Some Photography Attempts, The Christmas Market and Exams

Flashback to November:

When exams roll around I end up pretty much living at my desk, the library or the gym and don't get to go out and do much fun.  So once my midterm exams are over I like to try and go back out and explore Edinburgh.  I'm here for four years I have got to make the most of it!

One sunny afternoon (a rather rare occurrence especially in November) I went out for a walk around the city and took some pictures.  Some of the pictures I had taken before, but it was on a gloomy day, so I wanted a version of it in the sun.

Edinburgh Castle with some fall colours

St. Giles Cathedral

Scott Monument with the Remembrance Day memorial
(They are tiny crosses with poppies covering the grass)

Later in the month it was the start of the Edinburgh Christmas market.  I decided that I wanted to try out some night photography.  Other than the botanic gardens light night I really hadn't done much in the way of night photography.  I was going to take pictures on George Street because it is always so nicely decorated for Christmas.  But this particular Sunday afternoon the streets were packed.  It then occurred to me it was the official opening party of Edinburgh Christmas and the Street of Light which was at the other end of George Street.  To get away from the crowds I decided to head up to Calton Hill.  I set up in one spot and got quite a few photos.

Edinburgh Castle, The Balmoral Hotel and the rides at Edinburgh Christmas

Edinburgh Castle

I decided to move to another location on Calton Hill to try and get another view.  As I was setting up my tripod I noticed that quite a crowd was gathering.  There were murmurs of fireworks.  That's when it occurred to me there are always fireworks for the opening of Edinburgh Christmas and they were going to start in two minutes.  The first few fireworks that went off I didn't get great pictures as I wasn't quite ready.  But after a couple fireworks I managed to get a good shot.  Unfortunately there was no wind so the smoke didn't clear and the fireworks became more and more obscured.

Lucky chance to stumble upon the fireworks

On the walk home I decided to stop and take a picture of the castle from the Castle Esplanade.

The Castle at Night

After that night it was time to buckle down and start studying.  I hadn't been staying on top of work quite as well as I had in previous semesters (once the cow portion of the farm course was over my motivation took a turn for the worse) so I had quite a bit of work to do the couple weeks before the exams.  I had some serious moments of regret during that revision week.  Why didn't I revise more during the semester?!  All in all it turned out fine and the exams went really well (of course there were some moments of self doubt right after the exams!)  But after some time the doubt lifted and I felt really good about my exams.