Photo of a full-height corner balcony window in Granada, Spain.
Photo: Curves and lines
Photo: Orange, white and blue
A fresh orange snuggled in the shadows against a wall in the Albaicin area of Granada, Spain.
Photo: Old weathered door, Granada
A weathered door and brass lock on a side street in the Albaicín, Grenada, Spain.
Photo: Dappled wooden door
Dappled old wooden door in a back street in Moorish Granada.
Photo: An unexpected juxtaposition
There’s nothing more Spanish than flamenco dancing, and there’s nothing more American than Coca-Cola signs. I might have expected to see the two together in Mexico, but not in Spain.
Photo: Albaicin steps
Cobblestone steps on the Carril de San Agustin in the Albaicín, Granada.
Photo: Tea for six?
Silver and glass tea set for sale in one of the shops along the Plaza Santa Ana in Granada.
Photo: Urban angst
The face of a crying man – urban graffiti from Granada in Spain.
Photo: Alhambra view
View looking south from the Calle de San Nicolas by the Iglesia de San Nicholas in the Albaycin of Granada. This is the usual viewing point for the Alhambra – it’s one of the few places in Granada where you can get high enough to get a decent perspective across the small valley at the northern foot of the Alhambra.
Visitor note: buy your tickets in advance – don’t go on the day and hope tickets will be available. Hope is not a good strategy.
Photo: Dutch dusk
Dusk at Zaanse Schans, the world heritage site just outside Amsterdam. 30 seconds at f11 at 24mm for the exif peepers.
Photo: A sad wee face
Portrait of a squirrel monkey at the Edinburgh Zoo. While the Living Links monkey house has lots of space and lots of ropes/branches and food, there were lots of bored looking monkeys too. Mind you, if you locked a bunch of humans up they’d look bored too.
Photo: Somebody's always watching you
Black and white photo of a spray painted stencil of young boy’s head on Bristo Place, just down from the much missed Forest Cafe, Edinburgh. Did you notice the man in the doorway?
Photo: The road to enlightenment
40 George Square (previously The David Hume Tower – see this BBC article for background on why it was renamed) is part of the University of Edinburgh’s city centre campus and is located at the south-east corner of George Square.
George Square is notable for not only being the first planned square in Edinburgh, but for being the first real suburban development outside of the city’s southern wall – predating the development of Edinburgh’s New Town, which immediately eclipsed it as the ‘suburban’ destination of choice. Despite its apparent solidity, it is a rickety building – not only does it move in the wind but the wind whistles through the building in a frankly rather terrifying manner.
Photo: The power of Scotland
Designed by Catalan architect Enric Miralles, the Scottish Parliament has won a number of architectural awards, including the 2005 Stirling Prize.
The Scottish Parliament is (by some degree) the most incoherent building I have ever seen. Renowned postmodernist Charles Jencks described it as “quite a meal” – faint praise indeed. A very strange mix of post-modernism, brutalism and vernacular architecture, individual bits of the building are spectacular, but the whole is little more than a regurgitated mass of juxtapositions and alien iconographies.
Photo: A wee tufty cloud
A small cloud against the harsh straight lines of a faux modernist office building, Cowgate, Edinburgh.