Forth Valley

This is the kind of photograph that gets HDR a bad name. But things didn't quite go according to plan today, so this is me trying to make lemonade out of some unexpected lemons.

With a few minutes free I drove up the road to where I knew I would get a good view. I was hoping to capture the clouds scudding by, as they were being blown by a fierce autumn wind. But when I got to the road I was going to use, I found it hard to find somewhere to park and get the picture.

Eventually I managed to find a spot, and walkd a short way to set up my tripod. I was just at the (electrified) fence of a field that contained some horses. Horses that clearly expected me to be bringing them some dinner, as three or four of them immediately came over to see who their new visitor was.

For the next ten minutes I tried to set up the camera so that I could see the hills... and each time I did so, a horse wandered over to see what I was up to. Eventually I gave up, found a rock to balance atop and shot this picture... Which is why I have used some fancy processing to try to bring some life to an otherwise dull picture!

Anyway, what have we got here? We're looking north across the Forth Valley and the hills in the background are the Ochils. The river is the Forth, and at the far left of the river (west) we have the Clackmannanshire Bridge, and beside it, the Kincardine Bridge. The houses at the north side of the river are the village of Kincardine.

The reason for all the power cables in the shot is the Longannet Power Station, just out of shot to the right of the picture.

South of the river is the industrial town of Grangemouth, and as you move closer to the camera you go through several local villages including Polmont, Redding, Brightons and Rumford... these are a few of the group of villages collectively known as "The Braes"

And in the distance was the one horse in the field that decided it would be more profitable to stay where s/he was and eat some grass!