The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

So this mad idea reached fruition. After a few beers and a schnitzel, the Navigator (for it is he) and I went to the Old Opera House and saw Bryan Ferry perform. The support act was a young lady from Berlin; musically-educated in London. Her name, implausibly, is Femme Schmidt…

I had just one day at home after my Scotland trip before hitting the road again for my next adventure. I was on my balcony in a jolly mood with a friend after we had shared a bottle or six of good wine one evening a few weeks ago. He…

I have never spent much time in Edinburgh before. I love the Highlands and Islands and have always regarded this city as – at best – a staging post to the North. I may have been wrong. It's a jolly University town with lots of young people having a good time…

We stayed one night at Culcreuch. The next morning  we had a tour planned at Glengoyne Distillery. However I had a problem. I had noticed the pressure was down in one of Speranza's rear tyres at the beginning of my tour and had put in some air on Wednesday. On…

On Wednesday we hit the road again. The plan was to drive through Glencoe, stopping wherever Joe thought there was a good spot for a photo shoot. This meant that I could not race ahead in Speranza and meet up at agreed locations. I have driven through Glencoe many times…

On Tuesday we were still in Fort Augustus and faced our first critiques. Joe McNally is a nice guy but unapologetically channels the New York photo editors of his youth on these occasions. I am not complaining. It's very largely what we are paying for on this workshop. He can –…

Internet access has been an issue on this trip. Our hotels by Loch Ness and in the Trossachs had it in theory but the photos for my attempted blog posts would not even upload overnight. So let me catch up on the last few days, starting with Monday. Our first…

Our first photo shoot of the workshop was from the roof of an Edinburgh office building. It has one of the best views of the castle and also some interesting perspectives on the street below. I ventured a little long distance street photography, though it felt like cheating at such…