Castlelaw Hill Fort

Today was also dedicated to photography as I took the very first photograph with my disposable camera. This camera is part of the A Million Little Pictures project. You can read all about this on the website but put in a nutshell it works like this: every participant takes 27 pictures with their camera, has them developed and mails them to the Arthouse Coop. They will then travel in an Airstream caravan around the US in the autumn of 2011 and there will also be a book with at least one photograph from each participant.

Of course that means I can't shown you the photo I took with the disposable camera yet but instead I'm also taking the self same pic with my digital camera and that is the one you'll see at the top of the blogpost. It's like going back to the dark ages when there was no digital photography, so no taking lots of pictures and keeping the best ones. Instead every pic you take had better be thoroughly thought out and spot on!

For my theme I have chosen: Captured in Time. Of course each and every photograph captures a moment in time, a moment which has never been before and will never be again. A slightly unnerving thought! But I'm also trying to capture something that preserves time and for this first photo I have travelled back to the Iron Age. I have passed the road to the Castlelaw Hill Fort many, many times on my way to Edinburgh and back, and I almost always had the thought that I should turn off one day and have a look! Today was the day and I was quite bowled over by what I discovered. Not only the hill fort but also splendid views in all directions, including Edinburgh.

According to the information on site (provided by Historic Scotland) these earth houses were erected during the Iron Age, approx in the 1st Century AD. They were build as defensive positions and of course the elevated site was very helpful in that respect. What is now left, all underground, is what would have been the cellar and this is what the picture at the top of the blog shows. I've taken it on my digital camera as if it was a disposable, so no adjustments like cropping and taken as is. Hopefully it will look very much like this on the disposable. There was plenty of light as Historic Scotland has helpfully provided skylights!

Of course I had to take some additional pictures (using my digital camera) of the wonderful views. They were specially good as the weather was cold but very sunny and bright. The pic above shows the views over towards Edinburgh.

And looking towards the south the Pentland Hills make a rugged impression. It was a good thing we went this morning for this expedition as the weather has rapidly deteriorated over the day and by this afternoon we had snow. Alright, it was wet snow but still those same Pentland Hills as seen from our cottage are now white! The first snow of this winter!