a safe asylum in the county, but in this they were bitterly disappointed. Having landed at Staxigoe, where at the time a Committee of Estates happened to be sitting, they were immediately seized, and "put in ward" in the castle of Keiss. They were thence conveyed to Edinburgh, under a strong guard, by Francis Sinclair, son of the late Earl, and lodged in the Tolbooth, where, among other persons of rank, they had Lord Reay as a fellow prisoner. Robert Irvine died in prison; and his brother, the laird of Drum, who was under sentence of death, was liberated by Montrose immediately after his victory at Kilsyth.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for my educational snippet of the day (Wynd).

I can see what Izzie means about a crop of the left hand side, it could be argued that the elevated door should either be part of the image, or excluded.

Talking of exclusions; I miss being able to see the bottom of the arch, I assume there were double yellow lines down there, or similar, you didn't want distracting our eyes from the grey stonework.

C&C welcome

OK, some more thoughts: the lighting and background hasn't helped, I find my eyes continually drawn to the receding car with brake lights, then they starts exploring the buildings 'down there' because they are much brighter.

By-the-by, it occurs to me that this would make a good source image for a PP challenge, to see if there's a way to process it that keeps the viewers attention on the intended main subject. I am thinking it would need significant dodging and burning, Clarity/LCE in foreground, cloning of 'that' car, etc.

Even the framing could be explored if this was a crop of something a bit larger, the more foreground subject there is the better I think (although that's said without being able to see what you felt shouldn't be included - and I may end up with the same result after I see that).

I hope my ramblings are helpful, Dave

[John 2]

Interesting shot Gary and effective processing. I like it.

[mugge]

I think there are a few challenges to overcome with this picture. I do like the lighting on the stonework and some of the highlights on the buildings works well to my mind. There are some distracting elements however, the cars and the lone pedestrian and also the drainpipe on the LHS. I think it can be fixed though. You could have some fun with this.
Cheers Ole

[madcrow]

Good shot, I like it

[Craigie]

First of all thanks to all for your C&C.
#1 is the image as shot, only unsharp mask, resized and changed to JPG for the forum.
#2 is with some of the alterations, indicated in earlier posts.

Talking of exclusions; I miss being able to see the bottom of the arch, I assume there were double yellow lines down there, or similar, you didn't want distracting our eyes from the grey stonework

The problem Dave, was the modern paving stones on the pavement.

There are some distracting elements however, the cars and the lone pedestrian and also the drainpipe on the LHS. I think it can be fixed though. You could have some fun with this

Thanks Ole for your input, I did remove the cars, but I feel the lone pedestrian adds some thing.

1 Original image


2 PP version

[mknittle]

Very nice capture and thank you for posting it. My 9th Great Grandfather died in this area

In 1644, Alexander Irvine of Drum, and his brother, Robert Irvine, who were keen Royalists, to avoid falling into the hands of the Covenanters, fled by sea to Caithness. As Lady Mary Gordon, the wife of Alexander Irvine, was a near relative of the Countess-Dowager of Caithness, the two brothers naturally expected to find a safe asylum in the county, but in this they were bitterly disappointed. Having landed at Staxigoe, where at the time a Committee of Estates happened to be sitting, they were immediately seized, and "put in ward" in the castle of Keiss. They were thence conveyed to Edinburgh, under a strong guard, by Francis Sinclair, son of the late Earl, and lodged in the Tolbooth, where, among other persons of rank, they had Lord Reay as a fellow prisoner. Robert Irvine died in prison; and his brother, the laird of Drum, who was under sentence of death, was liberated by Montrose immediately after his victory at Kilsyth.

I love it, very cool story of an event in history Richard. thanks for sharing.

[Wavelength]

Excellent images

[Craigie]

Thanks very much Nandakumar.