CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Today we took a  ride out to Abbey St Bathans with the intention of walking out to see the Edin's Hall Broch, a 2000 year old round house that was very rare in the south of Scotland. The walking route took us along part of the Southern Upland Way and followed the Whiteadder Water and the circular route was about 7 miles in length following the well marked Abbey St Bathans pathway. The Broch is perched high above the river valley and there are great views all around.  The Broch itself is very visible and there is evidence of other buildings in the same area. Not much is known about why this structure, which is more common in west and north Scotland, was built in this location and whether the other building were part of the same settlement or were built in another period. HISTORY OF EDIN'S HALL BROCH Text from Historic Environment Scotland website The broch, or roundhouse, at Edin’s Hall is just one part of a complex site. ...

In January I had a 'spring clean' and cleared out some of the photographic items I wasn't using. One of the lenses I sold was the 60mm macro, the reason for this was the fact I had the 56mm f1.2 and I was shooting macro images infrequently. Today I was out shooting in the Lammermuir Hills in and around the village of Abbey St Bathans.  The first place I stopped was down by the Whiteadder Water, taking shots of the fast moving river.  Along the bank there were some wild flowers so I decided to use the 56mm f1.2 lens with the 16mm extension tube fitted to see how close I could focus with and with the extension tube.  The results were excellent. Here is the shot of the Common Bugloss (Anchusa Officials) with out the extension tube fitted and the focus of the 56mm lens set to the closest point. Here is the shot with the 16mm extension tube fitted between the body and the lens and the closest focus point is now a lot closer than without the extension tube fitte...