This is a crazy time of year if you’re a photographer trying to capture after-sunset and before-sunrise scenes. With the sun setting after 10pm and rising before 4.30am it makes more sense working a sunset through to sunrise shift than it does going to bed in between. Until life gets in the way of course.
Midsummer sunrise was the same disappointment for me as last year with mist hiding the city from my vantage point, so I was glad I’d caught this brief glimpse of the sunset the evening before, with a slightly weird perspective of the castle from way outside the city.
After the cloud on the horizon snuffed out the sun - you could almost hear the sizzzzlesshst as it dropped - the sky above Edinburgh and Fife glowed with that midsummer vibrance you don’t get any other time of year. The air was full of birdsong with diving, darting, swooping swifts competing with the bats to engorge on insect supper.
Silverknowes lived up to its name the next evening with a wide and tall metallic sky reflected in the Forth, but the sun was again subdued by mist and cloud. It felt tropical, wandering around in short sleeved shirt staring over a languorous Forth undulating with small lazy waves.
Granton Harbour had the same time-standing-still feel to it with the surface here even smoother and more reflective - the waves briefly chirruping onto the beach. Dogs barked, children laughed and a fire crackled and sparked in the distance.
The sea and sky were perfect partners; their edges blurring and softening as they grew into one another, wrapping themselves around each other’s colours and shapes and patterns.
I spotted a ship in the mist and recognised the colours of the Spirit of Tasmania, which I’d heard was leaving the port of Leith, so I drove along the shore to see if I could get a better view.
It turned out to be returning back into Leith, I think after a wee trip around the Forth, just to get her sea legs before the long journey down to Australia. She’s been sitting at Leith for the last 6 months because her home port in Tasmania doesn’t have a dock big enough for her to use yet - you thought we had ferry problems in Scotland?
The sky was a perfectly dark and ominous backdrop for the painstaking easing of the ship back through the entrance lock with a tug at either end.
I liked this crop showing the new “vertical distillery” that enjoys the best views in Leith. I must give them a ring for a keek out their windows.
So my midsummer views seemed more lazing than blazing.
I hope you’re getting out to enjoy the twilight and the luxury of clear midnight skies.
Maybe see you out there.
TD
Views from the bar are fabulous. Bar is really fabulous too! Contact their PR, they are lovely people.
I LOVE your descriptions, so lyrical, & actually prefer the conditions in these shots compared to the standard glorious sunrises & -sets.